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Saint Andrew the Apostle Giovanni Giuliani (circle of) Johann Baptist Hagenauer (previous attribution)

Artist

Giovanni Giuliani (circle of) Venice, 1664 – Heiligenkreuz, 1744

Johann Baptist Hagenauer (previous attribution) Salzburg 1732 – 1810 Vienna

Culture Austrian
Date ca. 1780
Object type sculpture
Medium, technique terracotta
Dimensions

37 × 15 × 15 cm, 2 kg

Inventory number 84.5
Collection Sculptures
On view Museum of Fine Arts, Second Floor, European Sculpture 1350-1800, Gallery 2

From the medieval period onwards, Saint Andrew was often depicted with his attribute, the saltire (also known as the crux decussata and later Saint Andrew’s Cross). According to the legends of his martyrdom, he was crucified on such a cross. The shape of the cross had a symbolic meaning: it referred to Jesus, whose name in Greek began with this letter. The terracotta figure may well have been the preliminary model for a large-scale sculpture; this would explain its rough surface and less detailed modelling. The work bears stylistic marks linked with Austrian baroque sculpture and Venetian art, which suggests that it may have been made by someone in the circle of the Venetian-born Austrian sculptor Giovanni Giuliani.

References

Balogh, Jolán – Szmodisné Eszláry, Éva, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der bildenden Künste in Budapest, 4.-18. Jahrhundert, Bd. 3. Neuerwerbungen, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1994, p. 79., no. 83.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

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