For centuries after the 16th century, the bridge was used to expose the bodies of the executed in the nearby Piazza di Ponte, at the left bridge head. In 1669 Pope Clement IX commissioned replacements for the aging stucco angels by Raffaello da Montelupo, commissioned by Paul III. Bernini's program, one of his last large projects, called for ten angels holding instruments of the Passion: he personally only finished the two originals of the Angel with the Superscription ``I.N.R.I.'' and the Angel with the Crown of Thorns, but these were kept by Clement IX for his own pleasure.
Raffaello da Montelupo
Paul III. Bernini