St. Sixtus

Abstract

The body of this statue of St. Sixtus is modern (created in 1960), whereas the head is all that survives of the 16th C statue, which was commissioned by Mons. Egnazio Danti. The papal tiara, made of gilded silver, dates from the 18th C. The head, made in 1584, was created using repoussé and chasing techniques (hammering sheets of silver from behind to create relief and sculpting fine details with a chisel). The head also contains fragments of Sixtus' skull and thus is a reliquary. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.