Our pair of bronzes can be directly linked to the marble busts of Saint Peter and Saint Paul commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo Franzoni from Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) around 1646-1649 to decorate the chapel intended to house his heart in the church of Santi Vittore e Carlo in Genoa. Studied by the great specialist Jennifer Montagu, they have been re-evaluated in Algardi’s corpus and are now considered to be one of the most influential commissions received by the artist. Our pair was cast in a single pour in fairly fine bronze, characterised by a brown lacquer patina on a particularly well-finished coppery metal background with some filling at the bases. The chiselling, the repair on Saint Peter’s collar and the removal of the beards on both saints are indications of a very high-quality casting - more beautiful than any other known - which may have been made by Domenico Guidi (1625-1701), the presumed creator of the pair of gilded bronzes now in the Brinsley Ford Collection. The great skill and quality of the casting of our bronzes justify the hypothesis of their attribution to Domenico Guidi, as proposed by Jennifer Montagu for the Brinsley Ford collection.

H. 23 ; W. 22 cm. (without base) - H.30 ; W. 22 cm. (with base)
H. 23 ; W. 22, 5 cm. (without base) - H. 29,5 ; W. 22, 5 cm. (with base)
Inscription painted in red on the back of each bust: 1661

Full study and price upon request.