SERPOTTA, GIACOMO

born 1656, Palermo died 1732, Palermo the outstanding member of a family of Italian sculptors and stuccoworkers. His methods for creating the illusion of perspective and his asymmetrical arrangements of two or more independent decorations became basic principles of the system of ornamentation used by German artists of the Rococo period. In Palermo, Giacomo decorated the oratories of San Lorenzo (1690/981706), the oratory of San Zita (16681718), and the oratory of Rosario di San Domenico (171017), as well as the Palermo hospital chapel, the Archbishop's Palace in Santa Chiara, and the Badia Nuova at Alcomo. His statues in San Francesco d'Assisi (1723) appear to be falling from air and not attached to the wall, even though all the figures, cupids, draperies, and garlands are on the same plane as the wall. He is credited with raising Sicilian stuccowork from a craft to an art.