The Fall of Christ Under the Cross

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 17

Inventory

PV 00051

Material and technique

Bronze, natural dark brown patina

Author

Alessandro Algardi (1595-1654)

Dating

c. 1650

Dimensions

18.2 x 25 x 14.8 cm.

Origin

Renato Fallani (1919)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

There are many versions of this work, varying in their rendering of certain features, such as the crown of thorns and the rock behind Jesus' left hand, which is sometimes widened in order to support one of the shorter arms of the cross. Hermanin attributed this bronze to Algardi, considering it to be a work from the artist’s early years. Santangelo later re-examined the piece, believing it to be by an 18th century sculptor active in Rome and close to Andrea Bergondi. Algardi's authorship is generally accepted, though, by the majority of scholars and was definitively confirmed by Jennifer Montagu in her study dedicated to the Bolognese sculptor. Old photographic documentation show that this bronze bore a thin wooden cross, possibly not the original, as well as another larger bronze cross on top.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

F. Hermanin, Note su alcune opere inedite di Alessandro Algardi, in  "Belvedere", 5 (1924), pp. 58-59; F. Hermanin, Il Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 1948, p. 300; A. Santangelo, Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 73; R. Preimesberger, Melchiorre Cafà, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XVI, Rome 1973, pp. 230-235; Paintings and Sculptures of the Italian Baroque, Heim Gallery, London 1973, no. 24; K. C. Keeble, European Bronzes in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1982, pp.140-141, no. 64; J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, London 1985, no. 11. C. 8, p. 323; P. Cannata, in M. G. Barberini - M. S. Sconci (eds.), Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 2009, no. 81, p. 78.