By Anne Leader
Italian sculptor and architect Taddeo Landini died on 13 March 1596 in Rome. He was in his mid-30s. Born in Florence, Landini spent most of his career working in Rome, where he copied works by Michelangelo and invented new ones, most famously his Fonte delle Tartarughe (Turtle Fountain), a misnomer given that the turtles were added to Landini’s work in 1658. Landini served as papal architect for popes Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, and Clement VIII. He also made portraits for them.
Salt cellar or inkwell with a youth on a sea monster, c. 1590, bronze. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, J.W.E. vom Rath Bequest
Pope Gregory XIII, 1580, bronze. Skulpturensammlung, Bode-Museum, Berlin
Pope Sixtus V, c. 1585/1590; bronze. Skulpturensammlung, Bode-Museum, Berlin
Turtle Fountain, 1585-8, bronze and marble (turtles added 1658). Rome, Piazza Mattei
Winter, Ponte Santa Trinita, Florence