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Jane and Evonne examined the Orsini Bust as well as a small Crucifix from the St. Peter’s series, both the second bronzes of the same design that we have studied. Lisa and Branden (who is spending the summer nearby on a fellowship) picked up the XRF in August and swept up some unfinished business. Both works helped to develop our thinking about multiples. The Orsini Bust is an interesting variant on the Met's version: same head, though with a very different patina that emphasizes some finely incised lines that define the locks of his enthusiastic hair, and a different version of the armor. Instead of the Met's silvered chain mail, here we see finely detailed scale armor.

The Crucifix aligned interestingly with the small Cristo Vivo we had just examined the week before in the Bode Museum, more so than with the Walters Crucifix which was cast rather differently. While the SLAM work did not have the intriguing inscription that we saw at the Bode, the gilding, the cold work, and the holes in the back of the work aligned rather closely. Were these works cast as a pair? Or produced in the same foundry and at the same time as the St. Peter’s works? 

July 19-21, 2023

After Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian, 1598–1680; Bust of Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, 1670s(?); bronze; 6 1/2 x 6 x 2 3/4 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Mark Steinberg Weil and Phoebe Dent Weil  260:2021

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian, 1598–1680; modeled in wax by Ercole Ferrata, Italian, 1610–1686; Christo Morto, 1657–61; bronze with gilding; 17 5/8 x 13 1/8 x 3 9/16 inches; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of Mark Steinberg Weil and Phoebe Dent Weil  245:2021

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