Communion of St. Mary Magdalene

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 24

Inventory

PV 10376

Material and technique

Terracotta/ patina

Author

Roman School

Dating

c. 1725-1750

Dimensions

71x53x18 cm.

Origin

Gorga Collection (1948)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This rectangular relief depicts the bishop Maximin, who delivered the final communion to Mary Magdalene. The saint is on her knees, swooning, but is held up by a group of angels. The desert setting is effectively evoked by the background, which is broken into many small furrowed plains by numerous ridges; a lively choir of angels and cherubs watch the scene from the sky above and succeed in lightening the dramatic mood of the composition. The terracotta has been damaged over time and is in a rather poor state of conservation. When the work was exhibited in 1911 at Castel Sant’Angelo, it was dated to the 17th century but no artist was named. After becoming part of the Palazzo Venezia collection in 1948, following the transfer of the collection of Evan Gorga, Santangelo published it once again (1954), suggesting a date around 1730-1740 and attributing it, tentatively, to “Filippo Canarte, who created the sculptures adorning the upper section of the façade of the Chiesa della Maddalena”. Santangelo was referring to Giuseppe Canart (†1790) who executed the only statue of St. Catherine de’ Ricci, installed in 1735, for which he was paid 250 scudi. There are, to date, too few original works known by the artist to enable an effective comparison for the present work. Moreover, the period of time he spent in Rome, probably beginning around 1715, seems too late for the style of the Palazzo Venezia relief, which ought to be dated towards the last decade of the 17th century. The echo of Bernini’s style still resonates, particularly in the figure of the bishop Maximin, who evokes, in his pose and the concentrated expression on his face, the Fathers of the Church for the throne of St. Peter’s, while Mary Magdalene shows some influence of the modelling of Antonio Raggi. A feverish and exuberant quality runs through the whole composition, lending the figures a vibrancy that is characteristic of the work of Pierre Le Gros. One can see here, then, an artist, who was active in Rome at the end of the 1600s, trying to find his own autonomous means of expression, through studying and re-working the examples of great contemporary sculptors. 

Cristiano Giometti 

Bibliography

Guida Generale alle Mostre Retrospettive di Castel Sant'Angelo 1911, p. 232; A. Santangelo (ed.), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Roma 1954, p. 77; M. Toscano, Giuseppe Canart da scultore a conservatore (1738-1790): un percorso biografico e professionale, in R. Poso (ed.), Riconoscere un patrimonio, atti del seminario di studi, Galatina 2007, pp. 43-75