Life and career
Parodi trained in a Genoese family woodcarving workshop and studied Roman sculptural approaches. He directed a substantial workshop serving palaces and churches, later undertaking important commissions beyond Genoa. His career crossed wood, marble and architectural ensembles; identifying workshop participation is essential to understanding how these objects were produced.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
- 01
c. 1670s
View this work at the source
Reference entry · image not reproducedc. 1670s
Allegory of Autumn (Bacchus)
- Material / technique
- Carved poplar, varnished and gilt
- Attribution / role
- Filippo Parodi and workshop
- Collection / source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- 02
c. 1675
c. 1675
Sleeping Christ Child
- Material / technique
- marble
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
Museum catalogue note
Christ—no longer an infant, but a young child—sprawls on a bed of straw, his head thrown back in slumber and his right arm dangling. The simple radiance framing his head indicates his divinity. Representations of the sleeping Christ child were enduringly popular, not only because of the subject’s inherent charm, but sleep, as a metaphor for death, encouraged pious Christians to meditate on Christ’s humanity and his eventual suffering and death. Filippo Parodi’s Sleeping Christ Child beguiles with lifelike detail. Parodi used varying degrees of polish to differentiate surface textures: Christ’s body is burnished to a soft gleam, while his hair and the straw are more roughly carved, absorbing rather than reflecting the light. Parodi exploited the sensuous and tactile possibilities of the marble to enhance the emotional impact of his piece, a tactic learned from the master of Italian Baroque sculpture, Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0 - 03
completed 1683
View this work at the source
Reference entry · image not reproducedcompleted 1683
Tomb of Francesco Morosini
- Material / technique
- Funerary monument
- Attribution / role
- Discussed in the Met’s Parodi catalogue essay; link opens that source, not a separate object record.
- Collection / source
- Church of San Nicolò dei Tolentini, Venice
Compare materials, style and colour
Compare the intimate marble Sleeping Christ with the carved, varnished and gilt Bacchus and the later funerary monument. White stone, treated wood and architectural scale create different experiences of flesh and movement. Bacchus is catalogued with workshop participation; the museum’s discussion of the tomb supplies context rather than a complete object record.
Material
What can this material do? Distinguish a design, an original object and a later impression or cast.
Style
Compare viewpoint, edges, composition and marks. Which choices persist, and which change?
Colour
Compare palette, contrast and light. Consider the support, printing, surface treatment and ageing.
Sources and further reading
Original educational interpretation; catalogue descriptions are separately credited. Each study links to its source. Reference entries without images are not added to the comparison timeline.