An exception is his Christ on the Cross, a bronze model dated 1986, conceived for a new church in Paris: moving, sublime, and admirable in the simplicity and purity of its lines. A remarkable example of modern sacred art that, we hope, will find the place it deserves in “Notre-Dame de l’Arche d’Alliance” at Aleray Z.A.C.! Pierre BRISSET — art critic for the magazine “L’Oeil”.
When he decides to shut out the world and enter the intimacy of his sculptural medium, Tagliazucchi knows what he will bring out of it and present before us with fully justified artistic pride: glimpses of the untouched, the historical, the human. Precisely because they are children of his “sentiment of space”, they are unfettered by codes, dogmas, habits or restrictive rules. His Christ de Aleray (1987) is a perfect example: standing before it, one cannot help feeling in the presence of something completely new. The same subject, intensely glorified in countless ways by thousands of sculptors and artists over the centuries, is suddenly reborn through a uniquely personal and exquisitely intense humanism, coupled — I believe — with a courageous lay sense of religious feeling. Tagliazucchi does not feel the need to dwell on description; he prefers the narrow path — which he then opens into endless plains — of bare essence. By freeing a subject such as the Crucifixion from detailed “circumstances”, he restores to it its full potential for stark drama, amid stifled cries and imperceptible exaltation...
Prof. Ferruccio Battolini, from the preface to the book Tagliazucchi: Impronta di un’emozione
The sculpture of Christ is inscribed within a square whose dimensions establish an equal relationship between the vertical and horizontal axes. It is positioned on the axes formed by the sides of the four central squares of the iconostasis; through their continuity, it becomes the point of convergence and reflection. As the focal point between the place of assembly and the place of sacrifice, this Christ recalls how the Son of God was sent to earth so that his sacrifice could renew the sacred covenant. The first study of Christ dates to 1986, when it was submitted to the “Chantier du Cardinal” competition for the decoration of the church of Notre-Dame de l’Arche de l’Alliance, and won. The church was not built until ten years later, when a further competition was organised by the Paris commission for sacred art for its decoration; the work was again selected by the commission. However, architect Roubin of “Architecture-Studio”, author of the project, opposed its installation in the church, even though his representative on the committee had also voted in favour of it. The work had already been produced at full scale and is currently awaiting a sponsor who can have it realised in aluminium, as originally envisaged. If anyone is interested, please contact me: roberto@tagliazucchi.it