Filippo della Valle was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 late-Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 or early Neoclassic

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

 sculptor, active mostly in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

Biography

Della Valle was born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

.

Initially apprenticed with Giovanni Battista Foggini

Giovanni Battista Foggini

thumb|Tomb of [[Galileo Galilei]] in [[Santa Croce, Florence]].Giovanni Battista Foggini was an Italian sculptor active in Florence, renowned mainly for small bronze statuary.-Biography:...

 in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 alongside Battista Maini, then he and later Maini moved to Rome to work with Rusconi

Camillo Rusconi

Camillo Rusconi was an Italian sculptor of the late Baroque in Rome. His style displays both features of Baroque and Neoclassicism. He has been described as a Carlo Maratta in marble.-Biography:...

. In 1725, della Valle won a contest of the Academy of St Luke together with Pietro Bracci

Pietro Bracci

Pietro Bracci was an Italian sculptor working in the Late Baroque manner.-Biography:He was born in Rome and became a student of Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari and Camillo Rusconi...

, and was later to become the director or Principe of that group. In Rome, he worked with Bracci on Salvi

Nicola Salvi

Nicola Salvi or Niccolò Salvi was an Italian architect most famous for the Trevi Fountain in Rome, where he was born and died. His work is in the late Roman Baroque style. In addition to the Trevi Fountain, Salvi did minor works such as churches and the enlargement of the Odescalchi Palace with...

's Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 26 metres high and 20 metres wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world....

, where he completed the allegorical statues of Health and Abundance.

Della Valle is known for his Annunciation relief (1750) in Sant'Ignazio

Sant'Ignazio

The Church of Saint Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius is Roman Catholic titular church dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, located in Rome, Italy...

, a much more restrained and flatter relief than that of Bernardino Cametti

Bernardino Cametti

Bernardino Cametti was an Italian sculptor of the late Baroque .Cametti was born in Rome. Among his earliest works was a marble relief of the Canonization of St Ignatius for the church of the Gesù, based on a design by Andrea Pozzo, and a monument to Count Vladislav Constantine Wasa’’ ,...

's elaborate 1729 treatment of the same theme now at La Superga. He also completed the statue of Temperance (1734) in Corsini Chapel at San Giovanni in Laterano. The statue recalls Francois Duquesnoy

François Duquesnoy

François Duquesnoy was a Baroque sculptor in Rome. His more idealized representations are often contrasted with the emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows greater affinity to Algardi's sculptures....

's pioneering early baroque, yet soberly classic, Santa Susanna

Santa Susanna

The Church of Saint Susanna at the baths of Diocletian is a Roman Catholic parish church on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, with a titulus associated to its site that dates back to about 280...

. In this chapel, della Valle, working with Maini, shows the influence of the Florentine Massimiliano Soldani Benzi

Massimiliano Soldani Benzi

Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi or Massimiliano Soldani was an Italian sculptor and medallist, mainly active in Florence....

. In style della Valle was allied to the rising group of French sculptors including Michelangelo Slodtz

René-Michel Slodtz

René-Michel Slodtz or Michelangelo and in France, Michel-Ange Slodtz was a French sculptor working in a Rococo style, and active mainly in Rome and Paris, and for the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi....

. He also completed the monument for Innocent XII (1746) and a Santa Teresa of Avila (1754) for St Peter's Basilica.

He died in Rome and was buried at Santa Susanna.

Sources

• Web Gallery of Art