Model for an angel,

ca. 1695

The Italian word bozzetto is derived from the verb abbozzare, to sketch, and this example can be considered a three-dimensional sketch in clay. Baroque sculptors used clay to work out problems of structure and composition, an approach Mazzuoli learned in Rome. This bozzetto was a preparatory design for one of the two angels he was commissioned to create for the altarpiece of the church of S. Donato in Siena. Raw and spontaneous, it fixes the master’s fi rst ideas for the fi gure and captures his gestures in the act of creation. Mazzuoli created a series of increasingly refined and fi nished bozzetti, and other models from the commission are preserved, helping us follow the design process. This exacting procedure was necessary when the fi nal product was to be executed in an expensive, technically demanding medium such as marble or bronze.