Lot Essay
The present figure of Christ is a particularly fine quality example of a model attributed to the Roman sculptor Alessandro Algardi. It is known in numerous other versions - most of them in bronze but some in silver - and is often accompanied by one of two distinct pairs of flagellators which have been attributed to Algardi and his contemporary, Franois Duquesnoy, respectively. The original ebonised pedestal in this case would seem to indicate that the figure of Christ was always meant to be alone.