Following the death of the Barberini Pope Urban VIII in 1644, Gianlorenzo Bernini fell out of favour as Rome’s foremost sculptor, paving the way for his greatest rival, Alessandro Algardi, to step into his place. Modelled in 1646, the Baptism of Christ represents Algardi’s first encounter with the newly elected Pope Innocent X, who would become his most eminent patron. This magnificent bronze from the collection of D. G. van Beuningen is one of a small number of casts after Algardi’s model to remain in private hands, the majority being either untraced or housed in public collections.

For much of the 20th century, bronze casts of the Baptism of Christ were attributed to the Maltese-born Roman Baroque sculptor Melchiorre Cafà (1636-1667), as first proposed by Leandro Ozzòla in 1926 (op. cit.). It was not until Jennifer Montagu’s pioneering work on the sculptor (see op. cit. 1972) that the model was recognised as Algardi’s on the basis of stylistic comparisons, archival records, and the existence of a preparatory drawing. Upon Innocent X’s rise to the papacy in 1644, Algardi did not immediately win the new Pope’s favour. By early 1646, however, the sculptor was working on a commission for his nephew, Camillo Pamphilij, and according to his biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori, it was then that he was granted the opportunity to present the Pope with ‘due picciole statue d’argento circa tre palmi, San Giovanni Battista che batteza Christo’ (‘two small silver statues, around three palms high, of Saint John the Baptist baptising Christ’), as well as a silver crucifix (see Montagu, op. cit. 1985, p. 310). The choice of Christ’s baptism as the subject of Algardi’s gift is said to have alluded to the Pope’s given name, Giovanni Battista, and thus designed to win his favour through personal flattery. In addition, Montagu (op. cit. 1985, p. 82) has suggested that there may have been a link between the silver statuette and an unrealised commission for St Peter’s Basilica: In February 1646 it was decreed that – because of the availability of metal – Algardi was to produce a bronze font for the church. Given the supposed date of the statuette’s gifting in early 1646, the Baptism may well have served as a model for this larger project which, however, never came to fruition. The former existence of the now-lost silver version of the Baptism of Christ is confirmed by inventories from 1666 and 1684 listing items in the Pamphilij collection. The terracotta model, which almost certainly formed the basis of the silver as well as extant casts in bronze, was bequeathed by Algardi to Cristoforo Segni, and remained within his family but is now untraced. A surviving terracotta model of the group, which is considered autograph but shows subtle differences from the bronze casts, is in the collection of the Vatican (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, inv. no. 2426, fig. 1).

The Baptism of Christ is among Algardi’s most successful compositions. Divided by the water of the Jordan, the two protagonists are positioned as elegantly harmonious opposites, Christ bent forward and Saint John rising upwards to pour water on Christ’s head, a contrast that is mirrored in Christ’s introspective gaze and John’s urgent, open-mouthed expression. Enveloped in complex, swirling drapery, the two figures are joined by a seemingly weightless cherub who supports Christ’s robe from behind and ‘brings a strong reminder of the third dimension into this essentially frontal composition’ (Montagu, op. cit. 1985, p. 85). Though highly effective as a small-scale bronze, the model’s potential for monumentality was clearly recognised several generations later by Domenico Parodi (1672-1742), who adapted it as a large marble group for the church of Santa Maria delle Vigne in Genoa.

In her 1985 monograph, Montagu lists as many as seventeen bronze casts of Algardi’s Baptism of Christ. The popularity of the model is attested by listings in early inventories; many of these bronzes are, however, now lost or untraced. Among the extant casts, most are found in major institutions and only few, including the present bronze, are still recorded in private collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art holds what is considered the most ‘Algardesque’ (Montagu, op. cit. 1985, p. 311, no. 8.C.1) of the known casts, which is generally accepted as originating from the sculptor’s studio (inv. no. 1965.471, fig. 2). The Cleveland bronze is mounted on a base bearing the arms of the prominent Franzone family, who probably commissioned the work directly from Algardi. Other casts vary in both compositional details and execution, with differences in the modelling and surface finish. In her listing, Montagu judged some casts, notably those in the Nelsons Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (inv. no. 47-34) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 34.111), to be of particularly good quality. Further versions in public collections include a bronze recently acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (inv. no. M.2017.2) and a cast in the Galleria Corsini in Rome (inv. no. 686). The latter was classified by Montagu (op. cit. 1985, p. 313, no. 8.C.10) as possibly Florentine and of a slightly later date, but commented on favourably in 1999 (exh. cat., op. cit.).

The Beuningen Baptism is a finely executed cast distinguished by its precision of modelling and intricate punching of both figures’ drapery, with fine stippling in the beautifully rendered waves below. A comparison with the prime cast in Cleveland reveals a close compositional relationship with several differences in details. These include the angle of the protagonists, with Christ being in a more frontal position in Cleveland; the hair and facial types, here with larger eyes and broad noses; the shape of the naturalistic base which has angular moulding in Cleveland as well as in the LACMA cast; the design of the rockwork and plants; and the positioning of the cherub’s legs. Like all known casts except that in Cleveland, the present bronze has no water flowing from Saint John’s shell. The cherub in the present composition is, unusually, wingless, in common with the cast in the Palazzo dell’Ordine di Malta in Rome (inv. no. 183). Another distinguishing feature of the Beuningen bronze is its open casting joint at the centre of the base, which must have been detached for a significant period of time, as is indicated by its warping. A similar gap, though more evenly joined, can be observed in the Galleria Corsini cast. The same bronze also compares to the present cast in the treatment of the figures’ hair, marked by linear engraving in contrast to the softer modelling seen in most other casts.

THE PROVENANCE

With provenance dating back as far as the early 20th century, the Beuningen Baptism could possibly represent one of the numerous versions of the model listed in old Italian inventories. Its first recorded owner was the Viennese banker Stefan von Auspitz (1869-1945), who amassed an extensive art collection over the first three decades of the 20th century, comprising important Old Master paintings, including works by Rubens, Cranach and Rembrandt, alongside Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and objets d'art. As a result of the financial crisis, von Auspitz filed for bankruptcy in 1931, leading to the sale of his collection. On the advice of the art dealer Kurt Walter Bachstitz, the collection was acquired as a whole by the Dutch businessman and collector Daniël George van Beuningen, who proceeded to sell numerous works through Bachstitz, as well as selecting a substantial number of paintings and sculpture for his personal collection. Around thirty paintings from the von Auspitz collection were exhibited by Bachstitz in London in 1932, to considerable acclaim.

Daniël George van Beuningen (1877-1955) became a celebrated figure in the city of Rotterdam through his economic transformation of the city’s port. He was equally renowned for his art collection, which focused on European paintings and sculpture from the 16th and 17th centuries. During his lifetime he became a patron of what is now the Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam, donating several works from his collection. In 1958, the majority of the van Beuningen collection was acquired by the Museum.

RELATED LITERATURE

T. Borenius, 'The Stefan von Auspitz Collection', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 61, no. 357, December 1932, pp. 287-288; E. van Binnebeke, Bronze Sculpture, cat. Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1994, pp. 5-9; J. Montagu (ed.), Algardi: L'altra faccia del barocco, exh. cat. Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1999, pp. 164-165, no. 32