Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven/London, 1985, II p. 380
This is a very rare and fascinating survival of an original working model from the seventeenth century. The technique of modelling reliefs in wax over a wooden carcass was normal for architectural models. If this design was for a monumental altarpiece, the architectural components are modest and in unusually shallow relief, while there is a disparity of scale between the Madonna and Child and the flanking saints.
Alternatively, it may have been made for reproduction perhaps in precious metal, or bronze on the same scale, so that it could have served as a house-altar, or conceivably as the door of a sacramental tabernacle.
St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84), a Milanese archibishop and cardinal, was canonized in recognition of his charitable works in 1610. St. Philip Neri (1515-95) began his career as a layment in Rome, but was ordained in 1551 and founded the Congregation of the Oratory, later building the church of Santa Maria in Valicella (the 'Chiesa Nuova' or New Church) in Rome. He was cannonized in 1622. The present design combining important representations of both saints probably post-dates the canonization of the latter.
The representation at the right of St. Philip Neri depends from Algardi's full size statue of 1636 in the Sacristy of Santa Maria in Valicella, Rome, and this provides a probably terminus post ? for the present relief (Montagu, cat. no. 75). The association between this saint and Charles Borromeo was normal, and there existed a life-size group of them embracing in Santa Barbara, Bologna (Montagu, cat. no. L. 74).
J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, New Haven/London, 1985, II p. 380
This is a very rare and fascinating survival of an original working model from the seventeenth century. The technique of modelling reliefs in wax over a wooden carcass was normal for architectural models. If this design was for a monumental altarpiece, the architectural components are modest and in unusually shallow relief, while there is a disparity of scale between the Madonna and Child and the flanking saints.
Alternatively, it may have been made for reproduction perhaps in precious metal, or bronze on the same scale, so that it could have served as a house-altar, or conceivably as the door of a sacramental tabernacle.
St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84), a Milanese archibishop and cardinal, was canonized in recognition of his charitable works in 1610. St. Philip Neri (1515-95) began his career as a layment in Rome, but was ordained in 1551 and founded the Congregation of the Oratory, later building the church of Santa Maria in Valicella (the 'Chiesa Nuova' or New Church) in Rome. He was cannonized in 1622. The present design combining important representations of both saints probably post-dates the canonization of the latter.
The representation at the right of St. Philip Neri depends from Algardi's full size statue of 1636 in the Sacristy of Santa Maria in Valicella, Rome, and this provides a probably terminus post ? for the present relief (Montagu, cat. no. 75). The association between this saint and Charles Borromeo was normal, and there existed a life-size group of them embracing in Santa Barbara, Bologna (Montagu, cat. no. L. 74).