Camillo Rusconi.
Camillo Rusconi (14 July 1658 – 1728) was an Italian sculptor of the
late Baroque in Rome. His style displays both features of Baroque and
Neoclassicism. He has been described as a Carlo Maratta in marble.
Initially trained in his hometown of
Milan with Giuseppe Rusnati. By 1685-1686, he had moved to Rome and into
the studio of Ercole Ferrata, who died within a year or two of his
arrival. Rusconi's talent attracted commissions, for example, for
plaster allegorical statues depicting four virtues (prudence, justice,
temperance, and strength) for the Ludovisi chapel in the church of
Sant'Ignazio. He then worked alongside Le Gros in sculpting angels for
the tympanum of the altar of Saint Ignatius at the Church of the Gesù.
Camillo’s masterpieces are the four
larger-than-life apostles (Matthew, James the Great, Andrew, and John)
completed during 1708-1718 for the niches in San Giovanni in Laterano.
This sculptural program was the major such project in the Rome of his
day. The other main sculptors for the project, Le Gros and
Pierre-Etienne Monnot, each only garnered two apostles. Pope Clement XI
had established a committee to select the artists, and included Carlo
Fontana and Rusconi's friend, Carlo Maratta, in the panel. The classical
restraint of the figures was to set a trend toward neoclassicism.
Other works include some of the
architectural decoration for San Silvestro in Capite, San Salvatore in
Lauro, and for the Chiesa Nuova (Santa Maria in Vallicella). He also
completed the tomb of Pope Gregory XIII (1715 - 1723) for the St.
Peter's; the tomb of Bartolomeo Corsino in San Giovanni in Laterano, and
of the principe Alessandro Sobieski in the church of Santa Maria della
Concezione. He also complete the portrait of Giulia Albani degli
Olivieri, the powerful aunt of Clement XI, (presently in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Among his pupils were Pietro Bracci,
Giovanni Battista Maini, and Filippo della Valle. In 1727, he was named
principe of the Accademia di San Luca.
