CAFÀ, Melchiorre

Papal portraiture followed conventions similar to those for portraits of other rulers, although a few changes from the examples of the late sixteenth century are apparent. Bernini and Algardi favoured a fuller treatment of the torso, extending down to the fringe of a short ‘mozzetta’, embellished by a stole in which the papal arms often figured. Movement was suggested by deep folds in the cape and was accompanied by a benevolently resolute gaze, as in the imposing mid-seventeenth century example of the bust of Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi), who reigned from 1655 to 1667.

The boldly incised signature “Melchior Cafa Melitensis,” respectfully hidden behind the back, underscores the sculptor’s pride in his one known portrait bust. It also bears witness to his nationality (“Melitensis” means from Malta) and to the spelling of his surname, Italianized from “Gafa,” upon his arrival in Rome, possibly in 1652.

There is another cast of the bust in Siena Cathedral) coming from the same mold, with only slight differences in the finishing of the wax models and facture of the bronze cast. The bust in Siena was the first cast commissioned by the sitter, the second cast in New York was commissioned for another member of the Chigi family.

The marble relief showing the Ecstasy of St Catherine of Siena was made for the high altar of Santa Caterina da Siena a Monte Magnapoli in Rome. In this relief Cafà isolated the white marble relief against a background of various coloured marbles to achieve a strongly painterly effect: as the almost free-standing figure of the saint, elevated ecstatically on clouds, seems to float out of the framed, brightly coloured background, the traditional boundaries between the genres of painting and sculpture are suspended.

This relief of the Sienese mystic stands in direct relationship to Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Theresa and would have been unthinkable without it. Cafà directly established himself through his models and drawings, and even Bernini let it be known that the younger man had overtaken him in his art. Cafà’s sculpture reinvented the aesthetic qualities of Bernini’s late style in new terms, thereby establishing a bridge between High and Late Baroque sculpture. This is seen most clearly in the Ecstasy of St Catherine of Siena in the Dominican convent of Santa Caterina da Siena a Magnapoli in Rome.

Some time before 1660 Cafà joined the workshop, in Rome, of the sculptor Ercole Ferrata, with whom he remained connected even after becoming an independent master. Ferrata passed on to Cafà the moderated Baroque style of his own teacher, Alessandro Algardi, but more important was the impression made by the works of Bernini.

Cafà’s first known independent commission, awarded in December 1660 by Prince Camillo Pamphili, was for a monumental marble relief of the Martyrdom of St Eustace for the Pamphili family church in Rome, Sant’Agnese in Agone. Cafà’s original conception can be seen only in the terracotta sketch model (Palazzo Venezia, Rome); the marble relief, apart from the main figure, was completed with major alterations after his death by Ferrata’s workshop and by Giovanni Francesco Rossi (active 1640-77). The work adheres closely to Bernini’s illusionistic conception of the relief, but the freedom of composition and modelling seems to proclaim a new, late Baroque manner.

The life-size marble group of St Rosa of Lima (terracotta sketch model in Palazzo Venezia, Rome), which shows the death of the first New World saint, introduced a new realm of feeling to Baroque sculpture. The emotional state of Santa Rosa of Lima demonstrates how fully Cafà absorbed the lessons of Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Cafà shows an angel comforting the dying Rose, who wore a spiked, metal crown and suffered privations in imitation of the medieval Dominican, St Catherine of Siena. A highly emotive work, St Rose of Lima is notable because it was the first work to depict a saint dying, and undoubtedly influenced subsequent works like Bernini’s Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, or analogous paintings by Carlo Maratta and others.

Rose of Lima (1586-1617) was a member of the Third Order of St Dominic in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her life of severe asceticism and her care of the needy of the city through her own private efforts. A lay member of the Dominican Order, she has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, being the first person born in the Americas to be canonized.

Cafà made a notable contribution to sculpted altars with this group, which was begun in 1663 for the Roman church of Sant’Agostino. The work was to replace an earlier painting of the same subject by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, so an element of competition between painting and sculpture may have featured in the project.

Cafà envisaged an altar in which the saint stands in his niche and distributes alms to a woman and small children beneath who symbolize charity. This central tableau is surmounted by God the Father with angels, a work contributed by Ercole Ferrata, and flanked by relief of scenes from the life of the saint, executed much later by Andrea Bergondi (active 1743-1789). A surviving bozzetto reveals that the saint was sculpted according to Cafà’s intentions, but death prevented him from addressing the figures below. This task fell to Ferrata who translated Cafà’s sculptural poetry into more mundane prose. The finished group is more restrained as well as scaled down.

Cafà made a notable contribution to sculpted altars with this group, which was begun in 1663 for the Roman church of Sant’Agostino. The work was to replace an earlier painting of the same subject by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, so an element of competition between painting and sculpture may have featured in the project.

Cafà envisaged an altar in which the saint stands in his niche and distributes alms to a woman and small children beneath who symbolize charity. This central tableau is surmounted by God the Father with angels, a work contributed by Ercole Ferrata, and flanked by relief of scenes from the life of the saint, executed much later by Andrea Bergondi (active 1743-1789). A surviving bozzetto reveals that the saint was sculpted according to Cafà’s intentions, but death prevented him from addressing the figures below. This task fell to Ferrata who translated Cafà’s sculptural poetry into more mundane prose. The finished group is more restrained as well as scaled down.

Cafà made a notable contribution to sculpted altars with this group, which was begun in 1663 for the Roman church of Sant’Agostino. The work was to replace an earlier painting of the same subject by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, so an element of competition between painting and sculpture may have featured in the project.

Cafà envisaged an altar in which the saint stands in his niche and distributes alms to a woman and small children beneath who symbolize charity. This central tableau is surmounted by God the Father with angels, a work contributed by Ercole Ferrata, and flanked by relief of scenes from the life of the saint, executed much later by Andrea Bergondi (active 1743-1789). A surviving bozzetto reveals that the saint was sculpted according to Cafà’s intentions, but death prevented him from addressing the figures below. This task fell to Ferrata who translated Cafà’s sculptural poetry into more mundane prose. The finished group is more restrained as well as scaled down.