On Bernini’s Christ Crucified in The Escorial: the Cartapesta Crucifixion of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino

Abstract

This article attempts to complete the history of the Christ Crucified by Bernini carried out for the Pantheon of the Kings at The Escorial. The discovery of documentation concerning a second Crucifix simile (mentioned by Baldinucci, but about which historians had merely speculated), helps to resolve one of the remaining mysteries relating to the Madrid bronze. The singularity of this second example –in fact, a polychrome model made of cartapesta– allows us to penetrate into the sculptural process as well as to revalue works executed in this degraded material.