St. Cecilia (Stefano Maderno)

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St. Cecilia
ArtistStefano Maderno
Year1600
Mediummarble
Dimensions131 cm (52 in)
LocationSanta Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome

St. Cecilia is a Baroque sculpture by Stefano Maderno and commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondrato in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome. Stefano Maderno was a famous Italian sculptor from the early 1600s best known for his statues of saints. St. Cecilia was the Roman saint of music who was executed for baptizing her fellow Romans and as such became a martyr for Christianity.[1][2] The statue was part of a renovation done to the St. Cecilia Basilica in Trastevere, Rome, which displays the saint lying on her side with her dress tucked between her knees in a Baroque art style as part of an exhibit which also displays a new tomb of St. Cecilia's actual body.[3] The body was moved during Pope Paschal I's campaign to move Christian saints' bodies inside the walls of Rome. The sculpture exists as a Christian symbol of overcoming hatred and prosecution.

History[edit]

Patron[edit]

In 1599, Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondrato began renovating the Santa Cecilia Basilica in Trastevere, Rome.[4] During construction, the body of St. Cecilia was found unchanged underneath the basilica.[2] In 1600, he hired Stefano Maderno to create the sculpture of her for the altar.[1]

Artist[edit]

Maderno was an Italian sculptor born in Palestrina, Italy, in 1576. Maderno started his career in Rome like many artists of his time, by restoring antique statues. He is known as one of the outstanding sculptors in 17th-century Rome before Bernini and during the time of Pope Paul V.[1] He is best known for the statue of St. Cecilia in Trastevere which was commissioned by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondrato.[1] It is said that the inspiration for his statue was the body of St. Cecilia herself, as her body had seemed to be unaffected by the passage of time and so he supposedly modelled it the way she was found.[1]

His St. Cecilia statue was so well received that it opened doors to more saint statue commissions. In 1601, Maderno made a statue of Prudence for Cardinal Alessandrino. In another commission to the Accademia di San Luca, Maderno sculpted bigger than life-size statues of Francesco Caporale and of St. Epaphras.[5] This commission only led to many more sculptures of saints. Along with the St. Cecilia sculpture, the ones he made of Peace and Justice for S. Maria della Pace are equally well known. After getting so many commissions Maderno's pieces were seen by many people, which led him to land a position in the customs office at the Port of Ripetta in Rome. However, scholars do not know if Maderno stopped being a sculptor or not after accepting the position.[5] One thing to note about Maderno as an artist is that his work as a sculptor contributed to a change in the history of Italian sculpture. His interest in classical antiquity and naturalism still lives to this day in his sculptures.[5]

Description[edit]

The statue of St. Cecilia can be found lying on her right side, in a simple dress tucked between her knees. The contours of her body are visible through the implication of light fabric.[6] The folds on her dress creating spots of light and shadow are characteristic of Baroque style. Her hands are located in front of her legs, as if her arms were bound in front.[7] Her right index finger extends off the marble breaking the barrier between the statue and the pilgrims. St. Cecilia has her face turned away from the viewers and straight down to the earth.[8] Her face being turned away helps display the cuts shown on the back of her neck that were made by the executioner. Even after the executioner hit her neck three times, St. Cecilia stayed alive for three days before bleeding out.[6]

Historical context[edit]

St. Cecilia is typically considered to have lived during the 3rd century, at a time when early Christians were buried in the catacombs of St. Callixtus I outside the city. In the 9th century, Pope Paschal I started a campaign to establish bodies of Christian saints inside the walls of Rome.[9] One of those saints was Cecilia; her body was retrieved and found rolled in gold-colored fabric, which was then placed underneath the Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, which was constructed over her home. She was buried underneath the altar in 821 until she was discovered again in 1599 during renovations. Once the renovations were done, she was once again placed underneath the altar with her new tomb top made by Maderno.[5]

St. Cecilia's body was discovered one year prior to the Jubilee, held roughly every quarter century.[5] Since pilgrims on the Jubilee visited many churches in Rome, the commissioning of the St. Cecilia statue and the renovation would make it easier for the pilgrims to visit and look at the saint's relics. Pilgrims would follow the side aisle leading downstairs to the annular crypt to see St. Cecilia's sarcophagus, which then leads back up the stairs to where the statue is located.[5]

Located in front of the statue is an inscription which was written by Cardinal Sfondrato which says "Gaze upon the likeness of the most holy virgin Cecilia, which I saw myself lying in an entire state in the sepulcher. I had this same likeness, precisely in the same position her body lay, expressed for you in marble."[5]

Interpretation[edit]

The statue attempts authoritatively to depict the state of St. Cecilia's incorruptible body, yet its use of the delicate Baroque style emphasizes the tragedy of her martyrdom. Funerary statues created for saints and popes in the Renaissance and later Baroque periods were designed to represent their figures in repose, as if sleeping. Some sources dispute that St. Cecilia's unconventional posing by Moderno was to reflect the incomplete state in which her body was recovered.[10]

It was believed for many years that the statue was a complete recreation of how the body was found in 1599. This is disputed, however, as art historian Steven Ostrow writes that the composition of the sculpture is entirely Maderno's invention.[1] The statue directs prayer and contemplation through the ability for the viewer to interface with it directly. Its naturalism, life-size and accessibility centralize the space of the Basilica. The Baroque interplay between light and shadow within the sculpture help to emphasize its three-dimensionality, which means the sculpture can be engaged with from a variety of angles, which helps to further ground the piece's presence.[11]

References[edit]

  • Maderno, Stefano.” The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. Oxford University Press, 2015.
  • Neuman, Robert. Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013.
  • Harris, Ann Sutherland. Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2008.
  • Ostrow, Steven F. "Maderno, Stefano." Grove Art Online. 2003; Accessed 26 Apr. 2023. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000052984.
  • Whitford, Kelly Anne"Jubilee Year". Religion Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-05-11.

Sources[edit]

  • Neuman, Robert. Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2013.
  • Harris, Ann Sutherland. Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2008.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ostrow, Steven F. (2003). Maderno, Stefano. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
  2. ^ a b "Saint Cecilia", Wikipedia, 2023-04-19, retrieved 2023-05-11
  3. ^ Della Libera, Luca (2022-04-08), "Music for the Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere", The Roman Sacred Music of Alessandro Scarlatti, London: Routledge, pp. 144–175, retrieved 2023-05-13
  4. ^ "Santa Cecilia in Trastevere", Wikipedia, 2022-11-22, retrieved 2023-05-11
  5. ^ a b c d e f g WHITFORD, KELLY ANNE. "Jubilee Year". Religion Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  6. ^ a b "Jubilee Year". Religion Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  7. ^ Harris, Ann (2011-01-12). "Ann Sutherland Harris. Review of "Painting as Business in Early Seventeenth-Century Rome" by Patrizia Cavazzini and "Painting for Profit: The Economic Lives of Seventeenth-Century Italian Painters" by Richard Spear and Philip Sohm". caa.reviews. doi:10.3202/caa.reviews.2011.12. ISSN 1543-950X.
  8. ^ "This is my Body: Stefano Maderno and the Miraculous Corpse of Saint Cecilia". Through Eternity Tours. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  9. ^ WHITFORD, KELLY ANNE. "Jubilee Year". Religion Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  10. ^ "Saint Cecilia in V&A collections • V&A Blog". V&A Blog. 2016-07-11. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  11. ^ "Jubilee Year". Religion Past and Present. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
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