Jacob Cornelisz Cobaert

These finely modelled bronze statuettes depict Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Matthew, Saint Mark and Saint Luke, each with their identifying attributes. The statuettes are cast after the four Evangelists included in the gilt bronze tempietto tabernacle in the church of S. Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. The tabernacle was previously attributed to Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), but was studied in depth by Jennifer Montagu, who attributed it to Jacob Cornelisz Cobaert (Montagu op. cit., 1996). A contemporary of Gianlorenzo Bernini, Cobaert was a renowned Flemish-born sculptor, who trained with Guglielmo della Porta (1515-1577) and worked in Rome.

His Four Evangelists were popular models and several casts are known, including a bronze of Saint Matthew in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (inv. no. 69-42/2). The mannerist movement of the expressive drapery and the finely modelled faces seen in the present casts are noteworthy.

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Montagu, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Metal Sculpture of the Roman Baroque, New Haven and London, 1996, pp. 36-46, figs. 56-61