The Death of St Cecilia
by RAGGI, Antonio, Marble, height 310 cm
The relief was based upon a model by Algardi’s close collaborator Giuseppe Peroni (1624-1686), whose idea appears to have been followed for the basic disposition of Pope Urban I and his retinue on the left-hand side of the relief. Raggi could not resist adding his own mannerisms, especially with the more emotive figures on the right, whose attenuated proportions and extravagant drapery recall Bernini’s late style. However, narrative clarity has been sacrificed to Raggi’s penchant for surface detail, a pitfall instinctively avoided by Algardi, but common even in the best late Baroque reliefs.