LONGHI, Silla

Italian sculptor, also known as Silla da Viggiù. He executed reliefs (c. 1557) for pinnacles on the façade of San Petronio, Bologna, according to Baglione. In 1568-72 he completed eight reliefs from scenes from the Life of St Sylvester for the abbey of Nonántola (Modena).

By 1578 he was established in Rome, where c. 1581 he executed a Triton for Giacomo della Porta’s Moro Fountain in Piazza Navona. In Naples that year he completed the tomb of Caterina Orsini (Santa Caterina a Formiello, Naples). His drily carved relief of the Coronation of Pope Pius V (Santa Maria Maggiore, Cappella Sistina, Rome) was completed by 1586. In 1588-90 he worked on reliefs of the Story of Aaron and on a single figure of Aaron for the chapel of the SS Sacramento and an Angel for the transept of the San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome.

His later works in Rome include the meticulously carved figure of Pope Paul V (1608), the statically posed statue of Pope Clement VIII (both Santa Maria Maggiore, Cappella Paolina, Rome) and the reclining figure of Cardinal Alessandrino for his tomb by Giacomo della Porta (c. 1611; Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome).