Giuliano Finelli (1601–1653) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

sculptor who emerged from the workshop of

Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...

. He was born in

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest o ...

to a family of marble masons in a town associated with mining of the stone, and he initially trained with Michelangelo Naccherino. He was active in Bernini's studio for a few years, but he broke with Bernini in 1629, when he felt slighted by the awarding of the choice commission of a ''Saint Helena'' statue for the crossing of St Peter's to

Andrea Bolgi Andrea Bolgi (22 June 1605 – 1656) was an Italian sculptor responsible for several statues in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Towards the end of his life he moved to Naples, where he sculpted portrait busts. He died in Naples during a plague epid ...

. He is also purported to have also been slighted by failure to be recognized as the detail master behind the ''

Apollo and Daphne Apollo and Daphne is a transformation myth from ancient Greek mythology, retold by Hellenistic and Roman authors in the form of an amorous vignette. History The earliest known source of this myth is Parthenius, a Greek poet who lived during t ...

'' statue of Bernini. For some time, he found occasional work, often with the support of

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

. The difference between the two sculptors, Bernini and Finelli, was slight. Finelli is highly meticulous about carving tiny details, a focus which often seems to drain from the greater emotion of the piece. The prolific Bernini was less conscious of lacy frillery in dress, and more centered on the psychology. The contrast can be seen in their portraits of a common patron, Cardinal

Scipione Borghese Scipione Borghese (; 1 September 1577 – 2 October 1633) was an Italian Cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini. His legacy is the estab ...

. Bernini's portrait is animated, while Finelli's is more sober and has a slight downgaze.Finelli's portrait of Scipione
/ref> He also completed the image of Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio (c. 1630) at

San Giovanni in Laterano 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 ...

. Within a few years of leaving the employ of Bernini, Finelli left for

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

with his pupil and nephew,

Domenico Guidi Domenico Guidi (1625 – 28 March 1701) was a prominent Italian Baroque sculptor. Born in Carrara, Guidi followed his uncle, Giuliano Finelli, a prominent sculptor noted for his feud with Bernini, to Naples. When he fled Naples in 1647 dur ...

. He is known best for a number of portraits and statues in the Chapel of San Gennaro and in the

Cathedral of Naples The Naples Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Napoli; nap, Viscuvato 'e Napule), or Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary ( it, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta, links=no), is a Roman Catholic cathedral, the main church of Naples, southern Italy, and the s ...

. In Naples, he had to compete with the sculptor

Cosimo Fanzago Cosimo Fanzago (Clusone, 12 October 1591 – Napoli, 13 February 1678) was an Italian architect and sculptor, generally considered the greatest such artist of the Baroque period in Naples, Italy. Facade Santa Maria della Sapienza. Biography Fanz ...

for commissions. Finelli died in Rome in 1653 of reasons unknown.

Sources

*Connors, Joseph
Review of Jennifer Montagu's ''Roman Baroque Sculpture: The Industry of Art''
New Haven and London, 1989, in ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''
Finelli gallery at Web Gallery of Art

References

1601 births 1653 deaths 17th-century Italian sculptors Italian Baroque sculptors Italian male sculptors People from Carrara Pupils of Gian Lorenzo Bernini {{Italy-sculptor-stub