The sculptures of David and Abigail in the apse of Casa Professa in Palermo: a dialogue between Grano, Tancredi, Calandrucci, Vitagliano and Serpotta

Abstract

The paper explores the ideational process behind the decoration of the apse of the Chiesa del Gesù in Palermo. In particular, the article focuses on the sculptures in the left niche depicting the biblical episode of David and Abigail. These were made, based on clay sketches by Giacomo Serpotta, between 1706 and 1709 by Gioacchino Vitagliano. Several iconographic references to coeval artists such as the painters Filippo Tancredi or Giacinto Calandrucci are thus proposed. Indeed, some of their works show close affinities with the sculptural group in this church. An attempt is therefore made to trace the formal genesis of the work, placing these iconographic and figurative cues within a dialectic in which the protagonists, in addition to the mentioned artists, include the palermitan painter Antonino Grano. He was responsible for the design of the apse from 1703 onwards. The article is the result of in-depth research work carried out for the author's master's thesis at the University of Palermo