Antonin Cloche (1628–1720) was the Master of the Order of Preachers from 1686 to 1720.

Early biography

Antonin Cloche was from a rich French family.

Formation

Cloche entered the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

in the

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

Career

Under the masterships of

Juan Tomás de Rocaberti Juan Tomás de Rocaberti (Joan Tomàs de Rocabertí in Catalan, 4 March 1627 – 13 June 1699) was a Catalan theologian. Biography Rocaberti was born into a noble family at Perelada, in Catalonia. Educated at Girona, he entered the Domin ...

and Antonio de Monroy Cloche served as the master's envoy to the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

. Cloche was unanimously elected master at the Dominican chapter held in 1686 at Rome after the death of the previous master de Monroy. As the new Master General, he revised the rules and constitutions of the nuns of the Order of S. Dominic. In 1696, Cloche started the process for the

canonisation Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

Pope Pius V Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is v ...

Paolo Alessandro Maffei Paolo Alessandro Maffei (11 January 1653 – 26 July 1716) was an antiquarian with a humanist education, who was active in Rome. Maffei was the son of Paolo Maffei and his wife Giovanna di Raffaele, both of patrician families of Volterra. He was a ...

, ''Vita di S. Pio Quinto'', Rome 1712. and soon had a magnificent sarcophagus made for him in the Sistine Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore by the sculptor

Pierre Le Gros the Younger Pierre Le Gros (12 April 1666 Paris – 3 May 1719 Rome) was a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome where he was the pre-eminent sculptor for nearly two decades.Gerhard Bissell, ''Pierre le Gros, 1666–1719'', Reading ...

. Shortly before the death of his friend Cardinal Girolamo Casanate in 1700, Cloche set out to build a library for the substantial collection of books he was to leave to the Dominicans. The

Biblioteca Casanatense The Biblioteca Casanatense is a large historic library in Rome, Italy, named in honour of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate (1620–1700) whose private library is at its roots. History The library was established in 1701 by Antonin Cloche, the Mast ...

, attached to the Convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, was inaugurated in 1701. Already in 1717 it transpired that the library was too small, so Cloche had an extension built from 1719 but did not live to see its completion in 1721.Gerhard Schuster, ''Zu Ehren Casanates. Père Cloches Kunstaufträge in der Frühzeit der Biblioteca Casanatense'', in: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 35, 1991, p. 323-336. As master, he was a proponent of popular preaching along the lines of the

Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament ( la, Congregatio Sanctissimi Sacramenti), commonly known as the Sacramentinos is a Catholic Clerical Religious Congregation of Pontifical Right for men (priests, deacons, and brothers) founded by St. ...

Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by th ...

and

Gallicanism Gallicanism is the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by the monarch's or the state's authority—over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the Pope. Gallicanism is a rejection of ultramontanism; it has so ...

continued spreading in the French order during his mastership. He lived as a great lord, hosting many ecclesiastical dignitaries at his country house in San Pastore. He died in 1720 aged 92. In his honour, in 1721 his

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

Bernardino Cametti Bernardino Cametti (1669–1736) was an Italian sculptor of the late Baroque . Biography Cametti was born in Rome. Among his earliest works was a marble relief of the ''Canonization of St Ignatius'' (1695–1698) for the Church of the Gesù, ba ...

was placed in old entrance to the Biblioteca Casanatense (now no longer part of the library and only accessible through the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva).

Patron of the arts

Cloche was eager to promote the status of the Dominicans by means of art. His sculptor of choice was Le Gros who was a rising star in 1697-98 when he produced the '' Sarcophagus for

''. It was probably Cloche's

secretary A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a ...

, the painter Frère

Baptiste Monnoyer Baptiste may refer to: * Baptiste (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname *Baptiste, Centre, a commune of Haiti *Baptiste, Sud, a village in the Aquin commune of Haiti * ''Baptiste'' (TV series), a BBC TV s ...

, a friend of Le Gros' from student days in Paris, who acted as a go-between. Following Casanate's death, Le Gros was immediately commissioned to create the cardinal's tomb in the

Lateran Basilica The Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Savior and of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the Lateran ( it, Arcibasilica del Santissimo Salvatore e dei Santi Giovanni Battista ed Evangelista in Laterano), also known as the Papa ...

(1700–1703) and subsequently his honorary statue in the Biblioteca Casanatense (1706–1708). When Pope Clement XI offered the many niches in Saint Peter's to the

religious orders A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious pract ...

to erect a statue to their founders, Cloche jumped at the opportunity and commissioned the ''Statue of Saint Dominic'' from Le Gros (1702–1706). No other order saw the necessity to hurry, which made ''Saint Dominic'' the very first and for decades the only monumental statue of a founder in Saint Peter's. (in German)

References

Literature

*Conrado Pio Mesfin (

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of Fra Domenico Ponsi), ''Vita del Reverendissimo Padre F. Antonino Cloche Maestro Generale del Sacro Ordine de' Padri Predicatori'', Benevento 1721. *R.P.D. Laplace
funèbre du reverendissime père Antonin Cloche, docteur en théologie, grand d'Espagne, et général de tout l'ordre des frères préscheurs''
Paris 1720. 1628 births 1720 deaths French Dominicans Masters of the Order of Preachers {{France-RC-clergy-stub