28 Attributed to ANTON
MARIA MARAGLIANO
Italian (Genoa), 1664-1739
Christ Child, circa 1700
Polychromed wood with glass eyes
73.7 cm (29 in.)
96.SD.18
This sculpture represents the Christ Child, standing on a base that suggests a rocky
landscape, and nude but for the windblown cloak that wraps around his arms and trails
behind his left leg. His upper torso and shoulders twist toward his left as he extends his
left hand, probably to display an object now lost. This may have been a globe, which
would have conveyed the idea of Christ as Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World), or,
perhaps, a bunch of grapes, which would have stressed a Eucharistic theme. His right
hand is bent inward with a delicate gesture which suggests that the Christ Child is
listening to the prayers of the viewers. Carved completely in the round and meant to
be seen from all sides and from below, the statue may have been carried in processions,
a popular form of devotional expression in seventeenth-century Italy.
The attribution to Maragliano is based on a comparison with his known works,
many produced for confraternities in Genoa, where the tradition of processional
wood sculpture was very strong. Maragliano's sculptures share with the Christ Child
a vivid, animated quality; the naturalism and direct emotional appeal characteristic
of polychromed wood sculpture; spiraling curls of hair; and fluttering drapery that
imparts a typically Baroque dynamism. This Christ Child is particularly charming,
given the fleshy forms of the child's anatomy, such as the chubby ankles and knees
and the rounded belly, the sweetness of his expression, and the delicacy of his gestures,
which also serve to integrate the figure into the visual culture of Genoa in the years
around 1700. MCEUROPEAN SCULPTURE 83