Algardi, Alessandro

(1595-1654)

   Bolognese sculptor who trained with Giulio Cesare Conventi. In c. 1625, Algardi went to Rome and there he worked with Domenichino. He also restored antiques and produced small-scale sculptures for collectors. When Innocent X was elected to the papacy in 1644 and Gian Lorenzo Bernini temporarily fell in disfavor, Algardi's career began to flourish. Though the two men were rivals, Algardi's St. Mary Magdalen (c. 1628; Rome, San Silvestro al Quirinale) was influenced by Bernini's statue of St. Bibiana in the church of the same appellation. One of Algardi's most notable works is the Tomb of Pope Leo XI (1634-1644; Rome, St. Peter's), commissioned by Leo's grand-nephew, Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini, which borrows from Bernini's Tomb of Pope Urban VIII, at St. Peter's (1628-1647). In both, an enthroned effigy is centered between two Virtues. Yet, while Bernini used colored marble with varying vein patterns, Algardi preferred a pure white marble. Also, Algardi rejected the transient elements of Bernini's work in favor of a sense of permanence. A relief in the front of the sarcophagus shows the conversion of Henry IV of France to Catholicism, a triumphant event Leo negotiated for the Church while cardinal legate in France. The large relief at St. Peter's titled the Meeting of Attila and Pope Leo the Great (1646-1653) is another of Algardi's great achievements. The idealized, classicized vocabulary he normally used reached its greatest height in this relief.