African

Ancient Mediterranean

Asian

European and American

Art since 1900

European and American Art

This is the design for a relief above the altar of the Sacrament, in the church of San Ponziano in the city of Lucca. The finished sculpture, carved in marble and thirteen feet high, still exists, although it has been moved to another church.

The careful finish suggests that this was not a preliminary sketch, but a modello or finished model, prepared by Baratta to show the people commissioning the altar what they would get. The central space, empty in the model, was filled by an elaborate tabernacle or container for a sacred relic: a vial containing what was believed to be the actual blood of Christ.