Jupiter (Marcello Sparzo)

The colossus, approximately eight metres tall,^[7] was modelled in a Mannerist style with classical influences, and commissioned by Gianandrea Doria in honour of the prince-admiral Andrea Doria.^[8] It was placed in a monumental aedicule or niche decorated with three spires with spherical pinnacles (the central one was in some older depictions represented as a pediment with two lateral volutes adorned with festoons).^[9][10]

The composition showed stylistic affinities with Ammannati's Neptune, Giambologna's Oceanus and Neptune, but especially with the unfinished Neptune by Bandinelli, also commissioned by the Doria, which together with other works probably served as a source of inspiration for the sculptor and the patron.^[11]

It depicted a Jupiter Pluvius semi-nude, with a drape around the belly and a belt or scabbard worn over the shoulder to secure a cloak on the shoulder. In his right fist he held a gladius or short sword, and in his left a thunderbolt, typical of traditional iconography. The face was turned eastward, towards the city. Given the shape of the head above the curls, he probably wore a crown or other metal ornament, already lost by the time of demolition.^[12]

A large eagle was placed next to the figure's right foot,^[13] with its beak facing east. The bird of prey represented both the animal beloved by the deity and the heraldic symbol of the Doria family, and perhaps also recalled the Imperial Habsburg coat of arms, in memory of Andrea Doria's pro-Habsburg shift.^[13][14] The figure's left foot, instead, rested on the head of an animal, not clearly identified by the sources – perhaps a sea monster or a dolphin, as in the traditional iconography of Neptune (but it could also be a wolf, as in the Jupiter by Pietro Francavilla from 1585 displayed at Palazzo Bianco, almost certainly seen by Sparzo himself).^[15]

As can be seen from comparison with the numerous 17th-century Genoese commissions, the statue was probably built with a marmorino stucco composed of marble dust, white sand from Savona, and hydraulically setting elements such as lime, kaolin or pozzolana.^[16] Given the extraordinary durability shown by the colossus, particularly advanced technical skills for the period were certainly employed.^[17]

The statue appeared in a bright white colour, with a scenographic contrast effect against the surrounding dark Mediterranean shrubland.^[18] It stood in front of the underlying statue of Neptune,^[19] sculpted thirteen years later by Taddeo Carlone and still located today in the southern garden of the villa. The two statues were about 220 metres apart in a straight line, and the Palazzo del Principe stood between them, designing an ideal perspective axis that united the sea with the hill, placing the building under the symbolic protection of the two deities.^[8]

Although it did not always receive the same attention over the centuries, following the fortunes of the Doria family as well,^[20] according to Alizeri the statue was of such mastery and quality that it deserved "for the author a praise most difficult for anyone who sculpts or models: that of giving the right appearance to colossi according to the place that receives them and according to the point from which they are to be viewed".^[21]

In two ancient works, the map of Genoa by Alessandro Baratta from 1637^[9] and the view of the Villa del Principe by Antonio Giolfi from the mid-18th century,^[22] the colossus is curiously depicted with the right arm raised upwards, while it seems to be depicted correctly in the older map by Giovanni Battista Costanzo published in the early 1600s.^[23]

The work had a complex history, both in its genesis, its life, and particularly in its end. The initial project of the Doria family may have been to erect a Neptune to consecrate the figure of Admiral Andrea Doria. Certainly in 1530 a commission in this regard was given to Baccio Bandinelli, who brought the sculpture to an advanced stage of work but left it unfinished due to contractual disputes (today it stands in the Fontana del Gigante in Carrara).^[24] This would explain both the iconography used by Sparzo, with elements proper to both deities, and why the Jupiter was indeed often mistaken for a Neptune already in the years following its construction and for two centuries afterwards, particularly after the erroneous interpretation published by Soprani.^[24]

In 1568 Vasari reports^[25] also of "a great Neptune in stucco, which was placed on a pedestal in the Prince's garden" in the 1540s, attributing it to Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, an eminent sculptor already actively in the service of the Doria. There is no certain news of this statue and its location is controversial, although it should have been lost already in the second half of the 16th century, perhaps due to weather damage.^[26] It is conceivable that it was installed in the area of the southern sea-facing garden, where it would later be replaced in 1599 by the marble fountain of Neptune by Taddeo Carlone.^[27] In this hypothesis, Sparzo's Jupiter would have been conceived from the outset as the counterpart to Montorsoli's Neptune. The two colossal figures could therefore have been part of a complete sculptural and architectural decoration, clearly visible from the sea, which connected the north and south gardens through the villa building.^[28][26]

In any case, the colossus of Jupiter was commissioned from the Urbino sculptor by Gianandrea Doria, son of Giannettino and heir of the prince-admiral Andrea. For its construction, a sum of 20 gold scudi was paid (50, according to Alizeri^[27]). It was completed in 1586 in the northern gardens of the Villa del Principe in Genoa, in what is now the upper part of via Pagano Doria (above the Genova Piazza Principe railway station) and which at the time was the hill behind the ancient village of Fassolo and the port of the Republic of Genoa. The initial 16th-century structure of the garden was probably a grove modelled on the Villa medicea di Castello, or an Italian garden but with less geometrically ordered features; from the 17th century onwards, however, descriptions always indicate the garden as wooded.^[18]

In summary, there are three possible interpretative models for the colossus: that of the glorious and direct portrait of Doria (as often noted by Renaissance travellers, including Fynes Moryson who in 1594 described it as a statue of "Andrea D'Oria"^[29]), that of Jupiter in the mythological personification of the patron Gianandrea or his ancestor (as for example argued by art historian George Gorse^[30]), or that of a multiplicity of meanings alluding to the position of power of the Doria family (as at least some contemporaries and Alizeri himself would have noted^[27]).^[14]

According to Hanke, the Sparzo colossus is one of the most significant examples of the use of sculptural art for political as well as artistic purposes.^[4] In addition to the manifestation of wealth and magnificence, it represented the power that the Doria family exercised over the city and the Republic of Genoa.^[31] This message was probably well understood by contemporaries, so much so that the earliest independent mentions of the work, often summary and based on word of mouth or individual impression, almost always describe it as a representation of Andrea Doria, rather than the deity itself. Also significant is the fact that it was located outside the city centre, in what was technically one of the noble family's private gardens, but facing towards the city centre, with an elevated position and dimensions such as to tower over the entire old town and the port in front of the future maritime station, very visible even from the sea.^[32]

A similar allegorical comparison has also been noted regarding the two royal halls of the Villa del Principe: one frescoed with a Neptune, the other with a Jupiter. The Neptune is recognised as a reference to Andrea Doria, while the figure of Jupiter is debated as to whether it refers to Doria or to Charles V of Habsburg. In this regard, according to Gorse the meaning was simply changeable according to convenience: "during normal functions [...] they represented the Augustan power of Andrea Doria within the republic and the Mediterranean, while during Charles V's state visits they exceptionally symbolised the Emperor's universal authority".^[33][30]

The statue was particularly well known to citizens as il gigante (the giant), and for a period it also gave the popular name for the area.^[34][35] At the base of the statue, in 1605, the "great Roldano", Gianandrea Doria's beloved dog, was buried, commemorated with a marble plaque still present today on one of the retaining walls of via Pagano Doria.^[36]

Starting from less than a century after its construction, the sculpture was for a long time erroneously attributed to Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, due to the responsibility of the late-17th-century biographer Soprani first, and then the 18th-century Ratti: Soprani superficially attributed it to the Florentine sculptor (misunderstanding the text of Giorgio Vasari dedicated to Montorsoli, in which he mentioned the "great stucco Neptune" later lost),^[25][34][27] while Ratti helped spread the false attribution by simply echoing Soprani's observations, as later historians also did.^[37] These errors, repeated over the next two centuries, contributed for a certain period to the incomplete recognition of Sparzo's work.^[27] It was first the historian Andrea Lazzari (published by Giuseppe Colucci) already at the end of the 18th century, who noted some biographical inconsistencies.^[38] The re-attribution of the monumental work, however, only came in 1874, when the scholar Antonio Merli collected the ancient original documents remaining in the Palazzo del Principe, proving the authorship of the work, and wrote about it in the Giornale ligustico of the Società Ligure di Storia Patria.^[34][27] Alizeri, initially also mistaken, read the text and explicitly corrected himself in his subsequent publications, giving notoriety to the fact.^[39][27]

The colossal sculpture by Sparzo towered over the valley and the marina of the Genoese port for three hundred and fifty years within the monumental garden of the Villa del Principe. The garden was irremediably destroyed by the construction of the railway in 1854, via Pagano Doria (1899),^[40] and finally the Miramare hotel by Gino Coppedè (1913).^[41] The statue, instead, was actually demolished between late 1935 and 1936^[1][2][42] (some sources erroneously indicated 1934 or 1939^[12][43][6]), despite the namesake palace below having been subject to protection by the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities since 1932.^[44] According to the art historian Maria Grazia Rutteri, who in 1965 edited the annotated reprint of Soprani's 17th-century work, "the owners demolished it because it was excessively bulky and because the municipality, although requested, neglected to take care of it".^[43]

At the time of demolition, although in need of conservation work, it was in "surprisingly good condition",^[17] considering it was a marmorino stucco sculpture installed outdoors, testifying to the high technical skills applied by Sparzo and his workshop in the Renaissance period.

The statue was the subject of a sonnet by Giovanni Battista "Baciccia" Rapallo published in 1927, entitled A-o gigànte da Vìlla D'Öia (To the giant of Villa D'Oria).^[45]

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  The giant in a photograph from the first half of the 20th century
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  The back of the monumental aedicule in which the statue was placed
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  The statue in its aedicule in a rare 1903 photograph with the Church of San Rocco sopra Principe in the background
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  The Sparzo colossus (depicted with the right arm raised) is clearly visible even in ancient maps, such as this one by Alessandro Baratta dating from 1637
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  The church of San Rocco sopra Principe and the Sparzo colossus (depicted with the right arm raised) in the mid-18th century
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  The Villa del Principe at the end of the 19th century, with the statue of Neptune and, on the hill, that of Sparzo's Jupiter clearly visible
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  A drawing by Nicolas Marie Joseph Chapuy from the first half of the 19th century, entitled Vue de la vigne et du Palais Doria
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  An 1864 painting by Domenico Pasquale Cambiaso depicting the princely villa with Sparzo's statue at the centre
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  A painting by Luigi Garibbo, before 1825, depicting the villa with the colossus soaring opposite
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  A sepia and whitewash watercolour by Domenico Cambiaso before 1849, with Sparzo's giant clearly visible on the hill
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  The giant in the background, in a painting by Marietta Minnigerode Andrews from June 1892

• Villa del Principe
• Genoa