St. Matthew by Camillo Rusconi. Nave of the Basilica of St. John Lateran
Camillo Rusconi (14 July 1658 – 8 December 1728) was an Italian sculptor of the late Baroque in Rome. His style displays both features of Baroque and Neoclassicism. He has been described as a Carlo Maratta in marble.
Biography
Initially trained in his hometown of Milan with Giuseppe Rusnati. By 1685–1686, he had moved to Rome and into the studio of Ercole Ferrata, who died within a year or two of his arrival. Rusconi's talent attracted commissions; for example, for plaster allegorical statues depicting four virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, and strength) for the Ludovisi chapel in the church of Sant'Ignazio. He then worked alongside Le Gros in sculpting angels for the tympanum of the altar of Saint Ignatius at the Church of the Gesù.
Camillo’s masterpieces are the four larger-than-life apostles (Matthew, James the Great, Andrew, and John) completed during 1708–1718 for the niches of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran (San Giovanni in Laterano).
This sculptural program was the major such project in the Rome of his day. The other main sculptors for the project, Le Gros and Pierre-Etienne Monnot, each only garnered two apostles. Pope Clement XI had established a committee to select the artists, and included Carlo Fontana and Rusconi's friend, Carlo Maratta, in the panel. The classical restraint of the figures was to set a trend toward neoclassicism.
