Sunday, November 18, 2018

Bernini in Rome – Artifacts, Prints, Photographs (I)

Bernardo Fioriti
Bust of Gianlorenzo Bernini
ca. 1660
marble
Philadelphia Museum of Art

François Chéron
Portrait-medal of Gianlorenzo Bernini
(commissioned by Louis XIV)
1674
bronze
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Bust of Pope Paul V Borghese
(commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese)
1621
marble
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

"Gianlorenzo Bernini was just twenty-three years old when he received one of his first commissions – to make a full-sized bust of Pope Paul V, the recently deceased uncle of his most important patron, Cardinal Scipione Borghese.  In this two-and-a-half foot marble portrait, Bernini depicts the pope almost bareheaded, his hair style in the "tonsure of St. Peter" (a practice that signified renunciation of worldly fashion) and dressed in traditional pontifical vestments.  The thick cope covering his shoulders is richly decorated with embroidery of the patron saints of Rome, the Apostles Peter (holding his keys and a book) and Paul (holding th sword of his martyrdom and a book).  While he is robed in the garments of the papacy, Pope Paul V gazes at the viewer with a natural expression, his face individualized by the slight turn of the head, the delicate contours of his forehead and the tiny wrinkles carved around his eyes.  At this time, Bernini is already making the dynamic sculptures for which he will become famous, yet here his subject requires restraint.  The artist's subdued dynamism can best be seen in the folds of drapery at the sitter's left shoulder, suggesting his body moves underneath.  This bust was kept in the Villa Borghese in Rome until 1893 and then sold.  Its whereabouts have been unknown until its rediscovery in late 2014."

– curator's notes from the Getty Museum

Anonymous photographer
Bernini's Rape of Proserpina in Galleria Borghese, Rome
ca. 1875
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Rape of Proserpina
1621-22
marble
Galleria Borghese, Rome

James Anderson
Bernini's Apollo and Daphne in Galleria Borghese, Rome
ca. 1845-55
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Apollo and Daphne
1622-25
marble
Galleria Borghese, Rome

James Anderson
Bernini's David in Galleria Borghese, Rome
ca. 1845-55
albumen silver print
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Gianlorenzo Bernini
David
1623-24
marble
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Francesco Faraone Aquila
Bernini's Vision of Constantine in St Peter's Basilica
ca. 1695-1705
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gianlorenzo Bernini
The Vision of Constantine
1670
marble
St Peter's Basilica, Rome

Giovanni Battista Falda
Bernini's Fontana del Moro, Piazza Navona, Rome
ca. 1691
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Modello for central figure in Fontana del Moro, Piazza Navona, Rome
1653
terracotta
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Paolo Monti
Bernini's Fontana del Moro, Piazza Navona, Rome
1960
photograph
Fondo Paolo Monti