Allegory Of Wisdom Or Minerva, Finely Carved In Wood. Rome, Second Half Of The 17th Century.

Allegory of Wisdom or Minerva, finely carved in wood. 
Rome, second half of the 17th century. Height 88 cm.

The sculpture displays characteristics that are fully in keeping with the culture of late 17th-century Roman Baroque, with evident Bernini influences in the dynamic and expressive conception of the figure, the theatricality of the gesture, and the highly dramatic drapery.

Rather than a canonical representation of Minerva, the figure seems to draw on the repertoire of armed allegories that were widespread in ephemeral decorations, festive adornments, and ecclesiastical furnishings in Rome during the second half of the 17th century.

The quality of the carving, combined with the lively ornamental invention of the volute base, suggests the work of an expert master carver active in the Roman milieu close to the decorative culture of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s circle or of set designers and ornamentalists such as Giovanni Paolo Schor and other important marble workers like Raggi, Ferrata, Guidi, and Foggini.

The roughly finished back suggests a probable architectural or decorative purpose for the sculpture, perhaps originally part of a larger complex—a choir loft, wooden altarpiece, ceremonial apparatus, or ecclesiastical furnishings.