What to do if you are a museum that, for decades, has shown a work of art that was misattributed and incorrectly dated by decades? You ‘fess up, of course, and make an exhibition out of the experience.
The public will get to see exactly that come Feb. 11, when the Minneapolis Institute of Arts puts on view a marble statue of St. Paul the Hermit.
Ever since it acquired the piece in 1973, the MIA had attributed it to Francesco Mochi (1580-1654), an early Baroque sculptor who worked mostly in Rome and Orvieto. The huge piece, a semi-nude, muscular, aged man, had hung above a staircase, as if he were about to jump off a base of rocks in a dive — as at the right here.
Then the MIA decided to restore the piece and in the process re-examine its authorship, because stylistically, it didn’t seem to relate to Mochi’s other works.
As Eike S. Schmidt, the MIA’s curator of decorative arts and sculpture, relates in an article in the MIA’s members’ magazine, a handwritten note on the index card catalogue for the piece noted that John Pope-Hennessy had attributed the piece to Andrea Bergondi.
That was the critical clue. Research ensued, and the museum now says the piece is by Bergondi and was executed in 1775. It represents St. Paul the Hermit, and was originally made for a church dedicated to him in Rome and placed in a setting representing his desert cave. When the church was deconsecrated in 1873, it moved to another church in Rome in 1885. It was torn down in 1888. The statue then disappeared until 1965 when it reappeared on the London art market.
When the MIA had the piece cleaned and  restored last year, several pieces — especially those rocks — that were not part of the original were removed, which gave the MIA the proper positioning for the piece, seen at left, with the saint back on his knees.
An excellent story that I think will attract art-lovers. You can read more about the exhibition here, and the MIA has graciously provided me (us) with an article about it from the forthcoming members’ magazine. Click on MIA-ARTS-St_Paul.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of the MIA