Colossale sentimento

Created in the first half of the 17th century by Francesco Mochi for the Church of San Battesimo dei Fiorentini in Rome, the sculptural group of the Baptism of Christ was refused by the client who commissioned it and never actually installed there. After 400 years of wandering, a group of exceptional technicians undertook to bring this sculpture “home” in 2016, embarking on an adventurous journey of just a few hundred meters through the Roman night, from Palazzo Braschi to the place for which it had always been destined.
While COLOSSALE SENTIMENTO begins with a more documentary approach, Ferraro capturing the workers’ labor and their discussions with the technicians with respectful rigor, it gradually shifts from this realistic description into a dreamlike, surreal mode, revealing the event as an authentic epiphany.
Filmed with terse sobriety, the long sequence in which the statue of St. John the Baptist is temporarily separated from that of Christ to facilitate transportation is poignantly intense; here, as elsewhere, a “colossal sentiment” overwhelms us, allowing a nearly human frailty to emerge from the marble. As the statues advance majestically along the streets of the city, their bodies, illuminated by flashes of light, seem almost to breathe, reminding us of the unspeakable pain of solitude. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

In the presence of Fabrizio Ferraro, Fabio Parente (producer) and Luis Miñarro.