The Vatican Collections
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E F G H overall design, must have been inspired by the pies (G. L. Hersey, 1973, fig. 37), and the angu The eight carvings were set into the wall of monumental dborium of Cardinal d'Estouteville lar and curiously expressive faces, the muscular the Cappella delle Partorienti, in the Grotte, about erected in 1461-63 in Santa Maria Maggiore. and veined arms, and the bony hands of the 1616. In 1949, they were moved to Room VI, The corner reliefs of the Trials of Peter and Paul figures are characteristic of the sculptures exe and in 1977 they were reinstalled in Room IV of must have occupied a place similar to that of cuted by Paolo Romano and his workshop dur the Grotte. the triple Corinthian pilasters that flanked the ing the pontificate of Pius II (1458-64). Espe O.R. main narrative scenes by Mino da Fiesole on the cially striking are comparisons with the two entablature ofthe latter ciborium (C. Seymour, colossal statues of Saints Peter and Paul carved BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. L. Dionysius, Sacrarum Vaticanae Basilicae Cryptarum Monumenta, Rome, 1828, pp. 50-51, 1966, p. 159, fig. 21). in 1461-62 by Romano and his assistants for no. 2, Tab. XXIII; H. von Tschudi, "Das Konfessionstaber The style of the Trials is generally quite typi the steps in front of Saint Peter's (A. Venturi, nakel Sixtus IV in St. Peter zu Rom," in Jahrbuch der cal of the conservative, classicizing manner so 1908, figs. 756-757). These observations sup Koniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, 8, 1887, pp. often found in Roman works of the third quar port a suggestion first advanced by Giuseppe 11-24; F. Burger, "Das Konfessionstabernakel Sixtus IVu. ter of the fifteenth century. Yet, when one com Cascioli (1925, p. 26), and recently confirmed sein Meister," in Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen pares the four large "stories" of the time of Sixtus by Silvan, that the reliefs of the Trials were exe Kunstsammlungen, 28, 1907, pp. 95-111, 150-67; A. Venturi, La Scultura del Quattrocento (Storia dell' Arte italiana, IV, with their skillful recombination of elements cuted some fifteen years before the large "stories" 6), Milan, 1908, p. ll28; G. Cascioli, Guida illustrata delle borrowed from the Column ofTrajan and other commissioned by Sixtus IV. If carved under Pius Sacre Grotte Vaticane, Rome, 1925, p. 26. imperial sculptures, and their somewhat grand II, the panels of the Trials would have deco er and more fluid style, one has the distinct rated the corners of a fairly simple marble cibo Comparative works cited: G. F. Hill, A Corpus of Italian impression that the archaizing vigor and wiry di rium, the shape of which we know from a medal Medals of the Renaissance before Cellini, London, 1930; C. Seymour, Sculpture in Italy 1400 to 1500, London, 1966; R. rectness of the Trials belong to an earlier master. It of 1470 (G. E Hill, 1930, no. 764). was this Niggl, ed., G. Grimaldi, Descrizione della Basilica antica diS. The crowding of the figures beneath a coffered earlier ciborium that, under Sixtus IV, was Pietro in Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican ceiling recalls the Donatellesque organization of modified and enriched by the addition of the City, 1972; G. L. Hersey, The Aragonese Arch at Naples one ofthe reliefs on the Aragonese Arch in Na- four large narrative reliefs. 1443-1475, New Haven, 1973. 41 .