{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O90433"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O90433/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GW2961/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2014GW2961/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2014GW2961","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW2962","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW2963","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW2964","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2014GW2965","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BR7958","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BE8126","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O90433/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O90433","accessionNumber":"A.93-1980","objectType":"Model","titles":[{"title":"The Blessed Ludovica Albertoni","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This terracotta is a sketch-model for a marble sculpture of the Franciscan nun Ludovica Albertoni (1473-1533) in the Altieri chapel in the church of San Francesco a Ripa in Rome. The decoration of the chapel was commissioned, proably in 1673, to Gian Lorenzo Bernini by Angelo Albertoni degli Altieri, younger brother of Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Albertoni. Despite losses of the face and of the pillow, the terracotta is one of the most significant of Bernini's late models. Unlike his other known <i>bozzetti</i> (sketch-models), the back has been modelled. This is an unnecessary detail in view of the position of the finished work in the chapel. The rounded working of the figure and the delicate rendering of the face suggest that it may have functioned both as a presentation piece for the patron and as a working model for the artist himself. Unlike many of his other compositions, which were carved by his assistants, Bernini executed the marble largely himself, and he undertook the work for no payment. \n\nThe treatment of the figure is reminiscent of one of Bernini's most famous and much earlier works, the Ecstacy of St Theresa in the Cornaro Chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. The vibrant movement in the folds of drapery and the placement of her hands, the right one pressed into her breast, focus the viewer on Ludovica's mystical union with God. This dramatic and sensual depiction of spiritual ecstacy encapsulates the baroque style.\n \r\nBorn in 1473, the noblewoman-turned-nun Ludovica Albertoni was renowned for her charitable works. She died of a fever in 1533 while tending the sick. Cardinal Albertoni was a descendent of her family. He had been adopted as cardinal-nephew in 1670 by Clement X Altieri, the pope's niece having married into the cardinal's family. The pope sanctioned the cult of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni in January 1671, which led to the refurbishment of the chapel where the holy ancestor was buried. ","physicalDescription":"It shows the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni expiring from a fever contracted while ministering to the sick.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Bernini, Gian Lorenzo","id":"A8146"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"terracotta","id":"AAT10669"}],"techniques":[{"text":"modelled","id":"x30779"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Terracotta","categories":[{"text":"Religion","id":"THES48900"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2014GW2961","2014GW2962","2014GW2963","2014GW2964","2014GW2965","2008BR7958","2006BE8126"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"7","id":"THES263054"},"free":"","case":"CA1","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Model","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Italy","id":"x28927"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1673-74","earliest":"1673-01-01","latest":"1674-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"19.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"46","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"20","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"190","unit":"mm","qualifier":"Measured by Conservation","date":{"text":"08.08-12","earliest":"2008-08-01","latest":"2012-12-31"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"462","unit":"mm","qualifier":"Measured by Conservation","date":{"text":"08.08.12","earliest":"2012-08-08","latest":"2012-08-08"},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"191","unit":"mm","qualifier":"Measured by Conservation","date":{"text":"08.08.12","earliest":"2012-08-08","latest":"2012-08-08"},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Undated dimensions from: Boucher, Bruce, ed. <u>Earth and Fire, Italian Sculpture from Donatello to Canova</u>. with the collaboration of Peta Motture, Anthony Radcilffe, Paola D'Agostino , and Carlo Milano. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001, 312 p. ill. ISBN 0300090803, no.55, pp. 218-219.","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Probably by descent through the Altieri family in Rome to Principessa Christina Altieri (d. 1930); Theodoli-Bruschi family, Bologna; Heim Gallery, London; purchased by the V&A, 1980 for £78,000","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Model, terracotta, of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italy, 1673-74","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tadeusz J. Zuchowski, <i>Poskromienie materii. Nowożytne zmagania rzeźbiarzy z marmurem kararyjskim. Michał Anioł, Bernini, Canova</i>, Poznan 2010, pp. 178-9, figs. 40a-c. "},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Snodin, Michael and Llewellyn, Nigel (eds), assisted by Norman, Joanna. <u>Baroque 1620-1800. Style in the Age of Magnificence</u>. [exh. cat. V&A, London]. London: V&A Publishing, 2009, pp.241, 341, cat. 83"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Philippe Malgouyres, \"'La bienheureuse Ludovica Albertoni' de Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680):esquisses, modeles e copies\", Bulletin des Musees de Dijon, 2002, no. 8, p. 25-26, figs. 2-3. "},{"reference":{"text":"Boucher, Bruce, (ed.), <i>Earth and Fire, Italian Sculpture from Donatello to Canova</i> New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2001","id":"AUTH353458"},"details":"pp.218-9","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Weston-Lewis, Aidan (ed.), <i>Effigies & Ecstasies: Roman Baroque Sculpture and Design in the age of Berni</i><i>ni</i>, Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland, 1998.","id":"AUTH348435"},"details":"p.159, cat. 124","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Avery, Charles. <u>Bernini: Genius of the Baroque</u>, London, 1997, pp. 150-2, illus. 200"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Perlove, Shelley Karen, <u>Bernini and the Idealization of Death: The Blessed Ludovica Albertoni and the Altieri Chapel</u> (Philadelphia, 1990), p.17"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>The Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini: Selected Sculpture</u>, exh. cat., Texas, Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, 1982, cat. no. 10."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Kosareva, Nina, 'A terracotta study by Gianlorenzo Bernini for the statue of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni' in <u>Apollo</u> vol.100, no.154 (December 1974) pp.480-5"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"C. D. Dickerson, anthony sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini Sculpting in Clay, exh cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2012-2013 and Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2013, cat. 20. "}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Albertoni, Ludovica (Blessed)","id":"N16090"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"THE BLESSED LUDOVICA ALBERTONI\r\nBy Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)\r\nItalian, Rome; 1671-74\r\nTerracotta\r\n\r\nThis is a sketch model (or bozzetto) for a monument in the Altieri Chapel in San Francesco a Ripa, Rome. It depicts Ludovica Albertoni, a fifteenth century noblewoman who became a nun and died of a fever while tending to the sick. 1671, after Pope Clement X blessed the cult which grew up around Ludovica, Cardinal Paluzzo degli Altieri commissioned a tomb and chapel from Bernini. The statute shows her during an ecstatic and virtuous death\r\n","date":{"text":"1993 - 2011","earliest":"1993-01-01","latest":"2011-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["A.93-1980"],"accessionNumberNum":"93","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1980,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU5102"],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-22","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-29","availableToBook":false}}