| Alessandro Algardi |
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| 1598 births | |
| algardi, alessandro | |
| 1654 deaths | |
| people from bologna | |
| italian sculptors | |
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BIOGRAPHY Early years Algardi was born in Bologna . While apprenticed in the atelier of Agostino Carracci , his aptitude for sculpture led him to work for the sculptor Giulio Cesare Conventi (1577–1640). At the age of twenty he was brought to the notice of Ferdinando I, Duke Of Mantua , who gave him several commissions, which gave the young sculptor a chance to immerse himself in one of the great and exposed the young sculptor a chance to see his large collections of Roman antiquities and sculpture. He was also much employed about the same period by goldsmiths, modelling for them in ivory and making wax ''modelli'' for casting in gold and silver. After a short residence in Venice , he went to Rome in 1625 with an introduction from the Duke of Mantua to the Late Pope's nephew, Ludovico Cardinal Ludovisi , who employed him for a time in the restoration of ancient statues, which still form the core of the Bonacorsi-Ludovisi collection in Palazzo Altemps . Gian Lorenzo Bernini , in the first flush of his fame, had the pick of the best available commissions in Rome, and the duke's death left Algardi to his own meagre resources, and for several years he earned a precarious living from these restorations and commissions of goldsmiths and jewellers. His friends included his fellow Bolognese, Domenichino and Pietro Da Cortona , and his early Roman commissions included terracotta portrait busts, while he supported himself with small works like crucifixes. For Pietro Buoncompagni in 1640, Algardi created his first major public work in marble, a colossal statue of Philip Neri , with kneeling angels. Immediately after this, he produced a similar group, representing the beheading of Saint Paul in two figures, of the kneeling saint and the executioner poised to strike the sword-blow, for San Paolo Maggiore , the church of the Barnabite Fathers in Bologna. These proficient works expressed Baroque dramatic attitudes and immediacy of expression, at once established Algardi's reputation, and other commissions quickly followed. Papal favour under Innocent X For two decades Bernini had dominated the most prominent commissions in Rome, however, with the accession of the Bolognese outside the San Pancrazio gate, a project in which he depended on the professional aid of the architect/engineer Girolamo Rainaldi , while Algardi and his studio executed the sculpture-encrusted exteriors and interiors His portrait bust of Camillo Pamphili is at The Hermitage Museum . A church façade sometimes attributed to Algardi is that of Sant' Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio. In 1650 Algardi met Diego Velasquez , who obtained commissions for Spain. There are four chimney-pieces by Algardi in the palace of Aranjuez , where the figures on the fountain of Neptune were also by him. The Augustine monastery at Salamanca contains the tomb of the count and countess de Monterey, another work by Algardi. In the Capotiline Museum, on has the ability to contrast the more formal statue of Innocent X with Bernini's more dramatic Urban the VIII. Relief of ''Fuga d'Attila'' in St. Peter's Basilica Algardi's masterpiece is the large dramatic marble high-relief panel of Pope Leo and Attila (image) (1646–53) for St Peter's Basilica , which reinvigorated the use of marble in reliefs. There had been large marble reliefs used previously, for example Gianlorenzo's father, Pietro Bernini 's crowded ''Assumption of the Virgin'' for Santa Maria Maggiore (1606); but for most patrons, it was far too costly to use sculpted marble for such a large display as an altarpiece. In this relief, the two theatrically contrasted principal figures, the stern and courageous pope and the dismayed and frightened Attila, surge and protrude from the center. Only these two see the descending angelic warriors rallying to the pope's defense, while all others persist in the background reliefs, performing respective earthly duties. The subject was apt for a papal state seeking clout, since it depicts the legendary moment when the greatest of Pope Leos, with supernatural aide, had deterred the Huns from looting Rome. From a baroque standpoint it is a moment of divine intervention in the affairs of man. Algardi's patron Leo XI hoped all viewers would be sternly reminded of the papal capacity to invoke divine retribution against enemies. Algardi died in Rome within a year of completing his famous relief, which was admired by contemporaries. CRITICAL ASSESSMENT AND LEGACY Algardi was also known for his portraiture which shows an obsessive attention to details of psychologically revealing physiognomy in a sober but immediate naturalism, and minute attention to costume and draperies, such as in the busts of Laudivio Zacchia, Camillo Pamphilj, and Muzio Frangipane and his two sons Lello and Roberto {Link without Title} . There is also a bronze statue of Innocent X for the ''Palazzo dei Conservatori'' in the , Saint Petersburg . In his later years Algardi controlled a large studio and amassed a great fortune. His students (including Ercole Ferrata and Domenico Guidi ) and their followers carried forward their versions of Algardi's classicizing bravura manner well into the 18th century. The latter two students completed his altarpiece at ''Vision of Saint Nicholas'' (San Nicola de Tolentino, Rome) using two separate marble pieces linked together in one event and place, yet successfully separating the divine and earthly spheres. SELECTED WORKS
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