Tabernacle Door with the Crucifixion 1635-1640

Francesco Mochi (b. 1580 Montevarchi, Italy, d. 1654 Rome)
Tabernacle Door
Italian, Montevarchi, 1635 - 1640
Gilt bronze 21 1/4 x 10 1/4 in
The Getty Centre, Los Angeles


Detail


Detail


Reverse

Francesco Mochi (b. 1580 Montevarchi, Italy, d. 1654 Rome) , whose early dramatic works are now considered the first truly Baroque sculptures of the 1600s, had a roller-coaster career. Despite great successes between 1610 and1630, he was eventually eclipsed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini's popularity.

After 1630, he rejected the prevailing taste of the Baroque even more adamantly, and his figures become more linear, ascetic, and spiritualized. More and more frequently, he lost commissions to Bernini and Alessandro Algardi, had them rescinded, or had his finished pieces rejected by patrons.

The tabernacle door below which is now located in The Getty Centre, Los Angeles, was completed 1635-40 for a church in Montevarchi.