Two Julio-Claudian busts in the Uffizi Gallery. The so-called 'Antonia Minor' and 'Agrippina Maior'

Aurora Taiuti
The aim of the present article is to review the history of collection and the iconography of two female busts dating from the Julio-Claudian age in the Uffizi Gallery and recorded in the 1914 inventory with the numbers 89 and 99. Mentioned for the first time in the inventory of 1704, respectively as “Agrippina Maggiore” and “Antonia Minore”, the arrival of the two marbles dates in fact to the last decades of the 17th century, as attested by Gallery documents and by correspondence between Leopoldo de' Medici and the abbot Ottavio Falconieri. Their immediate installation in the Eastern Corridor (Corridoio di Levante) remained unchanged until the 20th century.
Here the two busts were admired by visitors to the Gallery and were included as part of the 'Series of Emperors' wanted by Luigi Lanzi between 1780 and 1782, precisely by virtue of their identification as Agrippina Maior and Antonia Minor. However, there is no firm evidence that the above-mentioned busts can actually be identified as the Julio-Claudian princesses proposed in the Gallery inventories.

Index

Mattia Barana Simone Martini's polyptych for the Augustinians of San Gimignano: new questions and some answers
read abstract » pp. 3-17
Paolo Parmiggiani The sculptor Giovanni di Bertino and his collaboration with Desiderio da Settignano
read abstract » pp. 18- 62
Aurora Taiuti Two Julio-Claudian busts in the Uffizi Gallery. The so-called 'Antonia Minor' and 'Agrippina Maior'
read abstract » pp. 63-69
Stefano L’Occaso For the 'Master of the Caldora Chapel' (Paolo dall'Aquila?)
read abstract » pp. 70-76
Cristina Conti Various documents concerning Pellegrino da Modena (1520-1522)
read abstract » pp. 77-85
Serena Quagliaroli A project by Perino del Vaga for Luca Penni "depintore": new documents relating to the decoration of a gallery in the Paris of Francis I
read abstract » pp. 86-94
Alessandro Brogi A little masterpiece by Bartolomeo Schedoni
read abstract » pp. 95-102