{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Gift of Charles Scribner III, Class of 1973, and Graduate School Class of 1977, in honor of Professor John Rupert Martin, Class of 1947","caption":"Designer Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy), Ercole Ferrata (1610–1686; born Pelsoto, Italy; died Rome, Italy), Corpus for a Crucifix: The Living Christ, after 1659. Bronze with traces of gilding; wood with burled walnut veneer; 40 cm (corpus), 106 x 45 cm (cross). Gift of Charles Scribner III, Class of 1973, and Graduate School Class of 1977, in honor of Professor John Rupert Martin, Class of 1947 (y1979-47)","cultureterms":[{"id":2031625,"culture":"Italian"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","campus_art":false,"terms":[{"id":2031625,"term":"Italian","aatid":300111198,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2048811,"term":"devotional objects","aatid":300234144,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2095964,"term":"religious art","aatid":300248179,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2088270,"term":"men","aatid":300025928,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2054791,"term":"sculpture","aatid":300047090,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2055098,"term":"bronzes","aatid":300047333,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2097045,"term":"Christianity","aatid":300073711,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171366,"term":"Christ","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055649,"term":"crucifixes","aatid":300248835,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2055649,"term":"crucifixes","aatid":300248835,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2099921,"term":"suffering","aatid":300055184,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2048567,"term":"cross (object)","aatid":300235443,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2045920,"term":"wood","aatid":300011914,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2047176,"term":"burled walnut","aatid":300012486,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2162099,"term":"bronze","aatid":300010957,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"106.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"45.00"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"40.00"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"1979-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":367,"displayname":"Gian Lorenzo Bernini","displaydate":"1598–1680; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy","datebegin":1598,"dateend":1680,"prefix":"Designer","suffix":null,"role":"Designer","displaymaker":"Designer Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1598–1680; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy","displayorder":1},{"id":5881,"displayname":"Ercole Ferrata","displaydate":"1610–1686; born Pelsoto, Italy; died Rome, Italy","datebegin":1610,"dateend":1686,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Ercole Ferrata, 1610–1686; born Pelsoto, Italy; died Rome, Italy","displayorder":2}],"datecomputed":1672,"signed":null,"restrictions":null,"classification":"Sculpture","packages":[{"packageid":118866,"name":"CRS_ART100_2017_10_16"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":210962,"name":"Z_JS European On View 10 years"},{"packageid":181958,"name":"web_2020_K1-3"},{"packageid":210960,"name":"Z_JS European Anchors"},{"packageid":225374,"name":"Gallery_02-05(Pavilion1)-European [3]"},{"packageid":181507,"name":"CRS_2020_ART326_04_01"},{"packageid":92274,"name":"web_ImagesofChrist"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2055649,"classification":"crucifixes"},{"id":2054791,"classification":"sculpture"},{"id":2055098,"classification":"bronzes"}],"exhibitions":[],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1979-47_2"],"displaytitle":"Corpus for a Crucifix: The Living Christ","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Designer Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1598–1680; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy | Ercole Ferrata, 1610–1686; born Pelsoto, Italy; died Rome, Italy","alt_numbers":[],"captionhtml":"Designer Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy), Ercole Ferrata (1610–1686; born Pelsoto, Italy; died Rome, Italy), <i>Corpus for a Crucifix: The Living Christ</i>, after 1659. Bronze with traces of gilding; wood with burled walnut veneer; 40 cm (corpus), 106 x 45 cm (cross). Gift of Charles Scribner III, Class of 1973, and Graduate School Class of 1977, in honor of Professor John Rupert Martin, Class of 1947 (y1979-47)","displaydate":"after 1659","medium":"Bronze with traces of gilding; wood with burled walnut veneer","media":[{"id":105633,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1979-47_DET_b-2","isprimary":0,"rank":4,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":105634,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1979-47_DET_a-2","isprimary":0,"rank":3,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":105635,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1979-47_2","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"},{"id":105636,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/y1979-47_DET_c-2","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"Bruce White Photography"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":true,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1979,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </em>39, no. 1/2 (1980): p. 40-63.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1979,\" <em>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </em>39, no. 1/2 (1980): p. 40-63., p. 49","date":1980,"id":3367,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774628"},{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection</i> (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 193 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 202","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"<EM>Reflections of the passion: selected works from the Princeton University Art Museum: March 9-June 9, 2002</EM>, (New York: Princeton University Art Museum, 2002).","citation":"<EM>Reflections of the passion: selected works from the Princeton University Art Museum: March 9-June 9, 2002</EM>, (New York: Princeton University Art Museum, 2002)., cat. no. 19","date":2002,"id":3745,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/82053629"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"European Painting and Sculpture ","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199321,"term":"European Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1600-1700","dateend":1686,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Corpus for a Crucifix: The Living Christ","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"y1979-47","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Charles Scribner III; 1979 gift to Princeton University Art Museum.","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"In 1658–59, Ferrata cast a model of the crucified, suffering Christ after Bernini’s designs for crosses on about half of the twenty-five altars in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The other half showed the dead Christ. Ferrata’s molds remained in his studio and were reused, as this later cast attests. The design must have appealed to patrons, who could pray in private before a work directly connected to the center of Roman Catholicism.","remarks":"K1-3 May 2012"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nGian Lorenzo Bernini embellished the center of Roman Catholicism, St. Peter’s basilica, according to a transcendent vision. In Pope Alexander VII (1655–67), he found a patron whose grand ambi&shy;tions led to major architectural and sculptural commissions for Piazza San Pietro with its embracing colonnade, the papal staircase, and the sculptures encasing the throne of Saint Peter, among others. Along with these transformative large-scale commissions, plans were made for new liturgical furnishings for the side altars of St. Peter’s: the idea for Bernini to design new candlesticks appears in the pope’s diary as early as November 1656, while both bronze candlesticks and crosses were mentioned in February 1657. In June 1658, Alexander noted that Bernini showed some of the crucifixes to him.</P>\r\nPublished payment documents from the Vatican archives identify Ercole Ferrata, Bernini’s right-hand man, as the sculptor who made the models for the figures of the crucified Christ after Bernini’s drawings. The payments for the models date from 1659. In May that year, a payment specifies that Ferrata made \"another model of a living [Christ] as was ordered by his Holiness\" for the bronze altar crosses. A dead Christ type was thus created first, in 1658, and the living Christ, like the one in the Museum’s collection, afterward; there are fewer of the living Christ types than the dead ones on the altars at St. Peter’s. Payments extended as late as 1661. The models for the Dead Christ and Living Christ figures remained in Ferrata’s studio, as the inventory made after his death shows. Either Ferrata or a follower could have cast the Museum’s <I>Living Christ</I> for a private patron. Like the versions still in situ on the altars at St. Peter’s, this corpus, or body, of the crucified Christ, was gilt. </P>\r\nThe donor, Charles Scribner, has written about lending the altar crucifix to the University Chapel and the Aquinas Institute for Roman Catholic masses during his years as a student, and detaching the crucifix (a separate piece) from its base in order to carry it in processionals. </P></SPAN>","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1659,"sortnumber":"1979   47y","published_date":"2026-04-22 02:00:17.000760","objectid":32360,"dimensions":"corpus: 40 cm (15 3/4 in.)\r\ncross: 106 x 45 x 24 cm (41 3/4 x 17 11/16 in.)","on_view":true}