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Monaldi, Carlo
(b Rome, 1683; d Rome, 1760). Italian sculptor. He became a member of both the Congregazione dei Virtuosi del Pantheon (1720) and the Accademia di S Luca (4 June 1730), having previously been a member of the Compagnia dei Falegnami (Company of Carpenters). From very early on in his career, Monaldi enjoyed a privileged relationship with Portuguese patrons. His signed sculpture of St Francis of Assisi (1720; Rome, St Peter’s) was carried out at the expense of the Franciscan José Maria de Fonseca e Evora (1690–c. 1760), the Portuguese plenipotentiary minister to the Holy See. For the series of statues of founders of the various religious orders placed in niches along the central nave and in the transepts of St Peter’s, Rome, Monaldi sculpted St Gaetano da Thiene (signed and dated 1730). On the election of the Corsini Pope Clement XII, Portuguese patrons made almost exclusive use of artists involved in the grand papal projects. Monaldi sent a number of sculptures to Portugal, including St Teresa, St Sebastian, St Vincent, St Elias and St Philip Neri (all 1731–2; Mafra, Pal. N. and Basilica). For the portal of the basilica in Mafra he sculpted a Virgin and Child with St Anthony. With Benedetto Luti, Monaldi was also active in Rome as a teacher at the Portuguese Academy, founded in 1720. In 1736 his Plenty and Magnificence were added to the funerary monument to Clement XII (Rome, S Giovanni in Laterano, Corsini Chapel). The last work by the artist consists of six elegant reliefs with Scenes from the Lives of the Apostles (1743–4; Rome, S Marco), executed as part of the embellishment of the nave in the restored basilica.
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