The Chioggia Monument to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi: an Early Work of Paolo Callalo

Opus kipara Paola Callala (Venecija 1655. – 1725.) paradigmatski je primjer širenja, upotpunjavanja i revidiranja opusa mletačkih kipara XVII. i XVIII. stoljeća tijekom posljednjih dvadeset godina. Do temeljnog članka Simonea Guerriera iz 1997., majstor Paolo Callalo bio je gotovo nepoznata kiparska ličnost. Tragajući za najranijim Callalovim djelom, Simone Guerriero je predložio da je on autor stipesa oltara svetog Josipa s reljefom Bijega u Egipat, flankiranim dvama, gotovo slobodno stojećim puttima, a što je nastao između 1679. i 1685. u venecijanskoj crkvi San Giovanni Crisostomo. Dosadašnji se rani kiparev katalog može sada nadopuniti još jednom značajnom skulptorskom cjelinom. Riječ je o komemorativnom spomeniku ninskom biskupu Francescu Grassiju (Chioggia, 3. X. 1667. – Zadar, 29. I. 1677.) podignutom na lijevom zidu prezbiterija katedrale Santa Maria Assunta u Chioggi. Ovaj je spomenik uglednom članu chioggiotske patricijske obitelji dao postaviti pokojnikov nećak Paolo Grassi, kako stoji na komemorativnom natpisu. Obitelj Grassi (de Grassi) dala je čak tri biskupa Chioggie: Pasqualea (1618. – 1639.), Francesca (1639. – 1669.) i Antonija (1696. – 1715.), od kojih je ovaj posljednji bio brat ninskog biskupa i pranećak prve dvojice. Monumentalni se spomenik ninskog biskupa Francesca Grassija u prezbiteriju katedrale u Chioggi sastoji od pravokutnog mramornog polja zaključenog polukružnim zabatom s dva ležeća putta. Pod njim druga dva leteća putta rastvaraju zavjesu s ovalnom nišom gdje je smještena biskupova bista, komemorativni natpis te prelatov grb u vijencu lišća. Svi elementi ovog vrsnog djela upućuju na ruku Paola Callala. Biskupova bista, nastala najvjerojatnije posthumno prema portretu pokojnika, ima tipičan način formiranja blago kubičnog lica na kojem dominiraju živa, patetično otvorena usta i prodorne oči naglašenih zjenica. Ovo prelatsko lice nalazi izravnu poveznicu s onim svetog Mihovila Arkanđela iz 1686. u crkvi San Michele in Isola. Dva izrazito lijepa i spretno modelirana putta koja razgrću zastor, mogu se povezati s puttima na stipesu oltara svetog Josipa iz venecijanske crkve San Giovanni Crisostomo, kao i s puttom u ključnom kamenu niše na oltaru svete Tereze iz crkve I Scalzi iz 1684. godine. Da je Callalo pomno pratio kiparska strujanja i trendove u Veneciji, ukazuje primjer bogato nabrane mramorne zavjese koju razgrću dva leteća putta. U opusu Giusta Le Courta, najvažnijeg venecijanskog kipara druge polovice 17. stoljeća, Callalo je vrlo sličnu zavjesu mogao vidjeti na spomeniku Giorgiju Morosiniju iz 1677. u venecijanskoj crkvi San Clemente in Isola. Konačno, da ovakva dekoracija Callalu nije bila strana, pokazuje i kasnija narudžba, koja se nije sačuvala, a odnosila se na skulptorsku dekoraciju glavnog oltara stare venecijanske crkve La Pietà. Ondje se je Callalo 1692. godine obavezao da će za glavni oltar napraviti „zavjesu od žutog mramora iz Verone koju podržavaju putti“. Stilska analiza komemorativnog spomenika ninskog biskupa Francesca Grassija upućuje nas da je on bio podignut u relativnom kratkom roku nakon biskupove smrti 1677. godine. Čini se vrlo vjerojatno da bi njegovu izvedbu trebalo postaviti u početak osamdesetih godina ili najkasnije oko 1686., kada je Callalo isklesao kip svetog Mihovila u crkvi San Michele in Isola. Spomenik u čast ninskog biskupa Francesca Grassija u Chioggi prvi je s lijeve strane zida prezbiterija katedrale, prostora koji će s vremenom postati „mauzolej“ Grassijevih. Vjerojatno u to vrijeme, ili nešto kasnije, posthumno je podignut spomenik biskupu Chioggie istog imena, Francescu Grassiju s prelatovom bistom koja se pak može pripisati Giuseppeu Torrettiju (Pagnano, 1664. - Venecija, 1743.). Ovaj se niz biskupskih spomenika iz prezbiterija chiogggiotske katedrale zaključuje 1715. podizanjem grobnice za još živućeg biskupa Antonija Grassija, u izvedbi Alvisea Tagliapietre (Venecija, 1680. – 1747.). U Dalmaciji se relativno skroman opus dosada uočenih Callalovih sastoji od dva mramorna anđela postavljena uz glavni oltar u župnoj crkvi u Vodicama te četiri putta svirača smještena sa strane glavnog oltara, kao i onih na bočnom oltaru u župnoj crkvi u Sutivanu na otoku Braču. No, Callalovu ruku moguće je prepoznati i u jednoj skulpturi iz pozamašnog kiparskog programa na oltaru Presvetog Sakramenta u zadarskoj katedrali. Arhitekturu je 1719. izradio Antonio Viviani dok je bogatu kiparsku dekoraciju najvećim dijelom isklesao Francesco Cabianca (Venecija, 1666. - 1737.). U središnjoj niši oltara smješten je manji mramorni kip Žalosne Bogorodice s mrtvim Kristom u krilu. Mramorna zadarska Pietà teško se uklapa u katalog Francesca Cabiance, pogotovo ako se ima u vidu njegov kip istoimene tematike postavljen oko 1714. nad vrata u klaustru venecijanske crkve I Frari. Cabiancina venecijanska Pietà posjeduje oštrinu poteza dlijeta, određenu grubost izvedbe i robustnost tijela te drugačiju fizionomiju i draperiju od zadarskog djela. No, zadarska se Pietà može uključiti u katalog kipara Paola Callala. Pažljivo modelirani lik žalosne Majke te meko oblikovanu draperiju koja se oko stopala radijalno širi prema van možemo usporediti s kipovima Vjere i Nade na oltaru Sakramenta katedrale u Udine, nastalom nakon 1720. godine. Paralele u modeliranju Kristova tijela, a posebno lica suzdržane mimike, nalazimo na kipu Uskrslog na tabernakulu već spominjanog udineškog oltara, kao i u istovjetnom kipu na tabernakulu oltara župne crkve u Clauzettu, što ga također pripisujem Callalu, ali i na ranijim monumentalnijim primjerima, poput Krista s oltara Preobraženja nastalom 1708. za župnu crkvu u Labinu. Callalov spomenik ninskom biskupu Francescu Grassiju u Chioggi važan je pokazatelj razvoja osobnog stila majstora. Njegov se izričaj tako transformira iz ovog „mladenačkog djela“ punog siline i robusnosti u lirsku poetiku i mekoću vidljivu na njegovom kasnom djelu, skulpturi Pietà na oltaru Sakramenta u katedrali svete Stošije u Zadru. Vjerovati je kako će i buduća istraživanja u Veneciji, Dalmaciji i priobalju dodatno dopuniti kiparev bogati opus te potvrditi važno mjesto koje Paolo Callalo zauzima među protagonistima mletačke skulpture kasnog Seicenta i ranog Settecenta.The oeuvre of the sculptor Paolo Callalo (Venice 1655-1725) is a paradigmatic example of how the oeuvres of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian sculptors have been expanded, supplemented and revised during the last twenty years. Until Simone Guerriero’s ground-breaking article of 1997, Paolo Callalo was almost completely unknown. In his search for Callalo’s earliest preserved work, Simone Guerriero suggested that Callalo was responsible for the stipes of the altar of St Joseph, featuring the relief of the Flight into Egypt flanked by two putti which are almost free standing, which was made between 1679 and 1685 for San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice. However, another significant sculpture can now be added to the catalogue of Callalo’s early works: a memorial monument to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi (Chioggia, 3 October 1667 – Zadar, 29 January 1677) which is located on the left presbytery wall in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta at Chioggia. As we learn from its commemorative inscription, the monument was commissioned by Paolo Grassi, the nephew of the deceased who was a prominent member of this aristocratic family from Chioggia. The Grassi (de Grassi) family produced as many as three bishops of Chioggia: Pasquale (1618-1639), Francesco (1639 -1669) and Antonio (1696-1715) who was a brother of Francesco, the Bishop of Nin, and a great-nephew of the first two. The monumental memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in the presbytery of Chioggia Cathedral consists of a rectangular marble plaque topped with a semi-circular pediment with two reclining putti. Immediately below, two more putti are depicted flying and drawing a curtain in front of an oval niche containing the bishop’s bust, the commemorative inscription and the bishop’s coat of arms set in a wreath. All the elements of this excellent work point to Paolo Callalo’s hand. The bishop’s bust was most probably created posthumously by relying on one of the portraits of the bishop as a source model. It depicts him as having a somewhat square face with a lively mouth opened in a melodramatic way and as having probing eyes with emphasized pupils, all of which characterize Callalo’s sculpting technique. A direct parallel for such a physiognomy can be found in the 1686 sculpture of St Michael in San Michele in Isola at Venice. Two remarkably beautiful and skilfully modelled putti which are drawing the curtain can be connected to the putti on the stipes of the altar of St Joseph in San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice, but also with a putto on the keystone of a niche on the 1684 altar of St Teresa in the Church of the Scalzi. The richly draped marble curtain being drawn by the two flying putti is an example of Callalo’s thorough knowledge of contemporary sculptural innovations and trends in Venice. He could have seen a similar curtain on the 1677 monument to Giorgio Morosini in San Clemente in Isola at Venice, which belongs to the oeuvre of Giusto Le Court, the most important Venetian sculptor of the second half of the seventeenth century. That Callalo was no stranger to this type of decoration is also demonstrated by one of his later works, now sadly lost, the contract for which set out the terms for the sculptural decoration of the high altar in the old Venetian church of La Pietà. In 1692 Callalo agreed to make for this high altar ‘a curtain out of yellow marble of Verona being held by putti’. The stylistic analysis of the memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi indicates that it was erected in a relatively short period of time after the bishop’s death in 1677. It seems highly likely that it was made in the early 1680s or around 1686 at the latest because in that year Callalo made the statue of St Michael in San Michele in Isola. The memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in Chioggia Cathedral is the first monument on the left-hand side of presbytery wall which would in time become a ‘mausoleum’ of the Grassi family. Around the same time or perhaps somewhat later, the Bishop of Chioggia by the name Francesco Grassi was honoured posthumously with a memorial containing a bust portrait that can be attributed to Giuseppe Torretti (Pagnano, 1664 – Venice, 1743). This group of episcopal memorials in the presbytery of Chioggia Cathedral ends with 1715 when Alvise Tagliapietra (Venice, 1680 – 1747) made the tomb for Bishop Antonio Grassi while he was still alive. Callalo’s Dalmatian oeuvre is relatively modest and consists of the following works so far identified as his: two marble angels set next to the high altar in the Parish Church at Vodice and four music-making putti at the sides of the high altar as well as those on a side altar in the Parish Church at Sutivan on the island of Brač. However, Callalo’s hand can also be recognized in a statue from a large-scale sculptural group which adorned the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in Zadar Cathedral. The altar structure was built by Antonio Viviani in 1719 while Francesco Cabianca (Venice, 1666-1737) carved the majority of the altar’s rich sculptural decoration. At the centre of the altar is a niche with a relatively small marble statue of Our Lady of Sorrows with the dead Christ in her lap. It is difficult to find a place for this marble Pietà from Zadar in Francesco Cabianca’s catalogue especially with regard to his Pietà above a door in the cloister of the Frari Church at Venice in 1714. Compared to the Zadar Pietà, Cabianca’s Venetian Pietà displays a number of differences: a crisper chiselling technique, a certain roughness of workmanship, robust bodies as well as a different treatment of the figures’ physiognomies and drapery. However, the Pietà from Zadar can be added to the catalogue of Paolo Callalo’s works. The carefully modelled figure of Our Lady of Sorrows and the soft drapery which spreads outwards in a radial fashion around her feet can be compared to the statues of Faith and Hope on the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in Udine Cathedral, which was made after 1720. The statue of the Risen Christ on the tabernacle of the aforementioned altar from Udine provides a parallel for the modelling of Christ’s body and, in particular, his face with a restrained expression. The same can be said for the Risen Christ on the tabernacle of the Parish Church at Clauzetto, which I also attribute to Callalo, as well as for earlier, more monumental, examples such as the Christ from the 1708 altar of the Transfiguration in the Parish Church at Labin. Callalo’s memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in Chioggia is an important indicator of his personal stylistic development. He transformed his stylistic expression from the robust energy of this ‘youthful work’ at Chioggia to the lyrical poetics characterized by softness which can be seen in his late work, the Pietà on the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral of St Anastasia at Zadar. It is likely that future research in Venice, Dalmatia and the rest of the Adriatic coast will expand Paolo Callalo’s already rich oeuvre and confirm the important place he holds in Venetian sculpture as one of its protagonists during the late Seicento and early Settecento