Attributed to Giacomo Piazetta (1640-1705) Italian, Venice, late 17th century

with Bruno Cooper, United Kingdom, September 2001;
European private collection

Overall the condition of the wood is good with dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. A few sections of drapery on the figure's proper left side are cast separately. There is non-active worming to the wood consistent with the material. There is minor stable splitting to the wood consistent with the material. A piece of the turban at the back is reattached. The arms are probably carved separately, as is the staff. The base is carved in sections and there is stable splitting.
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In 1683 Giacomo Piazzetta carved twenty-eight moralising statues of heretics for the Biblioteca dei Domenicani in Venice, which is adjacent to the Basilica of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. The statues were removed in the early 19th century and disappeared so that only the ceiling decorations and a frieze by Piazzetta survive in the space. Twenty-four terracotta bozzetti for the heretics have been identified in several museums, including the Bode-Museum, the Ca' d'Oro, and the National Gallery of Canada. The whirling composition and tension created by the ascent of the present figure on the two books underfoot compares well to several figures in Piazetta's Scenes from the Life of Christ and the Virgin now in the SS. Giovanni e Paolo (see Bacchi, op.cit., pp. 775-776). Even though one of the bozzetti compares to the present figure in certain elements, four more are still missing and the sculptor could have changed his composition, suggesting that this could be one of the lost heretics from the Dominican Library.

RELATED LITERATURE

A.Bacchi (ed.), La scultura a Venezia da Sansovino al Canova, Milan, 2000, pp. 775-776, figs. 568-571