Placido Costanzi

PLACIDO COSTANZI (Rome,1702-1759).
"Calvary".
Oil on canvas.
Presents exhibition label on the back.
Measurements: 65,5 x 48,5 cm; 73 x 57 cm (frame).
The artist of the present composition offers us a scene of Calvary that summarizes the Passion of Christ. We see Jesus expiring, still on the cross, with the wound in his side open. At the foot of the cross, we see Mary Magdalene kneeling and clinging to the cross. The crucifixion of Christ is the central theme of Christian and especially Catholic iconography. Christ was inflicted the suffering that corresponded to the fugitive slaves or in rebellion, an essentially Roman condemnation, but of Persian origin. This episode in the life of Christ is the most strictly proven as historical fact and is also the main argument for the redemption of the Christian doctrine:
Placido Costanzi was an Italian painter of the late Baroque. He received a double apprenticeship, at the Trevisani and later with Benedetto Luti, and painted mainly historical and devotional subjects. His fame was quite early: in 1724 he had already decorated rooms, unfortunately lost, for Cardinals Alberoni and Acquaviva d'Aragona. He was also active as a young man in Tuscany. Other works of his are in Siena, in the Chigi Zondadari palace, and in Pistoia, in the church of the Maddalena, where he undoubtedly worked before 1724, the year in which he had already sent two altarpieces, lost, to Gerona, and an Annunciation for the Spanish queen Isabella de Fanersio. His artistic activity in Rome led him first to join the Congregation of the Virtuosi in the Pantheon and then, in 1741, earned him admission to the Accademia di San Luca, of which he was also director from 1758. He was also highly appreciated abroad, working for Spain, England, France and Germany.