MADERNO, STEFANO

By 1600 he was already in Rome and had completed his masterpiece in the statue of St Cecilia, depicted lying with her head severed, as an adornment for the altar in the church dedicated to her in the Trastevere district. Earlier records mention his sculptures made for the Sienese goldsmith Alessandro de’ Turchis. Subsequently he executed a low-relief angel for the transept of the basilica of St John Lateran, several sculptures for the Pauline Chapel in St Mary Major, where for the altar he modelled the relief of Pope Liberius marking the plan of the Basilica on the snow, and for the Pope’s tomb, that of the Expedition to Hungary. He also carved the statue of St Charles Borromeo in St Lawrence in Damaso, the images of Peace and Justice on the high altar of the church of St Mary of Peace, the St Peter lying on the pediment of the Quirinal gate, and other marbles besides. Also of great interest are some of his terracotta sketches in the Ca’ d’Oro in Venice depicting mythological fables. A wide-ranging and uneven master, Maderno produced his most beautiful and emotionally intense work in the delicate image of St Cecilia: a marble of extraordinary significance for the time and setting in which it was created (Rome, 1600), for in it the classical composure of the art of the century that was then drawing to a close seems truly united, and the somewhat affected suavity of the succeeding age is already foreshadowed.