Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi (born July 31, 1598 in Bologna , † June 10, 1654 in Rome ) was an Italian sculptor and builder . Along with Bernini, he is considered the main master of Roman baroque sculpture.
Life
Algardi was the son of the silk merchant Giuseppe Algardi. He received his first artistic training in his hometown in the studio of the painter Lodovico Carracci . Later, however, Algardi turned more to sculpture and was trained in it in the workshop of the sculptor Giulio Cesare Conventi . While Algardi was studying at Conventi, he made the acquaintance of the architect Gabrielle Bertazzuoli . At the age of 24, through the agency of Bertazzuoli, he got a job in Mantua at the court of Duke Ferdinand and there mostly made models for various silver work.
Equipped with a generous scholarship, Algardi went on a long study trip to Venice around 1623 and one to Rome in 1625 . When his patron died and no further commissions, Algardi began for Cardinal Ludovisi, a nephew of Pope Gregory XV. to work. For Ludovisi he restored antiquities, worked as an ivory carver and also created smaller bronze works. Around 1630 he became friends with the painter Domenico Zampieri , called Domenichino , and often worked with him in the following years.
In 1640 Algardi was entrusted with the management of the Accademia di San Luca . In this position he got more public contracts again. One of the first clients to be mentioned here is Pietro Buoncompagni , who commissioned a group of figures with St. Philip Neri . Pope Innocent X appointed Algardi in 1644 as the successor to Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini as his court sculptor. At the papal court, however, Algardi was mainly active as a builder, since Pope Innocent wanted the Capitol to be generously converted and expanded.
But Algardi's remit also included private buildings for the Pope's family. He designed u. a. the Villa Doria Pamphili for a nephew and decorated it with his own works. Algardi was always in competition with his colleague Francesco Mochi . Algardi's importance is also shown in the fact that François de Sublet de Noyers wanted to lure him to the royal court in Paris at this time . In 1648 Cardinal Jules Mazarin also made an unsuccessful attempt.
The two most important students from this period were Giuseppe Perroni and Ercole Ferrata . You were there when Algardi experienced the peak of his artistic work in 1650. On the occasion of an anniversary, his marble relief of Attila's expulsion by Pope Leo I was presented to the public in St. It consisted of several huge blocks of marble, which Algardi worked on in four years, mainly with his assistant Domenico Guidi . A detailed model of the relief made of silver, also made by Algardi , was given to the King of Spain by Pope Philip IV .
In the last years of his life, Algardi delegated more and more work and was more and more only active as a consultant. In addition to Ercole Ferrata, Domenico Guidi and Giuseppe Perroni, Girolamo Lucenti , Francesco Baratta and Giovanni Maria Baratta are among his most important students .
Alessandro Algardi died in Rome on June 10, 1654 at the age of 56. He found his final resting place in the church of San Giovanni e Petronio de Bolognese .
Algardi is an equal colleague of Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Since Algardi had also worked as a modeller for most of his life, his artistic work is characterized by an immense attention to detail; However, he lacks the certain vitality of Bernini.
literature
- Minna home citizen: Alessandro Algardi, sculptore , Istituto Studi Romano, Roma 1973
- Jennifer Montagu: Alessandro Algardi , Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. 1985, ISBN 0-300-03173-4
- Susanne Kunz-Saponaro: Rome and its artists , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-534-17678-6 , p. 151 ff.
Web links
- Literature by and about Alessandro Algardi in the catalog of the German National Library
- Alessandro Algardi in Google Arts & Culture
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Algardi, Alessandro |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian sculptor and architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1598 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bologna |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1654 |
| Place of death | Rome |