Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Bernini's Terracotta Sketches

workshop of Gianlorenzo Bernini
Portrait-head of Bernini
1680s
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

The portrait head of Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was produced in the decade after his death by members of his busy and loyal Roman workshop. It eventually made its way to Russia and the Hermitage, along with other studio material. The bozzetto was a small terracotta model or sketch used by sculptors like Bernini to work out the forms to be rendered later on a larger scale in marble or bronze. A collection of these bozzetti in Saint Petersburg gives an immediate and vivid impression of the swirling spirals Bernini elaborated as a preliminary to each commission.

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Tritons with Dolphins
ca. 1653
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Torso of Pluto
ca. 1621-22
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Torso of Neptune
1622
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Angel
before 1680
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Angel
ca. 1670-75
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Abduction of Proserpine
before 1680
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Prophet Habbakuk and Angel
before 1680
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Daniel in the Lion's Den
before 1680
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
St Ambrose
ca. 1657
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Ecstasy of St Teresa
1640s
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni
ca. 1672
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
David
1623
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gianlorenzo Bernini
Constantine the Great
ca. 1662-63
terracotta
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

"Architects who say, 'I don't think I can or should control the whole environment' are usually in fact claiming control. Rather than simply accepting any interference to their vision that might occur, they insist upon indeterminacy or incompletion to regain control of those zones that elude them. They label them as danger or pleasure zones  red light districts, in a sense. And, of course, red light districts are never all that dangerous; usually they are highly regulated and predictable. If you study the work of these architects, you will find no gaps. Every potential gap is labeled 'gap' and thereby brought back into line. Incompletion is an aesthetic. It is a design choice, and a good choice for many designers."

– from Whatever Happened to Total Design? by Mark Wigley (1998)