LORENZETTO
(b. 1490, Firenze, d. 1541, Roma)

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

1520
Bronze altar frontal, 62 x 210 cm
Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

In 1519 Lorenzetto was given the important commission of the statues for the funerary chapel of Agostino Chigi in Santa Maria del Popolo. He was the assistant of Raphael, and from the painter's designs he executed the decoration of the chapel consisting of two statues, Elijah, in which the schema of the celebrated antique Torso in the Belvedere is recognizable, and Jonah, an adolescent with refined forms, exhibiting Raphael's sense of harmony. The relief on the altar, a long bronze frieze, betrays references to the best known Roman reliefs, the Ara pacis and the Borghese Dancers. The composition of the relief is due to Raphael. There is no ground, the figures stand out from the bronze plaque. The depth of the planes is given by variations in the relief. The flexibility of the women's clinging drapery and the togas with small angular folds emphasize the respect for antiquity.