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Attributed to Antonio Giorgetti, Nativity
1662

$8,627.73List Price

About the Item

Antonio Giorgetti (documented in Rome from 1657 to 1669) Nativity, c. 1662 Wax, 56 x 12 cm The wax, oval in shape and brown in color, features an iconography invented by Roman Baroque sculptor Antonio Giorgetti, whose activity is reported to have been documented between 1657 and 1668. Antonio Giorgetti was born in Rome at an unspecified date. The artist belonged to a family of sculptors active in the Urbe in the second half of the 17th century: Antonio's father, Giovanni Maria, was active in Rome as a sculptor and carver and had worked for the Camera apostolica since 1650. Among his best-known works are certainly the two wooden doors decorated with bas-reliefs depicting episodes from the life of Romulus in the Hall of Horatii and Curiazi in the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, one of which bears the date 1643. Following learning the first rudiments related to sculpture at his father's workshop, Antonio Giorgetti completed his apprenticeship with Alessandro Algardi. The artist's first work is supposed to coincide with the bronze bust of Clement Merlini in Santa Maria Maggiore: the work, dubiously attributed to Giorgetti by Steinberg (The history and decoration of the ponte S. Angelo, 1968), is in some cases ascribed to the chisel of Andrea Bolgi and is not unanimously made part of the catalog of the Roman artist's works. From 1657-58 is his first work documented through the sources, the Two kneeling angels supporting the drape serving as a balustrade, at the entrance to the Spada Chapel in San Girolamo della Carità. The two sculptures show a strong Algardian imprint: the general setting and the type of composed drapery, with thin folds, are clearly inspired by the angel of the Ecstasy of St. Philip Neri made by the Bolognese master active mainly in the Roman context for the Sacristy of Santa Maria in Vallicella. Beginning in 1660, Giorgetti turned out to be permanently in the service of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, for whom he performed routine work at first, such as restorations of ancient sculptures and small busts, and later carried out commissions of greater artistic commitment, most notably that for the bust of Girolamo Aleandro, the cardinal's secretary. Giorgetti's best-known works, however, are undoubtedly the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian from the Church of St. Sebastian Outside the Walls within which the artist fully displays his ability to transpose and make Bernini's models his own in a shrewd and original way, and the Angel with Sponge executed as part of Bernini's undertaking to create the Ten Angels with the Instruments of the Passion for the Sant'Angelo Bridge. Giorgetti received the first payment in August 1668, and in September of the following year the sculpture, executed with the collaboration of his brother Giuseppe on a Bernini model, was put in place. Among the works executed by Antonio Giorgetti for the powerful Cardinal Barberini is the gilded bronze bas-relief with the Nativity, probably executed in collaboration with his brother Giuseppe and silversmith Michele Sprinati, which, in the original design, was to be completed by an elaborate octagonal silver frame, embellished with lapis lazuli (with respect to the work, currently in a private collection, Jennifer Montagu expresses herself extensively in Gold, silver and bronze: metal sculpture of the Roman baroque in 1996). The wax in question could form a model for the above-mentioned bronze of the nativity. The scene, which is particularly crowded, has a pronounced datum of dynamism that perfectly reflects the chrisms of Roman Baroque. The Virgin and St. Joseph surround the cradle of the Child, to whom an angel bows his head in adoration. Behind the holy family swirls a vast contingent of figures, including the cherubim and shepherds who have rushed, at the angel's call, to worship the Christ child. There are at least two other brown wax models of the same subject, which are relevant from an artistic point of view, both for their style, which can perfectly reflect all the salient features of the Roman Baroque, and for their ability to fully show the techniques and working methods of a prominent artist, operating, throughout his career, alongside the masters of seventeenth-century Roman plastic art, Algardi and Bernini.

Attributed to:
Antonio Giorgetti (Italian)
Creation Year:
1662
Dimensions:
Height: 22.05 in (56 cm)Width: 4.73 in (12 cm)
Medium:
Wax
Period:
17th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Milan, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2639215786802

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