The Ocean

In the pretentious monument desired by the ambition of Clement XIII and his predecessors, Bracci had the most demanding task, having to carve the central statue on which the whole movement of the various plant and animal elements pivots. The quintessentially Baroque tradition, Berninian to be precise, quite markedly determined the sculptural solution, even though the carving becomes finer and the masses, despite the jagged intervention of the shadows, are less heavy and obsessive: it seems that the great biscuit of the twisted shell from which the god urges on the sea-horses might crumble at any moment.