933. Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), Italian,

Bust of Pope John XXIII, 1962. Bronze,

105 x 79 x 75 cm. Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

 

 

Giacomo Manzoni, called Manzù created a number of religious sculptures in the twentieth century and so was an appropriate choice for the official portrait of Pope John XXIII, the 261st pope. Born Angelo Roncalli to a family of sharecroppers near Bergamo, Italy, John XXIII was pope for five years until his death in 1963 and is known in part for the controversy surrounding the papal election of 1958 in which it is thought the conservative Cardinal Siri declined the papacy. Manzù’s rendering of John XXIII is reminiscent of the directness of High Renaissance painted portraits of popes by Raphael and Titian. The pope is shown frontally wearing the relative simple garments of the mozzetta, or cape, and the red velvet cap, the camauro, which went out of usage after John XXIII’s death. The firm solidity of the form is also reminiscent of the Early Renaissance sculptor Donatello.