Lorenzo Bartolini: The Philosopher Sculptor, Nature and Art

Lorenzo Bartolini is one of Italian sculpture’s most representative figures in the whole of the first half of the 19th century. He is responsible for numerous monuments in the Santa Croce complex, including those of Leon Battista Alberti, Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte and Zofia z Czartoryskich Zamoyska, the latter being one of his absolute masterpieces. Santa Croce also houses the artist’s own cenotaph, erected on the insistence of his pupils after his death. The cenotaph is a tribute to his work and, in particular, to his philosophical thought, or as the inscription reads: “Natura Lumen Artium” (Nature is the Light of the Arts).