Name of Object:

The Beheading of St. Paul

Location:

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Holding Museum:

Church of San Paolo Maggiore

Original Owner:

Spada family

Date of Object:

1633–1647

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Alessandro Algardi (1598, Bologna-1654, Rome)

Material(s) / Technique(s):

White Carrara marble

Dimensions:

St. Paul h. 190 cm; Executioner h. 282 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Baroque

Type of object:

Sculpture

Period of activity:

First half of the seventeenth century

Place of production:

Rome

Description:

The Beheading of St. Paul was commissioned by Virgilio Spada to a Bolognese sculptor, living in Rome, Alessandro Algardi. The statues were made in Rome and shipped to Bologna. They were intended to decorate the high altar of the Barnabite Church San Paolo Maggiore – St. Paul’s, patronised by the Spada family and to commemorate Virgilio’s father, Paul. Upon his death, in 1631, 6000 scudi was bequeathed for the construction of a chapel. In 1634 the Spada moved their residence from Rome to Bologna and Virgilio obtained permission from the pope for building the family chapel in Bologna, instead of Rome. After a few months the Spada made an agreement with the Barnabite fathers in Bologna. They were allowed to build the façade of the church and the high altar with its marble group and shrine. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the projects for the shrine and the group was commissioned in 1634 to Alessandro Algardi. The altar was officially inaugurated in 1647. In 1648 Virgilio Spada commissioned a bronze bas-relief to Algardi for the frontal of the same altar, depicting the beheading of St. Paul.
This beautiful group shows the executioner prepared to cut St. Paul’s head with his sword. The saint looks down and offers his head to the blow. There is a strong contrast between the movement of the executioner’s body and the static attitude of the saint. The bas-relief shows what followed after the execution according to tradition: the saint’s head bounces three times on the ground and creates three springs.

The group depicts the moment of the beheading of St Paul. Typically, baroque is the juxtaposition between the Saint, already part a heavenly atmosphere, and the executioner with his cruel grimace. The artist succeeds in conveying the tension preceding the blow and the contrast between the saint’s serenity and the executioner’s tense mobility. The beautiful shrine framing the group creates a link with the architecture of the interior of the church.

How date and origin were established:

Bibliography.

How Object was obtained:

Originally made for the church.

Selected bibliography:

La Basilica di San Paolo, Bologna, 1979, p. 16, p. 18, p. 56.
Heimburger Ravalli, M. Alessandro Algardi scultore, Rome, 1973, n. 16.
Heimburger Ravalli, M. Architettura, scultura e arti minori nel barocco italiano: ricerche nell'archivio Spada, Florence, 1977.
Montagu, J. Alessandro Algardi, New Haven and London, 1985, I, pp. 51-58; II, pp. 369-372.
Algardi. L'altra faccia del Barocco (exhibition catalogue) (ed. J. Montagu), Rome, 1999, pp. 138-143.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright image: Archivio fotografico della Soprintendenza per il Patrimonio storico artistico di Bologna, su concessione del Ministero per i Beni culturali.

Citation of this web page:

"The Beheading of St. Paul" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus12_D;9;en

Copyedited by: Antonella MampieriAntonella Mampieri

SURNAME: Mampieri
NAME: Antonella

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Art Hitorian

CV:
Graduated and specialised at the University of Bologna. She is a specialist in Bolognese late Baroque art, namely sculpture. Among other subjects she has been studying nineteenth-century funerary art in the Bologna monumental cemetery, la Certosa.
Translation copyedited by: Lisa Kelman

MWNF Working Number: IT2 10