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Lot Essay
The present terracotta relief of the Flight into Egypt is a modello for Pierre Etienne Monnot's large marble relief of the same subject in the Capocaccia Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. This marble is paired with another relief of the Adoration of the Shepherds and flanks a marble group of The Dream of St. Joseph by Domenico Guidi. The chapel faces the celebrated Cornaro Chapel with Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa and therefore provides a pendant to the latter.
Monnot was born in the Franche-Comté but spent most of his working life in Italy. His success there was almost immediate and he is perhaps best known today for the famous cycle of marble groups and reliefs he executed for the Marmorbad in Kassel commissioned by the Landgrave Karl von Hesse-Kassel. This huge project occupied him intermittently from at least 1692 until his death in 1733 (see Kopanski, op. cit.). However, another of his highly important and successful commissions was for the two marble reliefs in the Capocaccia Chapel mentioned above.
The chapel was created at the instigation of a wealthy merchant, Luca Capocaccia, whose family undertook the patronage of the chapel in 1694 (for details of the commission see Walker, loc. cit.). Dedicated to St Joseph, the central marble group appears to represent the moment that Joseph is told that he must flee with his family to escape the impending Massacre of the Innocents. Monnot's two reliefs - of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Flight into Egypt - therefore depict the two scenes which immediately precede and follow the dream in the narrative of Joseph's life.
A terracotta relief of the Adoration of the Shepherds - of almost identical dimensions to the present relief - was published in 1924 by Brinckmann (loc. cit.). The existence of the lot offered here was unknown at the time. Both reliefs show some variations from the final examples in marble, but the differences between the two versions of the Flight into Egypt are more notable. In the marble example the donkey wears an elaborate bridle, and there is a second, gesturing angel standing behind the figure of Joseph. The blanket no longer covers Christ's head, and the treatment of the drapery is more complex overall.
The scene depicted is unusual in that it represents the moment Mary first sits on the donkey, aided by an angel at the left who raises a hand protectively to support the Infant Christ. Symbolically, she stands on a fragment of a fluted column, representing the pagan world of classical Rome which her Son will supersede. Joseph, at the right, is not the older man hovering in the background one normally sees, but a vigorous man of middle age. His prominence in both of Monnot's reliefs is, of course, due to the fact that the chapel is dedicated to him.
Monnot was born in the Franche-Comté but spent most of his working life in Italy. His success there was almost immediate and he is perhaps best known today for the famous cycle of marble groups and reliefs he executed for the Marmorbad in Kassel commissioned by the Landgrave Karl von Hesse-Kassel. This huge project occupied him intermittently from at least 1692 until his death in 1733 (see Kopanski, op. cit.). However, another of his highly important and successful commissions was for the two marble reliefs in the Capocaccia Chapel mentioned above.
The chapel was created at the instigation of a wealthy merchant, Luca Capocaccia, whose family undertook the patronage of the chapel in 1694 (for details of the commission see Walker, loc. cit.). Dedicated to St Joseph, the central marble group appears to represent the moment that Joseph is told that he must flee with his family to escape the impending Massacre of the Innocents. Monnot's two reliefs - of the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Flight into Egypt - therefore depict the two scenes which immediately precede and follow the dream in the narrative of Joseph's life.
A terracotta relief of the Adoration of the Shepherds - of almost identical dimensions to the present relief - was published in 1924 by Brinckmann (loc. cit.). The existence of the lot offered here was unknown at the time. Both reliefs show some variations from the final examples in marble, but the differences between the two versions of the Flight into Egypt are more notable. In the marble example the donkey wears an elaborate bridle, and there is a second, gesturing angel standing behind the figure of Joseph. The blanket no longer covers Christ's head, and the treatment of the drapery is more complex overall.
The scene depicted is unusual in that it represents the moment Mary first sits on the donkey, aided by an angel at the left who raises a hand protectively to support the Infant Christ. Symbolically, she stands on a fragment of a fluted column, representing the pagan world of classical Rome which her Son will supersede. Joseph, at the right, is not the older man hovering in the background one normally sees, but a vigorous man of middle age. His prominence in both of Monnot's reliefs is, of course, due to the fact that the chapel is dedicated to him.