Apparition of the Virgin of Savona to Antonio Botta

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 21

Inventory

GNAA 2254

Material and technique

Terracotta

Author

Cosimo Fancelli (1620-1688)

Dating

1669-1674

Dimensions

85.5x49x17.5 cm.

Origin

Fassini Collection (before 1971); Heim Gallery; Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica (1975)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

In 1657 Giovanni Battista Gavotti commissioned his own chapel to be built in the left transept of the church of San Nicola da Tolentino. After his death, his grandchildren Nicola and Carlo carried on the project and on 2 March 1661 they obtained the second chapel to the left and tasked Pietro da Cortona with the architectural design. The work dragged on until 1669, the year of Cortona’s death, and was subsequently taken up by Ciro Ferri who finished the project in 1674. The relief on the main altar was carved by Cosimo Fancelli, who worked closely with Cortona. The marble altar ought to have depicted the Apparition of the Madonna of Mercy, an event that occurred near Savona on 8 April 1536, when the Virgin appeared for the second time to the farmer Antonio Botta. This work is far more pictorial than the final marble version, and reflects the vibrant and strong style of Pietro da Cortona. The terracotta came from the collection of the Baron Alberto Fasini, and was acquired by the Italian state when in appeared on the London art marked in 1971. It still has the delicate and spontaneous touch of Fancelli, which was particularly suited to sculptural modelling. The effect of this crisp carving of the model is somewhat lost in the San Nicola altarpiece itself, where the work suffers from being over-simplified and appears rather frozen.

Cristiano Giometti    

Bibliography

A. Venturi, Collezione d'Arte del barone Alberto Fassini, Roma 1931, pl. XL; I. Faldi, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica. Acquisti 1970-72, Roma 1972, pp. 36-37; G. Zandri, San Nicola da Tolentino, Roma 1987, pp. 159-160, fig. 36; M. G. Barberini (ed.), Sculture in terracotta del Barocco romano. Bozzetti e modelli del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, exh. cat., Roma 1991, p. 50; L. Magnani, L'apparizione della Madonna della Misericordia di Savona, in E. Gavazza and G. Rotondi Terminiello (eds.), Genova nell'età Barocca, exh. cat., Bologna 1992, pp. 309-310, no. 188; J. Montagu, 98. Madonna di Savona, in A. Lo Bianco (ed.), Pietro da Cortona 1597-1669, exh. cat., Venezia 1997, p. 442; O. Ferrari and S. Papaldo, Le sculture del Seicento a Roma, Roma 1999, p. 505; P. Cannata, Cosimo Fancelli. La Madonna di Savona appare ad  Antonio Botta, in G. Morelli (ed.), Visioni ed estasi. Capolavori dell'arte europea tra Seicento e Settecento, exh. cat., Milano 2003, pp. 211-212, no. 38