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Le Gros's relief was inspired by the Ecstasy of St Catherine of Siena by Melchiore Cafà. This offered the ideal pattern for a meditative image, eminently suitable in the case of Gonzaga, the young Jesuit saint who was often invoked as an example of youthful piety. Like its prototype, Le Gros's relief is exquisitely modulated though here the colour is confined to the surrounding gilt bronze, the four twisted columns of green marble, and the lapis lazuli and other coloured stones of the grandiloquent altar by Andrea Pozzo. The figure of the saint has been brought forward and is accompanied by clouds and angels.
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