Lot 368 Dα

After completing his training as a painter, the Florentine artist Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652 - 1725) was sent by Grand Duke Cosimo III de Medici to Rome in 1673 to study sculpture. After three years he returned to Florence, where he worked for the Medicis and was appointed court sculptor in 1687. He was mainly engaged in the interior design and sculptural decoration of churches. The Saxon sculptor Balthasar Permoser (1651 - 1732) stayed in Florence several times from 1677 onwards, and we know from invoice records that he also worked for the Medicis. It was during this time that the close, probably friendly relationship between Foggini and Permoser, who was only a year younger, developed, and his work was decisively influenced by this encounter.



Full-scale representations of the severed head of St John, usually presented on a platter (Mark 6:28), have been known since the 13th century. Along with the relics of the cross and Christ's robe, the head of St. John was of special significance, being one of the most coveted and valuable relics in Christian history. Several places claim to possess an original. The most famous and perhaps most spectacular of the head relics is in Notre Dame Cathedral in Amiens.