Stefano Maderno

He was long supposed to have been a brother of the contemporary architect Carlo Maderno, and therefore to having been born at Capolago, in what is now Ticino: his death certificate, however, gave his place of birth as Palestrina (Donati 1945) and he signed a bas-relief in the Cappella Paolina in Santa Maria Maggiore as a Roman: STEPHANVS MADERNVS ROMANVS F ("Stefano Maderno of Rome made [this]").

[2] Elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1607, Maderno became the pre-eminent sculptor of his generation, on the cusp between Mannerism and Baroque,[1] rivalled in his prime only by Camillo Mariani, though he was eclipsed in his later years by the rapidly rising star of Bernini.

The ʻʻSanta Ceciliaʻʻ was a counter-statement to the current dry and hectic complications of Mannerism, to which it confronted a simple sweeping outline and a stark pose.

The saint's tomb had been opened in 1599, and Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrato commissioned Maderno, very young at the time, to recreate the martyr's body in marble.

[2] Compare this statue with the passionately theatrical representations of Saint Theresa and Ludovica Albertoni by Bernini, and the Santa Rosa de Lima by Melchiorre Caffà.