MENGHINI, Niccolò - b. 1610 Roma, d. 1665 Roma

Italian sculptor. He was formed in Rome, probably in the orbit of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, with whom he collaborated on various occasions. As early as 1632 he was in the service of the Barberini family, under the protection of Cardinal Francesco, who will support him throughout his career. His activities for the Barberini were related to the restoration and care of the collection of antique sculptures.

In 1635 he carved his masterpiece, the statue of St Martina, placed under the altar in the church Santi Luca e Martina in Rome. In 1636 he worked in the St Peter’s basilica in the Vatican under the direction of Bernini where he created a relief of an angel with the shroud, probably based on a design by Bernini. In 1639 he devoted himself to the restoration of some ancient statues found in Ostia.

In 1647-49 he returned to work with Bernini in St Peter’s on decoration of the pillars of the central nave, with the portraits of the popes inserted in medallions supported by putti, and other stucco decorations.

His important artistic activities in Rome, as well as the protection of the Barberini family, earned him the election as Prince of the prestigious National Academy of San Luca.

St Martina

Martina of Rome was a Roman martyr under emperor Alexander Severus. A patron saint of Rome, she was martyred in 228, under the pontificate of Pope Urban I.

The reclining statue of the saint was made by Niccolò Menghini in 1635 and placed under the altar in the church Santi Luca e Martina in Rome. Reconstruction of the church took place following the discovery of the saint’s relics. Pietro da Cortona was the architect of the reconstruction and probably he also provided the drawing for the sculpture.

Inspired by the statue of St Cecilia by Stefano Maderno and other seventeenth-century images of martyrs, the young saint is depicted after the torture, with the head, severed from the body, resting on an urn and unperturbed expression of the face.

The sculpture is critically linked to the Post-Tridentine interest in the relics of early Christian martyrs. The disjunction between the sculpture’s severed head and seemingly living body reinforces the authority of Pietro da Cortona’s 1634 discovery of St Martina’s relics beneath the old Church of Santi Luca e Martina. The detached and moveable head (rarely seen in early modern sculpture) evokes associations with cephalophory and inventively implies that St Martina was somehow miraculously involved in the recovery of her own relics.