The paper deals with the study of various works by Francesco di Giorgio, attributed to the master in the past, though subsequently almost disappearing from the studies. In particular, the essay focuses on three sculptures (two reliefs and a small bronze), studying the dynamics of their interpretation with the aim of dissipating any remaining doubts about their authorship or iconographical analysis.
The first work to be discussed is the bas-relief in painted stucco with the 'Ascent to Calvary' in the Bode-Museum of Berlin (inv. 5973). This sculpture, attributed to Francesco di Giorgio by Adolfo Venturi, has at times been assigned to an anonymous Sienese master of the late 15th century, to Bertoldo di Giovanni, or to an anonymous artist from northern Italy. The study focuses attention on the difference between the level of the iconographical invention, substantially in keeping with the experimentations of Francesco di Giorgio, and the quality of the execution, typical of reliefs cast from prototypes in other materials. The second work is the terracotta relief representing the 'Mythological allegory' formerly in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Berlin (inv. 1574), recently discovered in a fragmentary condition in the territory of the Russian Federation. The essay reviews its history and proposes a new iconographical interpretation. It is probable that the work condenses in a single scene two distinct though closely related episodes drawn from ancient literature. While the left half of the composition portrays Hippodamia carried off by the centaur Eurytion on the day of her marriage with Pirithous, the right part alludes probably to the union between Neptune and Caenis narrated in the Metamorphoses by Ovid.
The third and final case concerns the reassignment to Francesco di Giorgio – after more than sixty years, and with new arguments – of the small bronze statue of 'Hercules in Repose' from the Frick Collection in New York, today by most scholars assigned to the sphere of 16th-century Florentine production.