Francesco Mochi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francesco Mochi was a prominent early-Baroque, Italian sculptor active mostly in Rome and Orvieto. He was born in 1580 in Montevarchi and died in 1654 in Rome. His early training was with the Mannerist Florentine painter Santi di Tito, and then with Camillo Mariani in Rome. He was a contemporary of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's father, Pietro, as well as later with the son.

His first major work was the Annunciation of the Virgin by the Angel, composed of two statues (1603-1608, Duomo di Orvieto)(image of angel). It prefigures the baroque with its restrained emotiveness. He also made two equestrian statues of Ranuccio and Alessandro Farnese in Piazza Cavalli, Piacenza (1620-25). He carved the Christ Receiving Baptism (image) (1635 or later, Ponte Mello, Rome); Taddeus (1641-44, Orvieto), and Saints Peter and Paul at (1638-52, Porta del Popolo), and Saint Martha for the Barberini family chapel at Sant'Andrea della Valle (1609-1621).

[edit] Saint Veronica in the Crossing of St Peter's Basilica

One of the four massive sculptures in the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica, the statue of the frantic Saint Veronica displaying the by then lost Veil of Veronica (1629-40) is a masterpiece by Mochi. The other three are François Duquesnoy's (Saint Andrew), Bernini's (Saint Longinus), and Andrea Bolgi's (St Helena).

Of the four, Mochi's is the least appropriate to its site and topic. Bernini's Longinus is an intermediary between the sober but contorting classicism of Bolgi and Duquesnoy and the emotive dynamism of Mochi. Mochi's passionate depiction appears oversteps the decorum of the place. The other statues exude the equanimity of passionate triumphal Catholicism, celebrated here in the center of the mother church. The frantic pitch of the Veronica seems to attempt to storm into the circle of dramatic setpieces, with a shrill fervor that detracts from the serenity of the place.