Three terracotta models from the workshop of the Mazzuoli sculptors,
situated on the high altar of the oratory of San Gaetano da Thiene in
Siena, were concealed by a 19th-century canvas which had prevented them
from being seen or known about. While the two models of 'Adoring angels'
should be by Bartolomeo Mazzuoli, the larger model representing 'Angels
with Clouds' is the autograph work of Giuseppe Mazzuoli and preparatory to
the celebrated crowning element with tabernacle-supporting angels for the
high altar of the Sienese church of San Martino.
This group, sculpted around the year 1700, confirms the significant and
already documented points in common between the Sienese sculptor and the
Jesuit architect Andrea Pozzo in connection with the designs prepared by
the latter for the altar of the blessed Luigi Gonzaga in the church of
Sant'Ignazio; designs which, although not actually executed, were
extensively illustrated in the second tome of Pozzo's treatise Perspectiva (1700).
The present discovery indirectly focuses scholarly attention on the 'Angel
in Flight' of the Chigi Saracini Collection in Siena. This clay model,
covered in an old grey patina, which gives it the semblance of a small
bronze and ennobles its appearance, had in fact been linked by critics to
Mazzuoli's invention for the same crowning element of the San Martino
altar. However, the considerable compositional and stylistic differences,
the flair, the freshness of the modelling, the originality of the cut of
the figure belonging to the Chigi Collection, far surpass the already rare
skills of Mazzuoli and place it closer to the great creativity of Bernini.
Here we propose to connect the terracotta with the 'Angel in Flight' with a
large angelic figure for the canopy in gilded stucco – the so-called
'Gloria del Paradiso' – of the Cathedra Petri in St Peter's
basilica in the Vatican, on which Bernini, as is known, worked from 1657 to
1666 on the commission of Alessandro VII Chigi.
We know from Vatican documents that in order to complete that formidable
project more swiftly, the great master employed his most talented pupils,
like the Lombard Antonio Raggi, not only to execute bronzes and stuccos but
also to create models for the angels of the canopy's sunburst. In 1660, in
fact, work on the 'grande macchina' of the Cathedra Petri
accelerated considerably and more significantly the structure became much
larger compared to the original idea of the person commissioning it,
eventually becoming that immense construction whose sheer size was capable
of covering Michelangelo's apse entirely. This is why Bernini had to rely
on the excellent abilities of Raggi, his most highly esteemed pupil, to
carry forward work on the altar-reliquary even in certain preliminary
phases. It is known, again from documentary sources, that the large Angel,
to which our terracotta is related as a first 'thought', then later partly
modified, was in fact executed by Raggi, who must therefore also have been
the author of the preparatory model, as we are presently proposing. We
shall also attempt to reconstruct the chronology and changes of ownership
of the clay sculpture, investigating the interest in these extraordinary
items, in the sphere of the collectionism of Cardinal Flavio Chigi, who was
probably the first owner of the model and probably commissioned the
Cattedra.
Bernini's model with 'Saint Jerome Penitent' for the great marble of Siena
cathedral, today also in the Chigi Saracini Collection, and the model with
'Charity' of the funeral monument of Alexander VII in St Peter's, in the
deposits of the 'Soprintendenza ai Beni storici artistici e
etnoantropologici' of Siena and Grosseto, also probably belonged to the
same Roman collection. Here we propose to investigate the didactic
importance these models had for young sculptors in the Flavio Chigi
collection in the Giardino alle Quattro Fontane in Rome.