Crucifix
- Object belonging
- One's own
- Category
- Bronze sculpture
- City
- Rome
- Location
- Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia
- Specific location
- Room 17
- Inventory
- PV 00818
- Material and technique
- Bronze, ebony
- Author
- Antonio Susini (doc. 1572-1624)
- Dating
- 1572-1624
- Dimensions
- 86.5 x 37 x 14.5 cm. (Christ 38.5 x 31.5)
- Origin
- Ministry of Public Works (1919)
- Image copyright
- SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma
Short description
This crucifix is by Antonio Susini, who was Giambologna's apprentice and assistant. He skillfully replicated his master's models, adding his own original touches and improvements in the process: his work not only showed the hand of a great sculptor but also of a talented and detailed founder. Literature extensively documents his modelling and fusing of this type of crucifix, which were highly sought-after by nobility at the time. Susini’s crucifixes vary in both size and form. The depiction of Golgotha, which serves as a base for the cross, varies, with some fused in bronze and others carved in ebony; sometimes a bronze skull, representing Adam’s head, can be seen amongst the rocks. Since so many of these sculptures were produced, it is impossible to determine whether or not this precise bronze is referenced in inventories.
Pietro Cannata
Bibliography
P. Cannata, La Collezione Barsanti, la Collezione Auriti, la Collezione Ravajoli, Rome 1988, pp. 21-23; P. Cannata, in S. Zuraw - M. G. Barberini - M. L. Casanova (eds.), Masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture from the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, exh. cat., Athens (Georgia) 1996, pp. 60-61, no. 11; P. Cannata, in M. G. Barberini - M. S. Sconci (eds.), Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, Rome 2009, p. 78, no. 82.