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Artist or Maker: ATTRIBUTED TO ALESSANDRO ALGARDI 1598 - 1654
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Date: the head first half 17th century
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Dimensions: height 20 1/2 in.; 52 cm
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Provenance: Heim Gallery, London
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Exhibited: Washington, New York, Cambridge 1979-1982, no. 17, (illus.); New York, 1981, no. 10; Chicago 1987-1988, no. 5 (illus.)
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Literature: Montagu 1985, p. 343, cat. no. 33 (illus.)
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Notes:
Montagu attributes the present head of Christ to Alessandro Algardi based on "the flow of the hair, partly modelled freely in waving masses, partly incised with the modeling tool; and the sweet expression in a face constructed in large and simple planes." (Montagu, 1985, p. 343)
The distinction between the head and shoulders and the torso is visible, with a seam running shoulder to shoulder. Montagu notes a similarity in the clay used in the two sections, however the discrepancy in quality and the join between the two parts suggest that it is a later association. The proper left shoulder in the seemingly autograph top section shows that the left arm was not upraised in the original composition and therefore the subject was not a crucifixion. The pose suggests that Christ was once either coupled with a figure of Mary Magdelene in a Noli Me Tangere group, or displaying His wound to the doubting Apostle Thomas.
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