Portrait of Pope Benedict XVIII in Polychrome Wax

anticSwiss 25/09/2021 18:47:14 http://www.anticswiss.com

Portrait of Pope Benedict XVIII in polychrome wax

FOR SALE ANTIQUE DEALER Period: 18° secolo - 1700 Ars Antiqua srl Milano Style: Altri stili +39 02 29529057 393664680856 Height:20cm Width:15.5cm Material:Cera policroma Price:2800€

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Sicilian ceroplasta from the 18th century Pope Benedict XIII Polychrome wax, 20x15.5 cm. Critical sheet edited by Teodoro Fittipaldi Inscription with capital letters painted in red on the internal golden tooth of the frame.

Benedetto XIII, born Pier Francesco Orsini, son of Ferdinando X Origini duke of Puglia and Giovanna Frangipane, was born in Gravina in 1649. His whole life was marked by a great feeling of humility and modesty: since he gave up in favor of his brother to the rights of the primogeniture, to when he refused the election to the pontificate, then accepted for discipline and obedience to the order of the general of the Dominicans. Severe and rigid with himself, he wanted to be a monk even as pope and lived poor and penitent in the splendor of the Vatican. He came from the Dominican Order; he was theologian, philosopher, jurist and man of letters, but he always gave up the offers of professorships for those disciplines. He was appointed cardinal in I672; he was elected pope in 1724; he tried to be austere reformer of the frivolity of the life of the clergy. He published a brief to temper the rigors of the Unigenitus Bull; nevertheless he remained firm on the Jansenistic question and in the Lateran Council of 1725 imposed the acceptance of the Bull itself as a rule of faith. Generally conciliatory in relations with states, he could not, on the other hand, settle the question with John V of Portugal who claimed to appoint crown cardinals. Died in Rome in 1730, he was buried in St. Peter's Basilica, but the Dominicans wanted the monument to be erected in the church of their Order and in 1738 the remains were transported to the Church of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, properly in the Chapel of S. Domenico. The magnificent Baroque monument was executed by the Roman sculptor Pietro Bracci with other masters, based on a design by the architect Carlo Marchionni. Our portrait, depicted half-length including the arms, imperceptibly foreshortened to his right, in the act of blessing, is modeled in polychrome wax bas-relief with various gilded elements, on a wooden support. In two slender molded (wax) gilded

1 / 3 anticSwiss 25/09/2021 18:47:14 http://www.anticswiss.com frames: the first rectangular, with slotted corners obtained from the second, inscribed and oval, the figure of the blessing Pontiff faces (note the piscatory ring) out of the wings of a large red curtain skillfully draped and knotted. The face, finely characterized, is severe and composed; expression of that moral rigor and humility and modesty recognized by historians. She wears an amazingly pleated white surplice, with mozzetta, closed on the chest with golden clasps, and red camauro, edged with ermine fur. The sumptuous stole with totally gilded relief embroidery stands out; the Keys of St. Peter, a symbol of pontifical authority, and golden fringe and cords hang above. The symbols minutely modeled and skilfully inserted in the aforementioned slotted corners take on not a little prominence; intimately connected to the life of Benedict XIII: from the miter and the patriarchal (or Lorraine) cross below, to the pontifical tiara above, left; from the miter and the episcopal baculus at the bottom to the cardinal's galley above, on the right. In the chromatic jubilation two small pauses appear timidly: the olive green of the collar of the smock; the antique pink of the lining of the stole, at the bottom, folded and turned up. The small bas-relief is enclosed in a rectangular wooden frame with moldings, carved and painted with black color, with an internal tooth gilded with fine gold on an Armenian bole. On the lower inner tooth is an inscription with capital letters painted with red color. The double framing, the linearistic texture, the skilful distribution of the elements of the composition, the icastic evidence of the symbols framed as in a printed engraved sheet show a clear derivation from an eighteenth-century engraving image source of which, until now, it has not been possible track down the prototype. The analytical precision of the modeling in obtaining the most subtle details, the profusion of purple and gold and the preciousness of the general execution in giving us a sort of divine "icon" do not escape, however, the risk of having helped to create a little image. of the illustrious Pontiff with marked devotional intentions and a strongly popular character. The work is likely to be attributed to an unknown Sicilian ceroplast probably from Trapani - from the 18th century. Because of the rare iconography and the translation in the no less rare specialization it is of considerable historical-documentary interest. An unavoidable comparison, in order to evaluate the profound difference of intentions and styles, must be established with two notable portraits of Pope Benedict XIII himself, in wax plastics, attributed respectively to Johann Georg Sindler and Giovan Giorgio Sirocca. https://www.anticswiss.com/en/fine-art-antiques/portrait-of-pope-benedict-xviii-in-polychrome-wax-22351

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