Lot 451: PIETRO FRANCESCO PAPALEO

SAINT LUKE

height 19 3/8 in.; 49.2 cm

terracotta

<P>circa 1700</P>

Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, no. 53; New York 1981, no. 16 (illus.); Chicago 1987-1988, no. 8

Scibberas 2004, pp. 11-12 (illus.); Scibberas 2006, pp. 118-120, fig. 158 (illus.)

Heim Gallery, London

The present sculpture was first identified by Dr. Jennifer Montagu (Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, op.cit., p.132) as a sketch-model for a monumental wood figure of Saint Luke now in the National Museum, Valletta, Malta. Here, as in the monumental finished work, Saint Luke is shown as the artist he was thought to have been, and holds a painting or sketch of the Virgin and Child.

In 1695 a wood statue of Saint Luke was commissioned to Pietro Papaleo and replaced the giltwood figure in the chapel of Saint Luke in Saint Paul's grotto in Rabat. The name of the sculptor Papaleo is first recorded in a manuscript by the Capuchin Friar Padre Pelagio of Zebbug in which he notes that the wood sculpture of Saint Luke was probably originally intended as a model for a marble statue.

The Church of Saint Paul enjoyed many years of great patronage and continued embellishment. Artists such as Mattia Preti, Melchiorre Cafà and Alessandro Algardi were commissioned to work on the church and Papaleo must have known them from his years in Rome where he was documented as a member of the Accademia di S. Luca until 1716. He was a stuccoist, sculptor and medallist who worked with, among others, Camillo Rusconi on a group of angels for Il Gesù in Rome and on a figure of Faith for SS. Apostoli also in Rome, which forms a pair with a marble figure by Pierre-Etienne Monnot.

Papaleo was born in Palermo but trained in Rome, as is evident here in the bold torsion of the figure and the movement of the voluminous drapery.