Paper short abstract:

This paper takes a closer look at the conserved preparing models for the marble sculptures in the real Basilica of Mafra, analyses the artists fingerprints, compares them and finds out what they can still tell us about the artists and the John V vision for one of the world’s biggest sculpture projects.

Paper long abstract:

The complex of the royal palace in Mafra, built by the Portuguese king Dom João V, and its basilica with the gigantic series of marble statues by the most famous Italian sculptors of his time is well known to art historians. As a real museum of seventeenth century Italian sculpture, the marbles were often analysed and mentioned in several studies on this subject.

Now it's time to take a closer look on the Terracotta-Bozzetti existing in the museum of the Palácio Nacional de Mafra to find new answers to old question. Nothing is closer to the hand of an artist than his preparing drawings and models, which were always the masters business. Of a total number of 58 statues, 27 Bozzetti are conserved - 17 of the shown saints are signed and often dated in the marble version, 10 are not.

While the marble is carved perfectly, the clay gives us a deeper understanding of the working praxis and shows us the fingerprints of the sculptor himself. The Bozzetti are telling more than just helping us with the attribution. The Bozzetti were produced and send to Mafra for being proved and given the kings blessing. Changings within the form or the iconography were ordered by Dom João V himself.

In this talk I would take a closer look at the conserved preparing models, analyse the artists fingerprints which they left in the clay, compare them and find out what they can still tell us about the artists and the kings vision for one of the world's biggest sculpture projects.