Antonio Raggi (1624-1686) Italian, Rome, 17th century

Probably Pope Alexander VII (1599-1667), born Fabio Chigi;
probably by descent to his nephew Prince Agostino Chigi;
thence by family descent

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. The book is cast separately: it is a little bit loose and the joint is slightly open. There are one or two lacunae including in the hands and book. There is some minor dark spotting to the surface including to the head and a few areas of greening around the base and bottom of the drapery. There is an original plug in the base behind the book. The flowers are cast separately and a joint is very slightly visible.
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This important Roman Baroque bronze is the work of Antonio Raggi, who was Gianlorenzo Bernini's most esteemed assistant. The sharply cast facial features, together with the play between the beautifully chased textured and polished surfaces, contribute to the high quality of the cast, whilst also showing the influence of Raggi's other master, Alessandro Algardi.

The present bronze is a rare cast of a model which appears in marble in the Chigi Chapel at the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. The large scale marble, which forms a prominent part of the sculptural decoration of the chapel, is documented as being the work of Antonio Raggi in a letter dated 24 January 1658 from Pietro da Cortona to Girolamo Farnese (Ferrari and Papaldo, op. cit., pp. 298-299). Until the recent discovery of the letter, numerous scholars had attributed the marble to Raggi's contemporary Ercole Ferrata. It seems likely that the present bronze version was cast after the preparatory terracotta model, either as a presentation piece or subsequent to the execution of the marble.

The 17th-century reconstruction of the Chigi Chapel was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII, himself a member of the famous Sienese banking family, and was completed between 1655 and 1659 under the direction of Pietro da Cortona. The choice of subject for Raggi's figure, the Franciscan St. Bernard of Siena, was a natural one and would have highlighted the identity of the family to visitors of the chapel. Directly opposite St. Bernard is the complementary kneeling figure of St. Catherine of Siena by Ercole Ferrata. Together they frame a magnificant bronze relief of the Deposition with the Holy Trinity again by Ferrata. Elsewhere in the chapel there are marble reliefs and figures by Stefano Maderno and Ferrata, as well as stucco decoration by Cosimo Fancelli.

Antonio Raggi originally came from Lombardy and trained in Rome from 1645 in the workshops of Alessandro Algardi and Gianlorenzo Bernini. Arguably the most important moment in his career was working under Bernini's supervision on the sculptural programme for St Peter's Basilica. He went on to produce numerous works for Bernini, including the personification of the Danube for the Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona, and the Angel Carrying the Column on the Ponte Sant'Angelo. Raggi's influence was such that he even secured a major sculptural commission in England, completing the tomb of Lady Jane Cheyne for Chelsea Old Church in London in 1671. Despite the fact that the present model was once thought to be by Raggi's rival Ercole Ferrata, it shows correspondances with several of the Lombard's works. Compare, for example, with his marble statue of St. Bernard of Clairvaux for Siena Cathedral. The beautiful, fluid, folds of the Franciscan habit, as well as the books at his feet, closely parallel those of the present figure (Conway Library photograph, negative no. A88/733).

RELATED LITERATURE

O. Ferrari and S. Papaldo, Le sculture del Seicento a Roma, Rome, 1999, pp. 298-299