Andrea Bolgi
Encyclopedia
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Rome. Towards the end of his life he moved to Naples, where he sculpted portrait busts.
Early life
Bolgi was born in the marble-working city of CarraraCarrara
Carrara is a city and comune in the province of Massa-Carrara , notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some west-northwest of Florence....
. His training was in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, which was a conservative center in the seventeenth century.
In 1626 he went to Rome, where he quickly entered the circle of sculptors who were employed on occasion by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...
and were influenced by Bernini's Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
style. From 1626, before the expansion of Bernini's atélier, Bolgi supplanted Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli was an Italian Baroque sculptor who emerged from the workshop of Bernini.He was born in Carrara to a family of marble masons in a town associated with mining of the stone, and he initially trained with Michelangelo Naccherino...
(1601–1653) as the "only man of consequence" in Bernini's studio, Rudolph Wittkower observed, in attributing to Bolgi the Bust of Thomas Baker begun by Bernini, now at the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
.
St. Peter's
Bolgi created his Saint HelenaHelena of Constantinople
Saint Helena also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople was the consort of Emperor Constantius, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I...
(1629–1639) for one of the niches at the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, one of the choice commissions of his generation, for which he had doubtless been promoted by Bernini in preference to Finelli. Bolgi laboured for a decade on the figure that has epitomised his career, in some degree to his detraction: Wittkower remarked on its "classicizing coolness, its boring precision", and its position directly across from Bernini's masterful Saint Longinus invited unflattering comparisons.
Between 1647 and 1650 all the spandrel spaces above the arches of the nave of St. Peters were filled with stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
figures. Their execution was divided among sculptors with connections with Bernini, who seems to have exercised loose control over the compositions. In the first bay on the left, the spandrel figures of The Church and Divine Justice were given to Bolgi, who was paid for them in September 1647 and in March 1648. Pope Innocent X
Pope Innocent X
Pope Innocent X , born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj , was Pope from 1644 to 1655. Born in Rome of a family from Gubbio in Umbria who had come to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Innocent IX, he graduated from the Collegio Romano and followed a conventional cursus honorum, following his uncle...
was dissatisfied with Bolgi's figures, which were taken down, adjusted to everyone's satisfaction, and reinstalled
Naples
After 1650 Bolgi moved to Naples, where he was noted for his portrait busts. He was called to Naples by Giovan Camillo Cacace, a lawyer and member of the Accademia degli Oziosi. For this client Bolgi created two sculptures in the Cacace Family chapel in San Lorenzo MaggioreSan Lorenzo Maggiore (Naples)
San Lorenzo Maggiore is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located at the precise geographic center of the historic center of the ancient Greek-Roman city, at the intersection of via San Gregorio Armeno and via dei Tribunali...
. The kneeling figures are Giuseppe and Vittoria De Caro. Iconographically they derive from the scheme of the Fabrizio Pignatelli statue by Michelangelo Naccherino. The movement and whirling of the cloths is a clear step forward in the development of the baroque language, until then not known to the Neapolitan public. Beneath the sculptures are busts of Francesco De Caro and Giovan Camillo Cacace. The latter is renowned for its vivid portrayal of the client.
Main works
- 1629-1639: Statue of Saint Helena in the Basilica of Saint Peter, Rome
- 1634-1648: Other small works in Saint Peter's, Rome
- 1637: Bust of Laura Frangipani, signed and dated (San Francesco a RipaSan Francesco a RipaSan Francesco a Ripa is a church in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Francis of Assisi because the adjacent convent accommodated him, while the term Ripa refers to the nearby river-edge of the Tiber.-History:...
, Rome) - Half-length figures in the Raimondi Chapel (San Pietro in MontorioSan Pietro in MontorioSan Pietro in Montorio is a church in Rome, Italy, which includes in its courtyard The Tempietto built by Donato Bramante.-History:...
)
- 1637: Bust of Laura Frangipani, signed and dated (San Francesco a Ripa
- 1653: Statues and busts in the Cacace chapel, signed and dated, in San Lorenzo MaggioreSan Lorenzo Maggiore (Naples)San Lorenzo Maggiore is a church in Naples, Italy. It is located at the precise geographic center of the historic center of the ancient Greek-Roman city, at the intersection of via San Gregorio Armeno and via dei Tribunali...
, Naples - 1653: CandelabraCandelabra"Candelabra" is the traditional term for a set of multiple decorative candlesticks, each of which often holds a candle on each of multiple arms or branches connected to a column or pedestal...
in bronze, in the church of the H. Apostles, Naples
External links
- Roberto Piperno, "The statues in the octagon of St. Peter's" Brief survey of the commission overseen by Bernini.
- St Helen's statue in St Peter's