This expressive figure invades the surrounding space, making it an excellent example of the exuberant emotional power associated with 17th-century Baroque sculpture. The artist used a sharp tool to detail the sleeve, the lace along the hem, the fringed edges of the cape, and the figure’s beard. Though typical of French taste, this highly finished terracotta is related to a large-scale marble sculpture commissioned in 1664 for a church in the Italian city of Genoa. Alessandro Sauli became bishop of Pavia (50 miles north of Genoa) in 1591 after having worked to energize the waning church on the nearby island of Corsica.
