Tomb of Pope Benedict XIII

Pietro Braci was - together with Filippo della Valle - the pupil of Camillo Rusconi. He applied more painterly effects than his master and the other pupils by using multi-coloured marble.

The tomb of Pope Benedict XIII was designed by Carlo Marchionni and carried out in collaboration with Bartolomeo Pincelotti (died in 1740), who was responsible for the figure of Humility. The tomb takes after the by now established Algardian model due to the ways Rusconi worked. Bracci sculpted the statue of Purity and, above all, the statue of the pope, clearly configured as an eighteenth-century reinterpretation of Bernini’s figure of Alexander VII at prayer, realized for the funerary monument of the pontiff. Bracci’s choice is, however, much more theatrical: Benedict XIII, seated on a throne, holds his hand to his breast in a gesture partly of Christian submission, and partly as an eternal promise of faith.