Location

217 Italian Baroque

Description

When Innocent X (ruled 1644-55) became pope, Alessandro Algardi endeavored to obtain his patronage. This bronze Baptism of Christ is a casting from the molds used for an original silver sculpture that Algardi presented to the new pope to gain his support. The composition depicts an important scene in the life of Christ. On the right is John the Baptist, who pours water onto Jesus's head from a shell. As Christ bows his head to be baptized, a little angel holds the edge of his cloak. Algardi worked carefully to make this piece exciting from a number of points of view. Its dramatic emphasis shifts, depending on the viewer's vantage point.

Provenance

P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., London, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1965.

C. H. A. Butler, his grandson (Shortgrove, Newport, Essex, England) (sold, Christie's, London, June 2, 1964, lot no. 66, to P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., Ltd.)

Charles Butler (Warren Wood, England); by inheritance to his heirs;

Franzoni (Fransone, Franzone) Family (Genoa, Italy);

Citations

Corazzini, Giuseppe Odoardo. Memorie Storiche della Famiglia Fransoni. Firenze: Giuliani, 1873. Mentioned: P. 73 archive.org

Burton, Richard. "Fifty Years of Cleveland: Some Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." The Connoisseur CLXIII (October 1966): 128-135. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 132-133, fig. 12

Lee, Sherman E. "Goldlen Anniversary Acquisitions." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art LIII, no. 9 (September, 1966):181-285. Reproduced: p. 218; Mentioned: p. 277, no. 16

Cleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” June 22, 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org

Stechow, Wolfgang. "Cleveland's Golden Anniversary Acquisitions." ARTNews (September 1966): 30-44, 62-64. Mentioned: P. 43; reproduced: P. 44

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." The Art Quarterly XXX, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 63-89. Reproduced: P. 68; mentioned: P. 68

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 115 archive.org

Raggio, Olga. "Alessandro Algardi e gli Stucchi di Villa Pamphili." Paragone: Mensile di Arte Figurativa e Letteratura XXII, no. 251 (January 1971): 3-38. Mentioned: P. 17; P. 35, n. 87, 88

Montagu, Jennifer. "Le Bapteme du Christ d'Alessandro Algardi." Revue de l'Art 15 (1972): 64-78. Reproduced: P. 65, fig. 1; P. 67, fig. 6; P. 70, fig. 10; P. 71, fig. 16

Theuerkauff, Christian. Zu Francis van Bossuit (1635-1692), "beeldsnyder in yvoor". Köln: M. Dumont Schauberg, 1975. Reproduced: P. 129, abb. 17

Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz. Kunst des Barock in der Toskana: Studien zur Kunst unter den letzten Medici. München: Bruckmann, 1976. Mentioned: P. 132-133; P. 135, n. 34

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 139 archive.org

Olsen, Harald. Ældre udenlandsk skulptur. København, Denmark: Statens Museum for Kunst, 1980. Mentioned: p. 14, vol. I; Reproduced: pl. 88, vol. II

The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art: N.H. Abrams, 1982. Reproduced: p. 88, no. 30

Montagu, Jennifer. "Alessandro Algardi's Saint Peter and Saint Paul and the Patronage of the Franzoni Family." Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts LXI, no. 1-2 (Summer 1983): 18-29. Mentioned: P. 20

Montagu, Jennifer. Alessandro Algardi. New Haven, CT: Published in association with the J. Paul Getty Trust by Yale University Press, 1985. Reproduced: p. 311-312, pl. 67; Details: p. 80, figs. 74-76, vol. I

Lavoie, Francine. Dessins italiens du XVIIe siècle du Musée des Offices de Florence = Italian XVIIth-century drawings from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Montréal, Ontario: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, 1986. Reproduced: p. 82

Ditner, David Charles. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century European Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Thesis Ph.D., Cleveland, OH: Case Western Reserve University,1986. Reproduced: p. 47

La Scultura a Genova e in Liguria. Genova, Italy: Fratelli Pagano, 1987. Reproduced: vol. II, p. 96, fig. 85

Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: no. 21

Bergman, Robert P., Diane DeGrazia, and Stephen N. Fliegel. Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections : an Exhibition in Honor of the Sesquicentenary of the Diocese of Cleveland. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Reproduced: p. 111, no. 36

Montagu, Jennifer. Algardi: l'altra faccia del barocco : Roma, Palazzo delle esposizioni, 21 gennaio-30 aprile 1999. Roma, Italy: Edizioni De Luca, 1999. Reproduced: p. 165, no. 32

Ferrari, Oreste, and Serenita Papaldo. Le sculture del Seicento a Roma. Roma, Italy: Ugo Bozzi, 1999. Reproduced: p. 588

May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Reproduced: p. 39; Mentioned: p. 117

Exhibition history

Exhibition of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Sculpture. London, United Kingdom, P. & D. Colnaghi Co., Ltd. (1965).

Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).

Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 8-April 12, 1998).

Alessandro Algardi: Lo scultore e i suoi committenti nella Roma del Seicento (Alessandro Algardi: The Sculpture and His Clients in Seventeenth-century Rome). Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (January 20-April 30, 1999).