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Sanctified Presence: Sculpture and Sainthood in
Early Modern Italy
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Currie, Morgan. 2015. Sanctified Presence: Sculpture and Sainthood in Early Modern Italy.
Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
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Transfigured Reality: Sculpture and Sainthood in Early Modern Italy

A dissertation presented
by
Morgan Currie
to
The Department of History of Art and Architecture

in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the subject of
History of Art and Architecture

Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
September, 2014
© 2014 Morgan Currie
All rights reserved
iii
Dissertation Advisor: Professor Alice Jarrard Morgan Currie

Transfigured Reality: Sculpture and Sainthood in Early Modern Italy

Abstract

This dissertation examines the memorialization of dramatic action in seventeenth-century
sculpture, and its implications for the representation of sanctity. Illusions of transformation and
animation enhanced the human tendency to respond to three-dimensional images in interpersonal
terms, vivifying the commemorative connotations that predominate in contemporary writing on
the medium. The first chapter introduces the concept of seeming actuality, a juxtaposition of the
affective appeal of real presence and the ideality of the classical statua that appeared in the work
of Stefano Maderno, and was enlivened by Gianlorenzo Bernini into paradoxes of permanent
instantaneity. This new mystical sculpture was mimetic, not because it depicted events narrated
elsewhere, but imitated mutable, time-bound, spiritual activity with arresting immediacy in the
here and now. No other form of image could so fully evoke the mingling of human immanence
and divine transcendence that was the fundamental basis of sanctity. Chapters Two through Four
closely analyze the sculptural construction hagiographic identities for Ludovica Albertoni,
Alessandro Sauli, and John of the Cross, and their interplay with political, social, and religious
factors. The discovery of connections between marble and wooden statuary further broadens our
understanding of the expressive range of the medium. The homology between saintly and
sculptural exemplarity reveals a far more dynamic, interactive, and rhetorical conception of the
medium than is portrayed in early modern theoretical writings.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS viii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER ONE: SEEMING ACTUALITY AND SACRED PRESENCE 10

I. SCULPTURE IN THEORY IN EARLY MODERN ROME 12
II. AFFECTIVE PRESENCE IN RELIGIOUS SCULPTURE 38
III: TRANSFORMATIONS 62
IV. BAROQUE MYSTICAL SCULPTURE 92
CONCLUSION 108

CHAPTER TWO: LUDOVICA ALBERTONI: INTERCESSORY PRESENCE IN
ARISTOCRATIC ROME 111

I. LUDOVICA, BERNINI AND THE FIRST ALTIERI CHAPEL 112
II. BERNINI’S CHAPEL 131
III. CIPRIANI, OTTONI AND THE SECOND ALTIERI CHAPEL 162
IV. THE ISSUE OF EFFICACY: WHAT BECAME OF LUDOVICA? 199
CONCLUSION 204

CHAPTER THREE: ALESSANDRO SAULI: THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAINTLY
PRESENCE IN BAROQUE GENOA 206

I. ALESSANDRO SAULI, HIS FAMILY, AND THEIR CHURCH 208
II. THE ST. ALESSANDRO SAULI AS AN IMAGE OF SANCTITY 224
III. PUGET AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF GENOESE SCULPTURE 252
IV. EFFICACY REVISITED: THE AFTERLIFE OF THE ST. ALESSANDRO SAULI 273
CONCLUSION 277

CHAPTER FOUR: ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS: THE ENACTMENT OF CARMELITE
DEVOTION 280

I. THE GENESIS OF THE IMAGE 285
II. THE DISCALCED CARMELITES AND ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS 301
III. THE DISCALCED CARMELITES AND THE ARTS 316
IV. AN IMAGE OF CONTEMPLATION 331
V. A DISCALCED CARMELITE CHAPEL 352
v
CONCLUSION 361

CONCLUSION 365

BIBLIOGRAPHY 370

ILLUSTRATIONS 420
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a profound debt of gratitude to my advisor, Alice Jarrard, for her insight, guidance,
patience, and unwavering support in bringing this dissertation to its finished form. Her careful
reading and thoughtful questioning, with its combination of intellectual freedom and rigor, has
simply made me a better scholar. I would also like to thank my readers, Joseph Connors and
David Roxburgh for valuable comments and timely assistance. I am grateful for the many
conversations I have had with members and affiliates of the History of Art and Architecture
Department at Harvard while planning my project. In particular, I would like to thank Stephan
Wolohojian, Valentin Groebner, and Henri Zerner, who posed the question that launched the
path seeming actuality. Deanna Dalrymple deserves special recognition for her patience and
support in smoothing troubled waters.
I would like to thank Harvard University for the generous financial support throughout
my graduate studies. I am also grateful to Sandra Naddaff, Barbara Johnson, and the Harvard
Literature concentration for providing me with a stimulating dialogue and a fantastic teaching
experience. My research took place in various institutions and repositories, but the Archivio
dell'Ordine dei padri Carmelitani Scalzi in Rome stands out for their friendly reception and
unfettered access to their holdings.
I am grateful to my family for their emotional and material support during the writing
process. I would like to thank my father, Peter, for all his assistance, especially during the final
stages of completion and submission. I would like to than Cassandra for inspiration; her life and
this project have been intertwined since the beginning. Finally, I would like to thank Liisa, for
showing me that one need not be a saint to be visited by an angel.
vii

This dissertation is dedicated to Hazel Currie, who never stopped believing.
viii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1. Pierre Puget, St. Alessandro Sauli, 1664-68, marble, S. Maria Assunta in Carignano, Genoa.

Fig. 2. Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Bd. Ludovica Albertoni, 1674, marble, S. Francesco a Ripa,
Rome.

Fig. 3. Lorenzo Ottoni, The Bd. Ludovica Albertoni and the Holy Family, marble, S. Maria in
Campitelli, Rome.

Fig. 4. Pietro Papaleo, St. John of the Cross in Ecstasy, c. 1714, marble, S. Maria della Scala,
Rome.

Fig. 5. Francesco Mochi, St. Veronica, 1629-32, marble, St. Peter's, Vatican City.

Fig. 6. Gianlorenzo Bernini, St. Longinus, 1629-38, marble, St. Peter's, Vatican City.

Fig. 7. François Duquesnoy, St. Andrew, 1629-33, marble, St. Peter's, Vatican City.

Fig. 8. François Duquesnoy, St. Susanna, 1629, marble, S. Maria di Loreto, Rome.

Fig. 9. François Duquesnoy, Tomb of Ferdinand van den Eynde, 1633-40, marble, S. Maria dell'
Anima, Rome.

Fig. 10. Stefano Maderno, St. Cecilia, 1600, marble, S. Cecilia in Transevere, Rome.

Fig. 11. Nicolas Cordier, St. Agnes, 1605, antique alabaster torso with bronze extremities, Sant’
Agnese fuori le Mura, Rome.

Fig. 12. Stefano Maderno, St. Bridget in Ecstasy, 1600, marble, S. Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome.

Fig. 13. Antonio Raggi, St. Benedict, 1657, marble, Cave Chapel, Monastery of St. Benedict,
Subiaco.

Fig. 14. Gianlorenzo Bernini, St. Bibiana, 1626, marble, S. Bibiana, Rome.

Fig. 15. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-24, marble, Villa Borghese, Rome.

Fig. 16. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Pluto and Persephone, 1621-22, marble, Villa Borghese, Rome.

Fig. 17. Giuliano Finelli, Bust of Giulio Antonio Sartorio, 1634, marble, San Giovanni in Laterano,
Rome.
Fig. 18. Alessandro Algardi, Bust of Cardinal Giovanni Garzia Mellini, 1637-38 Marble, S. Maria
del Popolo, Rome.
ix
Fig. 19. Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, 1647-52, marble, Cornaro Chapel, S.
Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Fig. 20. Alessandro Algardi, St. Philip Neri, 1636-38, marble, Santa Maria Vallicella, Rome.

Fig. 21. Gianlorenzo Bernini, St. Lawrence on the Grill, 1615-17, marble, Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.

Fig. 22. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Sleeping Hermaphrodite, 1620, antique marble figure on marble
mattress, Villa Borghese, Rome.

Fig. 23. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Andrea Bolgi and Stefano Speranza, 1635, Presepe, marble and
travertine, Church of the Nativity, Albano.

Fig. 24. Gianlorenzo Bernini, David, 1623-24, marble, Villa Borghese, Rome.

Fig. 25. Guido Reni, St. Cecilia, 1606, oil on canvas, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena,
CA.

Fig. 26. Domenichino, St. Cecilia, c. 1617-18, oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Fig. 27. Caravaggio, St. Matthew and the Angel, 1600, destroyed.

Fig. 28. Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602, oil on canvas, 292 x 186 cm,
Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome.

Fig. 29. Caravaggio, Basket of Fruit, c. 1596, oil on canvas, 45.9 x 64.5 cm, Pinacoteca
Ambrosiana, Milan.

Fig 30. Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1600, oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm, Cerasi
Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

Fig. 31. Caravaggio, The Conversion of Saint Paul ca. 1600-01, oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm,
Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.

Fig. 32. Annibale Carracci, The Assumption of the Virgin, 1600 oil on wood, 245x155 cm. Verasi
Chapel, S. Maria del Popolo, Rome.

Fig. 33. Gianlorenzo Bernini, interior of S. Bibiana, 1624-26. Rome.

Fig. 34. Pietro da Cortona, The Martyrdom of St. Bibiana, 1624-26, fresco, S. Bibiana, Rome.

Fig. 35. Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Baratta, St. Francis in Ecstasy, 1642-46, marble,
Raimondi Chapel, S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome.