Altarpiece with Crucifix and Saints

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Bronze sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Altoviti Room

Inventory

PV 13475

Material and technique

Gilded and silvered bronze; lapis lazuli panels; ebony cross

Author

Jacob Cornelisz Cobaert (1535-1615) and studio of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Dating

Second half of 16th century, second half of 17th century

Dimensions

167 x 97.6 cm.

Origin

Acquired by the Italian State (Baroni, Londra 2004)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

The technique exhibited in this Altarpiece has been frequently compared to the greatest masterpieces of Roman craftsmanship of the 16th and 17th century: the work’s splendour is derived from the high quality of the twenty statues in gilded bronze and the use of precious materials (lapislazuli panels and the ebony cross). Between 1578 and 1582, the same artist executed the wonderful Tabernacle for the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, commissioned by Cardinal Matthieu Cointere and originally intended for the main altar. Jennifer Montagu has identified the artist as Jacob Cobaert. The statuettes of the Four Evangelists in the Palazzo Venezia Altarpiece replicate those in the Tabernacle in San Luigi dei Francesi, though there are slight differences in the gestures and they lack their usual attributes. The altarpiece was designed to be surmounted by a smaller Crucifix, certainly by Cobaert. The body here instead replicates one of the two models for the Crucifixes prepared by Bernini for the altars in St. Peter’s, in the Vatican, executed by Ercole Ferrata in 1658 and 1659, and fused by Paolo Guarnieri in 1661.

Pietro Cannata

Bibliography

H.A. Millon, I trionfi del Barocco: Architettura in Europa 1600-1750, exh. cat., Cinisello Balsamo 1999, no. 616, pp. 592-593; D. Garstang, Master Paintings and Sculpture 2003, exh. cat., New York 2003, no.7; N. Gozzano - P. Tosini (eds.), La Cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesi. Arte e committenza nella Roma di Caravaggio, Rome 2005; S. Danesi Squarzina, Introduzione, in N. Gozzano - P. Tosini (eds.), La Cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesi. Arte e committenza nella Roma di Caravaggio, Rome 2005, pp. 7-10; P. Tosini, Matteo Contarelli committente a S. Luigi dei Francesi da Muziano a Caravaggio, in N. Gozzano - P. Tosini (eds.), La Cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesi. Arte e committenza nella Roma di Caravaggio, Rome 2005, pp. 11 -26; V. White, Qualche notazione sull'attività romana di Cope, scultore fiammingo, in N. Gozzano - P. Tosini (eds.), La Cappella Contarelli in San Luigi dei Francesi. Arte e committenza nella Roma di Caravaggio, Rome 2005, pp. 49-65; S. Roberto, San Luigi dei Francesi. La fabbrica di una chiesa nazionale nella Roma del 500, Roma 2005; C. D. Dickerson III, The "Gran Scuola" of Guglielmo della Porta, the Rise of the "Aurifex Inventor" and the Education of Stefano Maderno, in "Storia dell'arte", 121 (n.s. 21), 2008, pp. 25-71; P. Cannata, I Bronzetti, in "Guida al Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia", M. G. Barberini and M. S. Sconci (eds.), Rome 2009, no. 31 p. 38.