Lot 432: AN ITALIAN TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF SAINT PAUL, BY GIOVANNI ANDREA GALLETTI (1499-1539), FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY

AN ITALIAN TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF SAINT PAUL, BY GIOVANNI ANDREA GALLETTI (1499-1539), FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY height 49 1/2 in.; 125 cm

Chigi Collection, Siena, by repute

This beautifully modelled figure of Saint Paul corresponds directly with the polychrome terracotta figures of Saints Peter and Paul made for the parish church of San Leonardo Montefollonico, near Siena, now in Diocesan Museum, Pienza (L. Martini, op.cit., pp. 116-117, figs. 84).

The slightly raised position of the feet, the way the drapery wraps around the lower portion of the body and the diminutive head resting on the elongated body are directly comparable. Specific facial features including a very high forehead, deeply sloping nose and prominent cheekbones as well as the working of the hair are repeated in each of these three figures.

Formerly attributed to the prominent Sienese mannerist painter and sculptor Domenico Beccafumi(1486-1551), the pair of Saints have been given by Bagnoli (Alessi, op.cit., pp. 566-575) to Andrea Galletti, a previously little-known sculptor who collaborated with his father, also a sculptor, and was known to have been an expert bronze-founder of weapons. Bagnoli discusses Galletti's activities in Siena including the commission for a bronze Crucifixion for the altar of the Compagnia di San Giovanni Battista della Morte (1537-39), possiby the only large bronze sculpture executed in Siena before Beccafumi's eight angels were cast for the Duomo (1547-51).

Many of the facial qualities of the present St. Paul in fact recall the work of Beccafumi including some of his early paintings such as the Trinity in the Pinacoteca, Siena (Alessi, op.cit., cat.no. 3). Some have noted that the ample drapery and the planes created by the deep and long folds of cloth in the present terracotta appear to be a three-dimensional translation of Beccafumi's painted figures, such as the figures of Saints Peter and Paul attending the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (circa 1528) in the Monte dei Paschi collection, Siena (Alessi, op.cit., cat. no. 23).



RELATED LITERATURE

C. Alessi et. al., Domenico Beccafumi e il suo tempo (exh. cat.), Milan, 1990, p. 566-575
L. Martini (cur.), Museo diocesano di Pienza, Siena, 1998
M. Lorenzoni (cur.), Le sculture del Duomo di Siena, Milan, 2009