St. Rainerius

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 21

Inventory

GNAA 2255

Material and technique

Terracotta

Author

Michel Maille (1648-1736)

Dating

before 1682

Dimensions

53.5x36.5 cm.

Origin

Galleria Heim; Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini (1975)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

The architectonic reconstruction of the chapel of San Pietro d’Alcantara in Santa Maria in Aracoeli was planned by the pupil of Bernini, Giovan Battista Contini (1642-1723) and work began in 1682, while the elaborate sculptural decoration was entrusted to Michel Maille, a Burgundian sculptor active in Rome from 1667. Maille, then, was responsible for the sculptural series, comprising the St. Peter of Alcantara in Ecstasy Before the Cross for the aedicule of the altar and the two reliefs with angels that hold the medallions depicting St. Rainerius and St. Stephen, for the right and left walls, respectively. The preparatory models for the latter compositions are preserved, both formerly the property of Baron Alberto Fassini and were published for the first time by Adolfo Venturi (1931), attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The terracotta of St. Rainerius, the patron saint of Pisa, was bought by Italo Faldo for the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in 1972, from the Heim Gallery in London, and is now in the Palazzo Venezia museum. The relief in question is typical of a model where the sculptor develops the technical and compositional details of his work: this is evidenced by the metric rule to scale the model that is engraved on the left side of the slab and the substitution of a quadrangular plug in the lower part, probably due to a different positioning of the angel’s legs and the drapery. Maille displays a surety in the modelling of the terracotta and his quick and incisive strokes never lose that lightness of touch that is one of the main characteristics of his style.

Cristiano Giometti 

Bibliography

A. Venturi, Collezione d'Arte del barone Alberto Fassini, Roma 1931, tav. XXXVI-XXXVII; I. Faldi, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica. Acquisti 1970-72, Rome 1972, pp. 50-51; M. G. Barberini (ed.), Sculture in terracotta del Barocco romano. Bozzetti e modelli del Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, exh. cat., Rome 1991, p. 58; M. Fagiolo dell'Arco, Scultura barocca romana (II). Due bozzetti di Ercole Ferrata e Michel Maille, in "Fimantiquari", 9 (1996), pp. 26-37; O. Ferrari and S. Papaldo, Le sculture del Seicento a Roma, Rome 1999, p. 508