Deacon

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Wood sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Store

Inventory

PV 10238

Material and technique

Sculpted poplar wood

Author

German School

Dating

15th century

Dimensions

121 x 39 x 42 cm.

Origin

Giovanni Battista Armenise (1940)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This work, which was donated to Palazzo Venezia in 1940 by Giovanni Battista Armenise, depicts a figure, sculpted in the round from a single piece of wood. It shows a deacon, smaller than life size, wearing a dalmatic, which falls down to his feet, while he holds a book open in front of him and stretches out his right hand (which is missing some fingers). The sculptor, who was perhaps active in 15th century Germany, decided not to complete the work with polychromy, as a rather widespread ‘fashion’ dictated at that time; instead the wood was covered with a uniform brown tint, giving it the aspect of a bronze sculpture. Technical-scientific tests carried out in 2009 by IVALSA-CNR in Florence identified the wood used as walnut (Juglans cfr. regia).

Grazia Maria Fachechi

Bibliography

Unpublished