Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
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Visible Spirit
The Art of
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Vol. I
Irving Lavin
Printed by
Estudios Grficos ZURE
48950 Erandio
Spain
Contents
Foreword
II
15
III
33
IV
62
186
VI
Berninis Death
287
VII
VIII
354
371
IX
376
393
XI
397
XII
469
XIII
480
XIV
496
XV
509
XVI
524
Lavin I. Revised:CHAPTER 24
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Review of Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque,
New York, Phaidon, 1955, pp. 255, 107, Figs., 122 Pls.
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level of visual experience, dipping only when necessary into the infinite
subtleties that lie beneath. He is thus ever-cognizant of the uninitiated, for
whom he also defines with refreshing lucidity the peculiar visual and
ideological terms in which Berninis art must be understood.
The first chapter concerns Berninis juvenilia. Discussion of these works
is always crucial, since in them Bernini perpetrated his very first revolution;
namely, that of resurrecting, before he was twenty-five, the entire moribund
tradition of Roman sculpture. The need for a new general account of
Berninis youthful development has been rendered urgent in recent years by
the researches of Italo Faldi, in the Borghese collection of the Vaticans
Archivio Segreto; these findings have necessitated several conspicuous modifications in the canonical chronology of the Borghese figures. The most
notable change involves the David; instead of 1619, as had been thought
since Venturis day, it must actually have been made ca. 1623, and thus
comes after rather than before the Rape of Proserpine. The Apollo and
Daphne, moreover, is not several years after the David, but contemporary
with it, begun before and finished afterward. Once the point has been
made, it becomes difficult to see how the Pluto and Proserpine could ever
have been considered later than the David, so natural is the development in
the opposite direction. Indeed, the entire evolution represented by the
Borghese sculptures becomes much more meaningful, a fact which emerges
clearly from Professor Wittkowers account.
Bernini advanced during this period with prodigious rapidity. In the few
years that separate the Aeneas and Anchises from the Rape of Proserpine, he had
already fought and won a major engagement. Accurate realistic observation and
genuine classical influence subordinated to Annibales disciplined interpretation
of the antique that was the formula by which Bernini rid his style of the last
vestiges of Mannerism. A certain optimum is reached almost immediately thereafter in the David, where the thin but impenetrable veil of consciousness that had
separated representation from reality falls, and the two worlds freely intermingle.
This quality is less pronounced in the Apollo and Daphne, (initiated, be it
remembered, before the David ), but is replaced by a keener penetration of
psychophysical dynamics which contrasts with the classicizing abstraction of the
whole, and points unmistakably into the future. Wittkower summarizes Berninis
achievements in these early works in one splendid sentence which bespeaks the
essence of his own contributions during a lifetime of thought, as well as the
insights gained by a major segment of art-historical endeavour during the past
fifty years (p. 8).
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Faldi, Galleria Borghese, Le sculture dal secolo XVI al XIX, Rome, 1954, p. 28.
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rather than Wittkowers change in structure, and moving in a very different direction from that of classicism.2
In the catalogue, as we have noted, the detailed entries on portraits are
particularly valuable. The multitude of objects of this type blessed with
Berninis name in museums and collections throughout the world make
for a perplexing state of affairs, which Wittkower has done much to
clarify. Indeed, a number of recent efforts to connect existing monuments
with statements in the sources have yielded gratifying results. We should
maintain only a few reservations as to the extent of the masters participation. For example, the animated countenance of the early bust of Urban
VIII in the Barberini collection (cat. no. 19, I, Pl. 32) indicates that
Bernini was in the vicinity; but the expression itself has a trace of fatuousness, hardly compatible with his later conception of that magnificent
Pope. Moreover, the somewhat textureless skin and vapid eyes recall the
portrait of Urban without cap in S. Lorenzo in Fonte (cat. no. 19, 1a, Fig.
16), where Wittkower recognizes the hand of Giulio Finelli. The bust of
Francesco Barberini now in Washington (cat. no. 24a, Fig. 27), while it
has a finely structured head, is uneven technically and somehow lacks the
expressive imaginativeness of works entirely by Bernini. The Doria
portrait of Innocent X (cat. no., 51, 2, Pl. 79) employs one of Berninis
devices for vitalizing the lower portions of his busts. He may therefore
have been responsible for the basic design, and perhaps certain areas of
the surface as well. Otherwise, the effect seems too bland, especially for a
product of the later 1640s. Works such as these, despite unusual qualities
and excellent references, cannot be equated with Berninis best portrayals.
It must be said in general, however, that a liberal policy in this realm is
probably much the wisest until more extensive studies have been made of
the individual members of Berninis studio.
A later bust of Urban VIII in the Barberini collection (cat. no. 19, 2a,
Pl. 35, Fig. 17), on the other hand, is an extremely moving characterization,
though here exception may be taken to Wittkowers suggested dating (about
1630). One of the two related bronze casts (in Camerino) is documented
1643; and since the execution, the mood and age of the sitter are all closely linked to the bust of Urban in Spoleto (16401642), there is no
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compelling reason to assume that the marble original and the other bronze
(Vatican Library) were produced more than a decade before.3
Concerning the composition of Time discovering Truth, of which only
the figure of Truth was executed, it is often overlooked that the two descriptions we have of Berninis intentions directly contradict each other. The
earlier, and evidently the correct version, is contained in a letter of
November 30, 1652, from Gemignano Poggi to Francesco I of Modena,
where it is reported that Time was to be flying above to unveil Truth, who
lay upon a rock (Fraschetti, p. 172). Years later, on the other hand, Bernini
himself told Louis XIV that Time was to carry Truth up to the heavens
(Chantelou, ed. Lalanne, p. 116). The former situation is found, roughly,
in a sketch in Leipzig (Brauer-Wittkower, Pl. 20) and is implied in the work
that has come down to us, though that particular drawing may not
actually be a study for it. The arrangement Bernini describes, however, reverts essentially to the way in which the subject had been represented by
painters in the first half of the century. In this fashion, for example,
Domenichino had depicted Time unveiling Truth on the Apollo ceiling of
the Palazzo Costaguti (ca. 1615, cf. L. Serra, Domenichino, Fig. 43). Also
interesting is the canvas for a ceiling in Richelieus palace executed by
Poussin shortly before he left Paris in 1642 (cf. Grautoff, Poussin, II, Pl.
106). Presumably Bernini knew of the composition, and it may well have
influenced the false and rather fantastic account of his own work that he
gave to the French king.
Wittkowers interpretation of the documents pertaining to the Ponte
SantAngelo is ingenious. The problem centres upon four statues, two now
in S. Andrea delle Fratte by Bernini himself, and two copies which stand
on the bridge. Wittkower makes a virtue of necessity in reconciling the usually reliable sources (Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini) which report that
Bernini was surreptitiously responsible for a second version of the Angel
with the Inscription, with the preserved payment to Giulio Cartari for that
figure. We must assume that on two occasions artists were paid the full
complement of 700 scudi (which the other sculptors received for their figures entire) for merely preparing the marble, which Bernini then finished.
Yet this hypothesis does less violence than most to a perverse group of facts
for which no consistent theory seems able to give a fully satisfying
Cf. V. Martintelli, Studi romani, III, I, 1955, p. 46; further to Bernini portraiture, idem,
I busti berniniani di Paolo V, Gregorio XV e Clemente X, III, 6, 1955, pp. 647666.
3
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that figure was completed only after both the copy (doc. no. 3) and the original (doc. no, 4) of the Angel with the Crown had been finished, and even
after Cartari had prepared the second version of Angel with the Inscription
(doc. no. 5). This would make it entirely understandable, chronologically
speaking, that the Cartari-Bernini substitute should include features which
are antecedent to Berninis final solution for the pair. In any case, it appears
that both substitutes were begun before their respective originals were finished. Indeed one begins to wonder how seriously it was ever intended to
mount Berninis angels on the bridge, at least in their present form. They
are so highly finished, much more so than the other figures on the bridge,
as to raise a priori the doubt that Bernini would have gone so far at a time
when he was still expecting them to be placed in the open.
The book is practically free of minor errors or omissions, as far as this
reviewer can judge. Worth mentioning perhaps are only the fact that the
fragmentary terracotta head in a Roman private collection (cat. no. 18, p.
184), originally published as being for the Daphne (Colasanti, Bollettino
darte, III, 1923/4, pp. 416 ff.), is actually related to the head of Proserpine
(indicated by the tears, ibid., Fig. p. 418, printed in reverse; E. Zocca, Arti
figurative, 1, 1945, p. 158); and that Berninis designs for the fountains at
Sassuolo, carried out by Raggi in part, are rather precisely datable, August
1652 (cat. no. 8o, 6, p. 243; cf. Fraschetti, p. 229, n. 2 and 3).
A word must be said concerning the illustrations. With 122 full-size plates
and 98 supporting illustrations inserted into the catalogue, the work gives
one of the richest visual documentations of Berninis sculpture presently
available. The publishers rendered noble service by having made a goodly
number of new photograph; these on the whole are excellent, and contribute
substantially to an illustrational problem which, as everybody recognizes,
only a corpus of several volumes could adequately solve. The details
especially are striking (e.g. Pls. 6, 39, 53, 88, 114), and exploit with real
sensitivity Berninis textural and chiaroscuro nuances. Unfortunately,
however, the whole series appears to have been subjected to a process of
reproduction which fairly pulverizes the surfaces and eliminates plastic
modulations. The effects in many cases are hardly noticeable, but in others
they are very damaging indeed (e.g. Pls. 3, 9, 35, 61). Reproductions are
never perfect, and a certain amount of touching-up was unavoidable, even
excusable; except in one instance where, surely through an oversight, the
restorers pencil marks were left blatantly in evidence (Pl. 8, around the
eyes). The publishers might have taken greater care to maintain their own
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II
HERE was one art form in which the use of a variety of media and the
effect of unity were, as we tend to assume, inherent that is, the
theater.1 For anyone wishing to understand Berninis artistic personality as
a whole, his activity in the theater presents one of the most beguiling problems. From all accounts, and there are many, it is clear that he spent much
time and energy throughout his life producing, writing and acting in plays,
designing sets and inventing ingenious scenic effects. Beginning in the early
1630s, during Carnival season, he would either stage something for one of
his patrons or, more regularly, put on a comedy of his own.2 John Evelyn
was awed during his visit to Rome in 1644, when he learned and noted in
his diary that shortly before his arrival Bernini had given a Publique Opera
. . . where in he painted the seanes, cut the Statues, invented the Engines,
composed the Musique, writ the Comedy & built the Theater all himselfe.3 These efforts were extremely successful and to judge from the
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artists conversations in Paris in 1665, which are full of anecdotes about his
productions he was ingenuously proud of his accomplishments. Bernini
was passionately involved in the world of the stage.
From a broader historical point of view, as well, Berninis theatrical
activities are of extraordinary importance. He lived through a decisive
period in the creation of the opera, not only as a musical and dramatic but
also as a visual art form. Although he had had many predecessors as artistscenographer (not so many as artist-playwright and artist-actor), it is with
Bernini that the relationship between art and theater becomes a critical
question. The epithet Baroque theatricality has often been leveled at his
work in general and the Teresa chapel in particular, implying a kind of
meretricious stagecraftiness that transfers formal and expressive devices
from the domain of ephemeral and artificial to that of permanent and serious arts, where they have no proper business. It might almost be said that
our view of the whole period, as well as of the artist himself, has been colored by Berninis activity in the theater.4
Yet, it is evident from our analysis that there is not a single device in the
chapel which can be explained only by reference to the theater; every detail
the so-called audience in boxes, the so-called hidden lighting, the socalled stage-space of the altarpiece, the so-called dramatic actions of the
figures, the mixture of media every detail has roots in the prior development of the permanent visual arts. Nevertheless, the very conception of the
Teresa chapel involves a reference to the theater, and this is what chiefly distinguishes it from Berninis other works. The reference is not in the form of
borrowed scenic devices, however, but in the form of a deliberate evocation
of Berninis own very special conception of what occurred in the theater.
It must be borne in mind that we actually know very little about
Berninis productions. Historians have generally been content to repeat the
more spectacular instances of his scenographic wizardry, while neglecting
many other references and descriptions in the sources.5 It is also unfortu4 The
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nately true that until recently nothing Bernini created for the theater had
been known at first hand. A drawing once thought to be a design by him
for a stage set is now generally ascribed to Juvarra.6 Bernini was long credited with the sets for the famous Barberini operatic production of the early
1630s, SantAlessio, recorded in a group of eight engravings by Collignon
(cf. Fig. 1); but from the documents in the Barberini archive in the Vatican,
it appears that Bernini had no share in this production.7 Nevertheless,
because of the astonishment expressed by contemporaries and his association willy-nilly with this and other Barberini extravaganzas, Bernini
came to be regarded as a major figure in the development of the Baroque
machine spectacle.
This was surely not the case. To begin with, Berninis name can be
attached firmly to only two of the important Barberini operas during Urban
For a recent general treatment, see C. Molinari, Le nozze degli di: Un saggio sul grande
spettacolo italiano nel seicento, Rome, 1968, 10520.
6 Brauer and Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 33f., pl. 15. Cf. A. E. Brinckmann, I disegni,
in Comitato per le onoranze a Filippo Juvarra, Filippo Juvarra, 1, Turin, 1937, 146, 162;
Battaglia, Cattedra, 119, n. 2; L. Grassi, Bernini pittore, Rome, 1945, 48, 59, n. 1.
7 The attribution to Bernini (which seems to occur first in G. Martucci, Salvator Rosa
nel personaggio di Formica, Nuova antologia di scienze, lettere ed arti, LXXXIII, 1885, 648)
never had any basis in fact. To begin with, a monogram that appears in the corner of one
state of the Collignon engravings (Il S. Alessio: Dramma musicale . . ., Rome, 1634, BV,
Stamp. Barb. N. XIII. 199) was misconstrued as referring to Bernini (by F. Clementi, Il carnevale romano, 2 vols., Citt di Castello, 19389 [first ed. 1899], 1, 473, and again by A.
Schiavo, A proposito dei Disegni inediti di G. L. Bernini e di L. Vanvitelli di A. Schiavo,
Palladio, N.S., IV, 1954, 90). Then Fraschetti (Bernini, 261) quite gratuitously interpolated
Berninis name into the account of the performance given in Giacinto Giglis Diario romano
(ed. G. Ricciotti, Rome, 1958, 140); no such reference occurs in the manuscripts of the
diary (Rome, Bibl. Vittorio Emanuele, MS.811, fol. 139v [autograph]; BV, MS. Vat. lat.
8717, 141; San Pietro in Vincoli, MS.147).
The monogram, by analogy with Franois Collignons own initials as they appear in the
opposite corner of the engravings, should probably be read as F.B.; payment was made to
the painter Francesco Buonamici for unspecified work on the production of 1634 (BV, AB,
Armadio 100, Giustificazioni Nos. 17512000, Card. Francesco Barberini, 16324, No.
1907; cf. Arm. 86, Libro Mastro B, Card. Francesco, 16304, 346).
A possible reading is P.B.; Pietro Berrettini da Cortona made some small pieces of
scenery and the Eye of the Demon for the 1632 production (ibid., Arm. 155, Alfabeto di
entrata e uscita della guardarobba, Card. Antonio, 1632, fol. I45r: A di 18 feb.ro 1632.
Lenzoli portati p. servitio della Representatione . . . Dati al Sig.r Pietro Cor.na lenzoli due
. . . E pi dato al Sig.r pietro lenzole n.o 1 . . . E Pi dati al Sig.r Pietro p. servitio della
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VIIIs reign. In the famous Fiera di Farfa intermezzo of the 1639 version of
Chi soffre speri, he recreated on stage a bustling country fair with live
animals, the garden of the Barberini palace itself with passing carriages and
a ball game, and a sunrise and sunset.8 In the 1641 production of
Linnocenza difesa, for which Bernini was indirectly responsible, the sunset
was repeated, and one scene included a fireworks display over a view of
Castel SantAngelo.9
Rep.ne due lenzoli . . . E pi dato al Sig.re Pietro tre Canne di tela di fare impanate cio se
ne servi per li lanternoni ch segnevano Ochi Ca.ne 3; fol. 44.v: A di 28 detto [February]
1632. Lenzoli usate uscite da Ga.ba p. ser.tio della Rep.ne date al Sig.r Pietro da Cortona n.o
cinque ... de quali ne fu fatto alcuni pezzi di scene piccole . . . Tela quatretto uscita di Gar.ba
per servitio della Rep.ne di S. Alesio Canne tre cio date al Sig.r Pietro da Cortona de che
ne fece li Ochio del Demonio); but the style of the sets in the engravings scarcely supports
an attribution to Cortona (proposed by M. Fagiolo dellArco, Lo spettacolo barocco, Storia
dellarte, Nos. 12, 1969, 229).
8 An important breakthrough, which confirms the attribution of the Fiera di Farfa
intermezzo to Bernini, was the discovery of his record of accounts for the work among the
documents of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, by F. Hammond, Girolamo Frescobaldi and a
Decade of Music in the Casa Barberini: 16341643, Analecta musicologica, XIX, 1979, 94124.
On Chi soffre speri, see A. Ademollo, I teatri di Roma nel secolo decimosettimo, Rome,
1888, 28ff. Subsequent bibliography will be found in S. Reiner, Collaboration in Chi soffre
speri, The Music Review, XXII, 1961, 26582; additional sources in Clementi, Carnevale, 1,
483f; M. L. Pietrangeli Chanaz, Il teatro barberiniano, unpub. diss., University of Rome,
1968, 11428 and unpaginated appendix of documents; M. K. Murata, Operas for the Papal
Court with Texts by Giulio Rospigliosi, unpub. diss., University of Chicago, 1975, 3168. The
sunrise and sunset are mentioned by H. Tetius, Aedes barberinae ad Quirinalem, Rome,
1642, 35; on this motif, see p. 151, n. 17 below.
It is tempting but probably incorrect to identify the Fiera di Farfa with the comedy
called La fiera staged by Bernini for Cardinal Antonio Barberini (Bernini, 55; cf. Baldinucci,
150), since neither the text nor the descriptions of the former mention the false fire that
highlighted the latter (see below).
9 Berninis role in the 1641 production of Linnocenza difesa emerges from several as yet
unpublished sources. A questa comedia h fatte due vedute di lontan.za il nipote di Mon.re
fausto gi diventato ingegniere di machine sceniche in pochi giorni, e sono luna, il sole
cadente del Bernino, quale si p[...?] da tutti allem.o non haverci parte nessuna ben che visibilm.te ci assista, e la seconda la ved.ta della girandola presa da monte cavallo creduta da
S. em.a p. inventione del s.r nipote: alla quale credenza il linguacciuto dice haver cooperato
che in d.e machine tutta la spesa h fatto mons.re fausto (from a letter by Ottaviano Castelli
to Mazarin, February 1, 1641, Paris, Ministre des affaires trangres, Archives diplomatiques, Correspondance politique, Rome, MS.73, fol. 187v, from which another passage was
excerpted by H. Prunires, Lopera italien en France avant Lulli, Paris, 1913, 26, n. 2). La
comedia . . . riusc isquisitam.te; massime nelle scene, che allusanza del Cav.r Bernino fecero
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19
For the most part, the scenes of the Barberini productions were not
done by stage designers at all, but by artists, mainly painters, who were primarily employed by the family in other tasks: Andrea Camassei, Giovanni
Francesco Romanelli, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Andrea Sacchi. Apart
from the Medici court spectacles in Florence staged by Giulio Parigi and his
son Alfonso, the main line of evolution of Italian scenography was North
Italian. There a great tradition emerged in the early seventeenth century, in
Ferrara and Bologna with Giovanni Battista Aleotti and his successors
Francesco Guitti and Alfonso Chenda, in Venice with Giuseppe Alabardi
and Giovanni Burnacini, culminating in the work of the grande stregone
of High Baroque stage design, Giacomo Torelli.10 These men made stage
design and theater architecture a full-time, professional occupation, and it
is nave to ascribe to Bernini rather than to them the leading role in the
development of Baroque stage technology.
The truth is that Bernini did not really have much use for elaborate
contraptions. He ridiculed them as too slow and cumbersome. The secret,
he said, is to avoid doing things that will not succeed perfectly. He recommended a stage no more than twenty-four feet deep, and advised against
scenes that could be seen from only one point. What pleased him was that
his successes had been achieved with productions staged in his own house,
vedere lontananze maravigliose (Avviso di Roma, February 2, 1641, Rome, Bibl. Corsini,
MS.1733, fol. 109, found and transcribed by Pietrangeli Chanaz, Teatro, unpaginated documents; also Murata, Operas, 362); . . . con Intermedij apparenti et specialmente questo
Castello SantAngelo tutto circondato di lumi, facendo la Girandola, come si f la Festa de
Santi Pietro, et Paolo Apostoli (Avviso, February 2, 1641, ibid., MS.1735, fols. 15v and f.,
Pietrangeli Chanaz, Teatro, Murata, Operas, 362). See now also M. K. Murata,
Rospigliosiana ovvero: Gli equivoci innocenti, Studi musicali, IV, 1975 (publ. 1978),
13143. On the Castel Sant Angelo fireworks, see p. 151, n. 17 below.
The sets of II palazzo dAtlante, 1642, attributed to Bernini by Baldinucci and
Domenico Bernini, were actually by Andrea Sacchi; cf. the letters of the eyewitness
Ottaviano Castelli to Mazarin (H. Prunires, Les rpresentations du Palazzo dAtlante
Rome [1642], Sammelbnde der internationalen Musik-Gesellschaft, XIV, 19123, 219ff.),
the Avvisi di Roma (G. Canevazzi, Di tre melodrammi del secolo XVII, Modena, 1904, 44ff.),
and payments to Sacchi in March 1642 in conto delle spese p. le scene della comedia (BV,
AB, Arm. 76, Libro Mastro C, Card. Antonio Barberini, 163644, p. 342).
10 The picture of this whole period has been very much enlarged and enriched in recent
years by the pioneering researches of Elena Povoledo, in many publications, including
numerous articles in the Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, and by Per Bjurstrms monograph
Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design, Stockholm, 1961 (Nationalmusei Skriftserie, 7).
On Guittis work as a theater architect, see Lavin, Lettres.
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14 Cf. the title of a treatise on the technical problems of controlling the river, O.
Castelli, Della inondatione del Tevere, Rome, 1608.
15 Lea, Comedy, I, pp. 322ff.; cf. F. Neri, La commedia in commedia, Mlanges dhistoire littraire gnrale et compare offerts Fernand Baldensperger, 2 vols., Paris, 1930, II, pp.
l30ff. See further below, p. 29, n. 27.
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22
In Berninis comedy called The Fair (before 1645), a Carnival float was
shown returning from the celebration.16 One of the revelers carrying a torch
accidentally set fire to the scenery. The audience, thinking the theater was
about to burn down, scrambled for the exit. At the height of the confusion
the scene suddenly changed, and when the spectators looked, the fire had
disappeared and the stage had become a delightful garden. Here, Bernini
profited from the sophisticated devices of theatrical pyrotechnics that had
been developed especially for hell scenes, long a part of great court spectacles (Fig. 1).17
One certainly must not underestimate the significance of pure
spectacle for Bernini. It is essential to realize, however, that his secret lay not
in lavishness or complex engineering, but in the way he used the techniques
of illusion. When Francesco Guitti flooded the Farnese theater, it was for a
marine performance in the middle of the arena; when Bernini did his trick,
the water was on stage and threatened to spill out over the spectators.
(Guittis was no doubt a far more ambitious engineering feat.) When
Bernini adopted the play-within-a-play formula, he created the impression
that the two plays were going on simultaneously, confronting the audience
with duplicate actors and a duplicate theater and audience as well. Berninis
fire was not presented as part of the play in a scene of hell; in a feigned
accident with the torch held by the actor, it threatened to burn down the
theater itself. Clearly, it was by means of these sudden thrusts into the mind
and heart of the spectator accomplished without elaborate machinery
that Bernini created his wonderful effects.
16
See p. 18, n. 8 above. A terminus ad quem is provided by the fact that when Bernini
described the production in Paris in 1665, the Abbot Francesco Buti says he had been present; by 1645 Buti, who was secretary to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, had left Rome for Paris
(cf. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 15 vols., Kassel, etc., 194973, II, cols. 532f.).
The comedies previously mentioned are dated by contemporary descriptions.
17 Fig. 1 is the hell scene from Il S. Alessio, 1634, pl. 2. On hell scenes generally, cf.
Bemmann, Bhnenbeleuchtung, 24ff., 92ff., I07ff. The treatise of Nicola Sabbattini, which
certainly does not represent the most advanced technique of its day, even contains a chapter
titled Come si possa dimostrare che tutta la scena arda. Another of Sabbattinis chapters,
Come si possa fare apparire che tutta la scena si demolisca, shows that Bernini did not
invent the trick for his comedy (1638) in which a house collapsed on stage (N. Sabbattini,
Pratica di fabricar scene, e machine ne teatri, Ravenna, 1638, ed. E. Povoledo, Rome, 1955,
70f.).
For the depiction on stage of the Castel SantAngelo fireworks display, which Bernini
evidently introduced in 1641 (p. 18 and n. 9 above), see the comments on Giovanni
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23
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24
Francesco Grimaldis replica for the 1656 production of La vita humana, in W. Witzenmann,
Die rmische Barockoper La Vita humana ovvero il trionfo della piet, Analecta musicologica, XV, 1975, I75f. On Berninis pyrotechnical style, see E. Povoledo, Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, lelefante e i fuochi artificiali, Rivista italiana di musicologia, X, 1975, 499518.
Berninis sunrises and sunsets (see p. 18 above) belonged in a tradition that went back
at least to Serlio (Architettura, Venice, 1566, bk. II, 64; cf. Bemmann, Bhnenbeleuchtung,
71ff, 99f., 110f.). The sunrise mentioned by Baldinucci (151) and Domenico Bernini (56f.;
cf. also Chantelou, 116) must date before 1643, since Louis XIII, who died in that year,
requested a model.
The treatise of Sabbattini and the relevant portion of that of Serlio have been translated
in B. Hewitt, ed., The Renaissance Stage: Documents of Serlio, Sabbattini and Furttenbach,
Coral Gables, Fla., 1958.
18 The text, preserved in a manuscript in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris, was published by DOnofrio, Fontana. The play is written in a scribes hand, without title, in a fascicule inscribed, Fontana di Trevi MDCXLII, originally intended as a ledger of accounts for
work on the fountain. Only a few entries were made, however, the latest of which dates from
April 1643 (DOnofrio [28] through a lapsus gives August 1643 for the last entry in the
ledger). Scene two of the second act contains an anti-Spanish jibe that DOnofrio feels
would not have been written under the Hispanophile Innocent X; and since Urban VIII died
in July of 1644, the most plausible assumption is that the play was intended for the Carnival
season of that year. The manuscript copy cannot have been used for performance, since it
contains a number of lacunae and errors; moreover, the third act is exceedingly short (only
two scenes) and the ending seems not a proper denouement at all.
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25
make a show of wealth. The plan is to obtain 1000 scudi from a mysterious
stranger, Alidoro, who will pay that amount to see Gratianos marvelous
stage effects. Cinthio tells Gratiano that the prince has ordered him to do a
comedy. Gratiano resists, but is finally persuaded by his maidservant
Rosetta (with whom he has a flirtation). Gratiano tells Rosetta the plot he
has devised: a certain Dottor Gratiano is enamored of his maidservant,
named Rosetta. Gratiano is married, but his wife is un pezz de carnaccia
vecchia che s di rancido che appesta.19 Gratiano will try to accommodate
the situation by making use of Rosetta, in anticipation of his wifes demise,
to have a child. In a remarkable conversation between the real Dottor
Gratiano and his imaginary self, the latter scolds the former roundly for
having such dirty thoughts (sporchi pensieri). The second act includes a
brilliant scene in which, at a trial lowering of the cielo (sky), the mechanism fails to perform adequately. Gratiano expresses his dissatisfaction
vehemently, making two canonically Baroque esthetic pronouncements:
that stage machines are supposed to amaze people, not amuse them; and
that invention, design (linzegn, el desegn) is the magic art that fools the
eye so as to cause astonishment. Alidoro, we learn in the third act, is himself a producer of plays who also acts in them and paints the scenes. With
Zanni, Dottor Gratianos manservant, as an accomplice, he dons a disguise
in which he will be employed to assist with the preparations and thus learn
Gratianos techniques. The manuscript comes to an end as Cochetto, a
French scene painter, is about to put Alidoro to work.
The play, thus, is basically a conventional commedia dellarte farce,
with conventional commedia dellarte characters who speak informally and
often spicily in conventional commedia dellarte dialects. Dottor Gratiano
is certainly Bernini himself, a man of genius and fame, from whom jealous
competitors would seek to pilfer what they imagine to be the secrets of his
success. He is reluctant to do the comedy because of the taxing creative
effort and time involved: These are things that require the whole man, and
much time, he says (sien cos che rezercan tutt lhom e molto tempo).20
In a funny but touching moment, Gratiano even refers to the agony of
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artistic creation, confessing that the hardest thing is to find a subject (la
mazzor difficult l l trovar un sozzet). He also wants people kept away
from the preparations, not in order to prevent his ideas from being stolen,
but because advance knowledge will spoil their effects (e si quand si sann
non son pi belle).
The plot again evidendy refers to the play-within-a-play motif, but here
Bernini forsakes the normal convention by not showing the inner play at
all, only the preparations for it. Thus Berninis is not strictly a play that contains a play, but a play about the creation of a play. The inner play, therefore, instead of being merely an episode within the main plot, becomes itself
part of the subject of the comedy, or rather the preparations for it do; the
levels of illusion completely interpenetrate. When the characters being created for the inner play turn out to be, in part, duplicates of those in the
main plot the chief character of the main play actually holding a conversation with his fictitious self still further links are added to the
chain.21
If all this seems very literary, it should be emphasized that the ultimate
point of the play was visual. Its chief purpose, surely, was to give scope to
the beautiful notion of having Gratiano try out stage devices that do not
perform to his satisfaction. Thus a scene that functions badly becomes the
perfect illusion. Moreover, since the sets need only fail, the trick could be
done with tre baiocchi and it also fulfilled Berninis requirement not to try
anything that could not be done convincingly. One is very tempted to see
in this plot the bella idea for a comedy, mentioned by Baldinucci and
Domenico Bernini, in which Bernini would have shown all the errors that
occur in manipulating stage machinery, together with the means for their
correction.22
The comedy permits two further observations that are of interest. It has
been assumed that Bernini did not really write plays, but that his comedies
were improvised in the pure commedia dellarte tradition.23 The topicality
21
Compare Andreinis Lo schiavetto (eds. Milan, 1612, Venice, 1620), in which one of
the characters proposes his own love intrigue, retaining the real names of the participants,
as the theme for a comedy (ed. Venice, 1620, 197f.; cf. Lea, Comedy, I, 323).
22 Baldinucci, 151; Bernini, 57.
23 I. Balboni, Le commedie di Gian Lorenzo Bernini e un diario francese del seicento,
Rivista di cultura, III, 1922, 231ff.; but see the remarks of C. Molinari, Note in margine
allattivit teatrale di G. L. Bernini, Critica darte, IX, No. 52, 1962, 57ff.
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of the wit, the repetition of successful tricks in different contexts, and above
all the impression one gets from the sources of an extraordinary liveliness in
the recitation, all seem to point in this direction. The conclusion is, however, profoundly misconceived. We know Bernini worked his assistants
mercilessly in preparing his productions, and that he would himself act out
all the parts for them, so as to make sure they performed exactly as he
wished. We know from the very gist of the play about Dottor Gratiano that
Bernini was a perfectionist in the matter of scenic effects. Finally, the manuscript itself distinguishes Berninis method from pure commedia dellarte,
where the plot was merely outlined in brief scenarios. Bernini wrote out the
parts completely. It could hardly be maintained that improvisation was forbidden in Berninis productions, but there can be no doubt that here, as in
his other works, the effect of immediacy and freedom was planned and calculated down to the last detail. A second, equally significant point is that
there is not the slightest hint from any source that Bernini ever intended to
put his theatrical activity into permanent form by publishing the texts of his
plays or prints of his sets. This fact alone would prevent our placing him in
a class with real hommes du mtier like Andreini or Torelli. The same fact
also makes it clear that his achievements in the theater were among the most
deeply rooted and spontaneous products of his creative spirit.
Considering the evidence as a whole, one is struck by the fact that,
without exception, the startling illusionistic conceits described in the
sources can be dated to the period of little more than a decade between the
early 1630s, when Bernini became interested in the theater, and the late
1640s (though his theatrical activity continued long afterward). Moreover,
the accounts suggest that the appeal of the earliest comedies was due primarily to their element of social satire, whereas in subsequent examples and
especially in the extant comedy, the overlapping spheres of reality are the
main fascination. There are important gaps in the evidence and, certainly,
pungent dialogue did not cease to lend spice to Berninis comedies. Yet the
shift in emphasis that seems to emerge from the sources probably does
reflect an actual development parallel to the increased complexity and
underlying unity of illusion we discerned in Berninis other work during the
same period, culminating in the Teresa chapel.
Perhaps Berninis secret will now have become clear. Upon the illusion
normally expected in the theater he superimposed another illusion that was
unexpected, and in which the audience was directly involved. The spectator, in an instant, became an actor, conscious of himself as an active, if dis-
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24 On the theatrum mundi, see the seminal chapter in E. R. Curtius, European Literature
and the Latin Middle Ages, New York and Evanston, 1953 (first ed. 1948), 13844, and the
article by R. Bernheimer, Theatrum Mundi, The Art Bulletin, XXXVIII, 1956, 22547; further, F. J. Warnke, The World as Theatre: Baroque Variations on a Traditional Topos, in
B. Fabian and U. Suerbaum, eds., Festschrift fr Edgar Mertner, Munich, 1969,185200; F.
A. Yates, Theatre of the World, London, 1969, esp. 164f. A vast collection of material will be
found in M. Costanzo, Il gran theatro del mondo: Schede per lo studio delliconografia letteraria nellet del manierismo, Milan, 1964, 746. The idea has been brought to bear in the
interpretation of Berninis St. Peters colonnade, by Kitao, Circle, 226.
25 The variety of uses is best gauged from the citations in Costanzo, Theatro; for some
applications in architecture, see K. Schwager, Kardinal Pietro Aldobrandinis Villa di
Belvedere in Frascati, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr Kunstgeschichte, IXX, 19612, 37982; Kitao,
Circle, 19ff. On the art of memory and the theater, Bernheimer, Theatrum, 22531; F. A.
Yates, The Art of Memory, Chicago, 1966, l29ff, 320ff.
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29
26 Corollaries in theater history for the kind of unity discussed here are the development of the box theater with proscenium arch (see p. 93 above) and the development of stage
sets with symmetrical, continuous andby the mid-seventeenth centuryclosed structures
(for a convenient survey, see Mancini et al., Illusione).
27 The literature on the play-within-a-play is vast, although there is still no comprehensive treatment of the theme; for recent studies and further bibliography, see besides Neri,
Commedia, R. J. Nelson, Play within a Play: The Dramatists Conception of His Art,
Shakespeare to Anouilh, New Haven, 1958; A. Brown, The Play within a Play: An
Elizabethan Dramatic Device, Essays and Studies, XIII, 1960, 3648; D. Mehl, Forms and
Functions of the Play within a Play, Renaissance Drama, VIII, 1965, 4161; R. W. Witt,
Mirror within a Mirror: Ben Jonson and the Play-within, Salzburg, 1975 (Salzburg Studies in
English Literature, No. 46); L. Maranini, ed., La commedia in commedia: Testi del seicento
francese, Rome, 1974.
28 DOnofrio, Fontana, 66.
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30
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31
As the Teresa chapel itself was Berninis metaphor for heaven, so the
fusion of the arts and the unity of the whole were his metaphor for divine
creation.31 In the end, perhaps the great achievement of the Teresa chapel is
just this awareness of creation it provokes.
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32
Bemmann, J., Die Bhnenbeleuchtung vom geistlichen Spiel bis zur frhen Oper als
Mittel knstlerischer Illusion, diss., Leipzig, 1933.
Bernheimer, R., Theatrum Mundi, The Art Bulletin, XXXVIII, 1956, 22547.
Bernini, D., Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Rome, 1713.
Blunt, A., Gianlorenzo Bernini: Illusionism and Mysticism, Art History, 1,1978,
6789.
Brauer, H., and R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, 2 vols.,
Berlin, 1931.
Chantelou, P. Frart de, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed. L.
Laianne, Paris, 1885.
Clementi, F., Il carnevale romano, 2 vols., Citt di Castello, 1938-9 (first ed. 1899).
DOnofrio, C, ed., Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fontana di Trevi: Commedia inedita,
Rome, n.d.
Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 10 vols., Rome, 1975.
Fagiolo dellArco, M., Bernini: Una introduzione al gran teatro del barocco, Rome,
1967.
Fraschetti, S., Il Bernini: La sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo, Milan, 1900.
Il S. Alessio. Dramma musicale dalleminentissimo et reverendissimo signore Card.
Barberino fatto rappresentare al serenissimo Principe Alessandro Carlo di Polonia
dedicato a sua eminenza e posto in musica da Stefano Landi romano musico della
cappella di N.S. e cherico beneftiato nella Basilica di S. Pietro in Roma, Rome,
1634.
Kitao, T. K., Berninis Church Faades: Method of Design and the Contrapposti
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XXIV, 1965,26384.
Lavin, I., Berninis Death, The Art Bulletin, LIV, 1972, 15886.
Lavin, I., Lettres de Parme (1618, 162728) et dbuts du thatre baroque, in J.
Jacquot, ed., Le lieu thatral la Renaissance (Colloques internationaux du
centre national de la recherche scientifique, Royaumont, March 1963), Paris,
1964, 10558.
Lea, K. M., Italian Popular Comedy, 2 vols., Oxford, 1934.
Mancini, F., et al, Illusione e pratica teatrale: Proposte per una lettura dello spazio scenico dagli intermedi fiorentini allopera comica veneziana, exhib. cat., Venice,
1975.
Murata, M. K., Operas for the Papal Court with Texts by Giulio Rospigliosi, unpub.
diss., University of Chicago, 1975.
Schudt, L., Berninis Schaffensweise und Kunstanschauungen nach den
Aufzeichnungen des Herrn von Chantelou, Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte, XII,
1949, 7489.
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stone, and sculpture produced by pointing off from a model. In the former
case, characteristic of archaic and classical Greece, the artist tends to carve
the statue uniformly in the round (Fig. 7). He removes, as it were, a series
of skins from the figure, and at any given stage in the execution it will show
a more or less uniform degree of finish. With the technique of pointing-off,
used particularly by the Romans for copying Greek statuary, the tendency
is to work the figure from one side at a time, and to bring some parts to a
state of relative completion before others.
These questions seem to be largely unexplored as regards 'medieval
sculpture.5 What little evidence there is comes mainly from the Gothic
period. But though limited the evidence is of great value because it speaks
with a single and unequivocal voice. Bluemel himself cited several unfinished sculptures, such as the small female figure, probably an allegory of
Fortitude, from the late fourteenth century in Orvieto (Fig. 10). The technique is basically similar to that of archaic Greek sculpture; indeed, all the
medieval examples show the characteristics of direct carving, without pointing from a model.6
Even more striking is the consistency of the documentary evidence,
which for the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, particularly in
Italy, is rather extensive. We have the abundant records of both Florence
5
An important extension of Bluemels analysis to the development of Egyptian sculpture
was made by R. Anthes, Werkverfahren gyptischer Bildhauer, Mitteilungen des deutschen
Instituts fr gyptische Altertumskunde in Kairo, 10, 1941, pp. 79 ff.
6
Cf. after Bluemel, T. Mller in Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte, Stuttgart 1937
ff, II, cols. 6o8 ff, s.v. Bildhauer; also F. V. Arens in ibid., cols.1062 ff, s.v. Bosse,
Bossenkapitell. On medieval sculptural procedure generally, see P. du Colombier, Les
chantiers des cathdrales, Paris 1953, pp. 83 ff, with bibliography, though much more study
is necessary.
Needless to say, considerable variation in degree of surface finish on a given work is possible within the general principle of uniform, in-the-round carving in medieval sculpture.
Yet, there are real exceptions. On certain incompleted Romanesque capitals, parts were
brought to a final finish before the rest of the carving was even roughed out (suggesting the
use of a repeated pattern?); cf. J. Trouvelot, Remarques sur la technique des sculpteurs du
moyen-ge, Bulletin monumental, 95, 1936, pp. 103 ff. J. White, in his exemplary study of
the Orvieto faade reliefs, showed that a uniform working technique was used only in the
initial stages of blocking-out; execution of the subsequent stages progressed at varying rates
(The Reliefs on the Faade of the Duomo at Orvieto, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, 22, 1959, pp. 254 ff ). In this case however, we are not dealing with an artists
creative procedure, but, as White concludes, with a workshop system in which specific
kinds of secondary tasks were assigned to specialists once the main forms had been established by the leading masters.
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and Milan cathedrals. And they show by repeated instances, and without
exceptions, that the monumental sculptures of these buildings were executed at this period not from models but from drawings. The drawings were
not provided by the executing sculptors themselves but by other artists; and
these other artists were usually not sculptors at all, but painters.7 The evidence concords perfectly with what the preserved examples suggested, for
sculpture executed exclusively from drawings is of necessity carved directly.
This then was the situation in the period immediately preceding the
emergence of the great masters of the early Renaissance, and it was the system under which they grew up. It is astonishing how rapidly and completely things changed. We cannot even remotely conceive of Ghiberti or
Donatello or Luca della Robbia executing sculpture as a general practice
after someone elses drawings, especially a painters. And as the sculptor
began to provide his own designs, the documents show with equal consistency that these designs now normally took the form of models.8 Drawings
7
On sculptors drawings generally cf. H. Keller, in Reallex. z. deut. Kunstg., II, cols.
625 ff, s. v. Bildhauerzeichnung. On the painters drawings for sculpture in Milan and
Florence, cf. Oertel, op. cit., pp. 267 ff (also, for Milan, U. Nebbia, La scultura del Duomo
di Milano, Milan, 1910, pp. 45 ff, 59 ff ). This suggests a link between the Milanese and
Florentine series of giganti as regards working procedure, as well as program (cf. R. and N.
Stang, Donatello e il Giosu per il Campanile di S. Maria del Fiore alla luce dei documenti,
Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia. Institutum Romanum Norvegiae, 1,
1962, p. 119).
Needless to say, drawings by sculptors are documented in the trecento (cf. Nino Pisano,
Scherlatti tomb, Pisa, 1362, I. B. Supino, Arte Pisana, Florence, 1904, pp. 230 f.; wooden
choir-stall, Siena cathedral, 1377 ff, G. Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dellarte senese,
Siena, 1854-56, 1, pp. 332, 356, etc., R. Krautheimer, A drawing for the Fonte Gaia in
Siena, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10, 1952, p. 272).
It must be emphasized that, regardless of who made them, the question whether there
were true preparatory studies, as distinct from commission or working drawings, remains
open.
8
On models and bozzetti generally, cf. H. Keller and A. Ress, in Reallex. z. deut. Kunstg.,
II, cols. 1081. ff, s. v. Bozzetto, and Mller, ibid., cols. 600 ff.
This writer must report that so far he has encountered no certain example, either preserved or documented, of a model in whatever scale for monumental stone figural sculpture
before the fifteenth century. It should be emphasized, however, that there was an important
trecento practice of making models for architectural elements which may or may not have
included sculptured decorative details (documented at Prague, Xanten, Bremen, Milan,
Florence, and Bologna; cf. Keller, loc. cit., and L. H. Heydenreich, in idem, I, cols. 918 ff,
s.v. Architekturmodell); to this tradition presumably belongs the plaster model made by
Claus Sluter for the maonerie et faon of the fountain at Dijon (H. David, Claus Sluter,
Paris 1951, p. 86).
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continue to be used, of course, but they are no longer the distinctive basis
upon which works were commissioned or appraised.9
I suspect that the documentary notice of one of the key monuments in
this Florentine procedural revolution is still preserved to us. This is the
record referring to one of the famous series of colossal statues, or giganti,
commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, the series that resulted ultimately in the David of Michelangelo. It is a partial payment made in 1415
jointly to Donatello and Brunelleschi for a small figure of stone, draped
with gilt lead (una figuretta di pietra, vestita di piombo dorato); they were
to execute the figure for a test and illustration of the large figures that are
to be made upon the buttresses (per pruova e mostra delle figure grandi che
sanno a fare in su gli sproni).10 As far as I can discover this is the first reference to a model made in preparation for a piece of free-standing monumental sculpture since classical antiquity.
It is important to emphasize that the chief reason for making the model
was probably of a technical nature. We know that considerable difficulties
were experienced with the giant that Donatello had made a few years
earlier out of terracotta; it had to be repaired on several occasions within a
few years after it was completed.11 Chances are that Donatello and
Brunelleschi were trying out what would indeed have been a novel combi9
Jen Lnyi was apparently the first to draw attention to this fact, and stressed the
marked contrast between the Florentine masters on the one hand and on the other Jacopo
della Quercia, in whose work drawings play a leading role (Quercia-Studien, Jahrbuch fr
Kunstwissenschaft, 1930, pp. 25 ff.). But in this effort to establish Quercias originality, Lnyi
overlooked the fact that, in this respect at least, Quercia was carrying on a medieval tradition that was no less firmly rooted in trecento Siena than it had been in Florence and Milan
(cf. Oertel, op. cit., p. 263). Lnyi was right, however, in emphasizing Quercias departure,
along with the Florentines, from the late trecento tradition of monumental sculpture executed on the basis of drawings supplied by painters.
Lnyi (op. cit., pp. 53 f ) also misinterpreted the passage in which Vasari discusses
Quercias equestrian monument for the catafalque of Giovanni dAzzo Ubaldini (Le
vite . . ., ed. G. Milanesi, Florence 1906, II, pp. 110 f ) to mean that Vasari attributed to
Quercia the invention of the full-scale sculptors model. Vasari in fact is referring specifically
to the material construction of the piece, which in the sixteenth century was used for large
models. Quercias monument, however, was not a model in the sense of being preparatory
to execution in more permanent form, but belongs to the category of large scale decorations
executed in temporary materials for special occasions such as funerals and festivals.
10
C. Poggi, Il Duomo di Firenze, Berlin 1909, doc. no. 423.
11
Cf. H. W. Janson, Giovanni Chellinis Libro and Donatello, in Studien zur toskanischen Kunst. Festschrift fr Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich, Munich 1964, p. 134.
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1. Benedetto da Maiano,
Confirmation of the
Order of St. Francis,
Terracotta,
Victoria and Albert
Museum, London.
2. Benedetto da Maiano,
Confirmation of the
Order of St. Francis,
Pulpit,
S. Croce, Florence.
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4. Verrocchio,
Model for the
Forteguerri
monument,
Terracotta,
Victoria and Albert
Museum, London.
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7. Unfinished archaic
Kouros,
National Museum,
Athens.
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41
8. Leonardo,
Drawing for a
mechanical pointing
device for sculpture,
Ms. A., Institut
de France,
Fol. 43 recto.
9. Michelangelo,
Bozzetto for a
two-figure group,
Terracotta,
Casa Buonarotti,
Florence.
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12. Michelangelo,
David, Detail,
Accademia,
Florence.
13. Verrocchio.
Resurrection, Detail,
Painted terracotta,
National Museum,
Florence.
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14. Michaelangelo,
Torso,
Terracotta,
British Museum,
London.
15. Michelangelo,
Model of a
River God,
Accademia,
Florence.
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16. Michaelangelo,
St. Matthew,
Accademia,
Florence.
17. Giambologna,
Cast model
for the Bologna
Neptune fountain,
Museo Civico,
Bologna.
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nation of stone with a protective cover of metal in the form of drapery. But
even if it was primarily a technical rather than an aesthetic experiment it
represents a radical new departure in the way of conceiving a work of
sculpture.12
What were the models of the early Renaissance like, and how were they
used? The evidence for the first question is entirely indirect; so far, at least,
I have not encountered a single Italian work from the first half of the quattrocento that is convincing as a model for sculpture.13 But since the designs,
wether drawings or models, mentioned in the documents were made as the
basis for commissions and were often intended to be kept as a standard
against which the completed work would be judged, it seems probable that
they were highly finished.14 This assumption receives some support from
examples from the second half of the century that have a better (though by
no means certain) claim to be regarded as authentic models. Such is the terracotta in the Victoria and Albert Museum, showing the Confirmation of
the Order of St. Francis, one of a series related to the reliefs on Benedetto
da Majanos Pulpit in S. Croce of around 1475; the executed sculptures
show only slight variations from the models (Figs. 1, 2).15
As to the way the models were used we have one important direct clue
for the early part of the century an unfinished relief by L. della Robbia
12
Brunelleschis participation and the fact that what was being planned was, after all, a
piece of architectural sculpture, may not be fortuitous. It is my feeling that this experiment,
and the development of the sculptors model generally was closely related to the earlier
tradition of architectural models (cf. above, n. 8).
13
For a convenient list of early terracottas, cf. C. von Fabriczy, Kritisches Verzeichnis
toskanischer Holz- und Tonstatuen bis zurn Beginn des Cinquecento, Jahrbuch der
Preuischen Kunstsammlungen, 30, 1909, Beiheft, pp. 1 ff.
In particular, I would reject as a Nachbildung the small plaque (with original paint and
gilding) in the museum at Arezzo first published by Fabriczy as a model by Bernardo
Rosellino for the relief of the Madonna della Misericordia (Ein Jugendwerk Bernardo
Rossellinos und sptere unbeachtete Schpfungen seines Meissels, Jb. d. Preu. Kunstslgn.,
21, 1900, pp. 99 ff ); similarly, the relief published by A. Marquand (A terracotta Sketch by
Lorenzo Ghiberti, American Journal of Archaeology, 9, 1894, pp. 206 ff; cf. R. Krautheimer
with T. Krautheimer-Hess, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Princeton 1956, p. 191), etc.
14
Cf., e.g., C. Guasti, Il pergamo di Donatello pel Duomo di Prato, Florence 1887,
p. 13; A. Marquand, Luca della Robbia, Princeton, etc., 1914, pp. 78, 197; Poggi, op. cit.,
doc. 1099.
15
See now, J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London 1964, pp. 156 ff.
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47
A. Marquand, op. cit., pp. 41 ff. The wording of the document (ibid., p. 44) suggests
that the figural parts may not actually have been included on the model.
17
H. Janitschek, Leone Battista Albertis Kleinere Kunsttheoretische Schriften,Vienna 1877
(Quellenschriften fr Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit,
XI), pp. 165 ff.
18
A proportional enlarging method is alluded to by Ghiberti (J. von Schlosser, Lorenzo
Ghibertis Denkwrdigkeiten, Berlin 1912, 1, pp. 50 f, cf. II, p. 38), and Pomponius Gauricus
also includes one (H. Brochhaus, De sculptura von Pomponius Gauricus, Leipzig 1886, p. 26).
16
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19
C. Ravaisson-Mollien, Les manuscrits de Lonard de Vinci. Le Manuscrit A de la bibliothque de linstitut, Paris 1881, fol. 43 recto; cf. J. P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo
da Vinci, London, etc., 1939, II, no. 706 ; A. P. McMahon, Treatise on Painting, Princeton
1956, I, no. 556, II, fols. 160 verso, 161 recto. Another sketch of a similar device, in the
Codex Atlanticus (fol. 68 va), was kindly brought to my attention by Prof. Carlo Pedretti,
who dates it 150005 (Studi Vinciani, Geneva, 1957, p. 268).
20
Poggi, op. cit., doc. 441.
21
Alberti was no doubt in part following a literary convention from antiquity, as in
Diodorus Siculus story (I, 28) of two sculptors who made a statue in two sections and in separate locations; with the fundamental distinction, however, that Alberti is speaking in this con-
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49
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50
We can scarcely even speculate as to how Michelangelo himself accomplished the feat. We know from Vasari that he too made a wax model. That
he used a system of enlargement is suggested by the very fact that he built
a wall around the figure, which would have made it practically impossible
to judge proportions from a distance. Another tantalizing notice in both
Vasari and Condivi is that he also left portions of the original block, which
might have served as stationary references for a measuring system, at the
head and at the base of the figure:26 but that at the head was removed,
unfortunately, in the eighteenth century.27
In any event, the David is the first definite instance we have of
Michelangelos use of the model in preparation for monumental sculpture.
Thereafter in his work the model takes on a virtually unheralded significance, but at this point we must consider briefly some aspects of what
might be called the pre-history of Michelangelos achievement.
In the general framework of late quattrocento Italian sculpture it is possible to define a powerful undercurrent of experimentation with new ways
of creating plastic effects. Verrocchio seems to have been a key figure in this
tendency. Certain passages in his relief of the Resurrection from Careggi in
the Bargello, for example, show a strikingly loose and expressive modeling
(Fig. 13) and the same may be said of his bust of Giuliano deMedici in
26
Vasari-Milanesi, loc. cit.; A. Condivi, Vita di Michelangelo Buonarroti, ed. Pisa 1823,
(Collezione di ottimi scrittori italiani), p. 22.
27
As reported by D. M. Manni (in a note to the edition of Condivi by A. F. Gori,
Florence 1746, p. 83; reprinted on p. 98 in the edition cited above, note 26), who says, La
scorza nella sommit del capo ora non si vede pi, dacch anni alquanti sono fu di nouvo
ripulita.
A brief search by the writer in the Florentine archives for a record of this operation was
unsuccessful. There did appear, however, an undated estimate for a later cleaning by the
sculptor Stefano Ricci (17651837):
Dovendosi da me sottoscritto Restaurare, ripulire, ed Incausticare la statua deldavidde dellImmortal Michelangelo esistente in Piazza del Gran Duca, e restaurare i due Leoni che esistono sotto la loggia detta dei lanzi, Avendo Ponderato ed i
Tasselli che ci mancano e la ripulitura, lIncausto, Ponti, ed altro, Esaminando la
Fatica necessaria p rimetter con criterio dei pezzi ad opera simili, giudico, e credo
potere ascender la total somma a Zechini quarantacinque
Tanto a lonore di esporre lUmilissimo Servo
Stefano Ricci Scultore
(Archive of the Soprintendenza della Galleria agli Uffizi, ms. no. 277.)
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Washington.28 The Careggi relief was certainly painted, the Medici bust
probably, so that much of the effect would have been lost. But in fact a host
of other works of this period, perhaps best exemplified by the series of reliefs
attributed to Francesco di Giorgio, show analogously bold vagueness of
form.29 It is scarecly necessary to emphasize that this whole phenomenon
was incalculably indebted to Donatello, and here is where its relevance for
Michelangelo becomes specific. When, as Vasari says, the youthful
Michelangelo in making his Madonna of the Stairs set out to contrafare la
maniera di Donatello,30 it is more than likely that at least part of his interest lay precisely in the diffuse and irregular surfaces that play a central role
in Donatellos relief technique. Certainly, in view of Michelangelos subsequent development it is difficult to imagine that the pictorial possibilities
of the rilievo schiacciato were of great concern to him.
What I wish to suggest is that the basic redefinition of sculptural finish
implied in this development was closely related to the emergence of the
sculptural study as an independent form. For here, too, the first steps were
taken in the late quattrocento, both towards freer handling in the model
itself, and towards an appraisal of the model in terms of its own special
properties. In both these respects Verrocchio once more seems to have been
a leader. His terracotta model in the Victoria and Albert Museum for the
Forteguerri monument in Pistoia (c. 1475, Fig. 4),31 though hardly a sketch,
is very different from such highly finished models as those of Benedetto da
Majano. And if the London relief was actually a presentation piece, submitted for the patrons approval, it marks the appearance of a new attitude
in this domain. That something of the sort was taking place is further evidenced by the fact that a few years later (1482) Verrocchios model of the
St. Thomas of Or San Michele was purchased for the Universit dei
Mercatanti. The model was to be placed on public display, and the decree
authorizing the acquisition states the motive in eloquent terms, per non
28
Illustrations of the former in L. Planiscig, Andrea del Verocchio, Vienna 1941, Pls. 17,
of the latter in C. Seymour, Jr., Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art,
New York, 1949, Pls. 113116, Cf. p. 114.
29
See A. S. Weller, Francesco di Giorgio, Chicago 1943, pp. 135 ff.
30
Vasari-Milanesi, VII, p. 144.
31
Pope-Hennessy, op. cit., pp. 164 f.
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Both these innovations should be kept in mind when one considers still
another aspect of Michelangelos working procedure (Fig. 16). This is his
habit, described by Vasari and Cellini and confirmed by the works themselves, of attacking the block from one side only, uncovering the projecting
forms first and proceeding only gradually to the deeper excavations.35 The
significance of this technique has not I think been clearly grasped, though
Vasari himself supplies the explanation. He says that its purpose was to
avoid errors by leaving room at the back of the block for alterations. In
other words, should the artist encounter any flaws in the marble as he proceeds, should he make a mistake, should he alter his conception, he will be
in a much better position to make any necessary allowances or changes than
if the opposite side were already hewn away.
I need hardly point out the similarity of this to the later classical procedure, which Bluemel showed was based on making copies by pointing-off.
What this would indicate, however, is that Michelangelos technique, too,
developed in relation to his use of models. Indeed, Vasari gives his description of the procedure in a passage dealing with the use of models. His
description is even couched in terms of the famous analogy of a wax model
slowly withdrawn from a pail of water. I do not mean to imply that
Michelangelo actually pointed-off in a modern way, as has been claimed,36
or even that he necessarily made models, on whatever scale, in every case.
Rather, I suggest in general terms that these two most salient features of his
working procedure his one-sided approach to the block, and the
unprecedented role of bozzetti and modelli in his work should be viewed
as interconnected phenomena, the one proceeding directly from the other.
Michelangelos revolutionary technique may thus be understood against the
broad background of sculptural procedure since the early fifteenth century.
The development that began with Donatellos and Brunelleschis quasiscientific experiment reaches here, a hundred years later, a kind of
threshold.
other hand, in a letter of 1547 Bandinelli reports Pope Clement as having said that
Michelangelo could never be persuaded to make such models (G. Bottari, Raccolta di lettere
sulla pittura . . ., ed. S. Ticozzi, Milan, 1822 ff, I, p. 71).
But that Michelangelo himself thought of them as a means of facilitating the work is
apparent from his letter of April 1523 concerning full-scale models for the Medici tombs
(Milanesi, Lettere, p. 421; cf. on the dating, K. Frey, Die Briefe des Michelagniolo Buonarroti,
ed. H.-W. Frey, Berlin 1961, pp. 243 ff ).
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20. Bernini,
Angel with the
Iinscription,
Terracotta,
Side View,
Hermitage,
St. Petersburg.
55
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21. Bernini,
Angel with the
Iinscription,
Terracotta,
Front View,
Hermitage,
St. Petersburg.
20. Bernini,
Angel with the
Iinscription,
Terracotta,
Coll. Mr. and Mrs.
Richards S. Davis.
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In the course of the sixteenth century this threshold was crossed and the
creative process became, as it were, so self-conscious and articulate as to be
virtually autonomous. The treatises of Cellini and Vasari on sculpture give
detailed accounts involving a series of clearly defined steps from small study
through the full-scale model, to the final work. An important factor in this
context was that Michelangelo could be cited as authority; the Medici
chapel is Cellinis chief witness when insisting on the desirability of the fullscale model.37 Characteristically, they both give as much attention to the
preparatory stages, the making of the models, as to the final execution. This
attitude has its visual corollary in the fact that the preliminary studies and
models now become independent and highly finished works of art in their
own right. It is probably no accident that two of Giambolognas full-scale
models, the Florence Triumphant over Pisa and the Rape of the Sabines, were
preserved along with the executed works themselves.38 And of course the
small studies for works in a large scale were often cast in bronze as
Kleinkunst (Fig. 17).
This by no means signifies that true bozzetti were not produced in the
sixteenth century; although the highly finished studies form the backbone
of Giambolognas preparations for a work of art, under certain iconographical circumstances at least, he produced sketches that go far beyond
Michelangelo in freedom of handling (Fig. 19).39
I strongly suspect that Berninis bozzetto style was not developed without a direct knowledge of such sketches by Giambologna, possibly in the
35
Vasari-Milanesi, I, pp. 154 f, cf. VII, pp. 272 f.; Cellini, Trattato della Scultura in A. J.
Rusconi and A. Valeri, eds. La Vita di Benvenuto Cellini, Rome 1901, p. 780; these are the
most important among numerous allusions to Michelangelos procedure.
36
F. Kieslinger, Ein unbekanntes Werk des Michelangelo, Jb. d. Preu. Kunstslgn., 49,
1928, pp.50 ff.
37
Op. cit. (above, no. 35), p. 778780
38
E. Dhanens, Jean Boulogne: Giovanni Bologna Fiammingo, Brussels 1956 (Koninklijke
Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen . . ., Kl. der schone Kunsten, Verhandeling nr 11),
pp. 147 (n. 2) ff.
39
It now seems certain that the London model illustrated in our Fig. 19 is a study for a
colossal Nile at Pratolino, which was ultimately superseded by the famous figure of the
Apennines (cf. Pope-Hennessy, op.cit., p. 473, citing H. Keutner, review of Dhanens, in
Kunstchronik, 11, 1958, p. 327). And indeed, from the fluid treatment of the river god a
subtle but definite change may be observed toward sharper, almost craggy surfaces in the
Bargello study for the mountain deity (A. E. Brinckmann, Barock-Bozzetti, Frankfurt a. M.
192325, I, Pl. 29).
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Medici collection in Florence.40 Moreover, Bernini continues and even surpasses the late sixteenth century in working out his conception fully in
advance. This may be judged from the fact that Sandrart reports he saw no
less than twenty-two wax bozzetti for the St. Longinus alone.41 Sandrart was
himself astonished, and observes that the number of studies was far greater
than other sculptors were wont to produce. Eleven bozzetti for the angels of
the Ponte S. Angelo are preserved still today, and in them we follow the
development of Berninis ideas with a degree of intimacy that can only be
described as startling. Even in the famous case where we know Bernini
worked the marble directly, the bust of Louis XIV, he did so only after the
most painstaking study, which included besides drawings, many clay
models.42
No less clear is the evidence for Berninis committment to the full-scale
model. In every case where the documents for his larger commissions are
preserved they show that he used full-scale models; it was through them
that he was able to control and give his personal stamp to vast undertakings
executed largely with the help of assistants. Symptomatic of this development is that by far the most elaborate and practical description to date of
techniques of model-making, measurement and proportional enlargement
comes in a treatise on sculpture, still unpublished, written around 1650 by
one Orfeo Boselli.43 Boselli, though a pupil and follower of Duquesnoy,
worked under Bernini on the decoration of St. Peters, and his account may
well reflect the practise in Berninis studio. Symptomatic, too, is the fact
that with Bernini and his school we begin to get measured bozzetti; that is,
bozzetti on which calibrated scales have been incised, for the purpose of
Berninis acquaintance with the Medici collections seems evident from a comparison
of his Rape of Proserpine with the bronze by Pietro da Barga in the Bargello (cf. G. de Nicola,
A Series of Small Bronzes by Pietro da Barga, Burlington Magazine, 29, 1916, Pl. III, Q), a
relationship I hope to enlarge upon in another context.
41
A. R. Peltzer, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie . . ., Munich 1925, p. 286.
42
Cf. R. Wittkower, Berninis Bust of Louis XIV, Oxford 1951 (Charlton Lectures on
Art), p. 8.
43
Osservationi della Scoltura antica, Rome, Bibl. Corsini, ms. 36, F. 27, Bk. I, chs.
xiv ff., II, chs. xviii ff. Concerning one of his methods he says salvarai sempre le doi cime
del sasso, grosse tre dita, ben riquadrate, tanto nel di sopra, quanto nel fianco, perche perse
quelle, sarebbe vano il tutto; ne le levarai mai sin tanto, che non habbi posto a loco certo
tutte le parti principali (fol. 6o verso). On the treatise, cf. M. Piacentini, Le Osservationi
della scoltura antica di Orfeo Boselli, Bollettino del R. Istituto di Archeologia e Storia
dellArte, 9, 1939, pp. 5 ff.
40
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point is the one just mentioned (Fig. 21). It is extremely close to the third
of Berninis angels, the one now on the bridge (Fig. 23),47 and as we have
seen it is actually measured for enlargement. Nevertheless it is not much
more highly finished than studies produced at an earlier stage in the planning (Fig. 22).48 To be sure, Berninis chief purpose in making the models
was to study the general disposition of pose and drapery, rather than to
work out details. But there is also, I think and this can be shown in many
other ways as well a deliberate effort to retain, or actually to increase the
sense of immediacy and freshness. These qualities which had previously
been, so to speak, incidental by-products of the creative process,
become part of its very purpose, a goal toward which Berninis elaborate
preparations were aimed.
In this way one can also understand the vast gulf separating Berninis
conception of sculpture from that of Michelangelo, despite the many points
they have in common. For Michelangelo sculpture was a matter of taking
away material to reveal the form in the stone. And he was obsessed with the
difficulties of the task such phrases as dura and alpestra pietra occur
repeatedly in his poems in reference to sculpture.49 Sculpture was not an
easy business for Bernini either; one of Michelangelos own dicta that he
applied to himself was nelle mie opere caco sangue.50 But for him a major
challenge was to preserve in the final execution the momentary quality,
though not the roughness, of a sketch. Hence he thought of sculpture as a
process of moulding the marble, rather than hewing it away; and he said
precisely that one of his greatest achievements was to have succeeded in rendering the marble pieghevole come la cera.51
LavinIV.Revised:CHAPTER2.qxd13/8/0707:25Page2
IV
N THE present essay the crossing of Saint Peters refers to the grandiose
plan by which, during the reign of Pope Urban VIII (16231644) under
Berninis direction, a visually and conceptually unified focus was created at
the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles (Fig. l).1 The scheme consisted essentially of grouping four of the major relics of early Christianity, previously
dispersed, about the altar above the tomb.2 My chief purpose here is to define the way in which the arrangement was given meaning and expressive
form in the baldachin above the altar and in the decorations of the four
piers supporting the dome of the basilica. It will be necessary to consider
also the earlier contributions, which conditioned the final solution, and the
changes introduced in the course of execution, as a result of which much of
the original unity was lost. Sections IIV trace the broad outlines of the his-
A tradition universally accepted since the Middle Ages held that the bodies of both St.
Peter and St. Paul had been divided; half of each had been deposited at Saint Peters, the
other two halves at Saint Pauls Outside the Walls (cf. E. Kirschbaum, The Tombs of St. Peter
& St. Paul, London, 1959, 209 ff.). For effects of the legend on planning for the crossing see
nn. 48, 111, 171 below.
2
For the holy days and special occasions on which the Passion relics are shown, see
Moroni, Dizionario, CIII, 101 f. In 1964 the head of St. Andrew was returned to Patras in
Greece, whence it had come to Rome under Pius II in 1462 (LOsservatore Romano, anno
104, no. 218, Sept. 20, 1964, 4, and subsequent issues; see now R. O. Rubenstein, Pius IIs
Piazza S. Pietro and St. Andrews Head, in Essays in the History of Architecture Presented to
Rudolf Wittkower, London, 1967, 22 ff.). See also end of n. 125 below.
1
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63
1. St. Peters,
view of
crossing
toward west
(photo:
Anderson)
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64
tory of the crossing through the period in question, with emphasis on the
sources and meaning of the baldachin. Chapter V analyzes the role of the
colossal statues in the lower niches of the piers. The Conclusion (Section
VI) is a schematic and tentative effort to understand the significance of the
crossing in Berninis development. The Appendices offer an annotated list
of projects submitted before and in competition with Bernini.
I. The Crossing Before Bernini
The Piers
The first steps toward the new disposition of the relics may be said to
have been taken under Pope Paul V (16051621). In 1606, with the destruction of the nave of the old basilica, Paul transferred the three chief
relics that had long been in Saint Peters to the two piers flanking the apse
of the new building:3 the Holy Face (Volto Santo) and the Lance of St.
Longinus were moved to the southwest pier, the head of St. Andrew to the
northwest (Text Fig. A; see p. 132).4 The relics were kept in the upper
niches, which were separated from the larger niches below by balconies with
balustrades (Figs. 24).5 The arrangement thus retained, without altars
below, that of the two-storey free-standing tabernacles which had been
3
Evidently there was an earlier plan, not carried out, to reorganize the display of the
relics in the new church: Si tratta di fare nel fenestrone principale della gran tribuna del
nuovo San Pietro un nuovo pulpito balaustrato con finiss.e pietre, reliquie del volto santo et
lancia di nostro Sig.re . . . (Avviso of Aug. 18, 1598) Cited by Orbaan, Documenti, 46 f., n.,
whose transcription I have checked against the original. Siebenhner, Umrisse, 301, gratuitously interpolates a phrase into this passage, and interprets it as referring to the west
window of the drum of the cupola.
4
The fundamental source for the transferral of the relics is Grimaldi, Instrumenta autentica . . . 1619 (on Grimaldi, see Pastor, History of the Popes, xxvi, 382; henceforth cited as
Pastor). Grimaldi also devoted a special treatise to the Volto Santo and the Lance,
Opusculum de sacrosancto Veronicae Sudario . . . 1618.
All three relics were moved on Jan. 25, 1606, to the capitulary archive while the Veronica
niche was being readied (ibid., fols. 82 ff.); they were moved thither on March 21 (ibid., fols.
87 ff.). This transferral is reported in an Avviso of March 25 (Orbaan, Der Abbruch AltSankt Peters 16051615, 48 henceforth references to Orbaan are to this work unless
otherwise stated; and Orbaan, Documenti, 71). The head of St. Andrew was shifted to the
northwest pier on Nov. 29, 1612 (Grimaldi, Opusculum, fols. 90v f.).
5
Cf. Appendix I Nos. 5 f., 10, 14 f. See also Ferrabosco, Architettura, Pls. xiv, xxii.
Payments during 16056 for work on the stairways within the piers, the balustrades,
etc., are published by Pollak, Ausgewhlte Akten, 116, and Orbaan, 36 ff.
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among the most prominent monuments in Old Saint Peters (Figs. 79).6
Until Berninis time, the lower niche of the southeast pier contained the
tomb of Paul 111 (15341549), while before the northeast pier stood the
famous Colonna Santa, the spiral column against which Christ was believed
to have leaned in the Temple at Jerusalem (Text Fig. A).7
The permanent decoration of the niches seems to have been undistinguished. In engravings showing the crossing during the great quintuple
canonization of 1622, however, the upper reliquary niches contain hangings
(Figs. 5, 6).8 These are doubtless the same as two paintings one with Sts.
Peter and Paul holding aloft the Volto Santo, the other showing St. Andrew
with his cross which had been given to the basilica a decade before.9 The
use of the paintings in the niches is of considerable interest, for it indicates
that monumental representations of figures referring to the relics were part
Kauffmann was the first to note the relevance of the earlier tabernacles ("Berninis
Tabernakel, 229 ff.). According to Braun, Der christliche Altar, ii, 259 ff., tabernacles of this
kind were characteristically Roman.
The tabernacles occupied prominent positions in the old basilica. That of Saint Andrew,
originally erected by Pius II (145864), stood just inside the facade in the southernmost aisle
(cf. Alfarano, De basilicae vaticanae, 86 f., no. 85 on the plan, Pl. I). The Volto Santo tabernacle, dating from the twelfth century, stood in the corresponding position in the
northernmost aisle (ibid., 107 f., no. 115 on the plan). The tabernacle of the Lance, built by
Innocent VIII (148492) together with his famous tomb, was at the far end of the central
nave at the south crossing pier (ibid., 57 ff., no. 38 on the plan). The Saint Andrew and
Volto Santo tabernacles are shown in situ in another drawing in Grimaldi, Instrumenta autentica (reproduced by Orbaan, 13 Fig. 5).
It is interesting to note that in 1507, when the building of the new basilica began under
Julius II, the Lance was transferred to the tabernacle of the Volto Santo (Alfarano, De basil.
vat., 58 n., 108); they remained together when Paul V moved them to the crossing.
7
Cf. Panciroli, Tesori nascosti, 531 f.
8
See pp. 88 f. below; Appendix I, nos. 14, 15.
9
The donations are recorded by Grimaldi:
1611. Illustrissimus R.mus Ds Scipio Corbellutius S.R.E. Presbyter Cardinalis Sanctae
Susannae tunc Vaticanae Basilicae Canonicus pia erga Sanctissimu Jesu Christi Sudarium religione motus, ante absidat magnam fenestram, unde eadem sancta facies populo ostenditur
yconam imaginibus, & Apostolorum Petri & Pauli coloribus expressam dono dedit cu ubella.
(Opusculum, fols. 90r f.)
1612. Cum R.mus Ds Angelus Damascenus Romanus utriusque signaturae sanctissimi
Domini Nostri referendarius dictae Vaticanae Basilicae Canonicus ante fenestram magnam absidatam in parastata summi Tholi, ubi ex nobiliss o., marmoreo suggestu ad sinistram arae
maximae caput sancti Andreae Apostoli populo ostenderetur, yconam cum imagine sancti Andreae
Crucem amplectitis cu ubella figuris & insignibus ornata pia largitione fecisset. (Ibid., fol. 90v.)
6
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served as a choir for the pope and the sacred college during solemn functions. No less important, however, was the traditional connection between
the high altar and the tomb. Logically, only four solutions were possible, all
of which were proposed or attempted at one time or another, but none of
which could be wholly satisfactory. First, the high altar could be moved
westward toward the apse, relinquishing its connection with the tomb.
Second, the tomb might be moved along with the high altar, a course that
ran the risk, as one source reports, of searching for the bodies of the apostles in vain, although it was known for sure that they were there.13 Third,
the tomb and high altar might be left in situ and a choir built around them,
necessitating an inconvenient encumbrance of the crossing (Figs. 12, 13).14
The fourth alternative was to leave the altar and tomb undisturbed, and relinquish the connection with the choir.
Of these possibilities the first and fourth are particularly important: the
last because, having evidently been preferred by Michelangelo, it was finally resolved upon by Urban VIII and executed by Bernini;15 the first because
it was the one chosen at the beginning of Paul Vs reign, and the projects
for it, though never carried out in permanent form, profoundly influenced
the design of Berninis baldachin. The decision in favour of the first solution is reported in an Avviso of January 18, 1606, at the time the relics were
being transferred to the new church.16 According to this dispatch it had
Quoted n. 16 below.
See Appendix I Nos. 24, 25. The first objection to which Papirio Bartoli replies in his
treatise describing his project is that it would take up too much room in the crossing
(Discorso, int. 2, fol. 1 ff.).
15
Owing to the subsequent retention of the choir begun by Nicolas V (Magnuson,
Roman Quattrocento Architecture, 177 f.), the tomb and high altar is not in the center of the
crossing, but slightly to the west. judging from the engraved plan by Duprac, Michelangelo
had planned to shift it in the opposite direction in order to achieve true centrality (cf.
Siebenhner, Umrisse, 291).
16
The character and importance of this project was first defined by Siebenhner,
Umrisse, 313 f. The relevant passage in the Avviso is as follows:
. . . sendosi intanto fatto levare quella cuppola di legno, che ci era in mezo della nuova chiesa
sudetta sopra laftare maggiore delli Santissimi Apostoli, quale altare anco si levar secondo
il nuovo modello, dovendosi trasportar pi avanti verso il capo della chiesa, ove sar il choro
per poter et Sua Santita et il Sacro Colleggio intervenire alli divini officij, sentendosi, che
dove hora il detto altare, vi si far una balaustrata intorno con scalini per potere scendere
a basso et andar a celebrar messa allaltare et corpi de detti. Santi Apostoli, senza moverli altrimenti, come alcuni altri volevano et stato questo tenuto pi salutifero consiglio, per non
mettersi in pericolo di cercarli indarno, sebene si sa certo, che ci sono. (Orbaan, 44; Orbaan,
Documenti, 68) Cf. also an Avviso of Oct. 4, 1606, in Armellini, Le chiese di Roma, 903.
13
14
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11. Plan of mediaeval
presbytery, Old Saint
Peters. (From
Appollonj Ghetti,
et al., Esplorazioni,
fig. 136c).
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76
17. School of
Raphael, Donation of
Constantine
(detail showing
reconstruction of the
Constantinian
presbytery based on
elements still extant).
Vatican, Sala di
Costantino
(photo: Alinari).
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19. Canonization of Francesca Romana, 1608, fresco. Bibl. Vat., Galleria di Paolo V.
20. Canonization of Carlo Borromeo, 1610, fresco. Bibl. Vat., Galleria di Paolo V.
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been determined to shift the high altar toward the main apse, where a choir
would be installed. A proposal to move the tomb as well had been rejected,
and instead stairs were planned to give access from the floor level down to
the tomb so that mass could be said there; this was the beginning of the
open confessio carried out later in Paul Vs reign.17 The second altar was actually built, and simultaneously a baldachin was erected over the original
altar and a model of the proposed ciborium over the new one.18
The baldachin over the tomb altar, built of perishable materials, broke
radically with tradition. At least since the late fifteenth century the ciboria
over the high altar of Saint Peters had conformed to a basic type, with four
columns supporting a cupola (Figs. 1518).19 As we have noted, the temporary ciborium of Clement VIII, which this new one replaced, also had a
cupola.20 In contrast to these predecessors, Paul Vs baldachin, as recorded
17
The Florentine painter and architect Ludovico Cigoli submitted a project that involved moving the tomb (Figs. 25, 26; see p. 82 f. below and Appendix I no. 18). A project
by Martino Ferrabosco for a confessio with circular balustrade and stairways is recorded,
though there is no certain evidence that he was in Rome by this date (see n. 176 below).
18
Payments for the new altar are recorded as early as Dec., 1605: per fare larmatura de
laltare da fare nella tribuna grande verso Santa Marta . . . per ordine di messer Carlo
Maderni (Orbaan, 40). The altar over the tomb continued to function, though one project
for a ciborium over the tomb seems to contemplate its removal (Fig. 14; Appendix I no. 2).
Payments for dismantling the ciborium of Clement VIII occur in Jan., 1606 (Orbaan,
44). Payments for building the new baldachin over the tomb altar begin in Feb. (Fraschetti,
Il Bernini, 55 f.; Pollak, Ausgewhlte Akten, 110; Orbaan, 45 ff.). Payments for the model
of the ciborium over the new altar at the choir begin in Sept. (ibid., 541 f.).
The designer or designers of both these structures remain anonymous, though Carlo
Maderno, as architect of the basilica, is the most likely candidate. Nevertheless, the phraseology of the document quoted at the beginning of this note is inconclusive, since Maderno
may have ordered work to be done even though it was not of his invention.
19
For a general survey, see Braun, Der christ. Altar, II, 185 ff.
The Saint Peters ciborium is shown with a dome in: a medal of 1470 of Paul II celebrating his reconstruction of the tribune (Fig. 15; cf. G. Zippel, Paolo II e larte, LArte, 14,
1911, 184 f.; Magnuson, Roman Quattrocento Architecture, 169); a reconstruction by
Grimaldi of the ciborium built by Sixtus IV (147184), of which important relief sculptures
are preserved (Fig. 16); the Donation of Constantine fresco by the Raphael school in the Sala
di Costantino in the Vatican (Fig. 17); a drawing by the Swiss pilgrim Sebastian Werro, who
visited Rome in 1581 (Fig. 18); E. Wymann, Die Aufzeichnungen des Stadpfarrers
Sebastian Werro von Freiburg i. Ue. ber seinen Aufenthalt in Rom von 1027. Mai 1581,
Rmische Quartalschrift fr christliche Altertumskunde und fr Kirchengeschichte, 33, 1925, 39
ff.
20
See the Avviso of Jan. 18, 1606, quoted n. 16 above, and another of Oct. 28, 1600,
cited by Orbaan, Documenti, 48n. In an Avviso of June 29, 1594, it is described as un
ornamento di tavole depinto a similitudine di catafalco (ibid., 47n.).
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in many contemporary illustrations, consisted of a tasselled canopy supported on staves held by four standing angels (Figs. 24, 1923);21 it
reproduced, in effect, a portable canopy such as was borne above bishops
(hence the pope) on formal occasions, and above the Holy Sacrament and
the relics of the Passion when they were carried in procession.22 This was the
basic theme that would be retained in the two subsequent baldachins built
over the tomb, including Berninis. The scale of the baldachin was impressive; its height has been calculated at roughly nine meters, only a meter
short of Berninis bronze columns.23 Moreover it was to be executed in
bronze,24 a significant innovation, since monumental altar coverings were
usually of stone. The project thus foreshadows the material of Berninis baldachin, as well as the underlying notion of translating a normally
ephemeral type into permanent and monumental terms.
The purpose of this revolutionary design must have been largely symbolic. With the removal of the high altar the tomb itself became a kind of
reliquary, for which such a canopy would be appropriate. At the same time,
by alluding to the processional canopy traditionally associated with the
bishop, the new design may have been intended to mark the special character of the site as the tomb of the first pope. Whatever its meaning, the
baldachin offered a vivid and surely deliberate contrast to the proper ciborium that was at the same time erected over the new papal altar.
It should be noted, finally, that the depictions of the baldachin during
the canonization of Carlo Borromeo in 1610 are of interest in showing the
decorations it received for the occasion (Figs. 2, 3, 20).25 Strands of lilies are
wound spirally about the supports, and above the canopy proper is a medal-
21
Appendix I Nos. 412, Payments for the angels were made to the sculptors Ambrogio
Buonvicino and Camillo Mariani; the angels drapery was made of real cloth (cf. Orbaan, 47
f.).
22
J. Braun, Die liturgischen Paramente in Gegenwart und Vergangenheit, Freiburg-imBreisgau, 1924, 240; Moroni, Dizionario, VI, 57 ff.
23
Cf. Siebenhner, Umrisse, 309. The height of the bronze columns is given as 45
palmi by G. P. Chattard, Nuova descrizione del Vaticano . . . Rome, 176267, 1, 148 f. (The
Roman palmo was slightly over .22 m.)
24
Tota haec machina ex ligno compacta, subjecto Iconismo expressa ideam exhibebat future
molis, quam ex aere, auroque excitare animo inerat Pontificis . . . Nihil tamen Paulo regnante
effectum est, sed postquam Urbanus VIII Pontificiae Dignitatis . . . (Buonanni, Numismata templi vaticani, 127, and Numismata pontificum romanorum, II, 573)
25
Appendix I, nos. 58.
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lion with an image of the saint, held in Giovanni Maggis engraving by two
kneeling angels (Fig. 2).26
In the Maggi engraving there also appears a partial view of the ciborium
over the apse altar, jutting above the temporary arcade at the back of the enclosure (Fig. 24). It shows a polygonal structure whose dome rests on a high
drum with volutes at the corners; the dome is surmounted by a lantern
topped by a globe and cross. We know from other contemporary witnesses
that the ciborium employed ten of the famous twisted columns that
adorned the mediaeval sanctuary.27 These pieces of information make it possible to link (though not identify) the model that was built with a group of
closely related, projects of various dates, preserved in drawings and an engraving (Figs. 2528, 79).28 These projects are all for ciboria of the ordinary
kind, with domes supported on columns. In addition, from the central element they envisage two arms extending outward to the corners of the apse
walls, creating a screen-like enclosure before the choir. It is clear that, by
reusing the ancient columns, and by screening the apse with an enclosure
containing an altar, these designs hark back to the mediaeval arrangement
in Saint Peters, which had remained intact (minus the outer row of
columns) until only a decade before the pontificate of Paul V (Fig. 17).29
The chief difference is that now the ciborium has been fused with the
See the comments in Appendix I, no. 5.
In 1618 Grimaldi notes that the pair of spiral columns that had adorned the Oratory
of John VII (see n. 70 below) hodie cernuntur ad maiorem templi apsidam pergulam cereorum
in pontificijs solemnibus sustinentes caeteris consimilibus saniores, et pulchriores (Opusculum, fol.
119v).
In 1635, in a series of notes appended to Grimaldis treatise, Francesco Speroni, sacristan
of Saint Peters, mentions the number ten: . . . tempore d. Pontificis [Paul V]decem earum
integrae delatae fuerunt in novum Templum, ac positae fuerunt ad ornatum ante maiorem apsidem Templi. (Grimaldi Opusculum de SS. Veronicae . . . additis aliquibus praecipuis
additionibus ad hoc pertinentibus a Francisco Sperono eiusdem Basilicae Sacrista an. D. 1635,
Biblioteca Vaticana, MS. Vat. lat. 6439, p. 354) Concerning Speroni, see also Pollak, Die
Kunstttigkeit unter Urban VIII, 635 henceforth cited as Pollak. (See Addenda and Fig.
28A.)
28
See Appendix I, nos. 18, 20, 23, 26.
29
Cf. the project for rebuilding Saint Peters by Bernardo Rossellino under Nicolas V
in the mid-fifteenth century, as reconstructed by Grimaldi and Martino Ferrabosco
(Magnuson, Roman Quattrocento Architecture, 177 f., 178, Fig. 22). A. Schiavo, San
Pietro in Vaticano (Quaderni di Storia dellarte, IX), Rome, 1960, 11, assumes that the
twelve columns surrounding the altar in the Grimaldi-Ferrabosco plan were to be the
originals.
26
27
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colonnaded screen to form one unit; the result recalls, whether consciously
or not, the earliest mediaeval form of the shrine (Fig. 10).
What all these considerations suggest is that the memory of the shrine
of Old Saint Peters was very much alive and that the idea of recreating it in
a modern idiom was in force from the time it was dismantled, or at least
soon afterward. We shall find that Bernini was motivated by a similar idea.
These projects further anticipate that of Bernini in their scale. They would
have been some ten metres shorter than Berninis baldachin (28.97 m.), but
they would have stood in the relatively low choir, not under the main
dome.30
The two huge models, standing a few meters apart on the axis of Saint
Peters the baldachin over the tomb and the ciborium in front of the apse
represented opposite poles of tradition; the one was inherently mobile,
fragile, and informal, the other was static, permanent, and architectonic. In
the development that took place during the next quarter of a century, which
culminated in Berninis baldachin, these two seemingly incompatible traditions were fused.
The crucial link was provided by a third type, intermediate, almost in a
literal sense, between the other two. This was the baldachin made usually of
perishable materials and suspended in a fixed position above the altar.31 The
type seems to have been introduced into the development of Saint Peters
by Carlo Maderno. At least this is suggested by a rather obscure passage in
a manuscript guide to Rome written during the 1660s by Fioravante
Martinelli, the friend of Borromini.32 Martinelli reports that Maderno submitted to Paul V a design that included twisted columns; he adds, however,
that the canopy did not actually touch the columns or their cornices. It is
We may note, further, a plan for the completion of the church as a whole, ca. 16056,
which shows an enclosure with an altar flanked by two columns at the entrance to the apse
(Fig. 29; Appendix I, no. 1); two groups of four columns flank the altar in the crossing. If
the ten columns were to be the originals, it would be an early precedent for Berninis use of
spiral columns in the crossing, rather than as a screen in the choir.
In the other projects it was evidently intended to supplement the preserved originals
with copies (cf. Appendix I, no. 19).
30
The height of these projects (about 19 m.) may be judged from the scale (100 palmi)
on Borrominis drawing (Fig. 28). The height of Berninis baldachin is given in P. E. Visconti,
Metrologia vaticana, Rome, 1828, Table II.
31
Cf. Braun, Der christ. Altar, II, 262 ff., Pls. 187 ff.
32
The passage is quoted in its context below, n. 53. On Borromini and Martinelli cf. P.
Portoghesi, Borromini nella cultura europea, Rome, 1964, 96, 200.
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85
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86
26. Ludovico Gigoli, Ciborium for
choir of Saint Peters, 16051606,
drawing (detail).
Florence, Uffizi, Gab.
dei disegni, A2639v
(424 x 286mm).
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88
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89
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29. Project for a tabernacle in the crossing and a choir screen in the apse of Saint
Peters, drawing (detail). Bibl. Vat., Arch. Cap. S. P., Album, pl. 4 (740 x 455mm).
30. Canonization of Elizabeth of Portugal, 1625 (decorations by Bernini),
engraving. Bibl. Vat., Coll. Stampe (330 x 245 mm).
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significant change in dynamic: the baldachin is thought of as a more selfsufficient, quasiarchitectural unit. Two major steps remain in the transition
to the final form: the introduction of true columns as supports for the
canopy, and the addition of a superstructure.
The new baldachin model as it was actually built is described in the carpenters final invoice.39 It too had a fringed canopy, and the supports seem
to have incorporated into their regular design something of the ornamentation applied to the earlier structure on special occasions. The ornaments
included among other things cherubs, foliage, and spiral fluting.40 It is not
likely that the supports actually had the form of columns, since they are
consistently described as staves (aste), and neither capitals nor proper bases
are mentioned. But their decoration must in any case have closely resembled that of the ancient spiral shafts, and they thus anticipate Berninis idea
of imitating rather than reusing the originals. It was also intended to gild
the supports, which would have given them the effect of being made of
metal.41 Furthermore, the supports were colossal in scale; they stood well
over twelve meters high, more than two meters taller than the bronze
columns by which Bernini replaced them. A final point of importance is
that during the first part of 1624 Bernini himself made four stucco angels
for this model; they were apparently placed at the base of the supports, as
had been the case previously.42
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93
ished, and at some point precisely when is not known it was decided
to return the high altar to its place above the tomb, thus finally re-establishing the predominance of the crossing, but relinquishing the reference to
the mediaeval form of the presbytery.43 We shall see that, paradoxically, the
decision may have been at least partly determined by a desire to recreate
even more accurately the original form of the shrine. No formal contract
with Bernini for the design and construction of a new, permanent structure
has been preserved, if one ever existed; payments to him simply began, in
July of 1624, while he was still being paid for the stucco angels for the earlier baldachin.44 The first elements of the new baldachin to be executed were
the bronze columns; installation began in September, 1626, and they were
unveiled in June of the following year.45 A separate commission, based on a
small model, provided for the superstructure, of which a full-scale model
was set in place in April, 1628.46
Berninis first project is recorded, with certain variations, in an engraving showing the decorations he designed for the canonization of Queen
Elizabeth of Portugal on March 25, 1625 (Fig. 30),47 and in medals dated
graver simply omitted the two angels at the back (in one engraving of the canonization of
Carlo Borromeo, the rear two angels were omitted, and in another the medallion atop the
western face of the canopy was left out; cf. Figs. 2, 3). That the project for the new baldachin
was developed during the preparations for the quintuple canonization is suggested by the
fact that a preliminary drawing in Vienna for the 1622 prints shows the straight, smooth
staves of the earlier structure (Fig. 22; Appendix I, no. 11).
Siebenhner, Umrisse, 317 ff., offers the curious theory that the engraving by Girolamo
Frezza in Buonanni, Num. templ. vat., Pl. 48, represents the present baldachin, despite the
facts that it does not show the carving on the supports mentioned in the documents and
that, as is clear from Buonannis text (p. 127), the plate is based upon Paul Vs medal (Fig.
21; Appendix I, no. 9).
43
The choir was to be retained in the apse; a model for one was later designed by Bernini
(Pollak, 611).
Bartoli notes in 1620 (Discorso, int. 1, fol. Ir) that the choir installations in the apse were
temporary and had to be set up and taken down for each occasion; the same is true today.
44
Pollak, nos. 1053 ff.
45
Cf. Pollak, nos. 1127, 1130.
46
Pollak, nos. 1142 ff., where payments for the large model are wrongly ascribed to the
small one; on the installation, see an Avviso of April 8, 1628, quoted in E. Rossi, Roma ignorata, Roma, 15, 1937, 97.
47
Berninis designs for the canonization were approved by the pope shortly before Feb.
8, 1625 (Fraschetti, Bernini, 251 n. 1; cf., Pastor, XXIX, 10, where the references should be
corrected as follows: Bibl. Vat., Arch. Segreto, Acta Consistorialia, Camerarii, XVI, fols.
67v68, aud Bibl. Vat. MS. Urb. lat. 1095, fol. 315r, May 28, 1625; Pollak, Nos. 125 ff.).
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1626 (Fig. 31) and 1629 (Fig. 32).48 All three depictions agree on the basic
thought underlying the design, which consists of four spiral columns supporting semicircular ribs that intersect diagonally; from the apex, crowning
the whole structure, rises a figure of the Resurrected Christ holding the bannered Cross.49 On the columns are angels who seem to carry the tasselled
canopy by means of ribbons strung through loops on its top and secured to
the ribs. The representations differ in one important respect. The medal of
1626 shows the canopy raised well above the level of the columns, so that
it appears as a completely separate unit. In the engraving of 1625 and the
medal of 1629, however, the canopy is lowered to the same height as the
capitals and is joined to them by a continuous molding or cornice. This is
the solution Bernini adopted in the work finally executed.50
It is evident that Berninis project owes a great debt to its predecessors,
both visually and conceptually. The idea of using bronze and gilt dates from
the time of Paul V, when also it was contemplated to execute a monumental balclachin, rather than a ciborium, over the tomb. The angels and
tasselled hangings had appeared in both earlier temporary baldachins. The
ciboria with screens planned for the high altar before the apse had incorporated the ancient spiral columns.51 The notion of imitating the marble shafts
The fullest available account of the canonization is that of A. Ribeiro de Vasconcellos,
Evoluo do culto de Dona Isabel de Arago, Coimbra, 1894, 1, 439 ff., II, 190 ff. An earlier
version of the print (Fig. 23) is discussed in Appendix I, no. 12. Berninis canonization installations will be discussed in a separate paper.
48
The medal bearing the date 1626 on the reverse (Fig. 31; Buonanni, Num. Pont., II,
573 f., no. XIII) is inscribed with the fourth year of Urbans reign on the obverse, and therefore dates between Sept. 29 (the anniversary of the coronation) and Dec. 31. Both this and
a medal of 1633 showing the baldachin in its final form have legends describing the tomb
as that of Peter and Paul, reflecting the belief that parts of both apostles bodies were preserved at Saint Peters; see n. 1 above.
The medal of 1629 (Fig. 32) honours the canonization of Andrea Corsini in April of
that year, for which Bernini also designed the decorations (cf. Pastor, XXIX, 9 n. 3; Pollak,
nos. 136 ff.).
49
In the full-scale model, Christ was to rise from a cloud (Pollak, 354).
50
The drawings by Bernini for the final form of the crown, except for the very latest,
show the canopy in the raised position (Brauer-Wittkower, Zeichnungen, Pls. 6 ff.); but the
engraving of 1625 and the medal of 1629 indicate that the continuous cornice existed as an
alternative solution from the outset.
51
The idea of an independent ciborium with only four spiral columns supporting a
cupola occurs in a fresco in the Vatican Library from the time of Sixtus V (158590), representing the Council of Ephesus (Fig. 33; A. Taja, Descrizione del palazzo apostolico vaticano,
427 f.; J. Dupront, Art et contre-reforme. Les fresques de la Bibliothque de Sixte.Quint,
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in another material may have originated in the previous ciborium and baldachin models. Maderno had thought of using spiral columns with a
baldachin, rather than with a dome. The baldachin begun under Gregory
XV may have suggested that spiral columns serve as actual supports for the
canopy. In several of the earlier projects sculptured figures, including angels,
had appeared atop the superstructure (Fig. 34; cf. Figs. 2628).52 Finally, the
stupendous scale of Berninis work was by no means an innovation.
Despite this catalogue of precedents, Bernini blends the ingredients in a
completely new way. He combines the columns and superstructure proper
to a ciborium with the tasselled canopy and supporting angels of a baldachin. His treatment of each of these elements individually, as will become
apparent in the following discussion, is equally original. And in the versions
that join the canopy directly to the columns he takes the final step in fusing the architectural quality of a permanent ciborium with the transitory
quality of a processional baldachin.
Striking confirmation that these were indeed the innovating features of
Berninis design is found in the criticisms voiced against it by certain contemporaries. One of these came from the painter Agostino Ciampelli, and
is reported in the manuscript guide to Rome by Fioravante Martinelli, mentioned earlier as the source for our knowledge of Madernos project.53
Ciampelli had himself supplied Bernini with a design, but he objected to
Berninis, maintaining that baldachins are supported not by columns but
MlRome, 48, 1931, 291). Interestingly enough, there was a tradition that the columns in
Saint Peters had come from a temple of the Ephesian Diana in Greece (Torriggio, Sacre giotte
vaticane, 283).
52
Appendix I, nos. 16, 18, 26.
53
F. Martinelli, Roma ornata dallarchitettura, pittura, e scoltura, Rome, Bibl.
Casanatens, MS. 4984, p. 201:
F pensiero di Paolo V coprire con baldacchino Ialtar maggiore di S. Pietro con ricchezia proportionata allapertura fatta alla confessione e sepolcro dl d.o Once Carlo Maderno
gli presen un disegno con colonne vite; ma il baldacchino non toccava le colonne, ne il
lor cornicione: sopragionse la morte di Pauolo, e resto lop.a sul disegno sin al ponteficato di
Urbano VIII. il quale disse at d.o Carlo si contentasse, che il Bernino facesse d.a opera. Il
Cavalier Celio, forse non ben informato del tutto, stamp essere inventione di Santiss.o giuditio (cio del Papa) messo in opera dal d.o Bernino. Vincenzo Berti manoscritto appresso
Mons.r Landucci Sacrista di Nro Sig.re Alessandro VII. e p le sue eminenti virtudi dignissimo di grado superiore, ha scritto, esser disegno del Ciampelli cognato del d.o Bernini, il che
non s se sia vero; ma si bene non concorreva con d.o Bernini circa labbigliam.ti et altro; e
diceva, che li Baldacchini non si sostengono con le colonne, ma con lhaste, e che in ogni
modo voleva mostrare che to reggono li Angeli: e soggiongeva che era una chimera.
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by staves, and that in any case he would show it borne by angels; and he
added that it was a chimera. The objection evidently refers to the solution
shown in the engraving of 1625 (Fig. 30) and the medal of 1629 (Fig. 32),
in which the columns rather than the angels appear to be the chief support
of the canopy; this was a grave breach of architectural etiquette, and the re-
The passage occurs as a marginal correction to the original text, which is canceled but
can be deciphered: Il Ciborio con colonne di metallo istorte vite dellaltar maggiore disegno del Cav. Bernino, et il getto di Gregorio de Rossi Rom.o Ma il Cav.re Celio scrive essere
inventione di santissimo giuditio messo in opera dal d.o Cav.re Vincenzo Berti manoscritto
appresso monsig.re Landucci sacrista di N. S.re h lasciato scritto esser disegno del Ciampelli
cognato di d.o Bernino. (See Addenda.)
The reference from Celios guidebook concerning Urban VIIIs contribution is as follows: Laltare maggiore con le colonne fatte vite e suoi aderenti, il tutto di metallo
indorato, Inventione di santissimo giuditio, messo in opera dal Cavalier Lorenzo Bernino.
(Memoria fatta dal Signor Gaspare Celio . . . delli nomi dellartefici delle pitture, che sono in alcune chiese . . . di Roma, Naples, 1638, 70.) The publisher of this work, Scipione Bonino,
writes in the introduction (pp. 4 f.) that it was based on a manuscript of Celios written in
1620, and that almost all the additional information about works done since then came from
Sebastiano Vannini, Galeno di questi tempi. Vannini was the author, among other things,
of two poems to Fioravante Martinelli (Bibl. Vat., M.S. Barb. lat. 2109, fols. 162 f.).
Baglione describes Celios book as pieno derrori (Baglione, Vite, 381).
The source of the story is probably a passage in a manuscript dialogue by Lelio
Guidiccioni (kindly brought to my attention by Cesare DOnofrio), in which Guidiccioni
(L.) and Bernini (G.L.) are the conversants. The context of the passage is an elaborate eulogy of Urban VIIIs expertise in artistic matters; Bernini asks, Di chi pensate, che sia il
pensiero dellAltar Vaticano, tale, quale sia divenuta lopera? L. Vostro h sempre pensato.
G.L. pensarla meglio, dite di S. S.ta L. Dunque voi sete pure obietto di lode sua; la quale
origine della vostra . . . (Bibl. Vat., MS. Barb. lat. 3879, fol. 53v) The dialogue is datable
to Sept., 1633, since it contains a reference (fol. 51v) to the death within the last days of
Antonio Querengo (d. Sept. 1, 1633; G. Vedova, Biografia degli scrittori padovani, Padua,
183236, II, 134 f.). It is conceivable that the phrase quale sia divenuta lopera refers to the
decision to change the superstructure. (See now C. DOnofrio, Un dialogo-recita di
Gianlorenzo Bernini, Palatino, 10, 1966, 127 ff.)
Except for two letters, dated 1660, in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence (C.V.90.147;
C.V.97.5), I have been unable to identify the Vincenzo Berti whose manuscript is mentioned
as the source of the story about Agostino Ciampelli. Ambrogio Landucci was a well-known
Augustinian, a native of Siena (D. A. Perini, Bibliografla agostiniana, Florence, 192938, I,
143 ff.), for whom Borromini designed an altar (H. Thelen, Istituto austriaco di cultura in
Roma. 70 Disegni di Francesco Borromini [Exhibition Catalogue], Rome, 1958, 24 no. 54).
He died in Rome on Feb. 16, 1669, leaving his books and manuscripts to the Convent of
San Martino in Siena. His testament is accompanied by an inventory of his library which includes 121 items, but they are listed with short titles only and none is identifiable as the one
by Berti that Martinelli mentions (Rome, Arch. di Stato, Notaio Bellisarius, Busta 243, fols.
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columns were dwarfed by the new building, and to gain height the earlier
projects included both an attic and a drum between the capitals and the
dome; the resulting vertical accent was safely counterbalanced by the lateral wings. For a structure in the crossing even more height was needed, but
the wings were an obstruction and had to be removed.56 By enlarging the
columns Bernini was able to omit the drum and attic, and thus create a
more balanced proportion without the help of the wings. It might be said
that Berninis solution made it aesthetically possible to keep the high altar
and tomb together in the crossing. It also made possible the fusion of baldachin and ciborium types, for in the absence of both drum and attic
Bernini could rest the superstructure directly on the columns and cover the
intervening space with a fringed canopy.
The design of the crown itself serves a dual function, in keeping with the
nature of the whole conception. Its domical shape suggests the cupolas with
which ordinary ciboria were often covered, while its open ribs deny the
sense of weight and mass that a cupola normally conveys. The perforated
superstructure recalls a common mediaeval type of ciborium, in which one
or more orders of colonnettes resting on the main entablature act as a kind
of drum for the dome.57 Berninis open ribs had been anticipated in a ciborium by Giovanni Caccini in Santo Spirito in Florence, where open metal
strapwork screens the space between the thin ribs of an octagonal cupola
(Fig. 36).58 But while this tradition may have paved the way for Berninis
general conception, his design has its most precise antecedent in the central
56
Ferraboscos project with wings was rejected by Urban VIII because it occupied too
much space (see n. 179 below).
57
Braun, Der christ. Altar, II, pls. 160 ff.
58
Designed by 1599, dedicated in 1608 (cf. W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz,
Frankfurt-am-Main, 194054, v, 140 f.).
A few years later Bernini drew even closer to Caccinis ciborium, in the catafalque he designed for the funeral of the popes brother Carlo Barberini (d. 1630), known from a
workshop drawing in Windsor (Fig. 37). Here he used a proper open-ribbed dome, crowning it with a figure of death analogous to the Risen Christ on the baldachin (cf.
Brauer-Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 162 n. 6; A. Blunt and H. L. Cooke, The Roman Drawings
of the XVII and XVIII Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle,
London, 1960, 25 no. 48; no. 49, Inv. no. 5612, seems to have no connection with the
Barberini catafalque). The catafalque is discussed in an unpublished doctoral dissertation by
O. Berendsen, Italian Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Catafalques, New York
University, 1961, 132 f., Fig. 48. A ground plan study for the catafalque by Borromini is in
Vienna, Albertina, Architektonische Handzeichnungen, Rom, Kirchen, no. 64; 214
173mm.
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portion of the shrine built over the apostles tomb by Constantine in the
early fourth century (Fig. 10). There, four of the twisted columns also supported semicircular intersecting ribs.
Though careful records were kept of the excavations beneath the crossing when the foundations for the bronze columns were dug, it is
improbable that these could have yielded such accurate information concerning the elevation of the Constantinian shrine.59 Rather, the source of
Berninis astonishing piece of archaeological reconstruction seems to have
been a unique medal, now lost, of the early Christian period (Fig. 38). On
one side a tabernacle appears that has been regarded as a depiction of the
shrine in Saint Peters.60 It consists of four twisted columns surmounted by
two semicircular arches placed diagonally, exactly the form that can be reconstructed, on independent grounds, for the main feature of the early
mediaeval confessio of Saint Peters. The similarity of Berninis design to
that on the medal extends even to the swags of drapery hung between the
columns and to the interposition of a continuous cornice between columns
and open crown.
Precisely how Bernini came to know the medal cannot be determined,
but its history has been traced to within a decade of his project; it was given
to the popes nephew Cardinal Francesco Barberini in March, 1636, by
Claude Mntrier, the French antiquarian living in Rome.61 Mntrier, who
sent a cast of the medal to his colleague Nicolas Peiresc in Paris to get the
latters interpretation, does not say when or where the medal was discovered, or from whom it was acquired. But he reports that it had been found
together with a representation in gold glass of Sts. Peter and Paul a circumstance that, especially in view of the legend linking the bodies of the
59
See the accounts of the excavations published in Armellini, Le chiese di Roma, II, 862
ff., and H. Lietzmann, Petrus und Paulus in Rom, Berlin-Leipzig, 1927, 194 ff., 304 ff. An
attempt under Urban VIII to reconstruct the confessio in detail from literary sources is noted
below, p. 100.
60
Cf. most recently F. Castagnoli, Probabili raffigurazioni del ciborio intorno alla
memoria di S. Pietro in due medaglie del IV secolo, Rivista di archeologia cristiana, 29, 1953,
98 ff.; A. Baird, La colonna santa, BurlM, 24, 191314, 128 ff. A badly oxidized lead cast
of the medal was preserved in the Museo Sacro of the Vatican, the original bronze having
been lost; the cast has since also disappeared, perhaps oxidized into unrecognizability. (See
Addenda.)
61
See the brilliant piece of research tracing the medals history by G. B. De Rossi, Le
medaglie di devozione dei primi sei o sette secoli della chiesa, B di archeologia cristiana, 7,
1869, 33 ff.
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two apostles, must have reinforced the association with Saint Peters suggested inevitably by the twisted columns. The medals testimony must have
been further supported by a passage in Gregory of Tours (538594), who
reports that over the tomb was a ciborium resting on four white columns;
in a learned treatise on the ancient confessio, submitted to Urban VIII before Berninis baldachin was built, the passage is taken as an accurate
description of the original monument.62 If the medal was believed to show
the shrine in its pristine form that is, as an independent structure without wings knowledge of it may even have influenced the basic decision
to return the high altar to its place over the tomb in the crossing.
This clear and deliberate effort to recreate the early Christian monument while retaining essential elements from the recent predecessors may be
what chiefly distinguishes Berninis work as a new departure. But the motivation was more than simply one of archaeological exactitude, as becomes
evident when one considers the baldachins meaning.
Of the twelve white spiral columns that decorated the mediaeval presbytery, eleven are still preserved.63 Eight were installed by Bernini in the
upper reliquary niches in the crossing piers (Figs. 5356; see p. 118 ff.
below), one is the Colonna Santa referred to earlier (p. 69 above), and two
flank the altar presently dedicated to St. Francis in the Chapel of the Holy
Sacrament off the north aisle of the basilica (Fig. 39). These columns were
the subject of various legends, by far the most widespread of which was that
they had been brought by Constantine from the Temple of Solomon at
Jerusalem. The association was so strong that twisted columns were often
used by artists in representations of the Temple (Fig. 40),64 and the allusion
to the Holy City is implicit in the columns of Berninis baldachin as well.
Vous treuverez . . . un soulphre que jay jett sur une petite lame de metal Corinthe de
cave laquelle jachepta ces jours passs et donna Monseig.r lEcc. Card.le Pat.ne, lequel tesmogna luy plaire grandement pour estre une pice de la primitive Eglise. (Letter of
Mntrier to Nicolas Peiresc, March 8, 1636; ibid., 35.)
62
Michele Lonigo, Breve relatione del Sito, qualit, e forma antica della Confessione
. . . in Buonanni, Num. templ. vat., 191 ff. (cf. p. 198); Buonanni says (p. 115) that Lonigo,
who was papal archivist and master of ceremonies under Paul V, submitted the work to
Urban VIII before the baldachin was built, The essential passage in Gregory of Tours is: Sunt
ibi et columnae mirae elegantiae candore niveo quattuor numero, quac ciborium sepulchri
sustinere dicuntur. (De gloria beatorum martyrum 28, PL, LXXI, 729.)
63
On the columns see especially J. B. Ward Perkins, The Shrine of St. Peter and its
Twelve Spiral Columns, JRS, 42,1952, 21 ff., and Alfarano, De basil. vat., 53 ff.
64
Some further examples are mentioned in nn. 67, 107 below.
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In fact, even apart from the spiral columns, parallels between Saint Peters
and the Temple in layout, measurement, and decoration were long thought
to exist.65 One in particular is important here, since it involves specifically
the Temple and St. Peters tomb. It is stated by Tiberio Alfarano (d. 1596),
who was a cleric of Saint Peters, in his description of the old basilica: The
emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester did no differently about the body
and altar of the apostle Peter than Moses and Aaron had done about the Ark
of the Covenant containing the tablets of the Law and the urn, which at
Gods command they constructed in the centre of the Tabernacle inside the
Holy of Holies under the wings of cherubim. And Solomon did the same
in the Temple of the Lord.66 The cherubim mentioned here seem to find an
echo in the angels who spread their wings above Berninis baldachin; indeed
this may well have been among the reasons for shifting them from beside
the supports, their position in the previous baldachins, to the top. It is even
possible that the very material of the baldachin was intended to carry out
this theme, recalling the famous pair of brazen columns with which
Solomon had flanked the Tabernacle.67
To be sure, the allusion to the Temple was already implicit in the reuse
of the ancient columns in earlier projects. But it is important to emphasize
The relationship was already explicit in Nicolas Vs project for rebuilding Saint Peters
(cf. Magnuson, Roman Quattrocento Architecture, 210, 36062), and according to L. D.
Ettlinger it is reflected in the early decoration of the Sistine Chapel (The Sistine Chapel, 79
f.). For the sixteenth century, see the many references in Alfarano, De basil. vat., 221, s.v.
Templum Salomonis.
66
Haud aliter quidem Constantinus Imperator et Beatus Silvester Papa circa beati Petri
Apostoli Corpus et Altare fecerunt quam Moses et Aaron fecerant circa Arcam foederis Domini
tabulas legis et urnam continentem, quam Dei monitu in Tabernaculi medio intra sancta sanctorum sub cherubim alas constituerant. Et Salomon in Templo Domini idem fecerat. (Alfarano,
De basil. vat., 29.) The allusion is to Hebrews 9:35. (See Addenda.)
67
I Kings 7:21; II Chron. 3:17. Cf. S. Yeivin, Jachin and Boaz, Palestine Exploration
Quarterly, 1959, 6 ff.
In a painting of the Presentation of the Virgin by Domenichino in Savona (Borea,
Dornenichino, Pl. 78) and in a miniature of the Marriage of the Virgin in the Book of Hours
of Etienne Chevalier by Jean Fouquet (K. Perls, Jean Fouquet, London-Paris-New York,
1940, 53), the entrance to the Temple is actually shown flanked by a pair of the spiral
columns of Saint Peters; in the Fouquet the columns are tinted to imitate gilt metal.
I am convinced that Bernini later had in mind a dual reference to Old Saint Peters and
Jerusalem when he included the window with the dove of the Holy Spirit above the
Cathedra Petri in the west apse; Alfarano speaks of the setting sun penetrating the rear windows of the old basilica: ad occasum tendens per posteriores Basilicae fenestras dictam Aram
maximam, totamque Basilicam irradiat sicut Arcam Foederis intra sancta sanctorum
65
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that Berninis bronze columns differ from the originals in several ways. The
enveloping vine tendrils of the originals have been transformed by Bernini
into laurel, a Barberini device that occurs throughout the crossing along
with the popes famous bees and sun. In making this change, an essential
symbolic element of the columns the age-old association of the vine
scroll with the Christian sacrament was lost. Yet there seems to have been
an allusion to the sacrament in the form Bernini gave to the columns. He
did not imitate the normal type, with alternating bands of fluting and foliage (cf. Figs. 5356). Rather, he singled out those which, evidently as a
result of having been shortened at some time, have fluting only on the lower
portions.68 Two columns of precisely this form had been used by Paul III in
the mid-sixteenth century to decorate the altar of the Holy Sacrament in
the old nave (Fig. 41).69 Their subsequent history is uncertain, but it is surely significant that Bernini used two of the same type, perhaps the same pair,
to flank the lateral altar in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the new
church (Fig. 39).70 The cycle of interrelationships is carried out also in the
Tabernaculi Mosi et Salomonis Templi existentem per anteriores portas ingrediens olim illustrabat. (De basil. vat., 19) It should be recalled that the orientation of Saint Peters is unusual
in that the apse is to the west.
68
Ward Perkins, The Shrine of St. Peter, 26, 32, was evidently the first to observe that
two of the columns had been cut down, and that these in particula served as Berninis model
for the baldachin.
69
Alfarano, De basil. vat., 55, 63 f.
70
The altar, then dedicated to St. Maurice, was decorated from April, 1636 (Pollak, Nos.
890 ff.). The chapel as a whole was first intended as a sacristy; the request of the
Archconfraternity of the Sacrament to have it assigned to them was approved in 1626
(Pollak, no. 872).
Grimaldi in fact shows four columns of this type, two of them on the old sacrament altar
(Fig. 41) and two flanking the entrance to the Chapel of John VII (7057), which was located at the Porta Santa. Grimaldi (quoted n. 27 above) says that in his day the columns of
the John VII monument were to be seen before the main apse, along with other similar
columns, making no mention of what happened to the pair from the sacrament altar. Both
Cerrati and Ward Perkins assume that the pair now in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament
came from the John VII chapel. But Ward Perkins seems to have overlooked the sacrament
altar of Paul III altogether, while Cerrati (ed. of Alfarano, De basil. vat., 55, 106 n. 2) seems
not to have noticed that the extant pair have been altered and assumed that they were copies;
except for minor restored details, they are certainly antique. The problems would be resolved
if Schller-Piroli is right in stating (I know not on what evidence) that the same pair was
simply shifted from the John VII chapel to the sacrament altar in old Saint Peters (2000
Jahre Sankt Peter, Olten, 1950, 629). They would subsequently have been moved to the apse
of the new basilica, where Grimaldi saw them, and finally to the Chapel of the Sacrament.
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stucco scene in the vault of the chapel directly above this altar (Fig. 40).71
The panel shows Solomon examining the plans of the Temple of Jerusalem;
in the background is a complex structure in course of construction, which
includes four columns of this same design.72 Equally striking, the columns
A drawing in Berlin attributed to Etienne Duprac shows the Colonna Santa beside a row
of four columns of the sacramental type, without any architectural setting; M. Winner assumes that Duperac invented two of the sacramental columns (Zeichner sehen die Antike.
Europische Handzeichnungen 14501800 [Exhib. Cat.], Berlin-Dahlem, 1967, 129 f. no.
80, Pl. 48).
There has also been considerable confusion about the fate of the missing column or
columns. Cerrati believes that three columns were lost or destroyed in transport; others, accepting the pair in the sacrament chapel as originals, have theorized that one column was
given away (cf. Cerrati, in Alfarano, De basil. vat., 55). A possible answer to this problem is
suggested by the sacrament columns themselves. Though at some time the intermediate zone
of fluting was removed, their actual height is precisely the same as the rest of the series (that
is, 4.70 m., as reported by Cerrati, ibid., 55; the figure 3.60 m., given in the caption to Ward
Perkins Pl. V, Fig. 1, is erroneous). Furthermore, this pair of columns is different from all
the others in several respects, notably in that the vine scrolls are inhabited only by birds and
other animals; there are no putti. What all this suggests is that the missing twelfth column
may have been of the same unusual type as the sacrament pair and that it was cut up and
portions used to bring the latter two back to their original length. When these operations
might have taken place is impossible to say. A payment of June, 1637, when the altar in the
sacrament chapel was readied, records the addition of a piece to one of the columns (Pollak,
277, no. 897); but this probably refers to the bottom half of the lowest ring of acanthus on
the left-hand column.
It should be noted finally that a sixteenth century engraving of one of the sacrament
columns appears in various versions of A. Lafrrys Speculum Romanae magnificentiae (e.g.,
Bibl. Vat., Riserva S. 6. fol. 18, with title page dated 1587); doubtless this was the print mistakenly identified as representing the Colonna Santa in the 1572 list of Lafrrys prints
published by F. Ehrle, Roma Prima di Sisto V. La Pianta di Roma Du Perac-Lafrry del 1577,
Rome, 1908, 55 (cf. Cerrati, in Alfarano, De basil. vat., 55). The print seems to show the
column in its shortened state.
71
Payments to Giovanni Battista Ricci for the cartoons for the narrative stucco panels in
the choir began in May, 1621 (Rome, Arch. della Rev. Fabbrica di S. Pietro, I Piano, Ser. 1,
Vol. 246, Spese 162123, fol. 17r); the sacristy is first mentioned in the payments in Dec.,
1622 (ibid., fol. 72v). His payments ended in Dec., 1626 (Pollak, Nos. 705 ff.; cf. no. 33).
The areas surrounding the narratives had been designed earlier by Ferrabosco (Beltrami,
Ferabosco, 30). The execution extended into the reign of Urban VIII (Pollak, Nos. 712 ff.,
Feb., 1623Aug., 1627).
72
These columns had often been imitated, but I would mention one instance in Rome
in which the sacramental association seems evident; namely, in the Oratorio del Gonfalone,
where they form the general framework of the fresco cycle (156884) illustrating the Passion
(cf. A. Molfino, Loratorio del Gonfalone, Rome, 1964). Here they also appear prominently
in the background of Livio Agrestis Last Supper (ibid., Fig. 22). A chapel in Santo Spirito in
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34. Project for a choir screen with an altar, drawing. Windsor Castle,
No. 5590 (436 x375mm).
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columns were supposed to be filled with earth from Mount Calvary upon
which Christ shed his blood at the Crucifixion, again brought back to
Rome by Helen. This lent a real, topographical basis to the allusion to
Jerusalem, and we shall later consider another exactly parallel case that was
directly pertinent to Saint Peters.
The Lateran altar, in keeping with its dedication to the sacrament, has
the Trinity as its overall theme (cf. Fig. 45). God the Father is depicted in
the triangular opening of the pediment, while on the underside of the roof
appears the dove of the Holy Ghost. Combined with the crucifix on the
altar itself, these form the three elements of the traditional formula for representing the Trinity, in their usual vertical sequence. The same elements are
distributed in an analogous way at Saint Peters. The dove is also shown on
the underside of the baldachins canopy above the altar crucifix, while God
the Father appears in the lantern at the apex of the dome (Fig. 43).75 The
latter figure was executed when the decoration of the dome began, also directed by the Cavaliere dArpino, under Clement VIII.76
A similar arrangement had occurred in the Church of Santa Maria dei
Monti in Rome, designed by Giacomo della Porta and built and decorated
after 1580 (Fig. 44).77 Here the high altar, with its famous miraculous image
of the Virgin, also holds the tabernacle containing the Eucharist. The dove
of the Holy Spirit appears in the conch of the apse above the altar (also in
the stucco decoration around the base of the drum), and God the Father is
depicted in the lantern of the dome. The special emphasis given to the
sacrament in the Madonna dei Monti may be explained by the fact that it
was the church of the Confraternity of the Catechumens, whose purpose
was to instruct and assist Jews and other non-believers wishing to convert
to Catholicism.78
All these considerations shed light upon what would surely have been
one of the most spectacular features of Berninis baldachin, the great
figure of the Resurrected Christ at the centre of the crown in the first proH. Sedlmayr has also emphasized the relation of the baldachin to the dome mosaics in
Saint Peters and, though in a different way, has seen the reference to the Trinity (Epochen
und Werke, Vienna, 1960, II, 23 ff.).
In Paul Vs baldachin, as the medal of 1617 shows (Fig. 21), the underside of the canopy
was covered with stars.
76
On the chronology of the dome decorations, cf. Siebenhner, Umrisse, 300.
77
Cf. Pastor, XX, 583.
78
See Moroni, Dizionario, XLVII, 270 ff.
75
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1677, IV, cols. 275f., no. 17; examples of the medal are preserved in the Staatliche
Mnzsammlung, Munich, and in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris).
82
Visible in the illustration in Fraschetti, Bernini, 395. No banner is attached to the
cross-staff held by Christ in the work as we know it; but it is interesting to note that a banner does appear in a drawing at Windsor with projects for adding candelabra, which Brauer
and Wittkower believe was made after the altar was finished (Zeichnungen, 173, 175, Pl.
195c). The Christ on the Saint Peters ciborium rises from a cloud, as did the figure in the
first version of the baldachin (see n. 49 above).
For the relationship between the Lateran sacrament altar and the crossing of Saint Peters
as a whole, see n. 164 below.
83
This theme also seems embodied in the ornaments of the upper reliquary niches of
the piers; symbols of the Passion appear in the lower part of the frontispieces, symbols of
salvation above (see nn. 121, 164 below). An element of vertical integration involving the
building itself was also present at the Lateran, with the crucifix on the altar. the
Resurrected Christ on the ciborium, and the Ascension of Christ on the wall above the
tabernacle.
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Jerusalem, the site of Christian redemption. This imagery became fundamental to Berninis treatment of the crossing as a whole.
III. The Decoration of the Pier Niches
Planning for the four piers and their decoration began when it was still
expected to execute the baldachin according to Berninis first project. Urban
had already shown his concern for the condition of the relics when in
January, 1624, he ordered a complete reconstruction of the reliquary niche
for the Holy Face and the Lance; it was finished late in the following year.84
The crucial decision to redecorate the lower niches beneath the relics must
have been taken shortly thereafter. This is evident from a document in the
archive of the basilica reported by Baldinucci in the famous defense of
Berninis work on the piers, which lie appended to his biography of the
artist; the document shows that two models for altars, uno sotto al nicchio
del Volto Santo e laltro di S. Andrea, were in existence by June of 1626.85
During the first part of 1627 payments were made for a group of models
for the Veronica niche, one of which was by Bernini himself.86 His project
is preserved in a workshop drawing in Vienna, which is practically identical
with the description given in the craftsmens invoices (Fig. 48).87 It estabThe documents are published by Pollak, 311 ff. The inscription bearing the date 1625
placed beneath the balustrade (Forcella, Iscrizioni, VI, 148 no. 542) surely refers to the completion of this reconstruction (cf. also Hess, Knstlerbiographien, 109 n. 1), rather than the
beginning of that which followed (Brauer-Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 22 n. 2).
85
Vi son in essere le cimenti p 2 altari da farsi uno sotto al nicchio del Volto S.to, et laltro d S. And.a Parlarne con N S.re parria molto conveniente far li altari del Volto S.to e S.
And.a in d.i luoghi, che non vi son, ne si vuole andare a celebrare ne luoghi, dove son collocate d.e reliquie. (Minutes of the Congregation, June 3, 1626; transcribed from the original,
Arch. Fabb. S. P., I Piano, Ser. 2, Vol. 71, Congregazioni 15711630, fol. 397r)
Cf. Baldinucci, Vita, 165 f. Bernini was accused of having weakened the piers, causing
cracks that had appeared in the dome.
86
The documents are quoted in Pollak, 465f., but are there misleadingly placed under
the heading of the upper reliquary niches.
87
Apparently overlooking the correspondence with the documents, Brauer and
Wittkower regarded the project as the invention of another artist (Zeichnungen, 23 n. 3, Pl.
195a). I quote the documents after Pollak, 24, 29 f. (italics mine):
Per unaltro Modello sotto la Nicchia del Volto Santo con il disegnio del Sr Cavv, Bernino
fatto amezzo ottangolo con pilastri alli angoli doppij con basamento, zoccolo con li collarino
fregi cimasa tutto scorniciato fatto tutte le modinature etc. . . . con il finimento sopra fatto
piramida con le mozzole (mensole?) nelle Cantonate alto tutto pi 32 long. di giro pi 30 etc.
. . . 80
84
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lishes the basic solution that was to be retained in the final execution: a
monumental statue raised on a high base, in which there are openings giving access to a stairway that leads down to an altar in the grotto below. The
statue is conceived in accordance with the traditional formula for St.
Veronica, which had appeared on the mediaeval tabernacle (Fig. 8) and
would later also provide the point of departure for Francesco Mochis figure
of the saint. Indeed, the whole arrangement, comprising an altar below, depictions of the appropriate saint and relic, and a container for the relic
above seems consciously to recreate in relief the reliquary monuments of the
old basilica. Since there is no reference in the project to the Lance, which
was kept together with the Holy Face, it must already have been determined
to house the relics separately.
The official decision to include all four piers in the program was taken
in June of 1627.88 There had been an earlier proposal to treat the four niches uniformly.89 But coming after the high altar had nearly been shifted
Per li fusti contornati dove dipinta la Veronica e doi angeli grandi etc. . 10
E pi ordine del Sig.r Chavaglier Bernino si depinto un modello fatto di legniame sotto
alla nichia del Volto Santo con haverlo incessato e stuchato e dato di piacha (biacca) fina e
si inbrunito da alto e passo e svenato di marmaro, con un arme del Papa di chiaro e scuro
e quadro cartelone con le steste di carobini messe di rame battuto e unbrato di sopra et dui
ferate messe di rame battuto e unbrato, di sopra e una ficura di Santa Veronicha di palmi
quindici con dui Angeli di palmi nove messo di rame battute e umbrato e scorniciato di dutto
. . . 50
E pi per haver rifatto sopra li ideso modello se alzato tre palmi di piu pisogniato
restauralo e far di nuovo et un arme del Papa messo di rame battuto umbrato di sopra e si
fatto sopra le dui porte dui ferate messe rame battute e umbrate con dui candelone di pi e
dui ferate di pi fatte di color di rame scorniciato e unbrato et haver rifatto un a(l)tra volta
la figura di palme 12 e li Angeli di palmi 7 e si rimesso di rame battuto la maggior parte e
umbrato di nuovo . . . 35
88
Pollak, no. 1621.
89
A document of uncertain date reads as follows: Nelle quattro nicchie grandi che sono
alli piloni della Cuppola canto lAltar maggiore pensato di fare due Chori, uno per li
Cantori, et laltro per li Principi, che verranno veder la messa pontificale, se bene alcuni
hanno opinione, che vi staranno bene quattro Altari nelli quali si potranno collocare li quattro Corpi di S. Leoni Papi, che sono nella medesima Chiesa. (Pollak, Ausgewhlte Akten,
73) Siebenhner connects the chori mentioned here with those shown in Cigolis project
(Figs. 25, 26; Umrisse, 312, where the reference should read Pollak in place of Orbaan).
Siebenhners assumption (Umrisse, 245, 257) that four figures of prophets made for
Saint Peters in the 1550s by Guglielmo della Porta were intended for the crossing piers, has
been disproved by W. Gramberg (Guglielmo della Porta verlorene Prophetenstatuen fr San
Pietro in Vaticano, in Walter Friedlaender zum 90. Geburtstag, Berlin, 1965, 80 n. 7).
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toward the apse and after the nave had been added, the new arrangement
was a reaffirmation of the centrality of the crossing. Interest still focused
primarily on the Veronica and Andrew niches, however, and in April, 1628,
several models (plura modula seu formae) for them were shown to the
Congregazione della Fabbrica, the group of cardinals who governed the
basilica.90 Remarkable insights into the whole development of the crossing
are provided by the records of the meeting of the Congregation a month
later, May 15, 1628, in which the choice among the projects was made.
There are two documents in question: one comes from the notes made by
the steward (oeconomus) of the Congregation during the actual meeting, the
other from the official record of the meeting as it was transcribed from these
notes.91 Variations between the two versions are normally trivial, but that is
not the case in the present instance. In the notes made at the meeting it is
said that the design which most pleased the pope was that for the St.
Andrew and that authorization was given to award the commission. In the
official transcription the oeconomus specifies that the project chosen was
Berninis. Thus it appears that Berninis winning design was for the St.
Andrew, and it was this design that evidently provided the basis for the statue executed subsequently by Duquesnoy. The implications of this point will
become evident when we consider the close similarities between
90
April 10, 1628:
Fuerunt exhibita plura modula seu formae capellarum construendarum in locis subtus SSmas
Reliquias Vullus S ti et Capitis S. Andreae quae per Ill mos DD. visa, et diligenter expressa,
Iniunxerunt mihi ut illa S mo D. N. deferrem, ut facilius possit ex dictis et alia, quae habet, formula, seu modula sibi magis placitus eligere et Sacr. Cong. eo citius mentem S mi desuper
executione demandare. (Pollak, no. 1622.)
91
May 15, 1628:
Li disegni delli Altarini, N. Sre dice che la Congne veda qual pi li sodisfaccia et quello si
faccia; mostra gradir il S. And(re)a. si potria deputar. qualche delli SSri Illmi S. Sisto e Vidone.
(Pollak, no. 1623)
May 15,1628:
Exhibui Ego Oeconomus plura delineamenta depicta pro forma seu modulo parvarum
Cappellarum de mente S mi construendarum in loculis Nicchi nuncupatis per me de ordine eiusdem Sanct mi huic Sacrae Congregationi praesentanda ut illis per DD. visis ex eis eligerent quale
perficiendum erit, ideo per eos bene inspectis approbarunt ex eis unum ab Equite Bernino delineatum, utque facilius, et citius opus absolvatur, rogarunt Ill mos DD. Cardinales St ti Sixti, et
Vidonum, ut curam huic incumbant et quatenus illis.videatur mentem eiusdern S mi desuper
melius exquirant, et exequantur. (Pollak, no. 1624.)
On the minutes of the meetings, see F. Ehrle, Dalle carte e dai disegni di Virgilio Spada,
AttiPontAcc, Ser. III, Memorie, II, 1928, 19.
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Duquesnoys figure and Berninis own St. Longinus. The St. Andrew was in
fact the test case for the whole program. Work was begun immediately on
the niche proper; Duquesnoy received the first payment for his full-scale
stucco model in May, 1629, and the final payment the following
November.92
In February of 1629, following Madernos death, Bernini had been appointed architect of Saint Peters.93 The overall scheme matured in April of
the same year, when the pope gave the basilica a portion of the famous relic
of the True Cross, composed of fragments which he had removed from
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and SantAnastasia.94 The significance of this
step can best be appreciated by considering momentarily a document of
three years before, July 15, 1626, also reported by Baldinucci.95 It records
with respect to the altars then being planned that the oeconomus was directed to determine whether there were in Saint Peters other relics of the
apostles that might accompany the head of St. Andrew; the head of St. Luke
was one possibility mentioned. The thought clearly was to pair the Passion
relics, the Volto Santo and the Lance, against relics of the apostles. The idea
of pairing remained, as we shall see, but the procurement of the fragments
of the True Cross early in 1629 shows that a general theme had emerged
which required another Passion relic for its completion.
In the Congregation meeting of December 10, 1629, within a month
after the model of the St. Andrew was finished, the other three artists who
were to execute models of their statues were named.96 Bolgi began his model
for the St. Helen on July 2, 1631, and Bernini probably began his model for
the St. Longinus at the same time; Mochi began the Veronica model on
September 24 of that year. He completed his model on November 29,
1631, and it was viewed by the pope on February 8, 1632; the pope saw
Berninis completed model one week later, on February 15, and that of
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Bolgi on March 5.97 Considerable time elapsed before execution of the marbles began, in Duquesnoys case presumably because he had to wait until the
other models were completed; in the other cases there was delay in acquiring suitable marbles.98 Duquesnoy was the first to begin work, in April of
1633, and the Andrew was in place by October, 1639 (Fig. 50).99 Bernini
began only in June, 1635, but the Longinus was installed by June, 1638
(Fig. 51).100 Mochi also began in June, 1635, and his Veronica was in place
by October, 1639 (Fig. 49).101 Bolgi received his first payment in January,
1635, and the Helen was finished by the end of 1639 (Fig. 52).102
The decoration of the upper niches (Figs. 5356), carried out between
1633 and 1641, brought the program to completion.103 The niches were
based on a design by Bernini (cf. Fig. 68), which involved reusing the ancient columns from the presbytery of Old Saint Peters. At first the columns
were to support triangular pediments, but in the final form the pediments
are segmental and the whole fronticepiece is bowed inward. Marble putti
surmount the pediments, upon which stucco clouds flow down from the
surface of the conch.104 Above, also in stucco, putti carry inscriptions, while
inside the frontispieces are marble reliefs of angels and putti displaying images of the relics.105
Here again, dual reference to the old church and to Jerusalem is evident.
The idea for images of the relics and columns in the upper story seems to
97
The dates are given by Torriggio, Sacre grotte vaticane, 206, 219, 283. Torriggio says that
the model of the Longinus was finished on July 5, 1631, but more likely this was the beginning
date. All the artists received down payments of 50 scudi on Dec. 19, 1629, after which there
was a delay while work on the niches proceeded. On May 5, 1631, the Congregation decreed
that the models be executed (Pollak, no. 1646) and regular payments for them began in Sept.
(Longinus) and Nov. (Veronica and Helen), 1631. Final payment to Bolgi was made on March
15, 1632, to Bernini on April 5, to Mochi on Aug. 11, of the same year. Bernini received a
total of 500 scudi, Mochi 450, Bolgi 350. Cf. Pollak, 442 f., 454 f., 461 f.
98
Pollak, Nos. 1718 ff.; see end of n. 174 below.
99
Pollak, Nos. 1654, 1667. G. Baglione, Le nove chiese di Roma, Rome, 1639, 38 f.,
speaks of the Helen and Longinus as in their places, but not yet the Andrew and Veronica. His
dedication to Cardinal Francesco Barberini is dated Sept. 1, 1639.
100
Pollak, Nos. 1787, 1791. The pope had inspected it on May I (Fraschetti, Bernini,
76). See also n. 125 below.
101
Pollak, nos. 1735, 1747.
102
Pollak, nos. 1820, 1752. The statue is signed and dated 1639. The document of 1649
mentioned by Fraschetti, Bernini, 74, refers to other works by Bolgi in Saint Peters.
103
Pollak, 467 ff.
104
On this device, see n. 132 below.
105
With one important exception; see p. 160 below.
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125
have come from the earlier reliquary tabernacles, one of which that of
the Volto Santo actually had versions of the famous twisted columns (cf.
Fig. 8).106 The cornices, like those of the baldachin, are concave and may be
related to the reconstruction of Solomons Temple in the vault of the sacrament chapel (cf. Fig. 40); the notion of surrounding the central altar by the
Solomonic spiral columns has a precedent among versions of the Temple,
in which the columns were distributed around the Holy of Holies.107
The bowed frontispieces are of particular interest, however, since hereafter they appear frequently in Berninis work, in varied forms, and they
become one of the stock phrases in the vocabulary of Baroque architecture. The motif has a complex genealogy, but in this instance Berninis
direct model lay not far from Saint Peters, in the Church of Santo Spirito
in Sassia. The side chapels of this church are, like the reliquary niches of
Saint Peters, semicircular in plan with half-domes. In a number of cases
the frames of the altarpieces are curved in adherence to the wall surface.
This is the case in the second chapel on the right (Fig. 57), decorated at
the altar and in the vault with paintings by Livio Agresti (d. ca. 1580),
where the altarpiece is framed by a pair of columns that closely imitate the
sacrament columns of Saint Peters.108 Here, too, are the broken pediment
surmounted by figures, the flat strips that continue the entablature and
bases on the wall as if to form lateral extensions of the frontispiece, and
other details that appear in Berninis niches. His major changes were toward unifying the design, by making the horizontal entablature
continuous between the columns and echoing the columns in the form of
106
As noted by Kauffmann, Berninis Tabernakel, 229. In fact, it seems to have been a
common type, as witness the tabernacles with spiral columns in the upper level in Santa
Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano in the series of prints by Maggi discussed in
Appendix I no. 8 (the Santa Maria Maggiore print is reproduced by Armellini, Chiese di
Roma, 1, 286; cf. P. De Angelis, Basilicae S. Mariae Maioris de urbe . . . Descriptio, Rome,
1621, ills. on pp. 83, 85, 87); also in Santa Maria in Campitelli (G. Ciampini, Vetera
monumenta, Rome, 1690, Fig. 3 on Pl. XLIV opp. p. 181).
107
Cf. the interior of the Temple in a miniature of Jean Fouquets Antiquites judaques
(Perls, Fouquet, 248); reconstructions of the Temple as a centrally planned structure were
also common (see now S. Sinding-Larsen, Some Functional and Iconographical Aspects of
the Centralized Church in the Italian Renaissance, Institutum Romanum Norvegiae, Acta,
11, 1965, 221 ff.).
108
Cf. P. De Angelis, La chiesa di Santo Spirito in Santa Maria in Sassia, Rome, 1952, 10;
E. Lavagnino, La chiesa di Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, 1962, 110.
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126
bent pilasters at the angle with the back wall. Also significant is the fact
that Bernini gave the frontispiece a less pronounced curvature than the
niche itself (Fig. 58);109 this, together with the continuous entablature,
makes the frontispiece seem almost to project from the niche as an independent unit, rather than following its surface as in the Santo Spirito,
altarpiece.
Perhaps most remarkable is that even in the design for these niches
Berninis interest may have been more than simply formal. The Church of
Santo Spirito, and especially the Confraternity of the Holy Spirit whose seat
it was, had an ancient and intimate association with the relic of the Holy
Face, and hence with Saint Peters. The relic had once been kept in the
church, and in the later Middle Ages, after it was transferred, the popes
would carry it from Saint Peters to Santo Spirito and back again in annual
procession. From the latter part of the fifteenth century the custom was reversed and the Confraternity went in procession to Saint Peters where it
had the signal honour of being shown the relic.110
IV. Changes During Execution
The Crown of the Baldachin
During the long period of work on the statues and the niches two major
changes were made, both of which radically affected the design and disposition of the crossing. The first of these occurred probably in 1631 while the
models for the niche figures were being made. The two semicircular arches
that Bernini had intended to place over the columns of the baldachin were
discarded and were replaced instead by the familiar twelve curving volutes
(four sets of three) decorated with palm fronds; and the great figure of the
Resurrected Christ was replaced by the more traditional globe and cross
The plan of the niches is from Baldinucci, Vita, Pl. 11 opp. p. 176. Baldinuccis point
(pp. 162 f.) is that Bernini did not weaken the piers by deepening the niches, but, on the
contrary, tended to fill them in; he also notes that the space between the old and the new
surface served to insulate the wall from humidity.
Cf. the niche with double curvature that Bernini created during the same period for the
Countess Matilda monument (Fig. 75).
110
See Moroni, Dizionario, CIII, 95 f. The connections between the Volto Santo and Santo
Spirito are recorded extensively by Grimaldi, Opusculum, fols. 35 ff., 41, 47, 67 f., 147 ff.
109
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(Fig. 59).111 It seems that these alterations were motivated at least partly by
practical considerations. One of Berninis critics mentioned earlier, who
submitted a project of his own, objected that the original arrangement
would be inadequate to support the Christ figure and restrain the columns,
and there would be danger of a collapse.112 Filippo Buonanni says explicitly
that it was feared the columns might give way (laxari).113 In fact, the change
increased the number of supports, and created groups of pointed arches,
raising the crown and making the thrust on the columns more nearly vertical. A series of drawings shows Bernini experimenting with a variety of
convex, concave, and mixed curves that would achieve this result.114 A small
and a full-size model of the new crown were made during 1631; the work
was unveiled on June 29, 1633.115 The repercussions of the substitution of
the cross and globe for the Christ, which served to lighten the load, will be
discussed in Section V.
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Apse
(west)
Volto Santo
and Lance
Head of
St. Andrew
Volto Sancto
(Veronica)
Head of
St. Andrew
Volto Santo
Lance
Tomb of
Paul III
Colonna
Santa
Lance
(Longinus)
True Cross
(Helen)
Head of
St. Andrew
True Cross
A. Under Paul V
Volto Santo
Head of
St. Andrew
True Cross
Lance
116
On the directional symbolism of the Christian basilica, cf. J. Sauer, Symbolik des
Kirchengebudes, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1924, 87 ff.; J. A. Jungmann, Missarum sollemnia,
Freiburg, 1958, I, 529 ff.; I. Lavin, The Sources of Donatellos Pulpits in San Lorenzo, AB,
41, 1959, 20 n. 8. The nobler side, to the right of the celebrant of the Mass, gets its name
from the fact that the lesson from the Gospel in the Mass was read from there, while the
Epistle, of lesser distinction, was read from the celebrants left. In Saint Peters the pope celebrates the Mass facing the congregation in the nave. Because Saint Peters is also wested
(that is, with the apse in the west), the nobler side is to the south, as it is in normally oriented churches.
117
Breviarium romanum, Rome, 1634, Commune sanctorum, xviff.
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the other three relics depended upon the basic distinction according to
which saints are classified, that is, between males and females. In the
Common of the Saints, the series of prayers by which saints are collectively venerated, males have preference over females. Apostles and evangelists
come before male martyrs; confessors, doctors, and abbots follow, and the
female saints come last. Among the latter, saints who were neither virgins
nor martyrs which was the case with Veronica and Helen constitute
the lowest category.117 By this criterion, Andrew, as apostle and martyr, takes
precedence over the male martyr Longinus, who in turn precedes Helen;
this was the order in which Urban VIII originally distributed the relics (Text
Fig. B). The controlling factor, except for the Volto Santo, was the liturgical rank of the saints, male martyrs vs. female non-virgins non-martyrs.
The frescoes illustrating the histories of the relics in the grotto chapels
beneath the niches were actually carried out according to this original
arrangement, under Berninis direction, mainly during 1630 and 1631.118
The liturgical rank of the saints was emphasized in the altar paintings by
Andrea Sacchi in these chapels: in the case of Veronica and Helen, scenes
showing their connection with the relics were chosen (the Road to Calvary
and the Testing of the True Cross), while under Andrew and Longinus the
altarpieces pertained to their martyrdom (Andrew worshipping the cross on
which he would be crucified and the Beheading of St. Longinus).119 Another
118
The dates are given by Torriggio, Sacre grotte vaticane, 200, who also describes the
frescoes in detail. An inscription in the vault of the ambulatory between the northeast and
northwest chapels reads as follows:
URBANUS VIII PONTE [sic] MAX
NOVOS ADITVS APERVIT
ALTARIA CVM STATUS ER[E]XIT
PICTVRIS ADAVXIT
ANN DOM M DC XXXI PONT VIII
The inscripion thus dates between Jan. I and Sept. 28, 1631 (the eve of the anniversary
of the popes coronation). Payments begin in Jan., 1630 (Pollak, no. 2108), and the last invoice is Jan., 1633 (Pollak, no. 2123).
119
Mosaic copies of the paintings are now on the altars (according to the final, not the
original location of the relics). The paintings are now in the Treasury of Saint Peters. Sacchi
received payments in 1633 and 1634 (Pollak, Nos. 2086 ff.), and a final payment for the St.
Helen scene on Sept. 5, 1650: Al And.ea Sacchi Pitt.e Scudi 150 m.ta oltre a scudi 650 havuti sono p. intero pagam.to di tutti quattro li quadri che il d.o ha dipinto sotto le grotte
compresoci in d.o n.o il quadro con lhist.a quando S.ta helena trovo la Croce di N.S. Sotto
S.ta helena di marmo e questo e in conformita di quanto ha ordinato la Sacra Cong.e di q.to
di. (Arch. Fabb. S.P., Ser. Arm., Vol. 179, Spese 163657, p. 276; cf. Set. 3, Vol. 162, Decreta
et resolutiones 164253, fol. 178r.)
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ca. He had then stipulated that the three relics of the Passion be displayed
in a sequence that implied an ascending order of importance, the Lance first
and the Cross second, climaxing with the Holy Face.122 A compromise between the original arrangement and the import of Urban VIIIs bull was
made in the first of two decrees issued by the Congregation concerning the
placement of the relics: in April of 1638 the Congregation ordered a new
disposition, stating explicitly that it was in accordance with the relative dignity of the relics (Text Fig. C).123 Yet the decree merely exchanged the places
of the head of Andrew and the Lance of Longinus; the preferred position
was given to the Lance because it is a Passion relic, but the pairing of the
saints was still retained. The difficulty now was that the Lance had precedence over the True Cross. The Congregation changed its mind again and
in a subsequent meeting, in July, 1638, decreed what was to be the final
arrangement (Text Fig. D).124 This adheres strictly to the hierarchy of the
relics, expressing it in an ascending counterclockwise order beginning with
the head of St. Andrew, the only relic not related to the Passion, and end. . . . de cetero Ferri primo, deinde Crucis, postremo Sacrae Imaginis reliquiae hujus modi
ostendi debeant. (Collectionis bullarum, III, 240 [April 9, 1629]).
123
April 26, 1638:
Fuit actum mandato S.D.N., de quo mihi oeconomo fidem fecit Rev.mus D. Archiep.us
Amasiae super collocat.ne 4.or p.lium Reliquiarum S.S. Basilicae S. Petri iuxta debitum cuiq
pced.ae ord.em et exhibito Modulo milti ab eodem R.mo D. Archie.po consignato et D. Paulo
Alaleona Magro Ceremoniarum eiusd S.D.N. subscripto, in quo p.s locus Augustissimo Vultus S.
Reliquiae in loculo dexterae Parastidis, seu Pilastri subtus Cupolam versa ad Januam facie assignandam propanitur, 2.s S.mae Cruci in loculo sinistro sub.to per Diametrum respondente, 3.s
ptiossimae Lanceae in loculo sinistro p.o loculo Vultus S.tt respondente et 4.s Capiti Gloriosissimi
Apostoli S. Andreae in loculo dextero conspectu S.mae Crucis. Em.mi D.ni eodem viso et considerato mandarunt juxta ordinem ibi perscriptum easd S.S.tas reliquias collocari, et modulum ptum
cum p.nti decr.o ad perpetuam memoriam conservari. (Arch. Fabb. S. P., I Piano, Ser. 3, vol.
161, Decreta et resolut 163642, fol. 36v).
124
July 5, 1638:
Fuit iterum actum de collocatione Reliquiarum pn.lium sacros.ta Basilicae S.tt Petri, et non
obst.e Decreto alias facto melius discusso neg.o resolutum S.mam Vultus S.ti Reliquiam in eodem loculo dexterae parastidis seu Pilastri verso ad Januam facie esse collocandam, sacrosanctum Crucis
Lignum in sinistro eidem respondenti, Praetiosissimam Lanceam in loculo dexterae paristidis,
quae invenitur ab ingressu Ecclesiae, et Caput gloriosissimi Apostoli S.ti Andreae in sinistro huic
respondenti. (Ibid., fol. 43v).
The decrees are alluded to by Fraschetti, Bernini, 72f.
It is evident that Duquesnoys cries of foul play at the change of plan, reported by Bellori,
Passeri, etc., were quite unfounded (the sources are conveniently quoted in Fransolet, Le S.
Andre de Duquesnoy, 277 ff.; cf. 252).
122
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136
ing with the Volto Santo. The pairing of the saints was abandoned completely.125
Underlying these changes was a progressive shift in emphasis in which
the importance of the relics rather than that of the saints became the
basis for the arrangement. Hierarchy was the determining factor throughout. In the beginning, however, it was focused on the human personalities
of the saints represented, which in turn determined their liturgical status;
125
The Longinus was installed in June, 1638 (Pollak, no. 1791), before the Congregations final decree. Presumably the final disposition was known in advance. It is just
possible, however, that the statue actually was set up in the northwest pier in accordance with
the first decree, and subsequently moved. A list of expenses for work done during June,
1639, includes a payment per haver condutto il Bassorilievo[sic!] di S. Longino; this is listed in Pollak as though it were for the statue (no. 1793), though it may refer to the relief of
the reliquary niche above (nos. 1978 ff.). The English Sculptor Nicholas Stone notes in the
diary of his visit to Rome that on Dec. 11, 1639, Bernini told him he would finish within
fifteen days a statue on which he was working in Saint Peters; this can only refer to the
Longinus (cf. W. L. Spiers, The Note-Book and Account Book of Nicholas Stone, Walpole
Society, 7, 1919, 171).
In 1637 P. Totti describes the statues (and the long inscriptions below the balconies) as
if they were already in place according to the original plan, though none of the figures was
completed then (Ristretto delle grandezze di Roma, Rome, 1637, 5 ff.). The next year he adds
a correction, hoggi si sono mutati i luoghi di S. Longino e di S. Andrea (Ritratto di Roma
moderna, Rome, 1638, 530, with dedicatory letter dated Nov. 18, 1638).
Another indication of the date of the change is provided by two payments to the painter
Guidobaldo Abbatini. The first was on April 23, 1637, for having painted the inscriptions
on the scrolls carried by the angels in the uppermost arches of the reliquary niches (Pollak,
no. 2015); the second was on July 29, 1638, for having painted the inscriptions a second
time (Pollak, no. 2018).
Because Torriggio states (Sacre grotte vaticane, 220, 232, 283) that the inscriptions below
the balconies of the Longinus, Andrew, and Helen niches were set up in 1634, the change
has been dated too early (Fransolet, Le S. Andr de Duquesnoy, 251 n. 8; Kauffmann,
Berninis H1. Longinus, 370). Torriggio makes no mention of any discrepancy between the
inscriptions and the chapels below, an anomaly he certainly would not have overlooked or
failed to note in his detailed account. Either the inscriptions were not yet really installed, and
Torriggio anticipated, or they were first set in place according to the original arrangement
and subsequently shifted.
There is an engraved plan of the grottoes (a reworking of an earlier print showing the
grottoes in their pre-Urban VIII form; cf. Lietzmann, Petrus u. Paulus in Rom, 193, 304, Pl.
11), ordered first by Benedetto Drei, fattore of the basilica, with inscriptions in the chapels
identifying them according to the final disposition of the relics and carrying the date 1635
(e.g. Bibl. Vat., R. G. Arte-Arch. 5.95 unnumbered). But a further inscription says the plan
was brought up to date (ridotta nella forma che al presente si ritrova) by Pietro Paolo Drei,
soprastante of the basilica, an office to which he was appointed only in Nov., 1638 (cf.
Pollak, no. 28).
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and this is reflected in the design of the statues, which are paired visually
and psychologically. Ultimately, the overriding consideration became the
relics and their relative dignity; pre-eminence was given to the mementoes
of Christs sacrifice.
The main results and implications of the discussion in the preceding two
Sections may now be briefly summarized. First, the statues were planned
when the baldachin was to have its original form, with the Resurrected
Christ above. Second, it seems clear that besides his own statue Bernini provided initial designs also for the Andrew and the Veronica. Presently we shall
offer evidence that the same is true of Bolgis Helen. Each artist developed
the prototype according to his own predilection; but the statues complement one another according to a unified scheme, as we shall also see, and
this underlying conception can only have been Berninis. The significance
of these observations will become apparent as we consider the sources and
meaning of the figures and the overall programme.
V. The Sources and Significance of the Statues
St. Andrew and the First Version of St. Longinus
The decisive change introduced by Bernini into the two-storey organization of the piers under Paul V lay in devoting the lower niches to
monumental figures of the saints, and the upper niches to representations
of the relics themselves. This new arrangement, already implicit in Berninis
Veronica project early in 1627 (Fig. 48), involves a much more explicit reference than had obtained under Paul V to one in particular of the reliquary
tabernacles in Old Saint Peters, namely that of Saint Andrew (Fig. 7). A
The St. Andrew is shown in the northwest niche in a view of the interior of Saint Peters in
the Prado, signed by Filippo Gagliardi and dated 1640 (A. E. Perez Sanchez, Pintura italiana
del S. XVII en Espaa, Madrid, 1965, 279, Pl. 75). The statue had been installed in Oct., 1639,
after the final decree and therefore certainly in the southeast niche. Incongruously, the reliquary
niche above the St. Andrew shows the relief with the cross of St. Helen.
It should be emphasized, finally, that all this had no bearing on the actual location of the
relics; the Passion relics are kept in the Veronica niche and shown from there (see Moroni,
Dizionario, CIII, 101 f.; P. Moretti, De ritu ostensionis sacrarum reliquiarum, Rome, 1721,
111), while St. Andrews head was reserved to the niche above St. Helen. We have a payment
for the canopy over the niche of St. Helen in Nov., 1641, that is, long after the final disposition was made, in which it is stated that the St. Andrew relic was kept there (Pollak, 492;
cf. 65 no. 54).
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126
C. De Fabriczy, La statua di SantAndrea allingresso della sagrestia in San Pietro,
LArte, 4, 1901, 67 ff.
127
The similarity was first noted in print by Hess (Notes sur Duquesnoy, 30 f.), who
cites R. Berliner.
128
This relationship will be explored at length in my forthcoming study of the Saint
Teresa chapel.
129
The Apotheosis scene seems to have been the first of the frescoes carried out by
Domenichino in the choir and pendentives of SantAndrea; a payment of 26 scudi in Dec.,
1624, evidently refers to it. The main body of the decoration was executed during 162627,
and the latest payment to Domenichino is in Feb., 1628. See A. Boni, La chiesa di S. Andrea
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della Valle (Conferenza letta allAssociazione Archeologica romana la sera dell8 Dic. 1907),
Rome, 1908, 21; Hess, Die Knstlerbiographien, 48 n. 5; H. Hibbard, The Date of
Lanfrancos Fresco in the Villa Borghese and Other Chronological Problems, in Misc. Bibl.
Hertz., 357 f., 364; Borea, Domenichino, 184.
130
The pose, gesture, and expression for an upward soaring figure are characteristic of
Domenichino, and recur frequently in his work (cf. Borea, Domenichino, Pls. 28, 47, 67,
81 f.).
The statues connection with Domenichino, though not with the SantAndrea fresco, has
been noted by J. Pope-Hennessy, Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture, London,
1963, text vol. p. 109, and Nava Cellini, Duquesnoy e Poussin, 41.
Nava Cellini (pp. 40 f.) revives the attribution to Duquesnoy of a terra-cotta model of
St. Andrew in SantAndrea delle Fratte, which had been rejected by Fransolet (Le S. Andr
de Duquesnoy, 243 n. 4) and Hess (Die Knstlerbiographien, 110 n.1; Notes sur
Duquesnoy, 31 f.). The tilt of the head in the opposite direction seems sufficient, in the
present context, to exclude it as a study for the Saint Peters figure; indeed, the model has
close analogies to the statue of the saint by Camillo Rusconi in the Lateran (cf. A.
Riccoboni, Roma nellarte. La scultura nellevo moderno dal Quattrocento ad oggi, Rome,
1942, Pl. 315).
131
Torriggio, Sacre grotte vaticane, 220.
132
The similarity has also been pointed out by M. Fagiolo DellArco, Domenichino
ovvero classicismo del primo Seicento, Rome, 1963, 92.
We may note that it was probably also from Dornenichinos frescoes the allegories in
the choir in SantAndrea della Valle and the pendentives there and in San Carlo ai Catinari
(162731) that Bernini developed his famous technique of stucco spilling over the architectural frame. Bernini is usually credited with the invention of this device, which he
introduced in the reliquary niches in Saint Peters (Figs. 5356) and elaborated further in his
Cappella Pio in SantAgostino (begun 1644); in fact, it has a long prior history, with which
I hope to deal in my study of the Chapel of Saint Teresa.
The allegory in the choir of SantAndrea della Valle variously identified as Hope,
Chastity, or Voluntary Poverty seems, along with the figure of Andromeda in the Galleria
Farnese, to have contributed to Berninis figure of Truth in the Borghese Gallery (begun
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1646). The painters influence is evident in Berninis work as early as the St. Bibiana
162426) in the Church of Santa Bibiana, which is related to the figure of St. Cecilia in
Domenichinos fresco in San Luigi dei Francesi, showing St. Cecilia before the judge (Borea,
Domenichino, Pl. 29).
133
Duquesnoys only other monumental figure, the St. Susanna in Santa Maria di Loreto,
is profoundly different in conception (see p. 164 below).
134
Bernini repeated the knot of drapery at the left in the Countess Matilda (Fig. 75) and
in the Christ of the Pasce Oves Meas in Saint Peters. In light of the documentation concerning the genesis of the St. Andrew, the view of the relationship between Bernini and
Duquesnoy suggested by Nava Cellini (Duquesnoy e Poussin, 45, 59 n. 47) should be reversed. (See also n. 174 below, and Addenda.)
135
Kauffmann has, in my opinion rightly, revived this interpretation of Berninis figure
(cf. his Berninis Tabenakel, 233; Berninis Hl. Longinus, 369).
136
The scene anticipates the transferral of the relic to this pier, and is inscribed on the
painted frame: In hoc conditorium Urbano VIII Pont. Max. iussu, solemni pompa Ferrum
Lancea infertur; cf. Torriggio, Sacre grotte vaticane, 209.
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137
The fresco is inscribed: Sacellum Beatae Veronicae cum tribus aliis Urbanus VIII extruendum iubet; cf. Torriggio, Sacre grotte vaticane, 200 f.
138
Attention was first called to the Mantuan tradition in this context by Kauffmann,
Berninis Tabernakel, 233 f., and Berninis Hl. Longinus, 365; its quattrocento manifestations have been studied by M. Horster, Mantuae Sanguis Preciosus. WRJb, 25, 1963,
151 ff.
139
On Longinus legends, cf. Acta sanctorum, Antwerp, 1643 ff., s.v. March 15. The
most important compilation of the Mantuan traditions is Donesmondi, Dellistoria ecclesiastica di Mantova; the view that Longinus was Mantuan is maintained by G. Magagnati, La
vita di S. Longino martire cavalier mantoano . . . , Venice, 1605, preface.
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142
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143
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144
67. Saint Peters, vault of southwest grotto chapel (dedicated to St. Veronica).
Bernini Presenting the Design for the Reliquary Niches to Pope Urban VIII.
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arate occasions, in 804 and 1049, when it had been hidden and its whereabouts forgotten, he had appeared miraculously to bring about its
rediscovery. The two saints were also linked through the Holy Lance at
Saint Peters which, having been hidden from the Saracens at Antioch, was
recovered in 1098 upon another apparition of the apostle.140
This Mantuan tradition had given rise to numerous representations in
which the two saints were paired.141 In most of these, and in images showing Longinus paired with other saints (cf. Fig. 70), the figures are depicted
in relation to the relic itself. In the chapel of SantAndrea that belonged to
the Confraternity of the Precious Blood and the Order of the Redeemer, the
wooden ancona decorating the altar wall has carved figures of Sts. Andrew
and Longinus in the attic zone; flanking the altar niche below are twisted
columns decorated with eucharistic vine scrolls (Fig. 69).142 Berninis general concept is foreshadowed by another work in the Mantuan tradition,
which pairs Longinus with St. Barbara:143 the title page of a poetic life of St.
Longinus published in 1605 (Fig. 70).144 The engraving, signed by
Wolfgang Kilian, shows the two saints standing before a frontispiece with a
pediment whose sides have a scroll-like curve. St. Longinus, who has
thrown off his military garb, holds the lance in his right hand and extends
his left; St. Barbaras right hand is thrown across her breast. They look up
140
J. Bosio, La trionfante e gloriosa croce, Rome, 1610, 121; Severano, Memorie sacre, 1,
161; cf. Kauffmann, Berninis Tabernakel, 233.
141
Many are mentioned and reproduced in P. Pelati, La Basilica di S. Andrea, Mantua,
1952 (cf. Pls. 58, 83, 87, 92, 113 f.).
142
The ancona is ascribed to G. B. Viani and datable ca. 1600 (cf. E. Mariani and C.
Perina, Mantova. Le arti, III, Mantua, 1965, 179, 372, 693, and the bibliography cited
there).
143
The Church of Saint Barbara in Mantua was the ducal chapel, and a portion of the
Precious Blood had been transferred there (Donesmondi, Istoria ecclesiastica, II, 354).
144
Magagnati, La vita di S. Longino; on Magagnati cf. Ianus Nicius Erythraeus (G. V.
Rossi), Pinacotheca, Cologne, 1645, 168 f., and E. A. Cicogna, Illustri muranesi richiamati
alla memoria . . . Venice, 1858, 17 f. The poem describes the moment of Longinus conversion as follows (p. 7):
Onde qual suole Aquila altera, il guardo
Nel Sol di Verit sicuro assisa
E rapito il contempla, e homai comprende
Luommorto vivo Dio, gi chiaro scorge
Viva la vita haver la Morte estinta,
Onde esclam con voce alta e sonante
Veramente di Dio questi era il Figlio.
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VIIIs most pressing concerns during the period in which the statues were
being planned. He decreed two extraordinary universal jubilees in the interests of peace, in April, 1628, and October, 1629. But his conciliatory
efforts were futile and events soon led to a conflict that was one of the major
episodes of the Thirty Years War.149
But most important, surely, was the fact that the Mantuan tradition
made it possible to relate Andrew and Longinus in a meaningful way to the
baldachin and altar, and to the other saints in the crossing. It introduced a
distinction the significance of which will emerge presently between
the upper part of the baldachin, where Andrew and Longinus focus their attention, and the altar below.
St. Veronica and St. Helen
Despite their obvious stylistic differences it is evident that the two female statues were also conceived as a pair (Figs. 49, 52). This becomes
especially clear when it is recalled that the Helen was to face the Veronica
from the opposite pier (cf. Text Fig. B). Their relationship is with the lower
part of the baldachin rather than its crown, and by their poses, glances, and
gestures, they form a kind of contrapuntal embrace of the crossing. Both
figures stride toward the baldachin in the centre: Veronicas face is turned to
the worshipper approaching from the nave, while her arms extend the Volto
Santo toward the area behind the altar; Helen would have displayed the
Nails in the direction of the nave, while her glance was focused on the worshipper in front of the altar.150 The intensely active role of the Veronica and
149
See R. Quazza, Mantova e Monferrato nella politica europea alla vigilia della guerra per
la successione (162427), Mantua, 1922 (Pubblicazioni della R. Accademia virgiliana, Ser. II,
Misc. no. 3) and La guerra per la successione di Mantova e del Monferrato (162831), 2 Vols.,
Mantua, 1926 (ibid., Misc. nos. 56). On the popes role, cf. Pastor, XXVIII, 201 ff.
150
It will be seen that the actions of the female figures take the spectator into account,
as opposed to the males complete absorption in the miraculous event above. This, too, reflects the relatively more mundane concerns of the non-virgins non-martyrs, as compared
with the male martyrs.
The kind of contrapuntal composition seen in the Veronica and the Helen has its immediate forerunner in Berninis work in the bust of Cardinal Bellarmino in the Ges
(162324); here the face turns with a rapt expression to the worshiper approaching the choir,
while the hands clasped in prayer are directed toward the office at the altar. The space is thus
charged with a dramatic implication that forms the prelude to Berninis conception of the
crossing of Saint Peters. See the comments in my Five New Youthful Sculptures by
Gianlorenzo Bernini and a Revised Chronology of His Early Works, to appear in AB, 50,
Sept., 1968.
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the noble calm of the Helen present, furthermore, a clearly calculated contrast.
The Veronica was, as we have seen, preceded by an early project by
Bernini (Fig. 48); but Mochis highly personal interpretation seems to owe
much to the depiction of Veronica by Pontormo in Santa Maria Novella in
Florence (Fig. 72). Mochi was born near Florence and received his early
training there under the painter Santi di Tito. His strong allegiance to his
Florentine artistic heritage has been emphasized since the earliest biography.151 It is perhaps relevant that Urban VIII was also a native of Florence,
where he received his early education. Mochis reference to Pontormos figure may have been considered appropriate because the painting decorated
the Chapel of the Popes in Santa Maria Novella. It had been executed on
the occasion of the visit of Leo X, another Florentine, in 1515.152 That pope
had shown considerable interest in the Volto Santo, and issued bulls concerning its display.153 Indeed, the pose of Pontormos figure, the drawn
curtains behind, and the accompanying inscriptions seem to allude specifically to the rite of displaying the relic.154 At the same time, important
changes were introduced in the context at Saint Peters. Through the figures
motion and expression the essentially ritualistic character of Pontormos
image is given a dramatic immediacy which suggests that the Passion is actually in progress.
The St. Helen by Bolgi, who was Berninis assistant and close follower,
is undoubtedly a far more accurate imitation of the masters model. The
presence of Berninis guiding mind can perhaps best be appreciated by considering the source of Bolgis statue: a painting of St. Helen by Rubens, his
151
Cf. Passeri, in Hess, Die Knstlerbiographien, 130. The Veronica has been compared
with a figure from an ancient Niobid group (A. Muoz, La scultura barocca e lantico,
LArte, 19, 1916, 133), and with a figure from a painting by Santi di Tito in the Vatican (J.
Hess, Nuovi aspetti dellarte di Francesco Mochi, BdArte, 29, 193536, 309).
152
On the Cappella de Pontefici and its association with no less than four popes, cf. V.
Fineschi, Memorie sopra il cimitero antico della chiesa di S. Maria Novella di Firenze, Florence,
1787, 36; for recent bibliography, J. Cox Rearick, The Drawings of Pontormo, Cambridge,
Mass., 1964, 1, 106.
153
Cf. Collectionis bullarum, II, 374. Awareness in the early seventeenth century of Leos
interest is indicated by the fact that his bulls are quoted by Grimaldi in his treatise on the
Volto Santo, along with a notice from Leos diarist of showings of the relics on Easter and
Ascension Days, 1514 (Opusculum, fols. 69r and v).
154
The inscriptions are transcribed in F. M. Clapp, Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo, His Life
and Work, New Haven, Conn-London, 1916, 124.
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first dated work, executed in 16011602 while he was in Rome (Fig. 73).155
The massive proportions of the figure and its drapery, the pose and gesture
with extended left arm, the huge cross projecting diagonally out of the picture space have all been transferred to the marble. The most significant
difference is that the heavenward gaze of the eyes has been lowered. But a
number of other changes have been introduced as well: notably, the outer
swathe of drapery is now pulled to one side and joined at the hip, and the
left leg, no longer moving forward, is flexed and to the rear of the right leg.
Both feet are exposed and wear clog-like sandals. In part, as we shall see
presently, these changes may reflect a study of ancient statuary, but the main
inspiration seems again to have come from a work by Rubens: the figure of
St. Domitilla in the right wing of his altarpiece in Santa Maria in Vallicella,
also painted in Rome, in 1608 (Fig. 74).156 Between the time that Bolgi
completed the model of the St. Helen and the time he began the final work,
Bernini repeated the basic formula almost exactly in his figure of the
Countess Matilda on her tomb in Saint Peters (begun 1633; Fig. 75);157 the
similarities here include the arrangement of the drapery at the breast, the facial type, even the coiffure. In the Matilda, however, the positions of the
arms have been reversed, and they are now virtually identical with those of
Rubens St. Domitilla. As with the St. Andrew of Duquesnoy, Bolgis St.
Helen is unique for the artist who executed it, but fits integrally into
Berninis own development.158
Rubens painting of St. Helen hung until the eighteenth century in the
chapel dedicated to her in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme,
whence Urban VIII removed the portion of the True Cross for the fourth
Now in the Hospital at Grasse, France, along with two companion pictures, The
Crowning with Thorns and The Raising of the Cross. Cf. C. Rubens, Correspondance de Rubens,
Antwerp, 1887, I, 41 ff.; M. Rooses, Loeuvre de Pierre-Paul Rubens, Antwerp, 1889, 11, 281
f.; most recently, M. De Maeyer, Rubens in de Altaarstukkcn in het Hospitaal te Grasse,
Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis, 14, 1953, 75 ff.
156
M. Jaff, Peter Paul Rubens and the Oratorian Fathers, Proporzioni, 4, 1963, 209 ff.;
G. Incisa della Rocchetta, Documenti editi e inediti sui quadri del Rubens nella Chiesa
Nuova, AttiPontAcc, Ser. III, Rendiconti, xxxv, 196263, 161 ff.
157
The relationship is so close that, as Wittkower has observed, the Matilda has even
been attributed to Bolgi, though the documents show he was responsible only for secondary
details (Art and Architecture in Italy 16001750, 2nd ed., Harmondsworth, etc., 1965, 201).
158
The St. Helen is Bolgis only piece of monumental religious statuary. Cf. V.
Martinelli, Contributi alla scultura del seicento. V. Andrea Bolgi a Roma e a Napoli,
Commentari, 10, 1959, 137 ff.; A. Nava Cellini, Ritratti di Andrea Bolgi, Paragone, 13,
no. 147, 1962, 24 ff.
155
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151
crossing pier in Saint Peters. Santa Croce has the most ancient and hallowed associations with the mother of Constantine.159 It was founded in the
Sessorian palace, which had belonged to her, and she was supposed to have
installed the chapel that bears her name in her own chamber. The church
possesses besides three remaining fragments of the True Cross a nail,
thorns from the crown, and the Title of the Cross, which Helen was believed to have brought back from Jerusalem.160 Part of the appeal Rubens
work held, therefore, probably lay in what might almost be called the authenticity of its location. This may also be the explanation for the marked
similarities, in figure type, pose, and drapery arrangement, between Bolgis
St. Helen and an authentic classical prototype still existing in Santa Croce,
over the same altar that Rubens painting once decorated (Fig. 76). When
the painting was removed toward the middle of the eighteenth century, it
was replaced by an ancient statue restored (chiefly the head and arms) to
represent St. Helen in a kind of composite imitation of Rubens and Bolgi.
There is good reason to identify the figure now on the altar with a statue of
the Empress Helen that had been found in a mid-sixteenth century excavation in the garden behind the church.161
Still more important as a key to the relevance of Rubens painting for the
program at Saint Peters are the Solomonic columns of Saint Peters that appear in the background. They are employed in such a way under the
arches of a larger building, with no sign of a superstructure and with a drape
hanging from the architrave that might easily suggest a kind of tabernacle. Their presence in the picture is explained by a tradition current at the
time the crossing of Saint Peters was being planned, according to which it
was precisely the Empress Helen who had obtained them in Jerusalem.162
Shown thus with the columns, Helen is represented as if she were actually in Jerusalem. In fact, this topographical identification is explicit in the
very name of the basilica, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The identification,
moreover, was not merely metaphorical. When Helen returned to Rome,
R. Krautheimer, Corpus basilicarum christianarum Romae, Vatican, 1, 1937, 165 ff.
Rubens includes the Crown of Thorns and Title of the Cross, Bolgi includes the Nails,
and the Title appears in the relief of the reliquary niche above. On the relics in Santa Croce
see B. Bedini, Le reliquie sessoriane della Passione del Signore, Rome, 1956.
161
On the statue in Santa Croce, presumably an earlier work reused in the second quarter of the fourth century, see my note, An Ancient Statue of the Empress Helen
Reidentified(?), AB, 49, 1967, 58 ff.
162
Panciroli, Tesori nascosti, 532.
159
160
71. Mantegna, Sts. Andrew and Longinus with the Resurrected Christ,
engraving. London, Victoria and Albert Museum.
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152
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153
72. Pontormo, St. Veronica. Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Chapel of the Popes.
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154
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155
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156
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157
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according to the legend, her ship was loaded with the earth from under the
Cross that Christ had bathed with his blood. This venerable earth she
placed in the lower part of her room, and it thus underlies the pavement of
the chapel dedicated to her, of which Rubens painting was the altarpiece.
The story is told in a long inscription in majolica tiles lining the passageway that leads to the chapel. It celebrates a miraculous rediscovery of the
Title of the Cross in 1492, which was the occasion for a major restoration
of the chapel preceding the one for which Rubens painting was made. The
inscription explains not only the meaning of the chapel, but also its implication for Saint Peters:
This holy chapel is called Jerusalem because St. Helen, mother of
Constantine the Great, returning from Jerusalem in the year of our Lord
321, having rediscovered the insignia of the Lords victory, constructed
it in her own chamber; and having brought back in her ship holy earth
of Mount Calvary upon which the blood of Christ was poured out for
the price of human redemption, and by the power of which entrance to
the Heavenly Jerusalem was opened to mortals, she filled it to the lowest vault. For this reason the chapel itself and the whole basilica and all
Rome deserved to be called the second Jerusalem, where the Lord for the
strength of its faith wished to be crucified a second time in Peter, and
where it is believed that the veneration of one God and the indeficient
faith, by the prayers of the Lord and the favour of Peter, will remain
until the last coming of the judging Lord in Rome, the sublime and
mighty and therefore the truer Jerusalem.163
The process of what might be called topographical transfusion of
Jerusalem to Rome is here clearly delineated, and it is linked specifically to
the second sacrifice in the person of St. Peter.
In imitating Rubens picture, and creating the same juxtaposition of St.
Helen and the Solomonic columns, Bernini was continuing the topograph163
SACRA VLTERIOR CAPPELLA DICTA HIERVSALEM Q, BEATA HELENA
MAGNI CONSTANTINI MATER HIEROSOLYMA REDIENS ANNO DOMINI CCCXXI: DOMINICI TROPHEI INSIGNIIS REPERTIS: IN PROPRIO EAM
CVBICVLO EREXERIT: TERRAQ, SANCTA MONTIS CALVARIAE NAVI INDE ADVECTA SVPRA QVAM CHRISTI SANGVIS EFFVSVVS FVIT REDEMPTIONIS
HVMANAE PRAECIVM: CVIVSQ, VIGORE IN CELESTEM HIERVSALEM MORTALIBVS ADITVS PATVIT: AD PRIMVM VSQ, INFERIOREM FORNICEM
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159
ical transfusion to Saint Peters itself. When we recall the passage in Tiberio
Alfarano quoted near the beginning of this study (Section II, p. 101 above),
identifying the setting of the tomb and altar at Saint Peters with that of the
Temple, the cycle of associations is closed.
From all these considerations it is evident that for Bernini the crossing
of Saint Peters had a specific topographical meaning. Both in a real and in
a figurative sense it was Jerusalem, the place where salvation was achieved
and is continually renewed. This ultimately is the meaning of the baldachin
and its crown and of the figures in the piers. The women concentrate upon
the Passion and sacrifice at the altar, the men upon the resurrection and redemption above, as if at the very time and place that the events occurred.164
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the Fogg Museum, the figure has been brought very close to the St. Andrew
(Fig. 77; cf. Fig. 50).168 Both arms are now extended, and the drapery, instead of being joined at the neck, is knotted under the left elbow, resulting
in a cascade of folds at the left hip and in the diagonal sweep across the right
leg. The drapery at the right side practically duplicates the corresponding
portion on the St. Andrew. The right foot is lowered and straightened, resting now on the shield, rather than the helmet, which has been shifted to lie
beside the left foot.
In some respects, however, the bozzetto is farther removed from the St.
Andrew than the painted version (Fig. 66). The figure is tall, slim, wiry, and
lithe. The knotting of the drapery creates taut, energetic lines of force in
contrast to the loosely falling folds in the St. Andrew. The flat placement of
the right foot gives the figure a second solid support, as against Andrews
tilted foot with toes barely touching the ground. The drapery at the figures
right and the strips of the epaulettes suggest a wind-caught movement.
Above all, the right arm, which in both the painted study and in the St.
Andrew is relaxed, is now thrust outward vigorously. In other words, while
bringing the figure closer iconographically, as it were, Bernini introduces elements of an active dynamism that contrasts with the gentle receptivity of
the St. Andrew.
A drawing at Bassano, which seems to reflect a sketch or model by
Bernini, probably represents an alternative solution at a slightly later stage
(Fig. 78).169 The drapery is thrown open at the front and the agitated, broken folds intensify the idea of a sudden burst of revelation, barely suggested
in the bozzetto. The shield has been removed, and certain details of the
arrangement of the drapery at the figures right and the long, billowing
edges of folds at the left are retained in the final work.
The executed statue (Fig. 51) unites elements from both these antecedents. Bernini returns to the mass of drapery knotted in front of the
168
Height 52.7 cm.; Acq. no. 1937.51. First published by R. Norton, Bernini and Other
Studies, New York, 1914, 46 no. 2, Pl. XII; acquired by the Fogg Art Museum in 1937. The
bozzetto was analyzed by Kauffmann, Berninis HI. Longinus, 369 ff. The gilding may be
original; the full-scale model of the Longinus was coloured (Pollak, no. 1774), but evidently
the models of the other figures were not.
169
The drawing was first published as an original by C. Ragghianti, Notizie e letture,
Critica dArte, 4, 1939, XVI Fig. 5; and later by L. Magagnato, ed., Catalogo della Mostra di
disegni del Museo Civico di Bassano da Carpaccio a Canova, Venice, 1956, 40 no. 35. The view
that it follows a Bernini study is here adopted from Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The
Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 2nd ed., London, 1966, 197.
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body as in the terra cotta. But instead of being pulled into thin lines of tension, the drapery is crumpled into violent disarray, recalling but going far
beyond the sketch. The right foot is flat on the ground while the martyrs
helmet and the hilt of his sword are at his left. Perhaps most important is a
new element: the hipshot pose of all the earlier studies is straightened and
stiffened, greatly augmenting the effect of electric excitement. It may be said
that whereas in the original version the saint would have played a passive
role in the Resurrection, he now plays an active role in the Passion. In this
way, while creating a near counterpart of the St. Andrew, Bernini depicts
through Longinus a contrasting religious experience. Though implying participation in Christs sacrifice rather than mourning over it, the contrast is
analogous to that between Veronica and Helen.
In sum, the substitution of the cross and globe for the Resurrected Christ
atop the baldachin had no effect on three of the figures, but it led Bernini to
interpret St. Longinus in a new way. The figure, though isolated and freestanding, is portrayed in its traditional narrative context.170 This very fact
indicates, however, that Berninis attitude toward the crossing as a whole remained unchanged: he still conceived of it as if it were the site of a dramatic
action, a second Jerusalem in fact, with Christ really present at its centre.171
170
It is perhaps significant that whereas the sources for the other figures were in more or
less isolated representations of the saints, the closest parallels for Longinus are in scenes of the
Crucifixion (cf. those by Giulio Romano and Lorenzo Lotto cited by Kauffmann, Berninis
HI. Longinus, 367). Wittkower has observed a similarity between Longinus head and that
of the Borghese Centaur in the Louvre (Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 37).
171
Symptomatic of this active interpretation of the crossing are the inscriptions in the
books held, along with swords, as the attributes of St. Paul by pairs of putti on the north and
south sides of the baldachin (cf., Fig. 59). (Putti on the east and west sides hold the tiara and
keys of St. Peter. These groups, in effect, replace the statues of the two apostles parts of
both of whose bodies were supposed to be preserved at Saint Peters that were intended
to adorn the balustrade of the confessio; see n. 111 above.) The books are open and each
contains an inscription on four pages, only partially visible from the floor. On an occasion
when the baldachin was being dusted one of the workmen transcribed the inscriptions for
me as follows (the portions I was able to decipher confirm his readings):
North:
FRA
TRE
IVST
IFIC
ATI
EX E
DE P
CEM
LECT
EPIST
B PAVLI
AD
ROMA
NOS
FRA
EXI
South:
FRA
EXI
QU
NO
SUM C
/
DIGNA
LECTICO
EPLAE
B.PAVLI
APLI A
ROMA
NOS
FRA:
TRES
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VI. Conclusion
We have spoken repeatedly of a program for the crossing of Saint
Peters. It has by now become obvious that this term is at best an approximation for an evolutionary process that took place over a considerable
period and that was never fully realized. There is no evidence to suppose
that all the details of the crossing were worked out in advance as a general
scheme. The first steps in the reorganization of the relics were taken early in
1624, at the time the new baldachin was begun. Thereafter the two major
elements of the plan, the baldachin and the decoration of the piers, developed pari passu, each undergoing basic changes long after work began. Even
before the models were finished early in 1632, the form of the crown of the
baldachin was being altered. And by the time the statues themselves were
nearing completion later in the decade, ideas had so changed that they were
not even installed in the positions for which they were intended.
Nevertheless, the crucial period for the gestation of a plan that encompassed the entire crossing was probably between June of 1627, when it was
decided to decorate all four niches, and December of 1629, when, the relic
Though fragmentary and garbled, the inscriptions clearly refer to two passages in Pauls
Epistle to the Romans: Iustificati ergo ex fide pacem habeamus per Dominum nostrum Iesum
Christum (5:1); Existimo enim quod non sunt condignae passiones huius temporis ad futuram
gloriam quae revelabitur in nobis (8:18).
The appropriateness in this context of selections from the message to the Romans is evident. It is remarkable, however, that the texts are not quoted alone, but are accompanied by
the prefatory phrase Lectio epistolae beati Pauli apostoli ad Romanos. Fratres:, which occurs in
the missal, as if the liturgy were actually in progress. Both passages are quoted in succession
in the Roman missal as alternate readings for the Common of the Martyrs (Missale romanum, Rome, 1635, Commune sanctorum, xvf.). The content of the passages also bears
witness to the basic conception of the crossing that we have described, referring on the one
hand to justification by faith, on the other to the sufferings (passiones) of this world. This
distinction seems to echo that between the theological and temporal realms implicit in the
references to the unity of the faith and the unity of the priesthood in the inscriptions on the
friezes below the four pendentives: southwest, HINC VNA FIDES; northwest, MVNDO
REFVLGIT; northeast, HINC SACERDOTII; southeast, VNITAS EXORITVR. These inscriptions, in turn, are subsumed beneath the inscription carried out under Paul V on the
base of the dome, referring to the foundation of the church: TV ES PETRI . . . (Matthew
16:1819). See Figs. 1, 53, 54, 59. (For documents for the dome inscription see Orbaan,
Abbruch, 34, 35, 42, 45; 1 am uncertain of the date of the pendentive inscriptions, but presumably they were added after the time of Urban VIII.)
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of the True Cross having been acquired, models of the four statues were ordered. It was then, or shortly thereafter, that Bernini must have supplied the
participating artists with their instructions.172 A crucial question, to which
no very precise answer can be given, is how detailed these instructions were.
Mochi (15801654) was much older than Bernini (15981680), a fully
matured artist with a long series of monumental works to his credit. The
Veronica is so deeply imbued with his personality that one can imagine his
having received no more (but also no less) than a general orientation concerning the pattern of relationships to be portrayed.173 The case with
Duquesnoy (15941643) and Bolgi (16051656) was different. Both had
worked under Bernini on details of the baldachin, but Duquesnoy had
theretofore produced only a single life-size work,174 Bolgi none. One may
suppose that Bernini gave them much more explicit advice. The assumption
that their figures are more or less accurate reflections of Berninis ideas is
confirmed by the documentary and stylistic evidence presented earlier, and
172
We know that under Clement VIII, Cardinal Baronio supplied the subjects for the altarpieces in Saint Peters (Baglione, Vite, 110 f.), but there is no evidence for such an adviser
for the work under Urban VIII. The documents indicate that the pope himself played an active part in the planning.
173
Bernini seems to have agreed with those who criticized the movement of Mochis figure as improper; at least, he made clever use of the criticism in his crushing answer to Mochi,
who had joined the chorus blaming Bernini for the cracks that had appeared in the dome:
Bernini felt extremely compassionate toward the forced and belabored agitation of the
Veronica, since the defect was caused by the wind coming from the cracks in the dome, not
the inadequacy of the sculptor (L. Pascoli, Vite de pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, 1st
ed. Rome, 173036; facsimile ed. Rome, 1933, II, 416).
174
A Venus and Cupid, now lost (M. Fransolet, Franois du Quesnoy sculpteur
dUrbain VIII 15971643, Acadmie royale de Belgique, Classe des Beaux-arts, Mmoires, Ser.
II, IX, 1942, 99 f.).
The problem of the relative chronology of Duquesnoys St. Andrew and St. Susanna (see
recently D. Mahon, Poussiniana. Afterthoughts Arising fromthe Exhibition, GBA, 60,
1962, 66 ff.; K. Noehles, Francesco Duquesnoy: un busto ignoto e la cronologia delle sue
opere, AAntMod, no. 25, 1964, 91; Nava Cellini, Duquesnoy e Poussin, 46 ff.) is greatly
facilitated by the knowledge that the design of the St. Andrew approved by the Congregation
in June, 1628, was Berninis, not Duquesnoys (see p. 122 above). All the early biographies
of Duquesnoy state that he owed the commission for the St. Andrew to the success of the St.
Susanna. However, the first document mentioning him in connection with the latter work
is a payment for marble in Dec., 1629 (execution of the figure did not come until 163133),
whereas he had begun the full-scale model of the St. Andrew by May, 1629 (p. 122 above).
If the biographers story is true, the success of the St. Susanna must have been based on a
model of some sort. But this need not have been made before 1628, as has been maintained,
but only before May, 1629.
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by the fact that, as we have also pointed out, the Saint Peters statues are in
many respects quite untypical of their work as a whole.
Once it is recognized that the basic conception of the figures must have
been Berninis, what becomes striking is their diversity of mood, psychological as well as stylistic. It is tempting to explain these variations on the
basis of chronology. Certainly the St. Andrew reached its definitive form
first, when the model was finished in November, 1629. But with the acquisition of the True Cross in April, 1629 (a month before Duquesnoy
began work on his model), all the constituents of the program were known,
and it would be naive to presume that Bernini did not begin thinking of
them in relation to one another. He must have had a good idea of what he
wanted by the time the commissions were awarded at the end of that year.
Except for the changes in the Longinus necessitated by the substitution of
the cross and globe for the Risen Christ, whatever subsequent development
took place at the hands of the individual artists must have started from a
nucleus provided then.
Thus, while an evolutionary process undoubtedly took place, the essential differences among the statues cannot be explained simply on this basis.
Instead, they bear witness to Berninis capacity to adapt his expressive
means to a particular interpretation of the figure. In each case, as we have
seen, that interpretation was conditioned partly by a specific tradition or
traditions, partly by the role the figure was to play in the overall program of
the crossing. The figure of St. Helen is classical in form and shows emotion
with noble restraint, not primarily because it was designed at a certain moment, nor because it was executed by Bolgi, but because it represents the
empress mother of Constantine contemplating Christs Passion.
Apart from the appearance of many motives and devices that recur later
in Berninis work, much of the chronological significance of the crossing in
his development lies precisely in this expressive range. Psychological drama
had been one of Berninis chief interests from the beginning, but this had
generally taken the form of relatively simple and strident contrasts. Here,
the contrasts remain, but the variations are richer and subtler. These obserDuquesnoy claimed, according to Sandrart, that the St. Andrew was delayed because
marble was deliberately withheld (by Bernini); cf. A. R. Peltzer, ed., Joachim von Sandrarts
Academie der Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Knste von 1675, Munich, 1925, 233. The documents show that only Bolgi, Mochi, and Bernini himself were affected by delays in the
delivery of marbles (Pollak, Nos. 1722f.); Duquesnoy in fact received his marble and began
working long before the others (p. 124 above).
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vations have a corollary in the realm of style, and help to explain a phenomenon such as the appearance, on the one hand, of violently broken
drapery in the Longinus, and, on the other, of a pronounced classicism in
the Helen. These apparently contradictory innovations are in fact enrichments of Berninis formal vocabulary, just as the emotions the figures
display are enrichments of his expressive range. The crossing of Saint Peters
marks a vast widening, or, better, maturing, of Berninis vision.
In the last analysis, however, the chronological importance of the crossing may lie less in the diversity of the individual elements than in the
common bond by which they are related. In Saint Peters, for the first time,
Bernini treats a volume of real space as the site of a dramatic action, in
which the observer is involved physically as well as psychologically. The
drama takes place in an environment that is not an extension of the real
world, but is coextensive with it. And because the statues act as witnesses,
the observer is associated with them and hence, inevitably, becomes a participant in the event. In this way, Bernini charged the space with a
conceptual and visual unity so powerful that it overcomes every change in
plan and disparity of style.
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Appendix I
Checklist of projects for Baldachins, Ciboria, and Choirs in the apse of Saint
Peters under Paul V and Gregory XV (16051632).
As far as possible the entries pertaining to structures over the tomb are given
first (nos. 115), to those in the choir second (nos. 1627). Within this division
the order is roughly chronological, except that entries related to the same project
are listed together. No. 28 includes projects submitted under Urban VIII in competition with Bernini.
1. Project for a tabernacle in the crossing and a choir screen in the apse, anonymous
drawing. Bibl. Vat., Arch. Cap. S. P., Album, Pl. 4 (Alfarano, De basil. vat.,
ed. Cerrati, 25n., Fig. 3 opp. p. 48; W. Lotz, Die ovalen Kirchenrame des
Cinquecento, RmJbK, 7, 1955, 72 ff., 73 Fig. 47; J. Wasserman, Ottaviano
Mascarino and His Drawings in the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome,
1966, 66 no. 234) (Fig. 29).
Plan for the completion of Saint Peters with an oval atrium. Shows a
screen with an altar flanked by two columns at the entrance to the apse; two
groups of four columns, each group supporting a cross groin, flank the altar in
the crossing. The total of ten columns suggests that the ancient spiral columns
were intended (cf. n. 27 above). Cerrati associates the plan with a manuscript
project by the architect Frausto Rughesi, a connection that has rightly been rejected by Lotz. Lotz attributes the drawing to Ottaviano Mascarino and dates
it before 1606. The attribution to Mascarino is rejected by Wasserman. A date
at the beginning of Paul Vs reign that is, 1605/1606 seems probable,
since, as far as we know, the idea of a tabernacle over the tomb and a choir
screen with altar in the apse did not appear before that time.
2. Project for a ciborium in the crossing, ca. 1620, drawing by Borromini, Vienna,
Albertina, Arch. Hz., Rom, Kirchen, no. 1443 (Fig. 14).
The drawing proposes a ciborium with a polygonal cupola supported by
straight columns over the tomb, to which a portal below gives entrance. Four
allegories of virtues stand on the attic. The absence of lateral wings shows that
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it was intended for the crossing. The absence of an altar indicates that the high
altar was to be located in the apse, where presumably the ancient spiral
columns would be used.
The project seems certainly to date from early in Pauls reign, since the
confessio built during the middle years is not taken into account. In that case
the sheet would be a copy by Borromini of an earlier project (omitting the portion beneath the pavement), devised perhaps at the time the arrangements for
the tomb and high altar were first being debated, that is, 16051606. The author of the project was doubtless Carlo Maderno, architect of Saint Peters and
Borrominis early mentor. The redrawing may have been made at the end of
Paul Vs reign, when we know the question was reopened. It would thus be
contemporary with another drawing by Borromini (Fig. 28; no. 26 below) of
a project under Paul V, also presumably Madernos, for a ciborium in the apse,
of which a model was actually built. It is conceivable, however, that the present redrawing was made a few years later when, in competition with Bernini,
it seems another idea of Madernos was revived (see n. 55 above).
Barring the unlikely possibility that, in the original scheme, Maderno contemplated having ciboria with cupolas both over the tomb and in the choir, it
is reasonable to associate this project with the one reported by Fioravante
Martinelli, in which Maderno would have decorated the high altar with spiral
columns and a canopy (see pp. 83 f. and n. 53 above).
Finally, it should be noted that the design closely anticipates Borrominis
later projects for the ciborium and confessio in the Latern (cf. Portoghesi,
Borromini nella cultura europea, Figs. 263 ff.).
3. Model of baldachin over the tomb, 1606. Cf. pp. 80 f. above.
4. Canonization of Francesca Romana, 1608, fresco. Bibl. Vat., Galleria di Paolo V
(Taja, Descrizione, 456; Siebenhner, Umrisse, 309 n. 224) (Fig. 19).
From a series carried out under Paul V. Shows the baldachin of Paul V essentially as in no. 7, though without temporary decorations.
5. Canonization of Carlo Borromeo, 1610, engraving by Giovanni Maggi. Bibl.
Vat., Coll. Stampe (Figs. 2, 24).
The apparatus for the canonization was designed by Girolamo Rainaldi,
and is described in M. A. Grattarola, Successi maravigliosi della veneratione di
S. Carlo, Milan, 1614, 218 ff. (A payment to Rainaldi for designs, probably for
the canonization, is recorded in September, 1610; Pollak, Ausgewhlte Akten,
79 no. 40 not December as given in Orbaan, 79). The strands of lilies
wound around the staves are mentioned by Grattarola (p. 229), who notes that
medallions with images of the saint were placed above both the east and the
west faces of the baldachin. The medallions appear only on the east face here
and in the anonymous engraving of the event (no. 6); they are not shown in
the Vatican fresco (no. 7). Grattarola does not mention the angels flanking the
medallions in Maggis print, and they are not shown in no. 6.
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Rome by Matthus Greuter (Fig. 4).
Gives a view of the baldachin of Paul V, and a sketchy plan of a ciborium
and screen in the choir. The ciborium is partially cut off at the bottom of the
poorly preserved map of 1618 in the Bibl. Vitt. Em., Rome (reproduced in A.
P. Frutaz, Le piante di Roma, Rome, 1862, II, Pl. 286), but appears complete
in the 1625 reprint in the British Museum.
The visible north wing of the screen is represented in the plan as though
it were a straight, uninterrupted wall. The ciborium has fourteen columns
arranged in pairs roughly in a circle, except that four columns form a straight
line at the front.
The design shown here cannot be identified with any other ciborium project
known to me.
11. Canonization of Ignatius of Loyola, et al., 1622, drawing. Vienna, Albertina,
Arch. Hz., Rom, Kirchen, no. 780 (Fig. 22).
Unfinished. Details of the temporary installation are virtually the same as
in nos. 14 and 15, for which it is evidently a preparatory drawing. The main
difference from our point of view is that the baldachin still appears to be that
of Paul V; the staves are shown straight and unadorned. No angels are depicted at the base.
12. Canonization of Elizabeth of Portugal, 1624, anonymous engraving. Bibl. Vat.,
Arch. Cap. S. P. (Fig. 23).
Inserted in a manuscript diary of Saint Peters by Francesco Speroni
(Diarium Vaticanum Anni Iubilaei MDCXXV, 1626, MS. D 14, kept in the
Chapter Archive in the new sacristy; cf. Pollak, 96, 635). The print is a variant
of Fig. 30 (see p. 93 above). The differences are minor, except that the present
version shows the baldachin of Paul V, rather than Berninis early project. This
is particularly odd in view of the fact that the baldachin begun under Gregory
XV had been built by October, 1624 (no. 13). The anomaly is perhaps to be
explained by assuming that the engraving was done, in anticipation of the canonization, before the latter baldachin was actually erected and before Bernini
had fixed the design of his project. In fact, the day of the canonization was evidently not yet determined, since in the inscription below, a blank space
appears where 22 is added in Fig. 30; the latter also adds various decorative
details that are absent here.
13. New model for a baldachin, built 16221624.
Discussed above, pp. 88 f. A payment on June 22, 1622, to the woodworker G. B. Soria is quoted by Pollak (Ausgewhlte Akten, 107), who reports
the latest payments, the last on October 11, 1624 (Pollak, nos. 35, 984 ff.).
The payments in fact form a continuous series beginning June 18, 1622 (Arch.
Fabb. S. P., I Piano, Ser. 1, Vol. 236, Spese 162123, and Vol. 240, Spese
162324). Hence there can be no question that the same work was involved.
The payments are authorized by Carlo Maderno.
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17.
18.
19.
20.
use of a flat screen without a domical ciborium over the altar parallels the Uffizi
project attributed to Maderno (no. 25). Probably dates from the beginning of
Paul Vs reign.
Project for a baldachin with spiral columns, by Carlo Maderno.
Described by Fioravante Martinelli; cf. above, pp. 83 f., 88, 95 ff. n. 53.
Martinelli notes that this project was intended for the high altar. It was probably to be placed in the choir, since spiral columns are included, as in nos. 18,
19, 20, etc. The baldachin may well have been meant to accompany Madernos
project for a ciborium with straight columns over the tomb where no altar was
envisaged (Fig. 14; no. 2); if so, it would date ca. 16051606.
Drawings by Ludovico Cigoli for a ciborium in the choir, 16051606. Uffizi,
A2635 (680 475 mm.), 2639r and v (Figs. 25, 26).
Discussion of these drawings (two plans and an elevation) was an important contribution by Siebenhner, Umrisse, 310 ff.; cf. V. Fasolo, Un pittore
architetto: Il Cigoli, Quaderni dellIstituto di Storia dellArchitettura, no. 1,
1953, 7 nn. 4, 6.
Cigoli envisaged an octagonal, domed ciborium placed slightly in front of
the apse, supported by ten spiral columns, two pairs at the front corners, three
at each of the rear corners; a balustraded screen would have extended back in
concave arcs to the corners of the apse. Siebenhner (p. 316) assumed that
Cigolis ciborium was the one of which a model was actually built. But the
gratings in the base and the floor around the ciborium show that Cigoli
favoured shifting the tomb along with the high altar, a proposal that was rejected (see the Avviso quoted n. 16 above).
Model of ciborium over the high altar in the choir, 1606.
Discussed pp. 80 ff. above. Enough of the superstructure of the centrepiece appears in Maggis engraving (Figs. 2, 24) to show that it was polygonal.
Probably there were pairs of columns at the corners, and the centrepiece was
flanked by wings with others. We know that this ciborium used spiral columns,
and in 1635 we are told that there were ten of them (see the quotations n. 27
above). The reconstructed model of 16221624 (cf. no. 27) had ten spiral and
four additional straight columns. Two very similar projects are known (Fig. 27,
no. 20; Fig. 79, no. 23; Appendix II) in which all the columns are spiral, some
of them evidently imitations of the originals. It is possible that the 1635 reference is to the reconstructed model of 16221624 (cf. no. 27), which certainly
had ten spiral columns, rather than the original of 1606, which may thus have
had more. Nevertheless, for independent reasons neither no. 20 nor no. 23 can
be identified with the model of 1606, though they may well reflect it. The centrepiece also seems to be echoed in no. 28c (Fig. 35). (See Addenda and Fig.
28A.)
Project for a ciborium, anonymous. Vienna, Albertina, Arch. Hz., Rom,
Kirchen, no. 767 (Fig. 27).
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The centrepiece recalls that in the model actually built (Fig. 24; no. 19),
though the details of the dome are different. The project is also extremely close
to that of Ferrabosco (Fig. 79; no. 23; Appendix II), and shows what the latter
must have been like before the alterations made under the influence of
Berninis first project. Two figures, evidently Peter and Paul, stand on the attic.
21. Model for a choir stall in the apse, 1618.
Adi 20 8bre 1618. Conto delli lavori fatti per servitio della R: a Fabrica di
S. Pietro fatti da m Gio: Battista Soria.
....
Per haver fatto il modello, per il Choro da farsi in S. Pietro, fatto dAlbuccio
scorniciato di noce, fatto tr ordini per li Canonici et Beneficiati, et Chierici
et in pezzi da disfar tutto, con il Baldacchino fatto con grand.ma diligenza
mta15
(Arch. Fabb. S. P., I Piano, Ser. 1, Vol. 14, Materie diverse, fols. 232r, 233v).
The woodworker G. B. Soria built a model for a choir stall of three levels,
with a baldachin, presumably for the papal throne; the stall was designed to be
dismountable, which indicates that it was intended for the main apse. The
model is probably to be identified with the project for a choir, also dismountable and with three levels, by Martino Ferrabosco, recorded in his book on
Saint Peters (no. 22). The model is probably further to be identified with one
mentioned in an invoice submitted by Soria early in Urban VIIIs reign: Per il
primo modello fatto per le sedie del coro che si diceva fare nela Tribuna
20 (Pollak, 18 no. 35; on the date of the document see above, no.
13).
22. Project for a choir stall in the apse, by Martino Ferrabosco (Ferrabosco,
Architettura di S. Pietro, Pls. XXVIII, XXIX; cf. Appendix II).
The plan and elevation show three rows of seats, the perspective view only
two. The caption explains that the project was intended to permit shifting the
sacristy from its place on the north side of Madernos nave, where it proved unsuitable, to the place intended for the canons choir on the south. The stalls
were to be dismountable; the reason given for this varies slightly between the
manuscript version of the caption . . . acci potessero [le sedie] servire per
le funtioni Pontoficie nelli giorni solenni, et ordinariam.te p il Clero . . . (Bibl.
Vat., MS. lat. 10742, fol. 374r) and the printed version . . . accioch
listesso luogo potesse servire ancore per le Funzioni Pontoficie nelle Festivit
pi solenne . . . The project is probably to be identified with a model for a
dismountable choir with three rows of seats built in 1618 (no. 21).
Though Ferraboscos project was never carried out, it is still the practice in
Saint Peters to erect a temporary choir in the apse when necessary (see n. 43
above).
23. Project for a ciborium, 16181620, by Martino Ferrabosco (cf. Figs. 79, 80).
Ferraboscos project is discussed in Appendix II. A likely assumption is that
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it was initially prepared to accompany his scheme for a choir in the main apse,
which can be dated with good reason to about 1618 (see no. 21). A terminus
ante quem of 1620 is provided by the intended publication date of Ferraboscos
volume on Saint Peters. Discounting the alterations made to the design later
in imitation of Berninis project, it is very close to the anonymous study in the
Albertina, Vienna (Fig. 27; no. 20), which may be taken as a general guide to
Ferraboscos original intentions. Both projects probably reflect the model of
1606 (Fig. 24; no. 19). The main difference, apart from details of decoration,
is Ferraboscos addition of an attic storey on the wings.
24. Project for choirs in the crossing and apse, 1620, by Papirio Bartoli (S. Scaccia
Scarafoni, Un progetto di sistemazione della confessione di San Pietro in
Vaticano antecedente al Bernini, Accademie e biblioteche dItalia, 1, 192728,
no. 3, pp. 15 ff.; cf. most recently H. Hibbard and I. Jaffe, Berninis Barcaccia,
BurlM, 106, 1964, 164 n. 21, and the bibliography cited there) (Fig. 12).
Bartolis Discorso, richly illustrated, is known in various manuscript copies
in Rome: Bibl. Vitt. Em., MS. Fondi Minori 3808 (to which our citations
refer), and Bibl. Vat., MS. Barb. lat. 4512, fols. 1643. Bartoli proposed constructing a pontifical choir in the crossing, immediately behind and including
the confessio and high altar, in the form of a navicella, or boat. In the apse he
contemplated a coro de canonici. The tabernacle over the high altar was to be a
ships mast with billowing sail, executed in bronze and decorated with reliefs of
the Passion foggia della Colonna Traiana (Discorso, int. 1, fol. 5r). The seats
in the pontifical choir were to be collapsible, to permit a view into the navicella when it was not in use.
The date of the project, 1620, is provided by a passage in which Bartoli
estimates that it could be completed in four years, in time for the jubilee of
1625 (ibid., fol. 23r). The illustrations, engraved by Matthus Greuter, were
completed only in 1623, by Bartolis nephew. In one of these (ibid., fol. 88),
the Barberini coat of arms was added to the ships rudder, doubtless with a view
to submitting the project to Urban VIII in competition with Bernini; the case
thus closely parallels that of Martino Ferraboscos project (Appendix II).
25. Project for choirs in the crossing and apse, attributed to Carlo Maderno. Florence,
Uffizi, Gab. dei disegni, 265A (Fig. 13).
Shows a choir installation with two altars in the apse; a flat screen in front
includes ten (spiral?) columns. In the crossing immediately behind the confessio (shown in its final form) is a rectangular, colonnaded enclosure, presumably
also a choir. The altar at the tomb inside the enclosure is shown underground,
and no tabernacle appears above. The project may be dated after the completion of the confessio in 1617 (n. 35 above); the scheme as a whole is closely
analogous to that devised by Papirio Bartoli in 1620 (no. 24).
26. Project for a ciborium, ca. 1620, drawing by Borromini. Vienna, Albertina,
Arch. Hz., Rom, Kirchen, no. 766 (Fig. 28).
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28. Projects made in competition with Bernini, ca. 1624.
A. Anonymous project for a baldachin. From Modo di fare il tabernacolo.
See n. 55 above.
B. Project by Teodoro della Porta.
Two months before payments to Bernini begin, Teodoro della Porta, the
son of Guglielmo, in a letter to the Congregation dated May 12, 1624, says
that he will make a disegno e modello del Baldachino e suo sostentamento per
lAltar magg(io)re di S. Pietro che haver la simetria, e decoro che conviene secondo le bone regole dellarte dellArchitettura senza far ingombro et
impedimento alla veduta della celebratione (Pollak, no. 1052). In a letter dating before January 1, 1624, he complains bitterly against provisional works in
Saint Peters, et in particolare nellAltare magg(io)re che stato fatto e rifatto
quattro volte diversam(en)te con molta spesa sempre buttata via per modo di
provisione come hora segue medemam(en)te (Pollak, 71 no. 60).
I tentatively identify a drawing in Vienna (Fig. 35; no. 28c) with Della
Portas project.
C. Project for a ciborium, 16231624. Vienna, Albertina, Arch. Hz., Rom,
Kirchen, X-15 (H. Egger, Architektonische Handzeichnungen alter Meister, I,
Vienna-Leipzig, 1910, 12 Pl. 29, with attribution to M. Ferrabosco) (Fig. 35).
A domed ciborium resting on spiral columns, closely similar to the centrepieces in nos. 1820, 23, 26 (Figs. 2628, 79). The main differences from
the other designs are that the lateral wings are absent here, as is also the drum
between the attic and the cupola. Angels are shown standing on the attic above
the columns.
I suspect that the drawing is a kind of pastiche based on the earlier projects and incorporating certain of Berninis ideas. The absence of the lateral
wings shows that it was intended as a free-standing structure in the crossing,
doubtless for the high altar. But only under Urban VIII was Paul Vs decision
to move the high altar to the apse rescinded. The project must therefore date
either from the very beginning of Pauls reign, before the decision was made,
or from that of Urban. That the latter is the case is strongly suggested by the
design itself. The absence of the drum above the attic creates a considerably
lower proportion than in any of the other known projects for ciboria, whereas
in the crossing even more height was needed. The most likely assumption is
that the spiral columns shown were not to be the originals but imitations of
them on a bigger scale; enlargement of the whole structure permitted elimination of the drum to achieve the lower proportion required when the
counterbalancing effect of the wings was lost. The design thus deals with the
same aesthetic problem, by similar means, as does Berninis baldachin (see
above, p. 97), but in the form of a conventional domed ciborium. A further
point is that the angels on the superstructure serve no function whatever (not
even to hold candelabra, as in no. 16), as if they were taken over from Berninis
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Appendix II
Martino Ferraboscos engraved project for the
Saint Peters ciborium
I have omitted from consideration in the body of this paper a project for the
Saint Peters ciborium that has played an important role in discussions of the history of the monument since the late seventeenth century. This is a design (Fig. 79)
recorded in a volume of engravings, plans, elevations, and projects for Saint Peters
by Martino Ferrabosco, published in 1684 by Giovanni Battista Costaguti.175 The
title page of the 1684 edition says that the work was first issued in 1620, and although the engraving of the ciborium bears the arms of Urban VIII (elected August
6, 1623) 1620 has been taken as the terminus ante quem. Ferraboscos activity in
Rome is documented with certainty from February, 1613.176 He was buried on
August 3, 1623, during the conclave that elected Urban VIII.177
Knowledge of designs such as Cigolis and the model of the ciborium in the apse
(Figs. 2, 24, 26) makes it clear that the engraved project is not nearly so original as
had been thought. The domed central feature, the projecting colonnaded wings,
the spiral columns are all derived from earlier sources. But the engraving also shows
certain elements that closely parallel Berninis first baldachin. The spiral columns
in the engraving are specifically of the sacrament type; on the underside of the
dome, clouds with rays that may emanate from a dove of the Holy Spirit are visible; the lantern of the dome is covered by a pergola-like cupola with open ribs, and
this supports a crowning figure of the Risen Christ. The caption to the plate in the
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1684 volume says explicitly that the design was Ferraboscos, that it was shown to
Urban VIII before he built the bronze baldachin, and that comparison with the latter shows it influenced Berninis design.178 Filippo Buonanni in 1696 reproduces
the project, and adds that the pope rejected it because it occuppied too much
space.179
There is no reason to doubt that a design by Ferrabosco existed and that it was
shown after his death to Urban VIII. Bernini had other competition as well.180 But
no copy of the 1620 edition of the Architettura has ever been found.181 In fact, there
was no 1620 edition, at least not in the form of a published book. This is evident
from a draft for the preface and captions to the Architettura preserved in a manuscript of materials by and pertaining to one Carlo Ferrante Gianfattori (alias
Ferrante Carli), whom Paul V had appointed to write a history of the basilica to accompany Ferraboscos engravings.182 This draft is in a uniform hand, but it is clear
from the phraseology that the preface was written first by Ferrabosco himself, after
Paul Vs death (January 28, 1621).183 Appended to the preface is the following statement: Questopera f lasciata da Martino Ferrabosco imperfetta ridotta a fine a
spese di Mons. Costaguti con disegno dAndrea Carone.184 In a passage elsewhere
Gianfattori says of Ferrabosco: iamque universum opus per vices et intervalla distractum ad umbilicum fere perduxerat, cum brevi morbo terris, eripitur.185
It is therefore certain that no 1620 edition was actually published, and that the
work was not altogether complete when Ferrabosco died. Since the engraving of the
Ibid., 27: Disegno di Ferrabosco. Questo ornamento stato fatto da Urbano VIII . . . al
quale prima di far lopera f fatto vedere il presente disegno, in qualche parte imitato, come
dallopera medesima si riconosce.
179
Fuerat etiam Pontefici oblata alia ornamenti idea, in qua collocabantur columnae
vitineae, quibus olim Divi Petri Confessio extrinsecus ornabantur . . . sed cum Templi Aream
nimis in longum protensa inutiliter occuparet, ineptam extimavit. (Buonanni, Num. templ. vat.,
130.)
180
See the competing projects listed in Appendix I, no. 28.
181
Cf. L. Schudt, Le guide di Roma, Vienna-Augsburg, 1930, 155; but see n. 186 below.
182
Bibl. Vat., MS. lat. 10742, fols. 370 ff. The preface was published in part (and with
some errors in transcription) by H. Egger, Der Uhrturm Pauls V, Mededeelingen van het
nederlandsch historisch Instituut te Rome, 9, 1929, 94 f. Cf. also the relevant passage in a manuscript biography of Paul V by G. B. Costaguti the elder in the Costaguti archive, published
by Pastor, XXVI, 492.
183
Ho final.te p gr del S.o Dio tiratala fine, e distribuite le tavole in pi parti . . . havendo fatte vedere alc.e delle pti tavole alla S.M. di Paolo Vo le qli erano in sua vita finite, gli
piacquero in modo, che command si attendesse al fine, e volse che fossero vestite dhistoria
da persona giudicata p lettere, e p guid.o habile tanto carico, f Ferrante Carlo. (Bibl. Vat.,
MS. lat. 10742, fol. 370v.)
184
Ibid. I have been unable to identify Andrea Carone.
185
Beltrami, Ferabosco, 28, n. 6.
178
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ciborium bears Urban VIIIs arms it may well have belonged to the unfinished portion.186 The captions in the manuscript draft are similar to, but not identical with
those in the 1684 edition. The draft of the caption for a tabernacle that would have
been included as Plate XXIX shows that it was produced during the early stages of
work on Berninis baldachin; this it praises, and lays no claim to an influence on
Bernini: . . . hoggi dalla S. di N.S.P.P. Urbano 8o si arricchisce di un baldacchino
sostentato da 4 colonne di metallo.187 A probable terminus ante quem for the addition of the papal arms is the death of Mons. Costaguti, Sr. (uncle of the Mons. G.
B. Costaguti, Jr., who finally published the work in 1684) on September 3, 1625.188
By this time, as the engraving of Elizabeth of Portugals canonization in March indicates (Fig. 30; see above, p. 93), Berninis project was public knowledge.
This is precisely the period when Gianfattori was working on his history of the
basilica, which he also left unfinished. It has been shown that his work on the basilica is an outright plagiarism of Jacopo Grimaldi.189 A few years later it was reported
186
There is in the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome a volume, acquired after Schudts
publication (Le guide di Roma, 1930), with a frontispiece identical to that of the 1684 edition but bearing the following inscription: Alla S.ta di N.S. P P Paulo Quinto. Libro de
larchitettura DI SAN PIETRO nel Vaticano FINITO Col disegno di Michel Angelo
BONAROTO ET DAltri Architetti expressa in piu Tavole Da Martino Ferabosco. In
Roma Lanno 1620 NEL VATICANO. Con licenza, e Privilegio. The volume contains
the same plates as the 1684 edition, including the ciborium project with the arms of
Urban VIII! The differences from the 1684 edition are that there are no text or captions,
some of the plates are arranged differently, there is an additional plate (elevation of one
of the little domes and the attic), and two plates that have coats of arms in the 1684 edition are without them here. The volume also contains at the end various other engravings
of the sixteenth and later seventeenth centuries pertaining to Saint Peters. The binding is
stamped with the arms of Cardinal Francesco Nerli (elevated Nov. 29, 1669, d. Nov. 6,
1670; cf. P. Gauchat, Hierarchia catholica medii et recentiores aevi, Regensburg, 1913 ff.,
V, 5).
Ferraboscos engravings, including the frontispiece, are here clearly in their original proof
state, ready for publication. The fact that even here the ciborium bears the arms of Urban
suggests that the plate in its first, pre-Barberini state was unfinished.
The coats of arms in other plates in the 1684 edition were added later, but before the
publication: on Pl. IV, the atrium of Old Saint Peters, the arms of Card. Vincenzo Costaguti
(elevated July, 1643, d. Dec., 1660; Gauchat, Hierarchia catholica, IV, 26); on Pl. V, interior of Old Saint Peters, the arms of Card. G. B. Pallotta (elevated Nov., 1629, d. Jan., 1668;
ibid., 23).
187
Bibl. Vat., MS. lat. 10742, fol. 375v.
188
Moroni, Dizionario, XLI, 263; Pastor, XXVI, 482 n. 2, adds some further information on the elder Costaguti. The second G. B. Costaguti later became cardinal.
189
See Ch. Heulsen, Il circo di Nerone al Vaticano, in Miscellanea Ceriani, Milan, 1910,
264 ff. On Gianfattori cf. also A. Borzelli, LAssunta del Lanfranco in S. Andrea della Valle giudicata da Ferrante Carli, Naples, 1910.
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that Gianfattori was the author of attacks against Bernini concerning the dome of
Saint Peters, and had a mortal hatred of the artist.190
Suspicion that besides the addition of Urbans arms the engraving may have
been altered in imitation of Berninis project receives strong support from three
considerations. A drawing in the Albertina (Fig. 27) shows a project in which the
essential elements are virtually identical with those in the engraving.191 Yet it differs
from the print, apart from the absence of the attic on the wings, in that precisely
the major details which the engraving has in common with Berninis design the
sacramental columns, the open ribbed pergola, the Risen Christ, the Holy Spirit
in the dome are missing. Secondly, the columns in the print are of the sacramental type, implying that all but two were to be newly made. It seems more
reasonable to assume that Ferraboscos original intention, as Buonanni specifically
states,192 was to reuse the original columns, and that their decoration in the engraving was either added (if the print was unfinished), or changed. Finally, and
most significant, the engraving itself shows a crucial reworking: between the central buttresses of the lantern traces of a globe supported on a tapering base are
clearly visible (Fig. 80). Thus, the lantern, the pergola, and the Risen Christ were
all an afterthought.
I would suggest that the engraving was initially a project by Ferrabosco for a
ciborium-screen, perhaps in conjunction with his project for the choir in the main
apse,193 intended to be placed at the entrance to the apse. When Urban was elected
and plans for a permanent structure over the tomb altar in the crossing were developing, the engraving was submitted,194 after having been finished or altered to
accommodate the same symbolism as Berninis baldachin.
Addenda
1. To n. 27 and Appendix I no. 19. In the first volume of his catalogue of the
drawings of Borromini, which has now been published (Francesco Borromini. Die
Zeichnungen, Graz, 1967, 14, col. 1, n. 3), H. Thelen refers to a drawing of the ci-
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182
borium model built in 1606 in the choir of Saint Peters. The drawing (Fig. 28A)
is part of an album dated 16131616 and attributed to the French Jesuit architect
Franois Derand (J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire gnral des dessins du Muse
du Louvre et du Muse de Versailles. cole franaise, V, Paris, 1910, no. 3598; it
should be noted that the attribution to Derand has been challenged by H. von
Geymller, Die Baukunst der Renaissance in Frankreich, Stuttgart, I, 1901, 309 f.,
followed by P. Moisy, Larchitecte Franois Derand, Jsuite lorrain, Revue dhistoire
de lglise de France, 36, 1950, 150 ff.). The drawing shows the elevation and plan
of the centrepiece, and bears the inscription, plan et elevation de la chapelle quon
a fait a St pierre sur le grand autel ou il j a huit coulonnes torse et a chaque coulonne
un tel piedestal.
2. To n. 53. Thelen (Borromini Zeichnungen, 98 f.) and his collaborators determined that the marginal corrections in Fioravante Martinellis manuscript
guidebook were originally written by Boromini himself, whose penciled handwriting, subsequently erased but faintly visible, they were able to decipher beneath the
transcript in ink. In transcribing the original comment on the passage concerning
the baldachin, Martintelli inadvertently omitted from the last sentence, recording
Ciampellis criticism, a phrase which explicitly confirms the view (pp. 95 f. above)
that the fusion of the canopy with the cornices of the columns was part of a deliberate effort to create a hybrid form grammatically execrable comprising
both a baldachin and a ciborium. Borrominis original sentence ran as follows (italics mine): . . . diceua che le baldacchini non si sostiengono con le colone ma con
le haste, et che il baldacchino non ricor(r)a asieme con la cornice dele colone, et in ogni
modo uoleua che lo regessero li angeli.
3. To n. 60. on the Successa medal (Fig. 38) see also Krautheimer, Corpus basilicarum (cited n. 159 above), II, 1, p. 4, n. 1. The doubt expressed by Franchi de
Cavalieri concerning the authenticity of the medal may be dismissed. The question
had been raised in De Rossis time, and the main import of his study was that the
medal, far from being unusual as a type, belonged to a large class of such votive
pendants. The famous ivory casket from Pola, discovered subsequently, on which
the reconstruction of the Constantinian ciborium depends in part, confirms the validity of the structure depicted on the medal, if not also its connection with Saint
Peters. (On the Pola casket, see most recently T. Buddensieg, Le coffret en ivoire
de Pola, Saint-Pierre et le Latran, CahArch, 10, 1959, 157 ff.) The notion that the
medal was found only in 1636 is based on a misreading of Mntriers letter, and
the possibility that it came from the Verano catacomb was offered by De Rossi
purely as a hypothesis, suggested by the representation of the martyrdom of St.
Lawrence that appears on the reverse.
4. To n. 66. According to the calculations of T. C. Bannister, the Constantinian
shrine at Saint Peters itself reproduced exactly the size and shape given in The First
Book of Kings for the Holy of Holies of Solomons Temple (The Constantinian
Basilica of Saint Peter at Rome, JSAH, 27, 1968, 29).
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N.B. A bibliography of frequently cited sources, given short titles in the footnotes, and
a list of abbreviations will be found at the end of this article.
* It gives me great satisfaction to record the debt I have incurred to Professor Italo Faldi
of the Soprintendenza alle Gallerie of Rome. He has facilitated and encouraged my efforts,
often at unconscionable expenditures of his time and energy, in a spirit that can only be
described as fraternal. I deem it a privilege that my contribution may be regarded as an
extension of Faldis own revolutionary work on Berninis early chronology.
The substance of this article was first presented in a lecture delivered at the American
Academy in Rome in January 1996. I am grateful to Professor Frank E. Brown, the
Academys Director, for providing that opportunity. The Marchese Giovanni Battista
Sacchetti, President of the Archconfraternity of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, and Professor
Guglielmo Matthiae, Soprintendente alle Gallerie del Lazio, gave their ready cooperation in
matters concerning the restoration and installation of the busts found at San Giovanni. The
costs of cleaning, restoring, and installing the busts were covered by a contribution from
Washington Square College, New York University; Professor H. W. Janson and Dean
William E. Buckler were instrumental in obtaining the funds. Thanks are due to Prince
Urbano Barberini, who gave his consent nearly a decade ago to my researches in the archive
of the Barberini family, preserved in the Vatican Library; to my wife, Marilyn Aronberg
Lavin, whose labors brought to light the bulk of the documents I shall cite from the
Barberini archive (Mrs. Lavin will soon publish the seventeenth-century Barberini inventories); and to Dott. Carlo Bertelli, Director of the Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale in Rome,
who, in effect, placed at my disposal that organizations expert personnel and resources.
After this article was set in type a book by C. DOnofrio, Roma vista da Roma, Rome,
1967, dealing in part with the same material presented here, became available to me; the
work is largely polemical and, while it provides useful new information concerning the
period, it contains nothing that affects my conclusions.
187
flanking the south side of the church, between it and the Tiber.1 The confraternity had been founded in the fifteenth century, and the hospital, one
of many such national institutions in Rome, was to provide charitable aid
and hospitality to Florentines, whether pilgrims or permanent residents in
the Holy City, in need of assistance. Construction of the hospital began in
December 1607.2 It was a fairly imposing structure of three stories, with a
main central entrance and a balconied window above, flanked on either side
by two smaller doorways.3
The funds for the construction and maintenance of the hospital were to
come chiefly from donations made by members of the Florentine community in Rome. The three important donors in the first half of the seventeenth century, all of whom were honored by the confraternity with
commemorative monuments closely related to one another in type and in
physical location. The first of the three was Antonio Coppola, who is
described in his commemorative inscription as an eminent surgeon.4
Coppola died on February 24, 1612, at the age of seventy-nine, having
willed worldly goods to the hospital.5 He was the first person to do so, and
1
M. M. Lumbroso and A. Martini, Le confraternite romane nelle loro chiese, Rome, 1963,
164 ff.; Rufini, S. Giovanni de Fiorentini, 6 ff., 2425, G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione
storico-ecclesiastica, Rome, 1840 ff., 11, 29697.
2
ASGF, Busta 310, Scritture diverse Spettanti alla V. Chiesa Compagnia della Piet et
Ospedale di S. Gio. deFiorentini, fol. 120.
3
The faade of the hospital is shown in a mid-eighteenth-century engraving inscribed
Barbault del. and D. Montagu sculp. (Rome, Palazzo Venezia library: Roma. XI. 38. IX
2). The faade of the church, by Alessandro Galilei, was built in 173334 (cf. Rufini,
3435). A photograph showing the central portal of the hospital during the demolition
(1937) is in the Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale, Rome (E. 21746).
4
See note 6 below for the inscription.
5
A copy of Coppolas will (along with that of Antonio Cepparelli) is found in ASGF,
Busta 606; it is notarized May 30, 1611, by Bartolomeus Dinus, notary of the Camera
Apostolica.
On February 19, 1612, five days before he died, Coppola also gave the funds for building the Cappella della Madonna in the transept to the right of the high altar in San
Giovanni. The contract for the chapel, with Matteo Castelli, was signed on August 30, 1612,
and on June 3, 1614, Simone Castelli accepted final payment for the work. (Documents,
including a signed drawing by Castelli, in ASR, 30 Notai Capitolini, Not. Bart. Dinius,
Busta 24, fols. 6768, 440 ff.; cf. Rufini, 59 ff. Photograph of the drawing: Gab. Fot. Naz.,
Rome, E. 42132).
188
189
190
repeats the form of the Coppola portrait, was executed during 16291630
by Pompeo Ferrucci (Fig. 10).9
The location of the monuments is given in a manuscript description of
the churches and pious institutions in Rome written toward the middle of
the seventeenth century by Giovanni Antonio Bruzio. Bruzio copied the
inscriptions, and noted that the memorials were in the hospital, at the side
overlooking the Tiber, above the door leading to the balcony; the monument to Coppola was in the center, that to Cepparelli on the right, and that
to Pietro Cambi on the left.10 In 1876 the inscriptions were polished by
Forcella, who also records the existence of the portraits. Their authorship
seems to have been quite lost to history; they are not mentioned by
Berninis biographers, and he is not named on the few occasions when they
appear in Roman guidebooks.11
In 1937 the hospital was demolished to make way for the present structure.12 The three busts and the inscription commemorating Coppola were
salvaged and deposited in the sub-basement of the church by some far-
Docs. 24 ff. The inscription to Cambi, now lost, bore the date 1627; it is transcribed
in Forcella, VII, 24, No. 5. On Ferrucci, cf. V. Martinelli, Contributi alla scultura del
Seicento; II. Francesco Mochi a Piacenza; III. Pompeo Ferrucci, Commentari, 3,1952, 44 ff.
10
Sono poi nel do ospedale dalla parte che risponde sopra il Tevere sopra la Porta,
-p la quale sentra nella Renghitia queste memorie sotto i busti fatti di marmo dei
mentovati Benefattori, e prima nel mezzo parimente intagliata in marmo . . . [Coppolas
inscription] . . . a man destra . . . [Cepparellis inscription] . . . a man sinistra . . . [Cambis
inscription] . . . (BV, ms Vat. lat. 11888, fol. 321v).
On Bruzio, cf. C. Huelsen, Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo, Florence, 1927, xlvii ff.
Two balconies appear in various views made at the end of the century by Vanvitelli,
showing the back of the hospital and church (G. Briganti, Gaspar van Wittel, Rome, 1966,
illus. 83, 85, 9697; cf. 202 ff., Nos. 89 ff.
11
Baldinucci includes in the list of works appended to his biography of Bernini, Teste
fino al num. di 15
luoghi diversi (Vita, 179). The memorials are mentioned, without
indication of authorship, by C. B. Piazza, . Eusevologio romano; overo delle opere
pie di Roma, Rome, 1698, 126; C. L. Morichini, Deglistituti di pubblica carita e distruzione
primaria in Roma, Rome, 1835, 65; A. Nibby, Roma nellanno
MDCCCXXXV111, Parte Seconda Moderna, Rome, 1841, 157.
12
ASGF, unnumbered volume concerning the new building; cf. fascicules labeled
Licenza abitabilit (documents dated November 5, 1937) and Cerimonie sulla Posa della
prima Pietra e della inaugurazione uffiziale del nuovo fabbricato (May 1938).
9
191
192
193
4. Roman Portriat.
Rome, Museo delle Terme.
194
sighted individual, who also took the precaution of writing the subjects
names on the busts in pencil, making the identifications positive.13
13
Over-all heights of the busts: Coppola 67 cm.; Cepparelli 70 cm.; Cambi 74 cm.
During their stay in the basement, at some point when the walls and ceiling were redecorated, the busts were heavily splashed with whitewash. Wherever it touched, the whitewash
left the marble surface irrevocably discolored. Otherwise, the busts are almost perfectly preserved, the only exceptions being the missing left ear of Coppola and left tip of Cepparellis
collar. Photographs of the busts before cleaning, with the areas of whitewash covering the
penciled names removed, are in the Gab. Fot. Naz., Rome.
The key to the discovery, which took place in September 1966, was a 4-volume manuscript catalogue of the archive compiled by Giuseppe Tomassetti (Catalogo delle Posizioni,
Pergamene e Scritture esistenti nellArchivio dei Pii Stabilimenti di S. Giovanni della
Nazione Fiorentina, compilato negli anni 18771879; cf. Rufini, 29). The alphabetical
index, under Bernini, refers to the payments for the bust of Cepparelli (cf. Parte Ill.
Ospedale e Consolato, 103). I first became aware that the Coppola monument had existed
from the reference to it in the decree of the confraternity commissioning that to Cepparelli
(Doc. 20). In turn, the existence of both of them in the nineteenth century, as well as that
to Cambi, was confirmed by the entries in Forcellas Iscrizioni (notes 6, 8, 9 above), where
the busts are also mentioned. Tomassettis index refers to the payments for the Cambi bust,
but the Coppola monument seems to have escaped him entirely.
The portraits came to light when, upon my inquiry, Commendatore Massimiliano
Casali, secretary of the Confraternity, recalled seeing certain busts in the basement years
before, and led me to them. Professor Faldi saw to their removal from the basement and to
their cleaning and restoration. This was carried out by Signor Americo Bigioni, restorer at
the excavations at Ostia. The procedure was as follows: (1) In order to avoid possible corrosion the original iron hooks in the backs of the busts of Coppola and Cambi (photographs
in the Gab. Fot. Naz., Rome), which had been held in place by a filling of lead, were replaced
by bronze rings. (2) The busts were washed and the hard calcium deposits of the whitewash
were removed with a scalpel. (3) To remove greasy dirt the surface was cleaned with alcohol,
carbon tetrachloride, and acetone. (4) The busts were then treated with a transparent acrylic
polymer consolidant, trade name Pantarol. (5) To eliminate the blanched effect left by the
chemical solvents and restore a certain lucidity to the surface, a final coating of natural
beeswax was applied.
Though I am not qualified to judge from a technical point of view, the visual results of
stages 35 are to my mind unfortunate. The beeswax combined with the Pantarol gave the
white-grey Carrara marble a yellowish cast and satinlike texture. I am also not convinced that
it was necessary to remove the original iron hooks, since the lead filling had effectively prevented corrosion at the point of insertion into the marble.
In January 1967 the busts of Coppola and Cepparelli were permanently installed on the
piers flanking the entrance to the sacristy of San Giovanni. They were placed on two consoles, contemporary but certainly not the originals, that were also found in the basement
storeroom. The original inscription honoring Coppola was placed under his portrait, and
under that of Cepparelli a copy with the text taken from Forcella. The bust of Cambi was
placed in the archive of the confraternity.
195
The first reference to the Coppola bust (Figs. 13, 79) occurs in a
record of the meeting of the confraternity on March 8, 1612, about two
weeks after his death. Let four scudi be paid for the bust (casso) of wax
made for the head of the said Messer Antonio Coppola and let Piero Paolo
Calvalcanti along with Signor Francesco Ticci commission the sculptor
Bernini to make the marble head of the said Messer Antonio Coppola, to
be placed in the hospital. (Doc. 1). Four months later the bust must have
been finished, for at the meeting of the confraternity on July 16, 1612, the
following action was taken: A check was issued to pay the sculptor Bernini
that which is due him for the marble head of Messer Antonio Coppola, and
the amount was left blank, and an order was given to Signor Andrea
Pasquali that he along with Signor Francesco Ticci try to pay as little as possible. (Doc. 2). The price had been settled a month later when, on August
10, 1612, fifty scudi were paid to Pietro Bernini, to cover the entire cost of
the bust (Doc. 4). During August and September payments were made for
a gesso mold of Coppolas head and for his painted portrait (Docs. 3, 5).
According to the inscription the monument was installed in June 1614; the
inscription itself was not actually paid for until the end of the following year
(Doc. 6).14 The reason for this delay was probably that the hospital was not
yet completed during 16131614, as payments to various workmen show.15
These records are of considerable interest even apart from the fact that
they help to identify the author of the bust and fix very precise dates for its
A fourth bust was also found in the basement, where it still remains; it is a curiously
archaizing work, sixteenth-century in type, but with a complex and asymmetrical treatment
of the drapery that suggests a later period. It is perhaps to be identified with a bust of
Antonio Altoviti recorded by Forcella along with a commemorative inscription, dated 1698;
the location, whether in the hospital or in the church, is not given (Forcella, VII, 35,
No. 83).
14
The number of letters specified in the stonecutters bill (Doc. 6a) corresponds to that
in the preserved inscription, i.e., 225. The present dimensions (835 x 560 mm.) are smaller
than those mentioned (43/4 x 41/2 palmi = 1059 x 1003 mm.), indicating that the inscription
was cut down, probably when the other monuments were added to form a group. The
dimensions of the Cambi inscription were 780 x 353 mm. (31/2 x 17/12 palmi; cf. Doc. 28).
Roman palmo = 223 mm.
15
One payment may perhaps refer to the railing of the balcony of the room in which the
monuments were installed (see note 10 above): p avere rimesso sotto lo ispidale el chancello
chon mia ranpini echiodi eseghato la ispaliera delli ufiziali che si divida in 2 pezi erimesso le
banche atorno che erano chavate p el fiume 1 (Conto di lavori fatti p servizio dello
ispidale di san giovanni de fiorentini fatti dalli 20 di aprile 1613 insino alli 22 di febraro
1614); ASGF205, near the beginning of the volume. Other payments to muratori and
scarpellini for work during 161214 occur in the same volume.
196
execution March to July 1612. The references to wax and gesso forms
show that the portrait was based on a death mask made before Coppola was
interred. The order to pay for the portrait (Doc. 2) has two features that are,
in my experience, unique. The decree provides that a blank check
(mandato in bianco) be issued; this is the first time I, at least have encountered a bank draft of this kind in payments of the period. Furthermore, the
representatives of the confraternity are ordered to try to pay as little as possible. This, too, is new to me, and indicates that the price for the bust had
not been agreed upon in advance. Both these exceptional features suggest
that the circumstances of the commission were unusual. In 1612 Pietro
Bernini was fifty years old and one of the leading sculptors in Rome, having recently completed two major papal commissions.16 The confraternity
would scarcely have been in a position to deal with an artist of Pietro
Berninis stature in the manner implied by the blank check and the order to
pay as little as possible especially for a commission that had already been
accepted and carried out. On the other hand, this is exactly what one would
expect if the person who actually executed the work was a minor.
Gianlorenzo Bernini was born on December 7, 1598.17 At the time of the
commission of the Coppola bust his age was thirteen years and three
months. We know of several other instances during the following years in
which the father, acting as an agent, received the payments for work done
by his prodigious son.18
Even apart from the peculiarities of the financial arrangements, however,
and even if the bust itself were not preserved, we could deduce which
Bernini carved it. Pietro Bernini never made portrait busts. None are men-
16
The Assumption of the Virgin (160710) and the first version, now lost, of the
Coronation of Clement VIII for the chapel of Paul V in Santa Maria Maggiore (see note 37
below).
17
Berninis birthdate is recorded by Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini; Fraschettis effort
to find the baptismal record in Naples was fruitless (Bernini, 2 n. 1).
18
We shall discuss two such occasions below (pp. 246 and 265): the angels for Sant
Andrea della Valle, 1618, for which Gianlorenzo later received a retrospective payment on
his own (Doc. 17a); and one of the payments for the bust of Cepparelli, 1622, made out to
Gianlorenzo and signed for by Pietro (Doc. 22b). In later years, at Saint Peters, Pietro
became simply an administrator for work done under his sons direction (Pollak, II, passim;
cf. H. Hibbard and I. Jaffe, Berninis Barcaccia, BurlM, 106, 1964, 169), and received a
number of payments on behalf of Andrea Bolgi (Muoz, 459). Cf. also the case of the portrait of Cepparelli by Pompeo Caccini, whose son accepted the payment (below, note 120).
197
tioned in the sources, none are recorded in the documents throughout his
long life, and none are preserved.19 A portrait presumably by him does exist,
which we shall consider shortly (cf. Fig. 12 and note 37; but it is of a very
special kind, and later than the bust of Coppola. The documents alone
would thus confront us with the choice either of imagining the bust to be
a work of the father, who never before and never afterward did a thing of
this kind, or of assuming it to have been in fact executed by the son, who
became one of the greatest portrait sculptors of all time and concerning
whom the early sources consistently tell us that it was precisely his amazing
precocity as a portraitist that brought him his first, childhood fame.20 We
have no less than three monuments executed jointly by the son and the
father before Pietros death in 1629, and in each case it was the son who did
the portrait bust, while the father was responsible for the accompanying figures.21 A significant point also, is that the bust of Antonio Cepparelli,
ordered by the confraternity a decade later with the specific intention of
emulating the first memorial, was commissioned from Gianlorenzo. Finally,
documentary evidence for Gianlorenzos authorship of the Coppola bust is
afforded by a payment made by the confraternity in May 1634 (Doc. 29).
A woodworker was then paid for installing in the basement of the hospital
two terra-cotta portraits, doubtless the preparatory models for the busts of
Coppola and Cepparelli. The document makes no distinction in the
authorship of the terra cottas, saying that both were by the hand of
Bernini. The workman was paid for the bases, iron clamps, etc., made for
maintenance of the two clay heads made by the hand of Bernini, which are
kept under the hospital. . . .22
The portrait of Coppola is an unforgettable image of an emaciated old
man with sunken cheeks and cavernous eye sockets. The spidery fingers
cling without force or tension to the drapery that envelops the figure like a
shroud. Here, the difference between life and death has been obliterated. It
is the figure of a man in suspended animation, emotionless and timeless, yet
For the bibliography on Pietro see Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue, 122. Significantly
enough, the one portrait bust attributed to him in a seventeenth-century (French) source,
that of Cardinal de Sourdis in Bordeaux, is actually the work of Gianlorenzo (see note 100
below).
20
Discussed below, pp. 202 ff.
21
See the works for Cardinal de Sourdis in Bordeaux, the tomb of Cardinal Dolfin in
Venice, and that of Cardinal Bellarmino in the Ges, discussed below.
22
Unhappily, I found no trace of the two models.
19
198
with the penetrating effect that only the spectre of death can have upon the
living.
The bust is a challenge to the very notion of juvenilia, by which we
mean works displaying characteristics attributable to the artists youth
alone, independent of his own personality or the period in which he lived.
The stiff posture, the relatively small head poked on the long, barrel-like
torso cut in an arc at the bottom elements such as these lend the bust a
quality of abstraction common in childrens art that might, conceivably,
lead one to suspect it was the work of an adolescent It would also have to
be admitted, however, that the portrait owes much of its disquieting effect
to these same elements. A somewhat analogous problem is raised by the fact
that the bust was made from a death mask. It might be argued that the mask
made possible a greater degree of realism than would have been attainable
otherwise. But the spectral quality of the image as a whole cannot be
explained in this way, since it depends as much on the pose and composition as on Coppolas physical features. Bernini seems to have been caught
by the idea of infusing in what is ostensibly the portrait of a living person
some of the deathliness of a corpse.23
If it is astonishing, to say the least, that a thirteen-year-old could conceive and execute an image of such affective power, it is equally disconcerting to realize that the work constitutes an important innovation in the history of modern portraiture. In the course of the sixteenth century in Rome
there had developed an austere, classical tradition of portraiture characterized, especially toward the end of the century, by compact, tightly drawn silhouettes, hard surfaces and sharp edges, and psychological effects of an
often aggressive intensity (cf. Fig. 6).24 Although this type continued well
into the first quarter of the seventeenth century, after about 1600 there is
evidence of a tendency to mitigate its severity, with softer textures and more
relaxed facial expressions.25 The Coppola bust takes its point of departure
from this phase of the development. With its closed outline and simple,
almost geometric shapes it adheres closely to the classical tradition (which,
indeed, Bernini never entirely forsook). In other respects, however, it
The underlying attitude is essentially the same as that which led Bernini in later years
to develop his famous speaking likenesses to preserve the vitality of the living.
24
The development is made sufficiently clear in Grisebachs Rmische Portratbsten der
Gegenreformation, cf. 19 ff.; it should be borne in mind that Grisebachs survey is confined
almost exclusively to portraits made for tombs, and omits papal portraits entirely.
25
Ibid., 2324, 150.
23
199
200
201
around the irises of the eyes are not sharp and clear, but irregular and
tremulous. The lachrymal ducts at the corners of the eyes are not reproduced in their actual shape, but their watery sparkle is faintly suggested by
two small drill-holes.32 The transition from skin to hair and to the tufted
mass of the beard is practically invisible. The tiny mounds on the buttons
of Coppolas garment are only vaguely separated from the larger spheres
below (Fig. 9). The fingernails are barely defined. The marble is nowhere
brought to a high polish, but is abraded to give a slightly granular texture;
light, instead of being reflected, is broken up by the crystalline structure of
the surface, and the result is a veiled effect, smooth yet soft and translucent.33
This particular kind of optical refinement, the muted impressionism, as
I am tempted to call it, seems to have been Gianlorenzos creation; it introduced a new attitude toward sculptural form, and marks a significant stage
in the young Berninis development.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the innovations we have noted in
the Coppola bust the suggestion of a whole rather than a severed body,
the psychological intimacy, and the effect of solid form dissolved by light
are closely interconnected. Together they serve to establish a direct, unselfconscious relationship between the spectator and the subject.
32
This device occurs, with the holes drilled much more deeply, in Pietros Assumption
relief (the right eye of,the Virgin, Fig. 26, and the right eye of the angel facing right in the
embracing pair to the left of center, Fig. 28), where it is doubtless meant to accent the corner of the eye from a distant viewpoint. (The relief was originally intended for the outside
faade of the Cappella Paolina.) Such drill-holes often appear singly in Roman imperial
sculpture, and in this form they were well known in the early seventeenth century
(Grisebach, 59, 61; cf. also Fig. 29). But I have found no precedent for their use in pairs.
Gianlorenzo used the device again in the Santoni bust (Fig. 11; see below).
33
Pietros Assumption relief provides an interesting illustration of the experimentation
with surface textures passed on from father to son. Pietro left the surface without the final
polish; the parallel hatchings of a fine-clawed chisel, the next to last stage in the execution,
are visible uniformly throughout (Figs. 26, 27, 28). This device also must have served to
strengthen the forms seen from afar. In establishing the final payment for the work, which
had already been installed in the sacristy, the appraisers offered a higher sum to be paid when
Pietro gave it its final polish so that it would not collect dust and blacken with time, a procedure that evidently was not carried out. Ironically, the situation was almost duplicated
years later when Gianlorenzo used the same technique for his figure of St. Longinus in Saint
Peters (Wittkower, 1966, Pl. 43). A reference to this treatment is apparent in a petition submitted in 1642 by Francesco Mochi requesting that weekly dusting of his figure of St.
Veronica be discontinued; the statue being finished in all its parts, dust has no place to
attach itself (Pollak, II, 451, No. 1754).
202
One of the most important implications of the Coppola bust for our
understanding of Berninis development is that it confirms the early biographers accounts of his precocious genius.34 Filippo Baldinucci and
Berninis son, Domenico, report in their biographies of the artist that his
first work in Rome was the portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Battista
Santoni in Santa Prassede (Fig. 11). Baldinucci says that Bernini executed
the bust shortly after he completed the tenth year of his age, and
Domenico Bernini mentions it in connection with works made when his
father was ten. It was owing to the succcess of this portrait, we are told, that
the boy was introduced to the Borghese pope Paul V in whose presence he
drew a head. This was the beginning of his fabulous career.35
The earliest date that modern writers have been willing to assign to the
bust of Santoni is 1613, and usually 16151616 is given.36 Comparison
34
A portrait that must have been made almost simultaneously with that of Coppola is
mentioned by Domenico Bernini (p. 20). He reports that before Monsignor Alessandro
Ludovisi (later Pope Gregory XV) left Rome to take up the archbishopric of Bologna, he had
Gianlorenzo carve his bust. Ludovisi became archbishop of Bologna in March 1612.
35
Baldinucci, 7475, La prima opera, che uscisse dal suo scarpello in Roma fu una testa
di marmo situata nella chiesa di S. Potenziana [he correctly lists it as in Santa Prassede in his
catalogue, p. 176]; avendo egli allora il decimo anno di sua et appena compito. Per la qual
cosa . . . (continues the account of the meeting with Paul V). Domenico Bernini, 8 ff.,
recounts the meeting with Paul V first, and then continues (p. 10), Haveva gi egli dato
principio a lavorare di Scultura, e la sua prima opera f una Testa di marmo situata nella
Chiesa di S. Potenziana, & altre picciole Statue, quali gli permetteva let in cui era di dieci
anni, e tutte apparivano cos maestrevolmente lavorate, che havendone qualcheduna veduta
il celebre Annibale Caracci, disse, Esser egli arrivato nellarte in quella picciola et, dove altri
potevano gloriarsi di giungere nella vecchiezza.
In his journal of the artists visit to France in 1665, Chantelou reports Bernini himself
as relating that the episode with Paul V took place when he was eight years old, and that the
work which aroused the Popes interest was a head of St. John (evidently a confusion with
Giovanni Battista Santonis Christian names); cf. Chantelou, 84.
Santonis name is often mistakenly given as Santori. The cause of the error lies with the
consistorial acts, the decrees of the papal consistory which include appointments of bishops
and from which the various published episcopal lists are compiled; these, however, are copies
made from the original sources, now lost, after the consistorial archive was founded by
Urban VIII. In these acts the name is spelled with an r, doubtless a copyists error. The correct spelling appears in the inscription of the Santoni monument itself (see below, note 40)
and in all the contemporary documents, such as those concerning the elder Santonis nunciature in Switzerland, which include letters bearing his own signature (cf. P. M. Krieg, Das
Collegium Helveticum in Mailand nach dem Bericht des Nuntius Giovanni Battista
Santonio, Zeitschrift fr schweizerische Kirchengeschichte, 25, 1931, 112 ff.) and in Cardinal
Ottavio Bandinis original nomination of the younger Santoni to the bishopric of Policastro
(BVAS, Acta Miscell., vol. 98, fol. 331).
203
with the Coppola bust shows that there are many similarities, as, for example, the use in both cases of the double drill-holes at the corners of the eyes.
There is a further similarity between the two works in that the bust of
Santoni also owes a considerable debt to ancient portraiture. In the powerful sideward thrust of the head, the knitted eyebrows and penetrating grimace, and in the peculiar treatment of the hair and beard which envelop the
face with tightly packed nodules of light and dark, it recalls the familiar
busts of the emperor Caracalla.37 Santonis locks, moreover, though different in form from those of Coppola, have a similarly gentle, granular texture,
and depart radically from the meticulously defined and polished strands or
curls typical of sixteenth-century portraits in Rome.
Nonetheless, despite its similarities to the bust of Coppola, that of
Santoni is clearly earlier. The sharp features and somewhat exaggerated grimace have many sixteenth-century precedents, as do the small cut of the
torso and the polished skin. In general, the soft impressionism of which we
have spoken is here less developed, and it is evident that essentially
Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini were right. In fact, I think it can be
shown that the date specified by Baldinucci, early 1610, was exactly right.38
Here I follow the lead of Grisebach, who suggested that investigation of the
life of Giovanni Battista Santonis nephew, Giovanni Antonio, who ordered
the work, might reveal the occasion for the commission long after the
sitters death and hence its date.39 The elder Santoni, who had died in
1592, had been bishop of Tricarico. The inscription on the monument says
36
The earlier dating is that of Fraschetti, 11; cf. Wittkower, 1966, 17374, No. 2
(161516). The frame of the Santoni monument is exactly copied in another funeral inscription in Santa Prassede, commemorating a man who died in 1614 (Forcella, II, 509,
No. 1537).
37
An analogous facial expression appears on the head of Clement VIII in Pietro Berninis
relief of the Popes coronation on his tomb in Santa Maria Maggiore (Fig. 12). There was a
time when, because of this similarity, I thought the Popes head might have been the work
of Gianlorenzo, and this may indeed be the case. But the relief dates 161214 (cf. Muoz,
46970), that is, after the bust of Coppola. I now suppose Pietro was here taking a leaf from
his sons book. An earlier version of the Coronation relief is mentioned in documents of
161112 (Muoz, 469).
38
Although Bernini had lived ten years on December 7, 1608, he did not cease being ten
years old, i.e., he did not complete the tenth year of his age (cf. note 35 above) until his
eleventh birthday in December 1609. This way of reporting a persons age is still common
in Italy.
39
Grisebach, 152.
204
that it was erected in his honor by his nephew, who is himself described as
bishop of Policastro.40 The younger Santoni was named bishop on April 26,
1610, and he must have ordered the memorial to celebrate his achievement
of the same rank as his uncle.41 The bust would thus have been carved early
in 1610, just as Baldinucci says.
Another work that must be dated much earlier than heretofore is the
under life-size group of the Amalthean goat suckling the infant Jupiter and
a satyr, in the Villa Borghese in Rome (Fig. 15). Since it was first identified
thirty years ago, it has been universally recognized as one of Berninis earliest works, and has generally been placed close to the Santoni bust c. 1615.42
This dating seemed to find confirmation with the discovery in the Borghese
archive of a carpenters invoice, dated August 18, 1615, which includes a
base for the group.43 The bust of Coppola now rules out so late a date. There
are certain analogies with the Santoni bust (compare the hair on the goats
projecting leg with that above Santonis forehead),44 but the skin is here even
harder and more highly polished, and the transitions between forms still
sharper. There are also awkward passages; the satyrs left hand is out of
drawing (Fig. 13), and the goats turned-under right front hoof is shown
incongruously flat and concave (not visible in Fig. 15). In fact, the documents provide good reason to suppose that the Borghese group dates perhaps half a year earlier than the Santoni portrait. In the same invoice of
1615, the woodcarver who made the base for the Amalthean Goat listed a
base for a comparable group of Hellenistic inspiration, also still in the Villa
Borghese, by an unknown sculptor of the period, showing three sleeping
putti (Fig. 14).45 In this case, however, a payment is preserved for the purchase of the group, in June 1609.46 Evidently it was acquired for one purSee Forcella, II, 507, No. 1530.
K. Eubel, Hierarchia ecclesiastica, Padua, 1913 ff., II, 284.
42
R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle gallerie italiane, Vita artistica, I, 1926, 6566; cf.
Wittkower, 1966, 173, No. 1. The attribution to Bernini is based on a reference to it as
Berninis first famous work, in J. von Sandrarts Teutsche Academie of 1675, ed. A. R. Peltzer,
Munich, 1925, 285.
43
Faldi, 1953, 146, Doc. XII.
44
Cf. Wittkower, 1966, 173, who also emphasizes the similarities to the putto heads in
the frame of the Santoni monument.
45
Faldi, 1954, 1314, No. 6; cf. 14, Doc. III. The group, of which many duplicates are
known (partial list in Faldi), seems to be by the same hand as the groups of wrestling putti
in the Doria Gallery attributed to Stefano Maderno (see below).
46
Ibid., 14, Docs. I, II.
40
41
205
pose in that year and then was put on a base of its own six years later. There
is little doubt in my mind that Berninis group formed part of the same decorative program and that it, too, was made early in 1609.47 The work may
well have been among the picciole Statue which Domenico Bernini
appends to his reference to the Santoni bust, saying that his father made
them at the age of ten, and that they were seen and much admired by
Annibale Carracci.48 In that case, the dates would correspond perfectly,
since Carracci died in July 1609.
In 1961 Antonia Nava Cellini published a life-size figure of a little boy
with a delicious smile and two buck teeth, who is seated astride a dragon,
pulling its mouth apart (Figs. 1618).49 A hole runs from the bottom
through the mouth of the dragon, showing that it was intended as a fountain, and there are one or two rust stains indicating that it may have been
used as such for a time. Nava Cellini attributed the work, which is now in
a private collection in New York, to Pietro Bernini, and supposed, very reasonably, that the sculpture had been made for the Borghese family, one of
whose emblems is a winged dragon. She suggested a relatively late date,
about 1620, and observed, significantly, that the father was here working
under the influence of the son.
Documents from the Barberini family archive, now in the Vatican
Library, indicate that the work is by Gianlorenzo, not Pietro Bernini. The
group corresponds exactly to the description of a sculpture that appears
repeatedly in the inventories of the Barberini family art collections throughout the seventeenth century. It is mentioned in 1628 as having come from
the house of Don Carlo Barberini, brother of Maffeo Barberini, who had
become Pope Urban VIII in 1623: Un putto a sedere sopra un drago moderno al nat[ura]le.50 In an inventory begun in 1632 by Nicol Menghini it
47
It is worth noting that in October 1609 the Pope purchased a considerable collection
of antique sculptures that had belonged to the sculptor Tommaso della Porta (cf. Pastor,
XXVI, 448).
48
Quoted in note 35 above.
49
Unopera di Pietro Bernini, Arte antica e moderna, 1961, 288 ff.
50
BVAB1, fol. 28, Diverse statue venute di Casa dellEcc.mo S.r D. Carlo, the entry
dated July 28, 1628. The house referred to here was the palace in the Via dei Giubbonari;
it had originally belonged to Maffeo, who gave it to his brother shortly after his election to
the papacy (BVAB, Ind. II, Cred. II, Cas. 29, Mazz. IX, Lett. C, No. 3, Seconda donazione
fatta da Papa Urbano VIII al IEccsm.o D. Carlo Barberini, Sept. 22, 1623). The brothers
are later reported as having built the Giubbonari palace jointly (cf. Pastor, XXVIII, 30). As
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
is listed as Un putto qual tiene un drago alto palmi 21/2 fatto dal Cavalier
Bernini.51 Two and one-half palms is 55.7 cm.; this is precisely the height
of the New York piece. In 1632, Bernini was overseeing the last stages of
construction of the Barberini palace, and Menghini, himself a sculptor, was
administrator of Cardinal Francesco Barberinis sculpture collections.52
The latest entry is in an inventory of the Popes grand nephew Cardinal
Carlo Barberini, made in 1692, in which the figure is identified as Hercules:
Un ercoletto intiero sedere sopra un Drago, che con una mano li rompe
la bocca.53 In the margin next to this entry the following note was added:
Donato Filippo V. Re di Spagna da S[ua] E[ccelenza] in occ[asi]one della
Leg[atio]ne di Napoli. The event alluded to here is the arrival in Naples in
1702 of Philip V of Spain. The Kings arrival was an important occasion,
and Pope Clement XI named Cardinal Carlo Barberini as his legate extraordinary to go to Naples and welcome the visitor.54 The Cardinals legation
we shall see, the sculpture was in all probability commissioned by Maffeo, remaining in the
Giubbonari palace until it was transferred to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the Popes
nephew, in 1628.
51
BVAB2, fol. 7v. This entry was published by Pollak, I, 334, No. 960, and the connection with the work published by Nava Cellini was made independently by M. and M.
Fagiolo dellArco, Bernini, 1967, Schedario, No. 3. The sculpture is also listed in the inventory of 1651: Un altro Putto del naturale, che tiene un Drago -p la Bocca alto p.mi 21/2
(BVAB3, fol. 1).
52
On Menghini, cf. Pollak, 1, 3, 164; 11, 131, 499 ff. To the list of his works given in
Thieme-Becker (XXIV, 389) should be added a lost marble relief of the dead Christ surrounded by angels in San Lorenzo in Damaso commissioned by Cardinal Francesco
Barberini (A. Schiavo, Il palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome, 1964, 99, 103) and a bust of St.
Sebastian on a gray marble base in San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, popularly attributed to
Bernini, but which is very likely identical with a sculpture by Menghini mentioned in the
1692 inventory of Cardinal Carlo Barberini: un busto di un S. Sebastiano con pieduccio di
bigio antico del Menghini (BVAB4, fol. 262). Cardinal Francesco Barberini had been
responsible for the new altar of St. Sebastian in the basilica (G. Mancini and B. Pesci, San
Sebastiano fuori le mura, Le Chiese di Roma illustrate, No. 48, Rome, n.d., 37, cf. 69,
Fig. 20).
53
BVAB4, fol. 242. The work is mentioned by the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin
the younger in the diary of his second visit to Rome (168788) as follows: . . . ein
Christkindlein mit dem dracken von einem discipel vom Cav. Bernini (Siren, 168). Tessins
references to Berninis work in the Palazzo Barberini are generally rather garbled: he lists
Mochis bronze equestrian statuette of Carlo Barberini as by Bernini (ibid., 165), Berninis
St. Sebastian (see below, p. 231 f.) as by Giorgetti (p. 167), the two putti by Gianlorenzo
from the Barberini chapel in SantAndrea della Valle (see below, pp. 232 ff.) as by Pietro
Bernini (p. 167).
54
Cf. Pastor, XXXIII, 2829, with bibliography; Bottineau, 250 ff.
217
and the ceremonies held in Naples are described in many reports and dispatches, published and unpublished. These include lists of the numerous
sumptuous gifts from the Pope and from the Cardinal legate himself, and
foremost among the latter was Berninis little putto with dragon. In
Cardinal Carlos own official report of the legation, we find Una statuetta
rapresentante un Ercholetto che sbrana il serpente in eta puerile opera del
s[igno]r Cavaliere Lorenzo Bernini.55 A member of the Kings suite says in
a published account that the Cardinal inoltre presentogli unaltra bellissima statua, che rappresenta unErcole, che spezza un serpente, scolpita in
finissimo marmo bianco similmente dun sol pezzo, per mano del
Bernini.56 I have found no subsequent trace of the sculpture until the first
decade of the present century, when it appeared in a private collection in
Paris as by an anonymous French sculptor of the eighteenth century. How
it came about that this once so prestigious work lost its identity and disappeared remains a mystery.57
Equally mysterious is the destination and meaning of the piece. It is
clearly based on the classical motif of the infant Hercules killing the snakes,
for which the dragon has been substituted (Fig. 20).58 It must surely have
had something to do with the Borghese, and we may question where a
BV, MS Barb. lat. 5638, Legatione del Card: Carlo Barberini al R di Spagna Filippo
V. LAnno 1702, fol. 174, Notta delli regali fatti da s.e. nella Cita di Napoli in ochasione
della sua Legatione al R Filippo Quinto.
56
A. Bulifon, Giornale del Viaggio dItalia dell Invittissimo e gloriosissimo Monarca Filippo
V. Re delle Spagne e di Napoli, etc., Naples, 1703, 171. Other references to the gift are found
in BV, MSS Barb. lat. 5638, fol. 288v, 289; 5041, fol. 38v; 5408, fol. 21; MS Urb. lat. 1701,
fol. 38v, 39; BVAS, MS Bolognetti 64, p. 486; F. Biandini, Descrizione della solenne legazione
del Cardinale Carlo Barberni a Filippo V . . . , Rome, 1703, ed. P. E. Visconti, Rome,
1858, 81.
57
Bottineau, 250 n. 274, connected the work given by Cardinal Carlo Barberini to
Philip V with that described in the Barberini inventory entry published by Pollak, and states
that he found no reference to it in the Spanish kings inventories.
In 1905 the sculpture was purchased from the Gallerie Semp in Nice (now defunct) by
the Baron Lazzaroni, who kept it in his house in Paris. On the Barons death in 1934 it was
brought to Rome and in 1955 it was sold to a Florentine art dealer. (Information from Sig.
Torre, administrator of the Lazzaroni properties, Palazzo Lazzaroni, Via dei Lucchesi 26,
Rome.) It was acquired by the American collector in 1966.
58
The classical theme has been treated at length by O. Brendel, Der schlangenwrgende
Herakliskos, Jdl, 47, 1932, 191 ff. On the piece in the Capitoline, of which the right arm
and snake and right foot are restorations, cf. H. Stuart Jones (ed.), A Catalogue of the Ancient
Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome. The Sculptures of the Museo
Capitolino, Oxford, 1912, 12829.
55
218
219
We have also the testimony of the official biographer of Urban VIII that
the Borghese garden was one of Maffeo Barberinis favorite haunts before he
became pope; he often foregathered there with his learned friends to discuss
art and literature.61 One can easily imagine him commissioning such a
sculpture as an allusion to the pleasures of the Borghese garden, where wild
nature had been dominated.
The sculpture belongs to the same category of genre or quasi-genre
groups inspired by Hellenistic art of which the Amalthean Goat provides an
example (Fig. 15). Works of this kind, in fact, enjoyed a veritable revival in
Rome around the turn of the seventeenth century; besides the three sleeping putti mentioned earlier (Fig. 14), we may note a pair of groups of three
wrestling putti attributed to Stefano Maderno in the Palazzo Doria in
Rome62 (Fig. 21) and two closely related groups of Bacchic putti, one of
which bears the initials of Pietro Bernini (Figs. 22, 2425; cf. also Fig. 23).63
Sculptures of this kind have a common stylistic denominator in that the
figures create complex interweaving forms that move outward in all directions. By contrast, Berninis groups seem clear and unencumbered. A single,
dominant entry into the world of the sculpture is provided by a member
that projects into the spectators space. From this point the eye is led in a
spiral movement back into the composition, where a transverse axis, in one
In quest HORTO beato,
Di Gioue lalto Augel fatto consorte
Amico arride le BORGHESIE porte.
Qui stanco dal camino,
E da tante sue nobili fatiche
Riposa Alcide, in queste piagge apriche.
61
A. Nicoletti, Della vita di Urbano Ottavo, I, BV, MS Barb. lat. 4730, 532; cf. Pastor,
XXIX, 422.
62
The attribution to Maderno is due to Riccoboni, 14243 (cf. Fig. 184 for an illustration of the group not reproduced here); the attribution is rejected by A. Donati, Stefano
Maderno scultore 15761636, Bellinzona, 1945, 5556.
63
The groups, whose present whereabouts is unknown, are mentioned by A. De
Rinaldis, LArte in Roma dal Seicento al Novecento, Bologna, 1948, 205, as having been in the
hands of the Roman dealer Sangiorgi. One (Figs. 2425), which bore the initials PBF on
the base, was published by Faldi, 1953, 144, Fig. 7. The other work (Fig. 22) came from the
Palazzo Cardelli, where it was seen by Fraschetti (431 n.), who identified it with an entry in
an inventory taken in 1706 of Berninis palace; it was reproduced in Galerie Sangiorgi.
Catalogue des objets dart ancien pour lanne 1910, 26 (where the Cardelli provenance is mentioned and the dimensions 90 x 85 cm. given). Cf. A. Santangelo, Gian Lorenzo Bernini
(attr.): Baccante, BdA, 41, 1956, 36970.
220
221
222
26. Pietro Bernini, Assumption of the Virgin (detail). Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore
(photo: Alinari).
27. Pietro Bernini, Assumption of the Virgin (detail). Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore
(photo: Alinari).
27. Pietro Bernini, Assumption of the Virgin. Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore
(photo: Alinari).
223
224
225
226
case the two figures of Jupiter and the satyr, in the other the puttos torso,
establishes a definite vertical plane facing the observer frontally. Strikingly
similar, also, is the cross-torso movement of the right arm of both the infant
Jupiter and the putto. Here, again, Bernini had some difficulty in rendering the infantile hand; the little finger of the puttos left hand is scarcely
articulated (Fig. 19), and that of the right hand seems flat and boneless.
Despite these analogies with the Amalthean Goat, it is evident that the
Boy with the Dragon is substantially later. A difference in date is suggested,
to begin with, by the analogies with the comparable works by Berninis
father. The Amalthean Goat, on the one hand, is related to Pietros signed
Bacchic group (Figs. 24, 25) in subject matter, in the conception of the figures and facial types (though Gianlorenzos are not so bulging fat), and in
aspects of technique such as the polished surfaces and the treatment of hair
and vine leaves. A relatively early date for Pietros sculpture is indicated by
its close similarity to a lost fountain group in the garden of the Palazzo
Farnese at Caprarola, where Pietro had worked at the beginning of his
career, which must have been made shortly before 1578 (Fig. 23).64 On the
other hand, the physical type of the Ercoletto, particularly the head, presupposes the angels in Pietros Assumption relief of 16071610 (Fig. 28, cf.
especially the head turned toward the left at the far left). At the same time,
the pudgy and expressively distorted forms of Pietros angels have been
greatly refined. With its impish but graceful smile and heavy overhanging
eyelids that veil the eyes, the putto displays, in even more sophisticated fashion, the kind of psychological intimacy and technical subtlety found in the
Coppola bust. (Compare, for example, the delicate striations and soft tufts
that mark the emergence of the hair from the head, Fig. 1; and the perforated locks in the back at the base of the skull, Fig. 3) Moreover, the stiffMr. Loren Partridge, who is writing a dissertation (Harvard University) on the Palazzo
Farnese at Caprarola, has brought to my attention the records of this fountain, whose theme
and composition were very similar to those of the signed Pietro Bernini group a goat
being milked by several putti (one of whom, evidently the infant Hercules, held a snake).
The fountain is recorded in a description of a papal visit to the palace in 1578 (J. A. F.
Orbaan, Documenti sul barocco in Roma, Rome, 1920, 386), in an anonymous drawing in
the Bibl. Nat., Paris, which Mr. Partridge has generously allowed me to publish (Fig. 23),
and in a painted vignette in the palace attributed to Antonio Tempesta (photo: Gab. Fot.
Naz., Rome, E. 57825). Pietro Bernini is said by Baglione, 304, to have gone to Caprarola
under Gregory XIII (157285), working there for a summer. Though Baglione mentions
only his activity as a painter, it is tempting to see in the fountain an early work by Pietro
himself (born 1562), or at least the prototype for his other groups of this kind.
64
227
ness of pose that marked both the figures in the Amalthean Goat and the
Coppola bust is here replaced by an easy, flowing movement.
A likely date for the work is suggested by a comparison of the treatment
of the boys hair with that of the figure of John the Baptist which Pietro
Bernini executed for Maffeo Barberini as part of the decorations in the family chapel in SantAndrea della Valle in Rome (Fig. 29). Fundamentally,
they are very different; the hair of the fathers work consists almost entirely
of circular curls with deep drill-holes at the center of each whorl, whereas
in the sons there are no circular curls and practically no drill-holes.
Nevertheless, the frothy effect created by fragile undercuttings and continuous, wavy grooves on the surface is similar in both, and they must be very
close in date.
Heretofore, we have had no firm date for Pietro Berninis statue of the
Baptist; but documents in the Barberini archive, which contains many
records of the decoration of the chapel, make it possible to fix the period of
execution with some accuracy. The commission for a statue of the Baptist
had originally gone to Nicol Cordier, the French sculptor working in
Rome;65 Cordier died, however, in November 1612, leaving the figure only
blocked out. Pietro Bernini probably began work in the latter part of 1613,
when he was given credit for the unfinished block which he agreed to accept in
partial payment for the new figure of the Baptist he was to execute in another
piece of marble; the sculpture was finished and set in place by May 1615.66
65
Cordiers contract, dated October 17, 1609, is preserved (BVAB5, No. 80). Cordier
received an initial down-payment of 50 scudi on the same date (BVAB6, p. 8). Another
payment of 50 scudi was made to Cordiers heirs on June 15, 1613 (BVAB7, p. XXXI).
66
Pietro Bernino deve dare Scudi Sessanta di mta che -p tanto sie Contentato di Pigliare
un Pezzo di Marmo abbozzato da Niccolo cori detto Franciosino -p fare un San Gio: Batta et
detti Scudi Sessanta di mta Sono -p a buon conto delli 300 che sie contentato della fattra di
una Statua di San Gio: Batta che far deve in un altro pezzo di Marmo. . . . (BVAB7, p. 126;
undated, but the entry is repeated on p. 31 of the same volume, immediately following the
payment of June 1613 to Cordiers heirs, cited in the preceding note.)
Pietro received final payments of 200 and 40 scudi respectively on May 25 and June 20,
1615 (BVAB9, p. 24). A workman was paid on May 5, 1615, for installing Pietros Baptist
in the chapel (BVAB 8, p. 4).
A recollection of these events occurs in Fioravante Martinellis manuscript description of
Rome (c. 1662; see Bibliography), p. 17. In a marginal addition to the text it is stated that
Pietro continued and finished the work begun by Cordier: fu principiato dal franciosino
Nicol Cordiere, ma p difetto di morte f seguitata e terminata [by Pietro Bernini]. Though
possible, it seems unlikely that Pietro failed to adhere to the original intention (see the
228
Thus, a date about 1614 seems most likely for Gianlorenzos Boy with the
Dragon.67
preceding note) of using a different piece of marble. The same thing happened a few years
later, as we shall see, when he again accepted a piece of marble in partial payment for the
four putti for the side doors of the chapel, which were carved from a different block (see
below).
67
What must have been a closely related work by Gianlorenzo is recorded in various inventories of the Ludovisi collection: Un Puttino di marmo bianco, qual piange che una vipera l
morsicato alto p.i 22 [sic] in Circa con un balaustrato di marmo bigio alto p.i 4 et un piedistallo di marmo bianco che in ogni facciata vi un quadretto di marmo mistio (BVASABL,
Prot. 611, No. 43, Con segna di massaritie, statue, e Pitture della Vigna di Porta Pinciana a
Gio. Ant.o Chiavacci Guardarobba, dated November 2, 1623, p. 45); Un puttino di marmo
piangente sedere in una mappa di fiori morzicato d una vipera, sopra una base di marmo
mischio mano del Cavalre Bernino (January 28, 1633, published by T. Schreiber, Die
antiken Bildwerke der Villa Ludovisi in Rom, Leipzig, 1880, 31); Un Putto moderno opra del
Sig.r Cavalier Bernino, siede tr lHerba morso da un serpe (BVASABL, Prot. 611, No. 56,
Inventario di tutte le Massaritie, Quadri, et altro, che sono nel Palazzo del Monte posto nella
Villa Porta Pinciana che era del Cardinal del Monte, al pnte dellEcc.mo Pnpe Don Nicol
Ludovisi, April 28, 1641, fol. 46v); n2. putti uno del Bernino, e laltro dellAlgardi long. p.mi
2,. di marmo (my transcription) (before 1644, first published by L.-G. Plissier, Un inventaire
indit des collections Ludovisi Rome [XVIIe sicle], Mmoires de la Socit nationale des antiquitaires de France, 6th ser., 3, 1893, 200; on the date cf. K. Garas, The Ludovisi Collection of
Pictures in 16331, BurIM, 109, 1967, 287 n. 3).
According to Bellori a companion piece for this sculpture, a boy riding on a tortoise and
playing a reed pipe, was one of Alessandro Algardis first works in marble; Bellori also gives
allegorical interpretations of the two works: Fecevi [i.e., Algardi, for the Villa Ludovisi] dinventione un putto sedente di marmo, appoggiato ad una testudine, e si pone li calami alla
bocca, per suonare, inteso per la sicurezza; di cui simbolo la testudine, e linnocenza del
fanciullo, che suona, e riposa sicuro. Questo gli f fatto fare dal Cardinale, per accompagnamento di un altro putto, che duolsi morsicato da un Serpente ascoso fr lherba, inteso
per la fraude, e per linsidia; e si qui descritto per essere delle prime cose, che Alessandro
lavorasse in marmo; benche fuori del leccellenza. (G. P. Bellori, Le vite de pittori, scultori et
architetti moderni, Rome, 1672, facs. ed. Rome, 1931, 389.) In fact, Algardis piece, which
is now lost, is mentioned along with Berninis in the Ludovisi inventories cited above (except
that of 1623). Algardi was paid for his sculpture on December 24, 1627: E a di 24 di
Dicembre 50 m.a pagati ad Alessandro Algardi scultore per prezzo di un Puttino di
Marmo fatto -p nro serv.o, et messo in da Vigna (BVASABL, Libro Mastro B, 162529,
p. LXI). Cf. Y. Bruand, La Restauration des sculptures antiques du Cardinal Ludovisi
(16211632), MlRome, 68, 1956, 413.
Berninis Putto morsicato has recently come to light, and was acquired by the Staatliche
Museen, BerlinDahlem; the publication by U. Schlegel (Zum Oeuvre des jungen Gian
Lorenzo Bernini, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, 9, 1967, 274 ff ) appeared after the present
article had gone to press. Though Schlegel fails to identify the sculpture with that mentioned
in the 1633 Ludovisi inventory which she quotes, she ascribes it to Gianlorenzo.
But she regards it as contemporary and forming a pair with the Boy with a
229
Two closely related works follow, the St. Lawrence on the Grill in the
Contini-Bonacorsi Collection in Florence, and the St. Sebastian in the
Thyssen collection in Lugano (Figs. 3032).68 Larger in scale than the genre
groups, yet under life-size, they form a kind of transition to the monumental series for Scipione Borghese that begins at the end of the second decade
of the century. Both show the soft, translucent treatment of the marble
found in the Coppola bust and the Boy with the Dragon, and the beards in
particular have the same emergent tufts as in the portrait. Clearly, no great
interval can separate the St. Lawrence and the St. Sebastian, though the
jagged, irregular locks of the former, which recall the treatment of the satyrs
hair in the Amalthean group, suggest that it is the earlier of the two. The St.
Lawrence belonged to Leone Strozzi, a wealthy Florentine living in Rome,
and both Baldinucci and Dominico Bernini record that Bernini made it
during his fifteenth year, that is, in 1614.69 This dating has been universally
Dragon, and she follows Nava Cellinis attribution of the latter work to Pietro Bernini, as well
as the date c. 1620. There can be little doubt that the Berlin figure, crying and defeated by
his adversary, is a kind of antitype to the smiling and victorious putto in New York; and to
my mind, the analogies in compositional system, etc., show that both works were conceived
by the same artist. However, in view of the differences in provenance, in dimensions (Boy
with Dragon: 55.7 high x 52 x 41.5 cm. [the height and width were given incorrectly by
Nava Cellini] vs. 44.8 high x 43.6 x 28.5 cm. for the Berlin piece), as well as in function (the
Berlin piece has no hole and therefore could not have been used as a fountain), it is unlikely
that they were made as a pair. Moreover, the differences in execution indicate a distinct time
lapse between the two sculptures. In particular, the treatment of the hair of the Berlin putto,
with soft, swirling locks marked by parallel striations, is extremely close to that of the
cherubs in Sant Andrea della Valle, of 1618 (see below, and Figs. 38, 39); this suggests a date
of c. 1617 for the Berlin sculpture, whereas we have seen that the Boy with a Dragon probably dates from about 1614.
68
Wittkower, 1966, 174, Nos. 3, 4, where they are dated 161617, 161718
respectively.
69
Baldinucci, 7778, D. Bernini, 15. The figure appears in a Strozzi inventory dated July
8, 1632: Un San Lorenzo sopra la graticola moderno (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Carte
Strozziane, Quinta Serie, Filza 786, Tomo XXXIV, Atti fatti per leredit del Sig. Leone
Strozzi, fol. 8v).
Baldinucci reports that the St. Lawrence was made for Leone Strozzi; according to
Domenico Bernini Gianlorenzo made it to honor the saint whose name he bore, and Strozzi
acquired the work subsequently. It may be more than coincidence that at the time Maffeo
Barberini was decorating his family chapel in SantAndrea della Valle (see below), Leone
Strozzi was preparing his family chapel across the nave in the same church, the second chapel
on the right (the bronze copies of Michelangelo sculptures that decorate the altar wall are
inscribed with the date 1616; cf. S. Ortolani, S. Andrea della Valle Le Chiese di Roma illustrate, No. 4, Rome, n.d., Fig. 20). Among the members of the Strozzi family buried in the
chapel was a well-known Cardinal Lorenzo Strozzi, named after the same saint (died 1571,
230
rejected by recent writers; but I no longer see any reason for doing so, especially since there is independent evidence to suggest that the St. Sebastian
was made in the following year. Here I take up a hypothesis offered by
Rudolf Wittkower that the St. Sebastian may have been executed in connection with the niche-like shrine commemorating that saint which adjoins
the main Barberini chapel, the first on the left in SantAndrea della Valle.70
The main chapel, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, was built over
the apse of an earlier church honoring the martyr, at the point where his
body was supposed originally to have been discovered. In the small adjoining chamber, which is recessed into the interior faade of the present
church, this fact is recorded by a painting by Domenico Passignano of the
recovery of the martyrs body and a lengthy inscription bearing the date
1616. Berninis St. Sebastian was owned by the Barberini, and was first
inventoried in 1628 along with the Boy with the Dragon.71 Although there
is no reference to the figure in the documents concerning the chapel, it is
tempting to suppose that Bernini undertook the work, perhaps on his own
initiative, having in mind the space now occupied by Passignanos
painting.72
Of particular significance is the fact that the St. Sebastian shrine was not
at the outset part of the plan for the chapel. No mention of it is made in
the original contract of 1604 with the marble workers, nor does the painting of St. Sebastian appear in Passignanos contract of the same date, which
includes only his works for the main chapel illustrating the life of the
inscription in Forcella, VIII, 261, No. 652). We shall discuss presently the possibility that
Berninis St. Sebastian was made with the Barberini chapel in mind, before the decoration
was completed, but was then kept in the Barberini private collection; something of the sort
may have happened in the case of the St. Lawrence.
70
Wittkower, 1966, 174.
71
Un San Bastiano minore del naturale legato ad un tronco posto a sedere frezzato con
suo scabellone minore dellaltri (BVAB1, fol. 28. In the case of the St. Sebastian, as in that
of the Boy with the Dragon, the attribution to Bernini first occurs in 1632 in Menghinis
inventory: E piu un San Bastiano di palmi 41/2 alto fatto dal Cavaliere Bernini (BVAB2,
fol. 7v; cf. Pollak, I, 334, No. 960).
72
St. Sebastian: 99 cm. high (Aus der Sammlung Stiftung Schloss Rohoncz, Catalogue,
CastagnolaLugano, 1949, 96, No. 418); height of Passignanos picture: c. 180 cm. Cf.
Wittkower, 1966, 174.
231
Virgin.73 On the other hand, Passignanos picture was paid for in October
1617, and it must have been in place for the inauguration of the chapel in
December 1616.74 If Bernini did conceive his figure for the same location,
1615 would thus be a very likely date. This would be the first of no less than
five works by Gianlorenzo that were intended for the chapel but were then
kept in the Barberini private collection.
A further point of interest for the date, and perhaps even for the formal
conception of the St. Sebastian, is suggested by the block of marble roughed
out by Cordier as a John the Baptist and accepted as a down-payment for his
own figure by Pietro Bernini. Judging from the payments, Cordiers figure
must have been about one-third complete.75 It is not clear from the documents exactly when the block was transferred to the Bernini studio, but it
was certainly there by June 1615.76 This corresponds to the presumed date
of execution of the St. Sebastian, and it seems possible that the block was
cut down and adapted by the younger Bernini. The St. Sebastian is unusual,
if not unique, in that the saint, instead of standing bound to a tree or column, is shown reclining upon a rocky base.77 Such a setting is appropriate
73
The Capitoli with the marble workers, dated November 29, 1604, stipulates that the
wall on the faade side, which contained a spiral staircase, be sealed: et perche da una
banda dove hora e la lumaca, la porta v murata dovria detta porta essere incrostata di
mischio . . . (BVAB5, No. 80, fol. 4).
Passignanos contract is found in BVAB5, No. 79. Cf. O. Pollak, Italienische
Knstlerbriefe aus der Barockzeit, JPKS, 34, Beiheft, 1913, 30 ff.
74
On October 27, 1617, Passignano received 100 scudi for la Tavola di San Bastiano
messo nella Cappelletta piccola di San Bastiano annessa alla Cappella grande di Santo
Andrea della Valle . . . (shortly after increased to 160 scudi; BVAB9, p. XXIII).
On the dedication, cf. Pastor, XXVIII, 32; a plenary indulgence for the chapel was
decreed on December 7, 1616 (BVAB5, No. 82).
75
We noted that Cordier and his heirs received a total of 100 scudi; the price for the
work stipulated in Cordiers contract was 300 scudi. See above, note 65.
76
One of the entries of the final payment of June 20, 1615, to Pietro (see note 66 above)
shows that Cordiers block had been delivered to him by then: . . . a m. Pietro Bernini
Scultore Scudi quarta di mta che Insieme un marmo bianco Sbozzato gia dal q. Niccolo Cori
et fattolo condurre nella sua Casa di Santa Maria Magg.re et Aprezzatolo di Sessanta di mta
Sono il re.o delli di Trecento che haver doveva . . . -p la Statua di San Gio: Batta che ha fatto
p
- la Cappella di Santo Andrea della Valle . . . (BVAB8, p. VI).
77
Painted depictions of St. Sebastian seated in isolation appear in the Caravaggio school
in the early seventeenth century: cf. a St. Sebastian in Prague by Carlo Saraceni (T.
Gottheimer, Rediscovery of Old Masters at Prague Castle, BurIM, 107, 1965, 606, Fig. 12;
A. Moir, The Italian Followers of Caravaggio, Cambridge, Mass., 1967, II, 135); the St.
Sebastian with an Executioner in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, attributed to
232
Bartolomeo Schidone, who died in December 1615 (Moir, I, 242; II, Fig. 312); and
Honthorsts St. Sebastian of c. 1623 in the National Gallery, London (J. R. Judson, Gerrit
van Honthorst, The Hague, 1959, 8889). I have found none, however, in which the saint is
shown seated on a rocky base, and which certainly precedes Berninis figure.
78
Cf. W. Mller, Johannes der Tufer in der Hofkirche zu Dresden, JPKS, 47, 1926,
112 ff. See below, note 85.
79
Mary Magdalene by Cristoforo Stati; St. Martha by Francesco Mochi; St. John the
Evangelist by Ambrogio Buonvicino; portraits in niches in the St. Sebastian shrine of the
Popes brother Carlo, attributed to Mochi (Martinelli, 1951, 231), and uncle Mons.
Francesco, by Stati.
80
As far as I can see, documented collaboration between father and son begins in the
intervening years, 161617, notably, in the pair of herms from the Borghese garden, executed AprilJuly 1616, in which Gianlorenzo is said by an early source to have carved the
baskets of fruits and flowers (V. Martinelli, Novit berniniane. Flora e Priapo, i due
Termini gi nella Villa Borghese a Roma, Commentari, 13, 1962, 267 ff. see the just comments of Wittkower, 1966, 270). To this period also belong, in my view, the splendid,
under life-size figures of the Four Seasons in the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, discovered
and soon to be published by F. Zeri; here the underlying conception of the figures appears
to be Pietros while Gianlorenzo participated in the final execution.
81
This document and Doc. 12 were found independently and are alluded to by C.
DOnofrio, Note berniniane 2. Priorit della biografia di Domenico Bernini su quella del
Baldinucci, Palatino, 10, 1966, 206 caption.
233
tial payment, he accepts a piece of white statuary marble.82 This is the first
document so far known in which Gianlorenzo is mentioned. The fact that
Pietro bound himself legally, in a written guarantee, to employ his son in
executing the final sculptures bears witness to the truly fabulous appeal of
the young prodigys work. A few months later, in a letter we shall discuss
presently, Maffeo Barberini himself speaks even more eloquently to the
same point.
Pietro promised to furnish the sculptures in eighteen months. In fact,
they were finished and mounted in place within six months, by July 1618
(Doc. 12). Subsequently, in inventories of the Barberini collections a pair of
life-size cherubs by Gianlorenzo Bernini is variously listed, starting in 1632
in the inventory by Menghini: Eppiu dui petti [putti] del Naturale a sedere
con un pannino che li cingie fatti dal Cavalier Bernini.83 The inventory of
1651, also made by Menghini, explains that these cherubs had once decorated the papal chapel: Due Putti, che erano sul frontespitio della
Cappella di Papa Urbano al naturale alti p.mi 4.84 It would seem, therefore,
that two of the cherubs were made by Gianlorenzo and were subsequently
removed from the chapel, as a souvenir of his work there. Of the cherubs
presently in the chapel the two on the left are clearly of somewhat later date
and replace those that had been removed (Fig. 34). There is good reason,
stylistic as well as documentary, to suppose that they were executed about
1629 by Francesco Mochi (cf. Fig. 35).85
82
Baldinucci, 153, says that works by Luigi Bernini, Gianlorenzos brother, were also to
be seen in SantAndrea della Valle; there is no evidence for this in the documents for the
Barberini chapel I have seen.
83
BVAB2, fol. 7v; cf. Pollak, I, 334, No. 960.
84
BVAB3, fol. 1. The figures are mentioned by Tessin, Jr., as by Pietro Bernini: Zweij
kinder von marmer von dess Cav. Bernini vatter (Siren, 168). They appear in the inventory
of 1692: Due puttini di marmo bianco a sedere con gambe in cavalcate (BVAB4, fol. 245);
and they were still in the palace in 1755: due Angeli moderni ([G. Monti] Nuova descrizione
di Roma antica e moderna, Rome, 1755, 220).
85
I reproduce for comparison one of the putti on the bases of Mochis equestrian statues
in Piacenza. According to Passeri, Pope Urban commissioned Mochi to make a St. John the
Baptist for the Barberini chapel (ultimately brought to Dresden, see above, note 78) to
replace that by Pietro Bernini; this must have been after his return from Piacenza in 1629
(cf. Passeri-Hess, 133 and n. 1). In fact, in a document dating sometime after 1628, a marble block for a St. John for the chapel in SantAndrea della Valle is recorded, which must certainly have served for Mochis figure (Pollak, I, 22, No. 86). The same document includes
another block also for the Barberini chapel, to be used for a putto.
For the preceding observations, see Martinelli, 1951, 231 and n. 1, who also attributes
these two putti to Mochi (miswriting right for left). Martinelli, following P. Rotondi,
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
On the basis of these facts, it might be assumed that the son executed
one pair and the father the other. The two cherubs on the right (Figs. 33,
36, 3839), however, are not in the style of Pietro Bernini. In designing the
models for the figures Pietro must have repeated the formula of his angel in
the Pauline chapel of the papal palace on the Quirinal hill, which he had
made a year before (Fig. 37).86 But the cherubs are composed in such a fundamentally different way that we must entertain the possibility that they,
too, were executed by Gianlorenzo. Whereas the body of Pietros angel is
twisted and extended laterally so as to conform to a flat, frontal plane, the
SantAndrea cherubs are organized in depth, and the lower legs project forward over the edge of the pediment. We have observed this method of composition in Gianlorenzos work before, and, indeed, in their poses and the
rhythmic movement of their bodies the cherubs are closely similar to the
Boy with the Dragon.
An analogous point can be made concerning the physical types of the
figures. The angels in Pietros Assumption relief (Fig. 28) have bloated bodies and faces, with strange, withdrawn glances. They contrast markedly with
the sweet, open visages much more classical in feeling of
Gianlorenzos infantile types, which we have seen developing in the
Amalthean Goat and the Boy with the Dragon. The SantAndrea cherubs
continue this development toward lither and more extroverted types. Yet,
they are subtly differentiated one from the other so as to form a counterpoint of mood and action. The right leg of the left-hand cherub is drawn
up tightly, and its diminutive, catlike features seem to be mimicked in the
crinkling drapery folds; its mischievous liveliness and intensity recall the
Boy with the Dragon. The cherub on the right has a more expansive grace of
pose and countenance, and more easily flowing drapery; its emotional
awareness has a direct descendant in the figure of Ascanius in the Flight
from Troy group in the Borghese Gallery (Figs. 4142). Gianlorenzo, we
now know, received payment for this sculpture in October 1619, little more
than a year after the SantAndrea cherubs were finished.87 The comparison
Studi intorno a Pietro Bernini, Rivista dellInstituto di archeologia e storia dellarte, 5, 1936, 361
n. 8, further rejects the attribution of the right-hand putti to Pietro Bernini (Muoz, 451).
The cherubs on the left pediment are substantially larger (left 94 cm. high, right 90 cm.)
than those on the right (left 70 cm., right 75 cm.).
86
Pietro received payments for the Quirinal angel during the second half of 1616, and
final payment in January 1617 (Muoz, 470).
87
Faldi, 1953, 141.
245
246
tion, and are now lost. The other two were left to adorn the chapel. It is significant of the value attached to them that the two allowed to remain in the
chapel were those on the right, the more advantageous position, readily visible to the visitor as he enters the church.
The father, it will be noted, continued in 1618 to receive payment,
regardless of the sons contribution. On the other hand, Gianlorenzo himself acknowledged the final quittance for his labors, in April of the following year, 1619. He was then paid fifty scudi for his bust of Maffeo
Barberinis mother (which we shall consider presently) to be placed in the
chapel, by which payment the Cardinal also discharged the remainder of his
obligation to Gianlorenzo for all the works that he may have made for me
together with his father up to the present day (Doc. 17a). The works
covered retroactively in the last phrase can only have been the cherubs. The
consideration was a token one (but the more significant therefore) since the
sum was the same as had been paid seven years before for the bust of
Antonio Coppola alone. The document is of further interest because it
marks Gianlorenzos first appearance independent of his father; it is also the
first recorded payment to him, and he is given the title of Scultore.
This last circumstance suggests what is the probable explanation for the
peculiar terms of the contract and for the retroactive recognition of
Gianlorenzos work; namely, that at the end of 1618 or early in 1619
Gianlorenzo had been admitted to the marble workers guild. Until he
became a member of the Universit dei Marmorari he was still an apprentice, not yet a maestro. There is no record of precisely when he was enrolled in the organization, to which he became much attached, and to
which he made handsome gifts later in his life.89 There are several pieces of
evidence, however, which taken together tend to confirm the date suggested
by the payments. One is a letter written from Rome to Florence in 1674,
when the question arose whether the unfinished Piet of Michelangelo now
in Florence Cathedral, which had until shortly before been in Rome, was fit
to be installed in the Medici chapel in San Lorenzo. The writer of the letter
defends the piece and in support quotes Berninis praise of it, which he
reports as follows: But that which Bernini told me, I know is most true,
and it is this: that the Christ, which is almost completely finished, is an inestimable marvel, not only in itself but because Michelangelo made it when
89
148.
Cf. A. M. Bessone Aurelj, I marmorari romani, Milan, etc., 1935, 196; Fraschetti, 102,
247
he was past seventy years old; and that he [Bernini] having come of age, and
consequently become a master, because he had become one at an early age,
had studied it continually for months and months.90
Bernini thus acknowledges his special debt to the body of Christ in
Michelangelos work, having made a careful study of it at the time he
became a maestro; this, he says, occurred when he was a giovinotto.
Normally, admission to the Roman guilds took place between the ages of
twenty and twenty-five.91 Assuming the earlier date, he would have been
admitted following his twentieth birthday in December 1618. The reason
for this passionate interest in Michelangelo is suggested by another, equally
remarkable letter, written on October 12, 1618, by Maffeo Barberini to his
brother Carlo, who was then in Florence. In a postscript Maffeo says: The
Cavaliere Passignano once told me that Michelangelo Buonarroti still
possessed here, toward the Palazzo dAlessandrino, a statue begun by
Michelangelo, and that he might be parted from it. If it can be obtained
cheaply through Passignano, I would take it because the son of Bernini,
who is having a great success, would finish it.92 The passage testifies to the
phenomenal success Gianlorenzo was then having, and in particular to the
favor he enjoyed with Maffeo Barberini. It also reveals the hitherto
unknown fact that there was in Rome, owned by Michelangelos grandnephew, an unfinished work by or at least attributed to the master which,
perhaps most astonishing of all, the young Bernini was considered capable
of completing.93 It is reasonable to associate this project for finishing one of
Michelangelos works with the study of the earlier artist Bernini said he
248
undertook at the time he became maestro. In that case, the date of Maffeo
Barberinis letter, October 1618, would coincide with the other evidence
suggesting that Bernini was admitted to the marble workers guild at the
end of that year or early in the next, whereupon he became eligible to
undertake and receive payment for work in his own name.
We have been able to define in the works discussed so far a significant
phase in Berninis development between 1612 and 1618, that is, roughly
between his thirteenth and nineteenth year. It was a period of soft, impressionistic technique and psychological subtlety that emerged from the rather
strained expressiveness of the earliest efforts, and led to the monumental
drama of the groups made in the early 1620s.
The moment of change found in the SantAndrea cherubs is represented
in portraiture by the bust of Maffeo Barberinis mother, Camilla Barbadori,
recently discovered in the Statens Museum in Copenhagen (Fig. 43).94
Bernini was paid for this work, as we have noted, in April 1619, and he was
to install it in the Barberini chapel in SantAndrea. It was followed by a
companion bust of Camillas husband, Antonio, for which Bernini received
payment, under the same terms, in February 1620 (Doc. 18). Toward the
end of the decade, probably as part of the same campaign that included the
removal of the cherubs, the busts were also transferred to the Barberini private collection. They first appear there in an inventory entry of December
much-debated Palestrina Piet, which was in fact owned by the Barberini, though
Michelangelos authorship of the work is not thereby guaranteed.
The similarity of the legs of Berninis St. Sebastian to those of Christ in the Florentine
Piet has been emphasized (Wittkower, 1966, 174), and we may note the equally marked
resemblance between the overall pose of Berninis figure and that of Christ in the Palestrina
Piet. It is tempting to imagine the St. Sebastian as a kind of prospectus that led to the
extraordinary idea of having the young Bernini complete an unfinished work by
Michelangelo.
Among the possible sources for the St. Sebastian, incidentally, should be considered the
Louvre Piet by Annibale Carracci, as suggested recently by D. Posner, Domenichino and
Lanfranco: The Early Development of Baroque Painting in Rome, in Essays in Honor of
Walter Friedlaender, Marsyas, Suppl. Vol. II, New York, 1965, 144 n. 44. We may add that
the painting, which was in San Francesco a Ripa in Rome, was engraved by P. Aquila, with
a dedication to Bernini; cf. Mostra dei Carracci, ed. G. C. Cavalli, etc., Exhib. Cat., Bologna,
1956, 256, No. 112.
94
Martinelli, Commentari, 1956, 23 ff. It was dated 162627 by Martinelli and
Wittkower (1966, 19293, No. 24c); A. Nava Cellini proposed 1622 (Una proposta ed una
rettifica per Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Paragone, 17, 1966, No. 191, 2829).
249
4, 1628, with yellow marble bases added (indicating they had originally
been placed in oval or circular niches).95 To replace the busts, oval medallions of porphyry with relief copies had been made early in 1627 (Fig. 44),
and these were installed in 1629 along with commemorative inscriptions in
the narrow passageway connecting the Barberini chapel with that adjoining
toward the east.96
In the bust of Camilla everything has become sharp and clear. The surfaces are smoothly polished; contours and incisions are rendered with a new
precision. The pose is strictly frontal, the drapery of the widows weeds falls
in nearly straight, symmetrical folds that veil the shoulders. There is a tense,
almost geometric abstraction that indicates a reaction against the earlier
softness and vagueness. A similar quality of strained rigidity combined with
smooth purity of shape and line pervades the Flight from Troy, which, as we
noted, was paid for in the fall of the same year, 1619.
The commission for the Flight from Troy may well have been the reason
for the delay in executing the bust of Antonio Barberini. This work has not
yet come to light, but to judge from Tommaso Fedelis copy on the porphyry relief medallion (Fig. 44) it provided a striking, and probably deliberate, contrast to the companion portrait of Camilla. As opposed to the
symmetrical arrangement of the earlier work, the shoulders were wrapped
in a cloak whose broken, irregular folds must have obscured the relationships between shoulders, arms, and torso.
The significance of these differences becomes evident in what seems to
have been Berninis next portrait, the bust of Giovanni Vigevano in Santa
Maria sopra Minerva (Fig. 46). A number of factors conspire to indicate a
95
BVAB1, fol. 28 (cited by Fraschetti, 140 n. 2, with a wrong date). The yellow
marble bases were paid for on March 31, 1629 (cf. Fraschetti, 140 n. 3, where the year is
omitted).
96
The porphyry reliefs of Antonio and Camilla were inventoried in the Barberini collection respectively in March and June 1627 (Fraschetti, 142 n. 1). They were paid for in
July 1627: A di 30 Lug. [1627] 75 mta in cro a Tommaso Fedeli scultore per sua mani~
fattura della testa lavorata in porfido basso rilievo ritratto della S ra Camilla madre di Sua Sta
come -p la stima fatta dal Bernino (BVAB, Arm. 86, Card. Franc., Libro Mastro A, 162329,
p. 170); Martinellis attribution of the reliefs to Tommaso Fedeli is thus confirmed
(Commentari, 1956, 25).
On July 28, 1626, Ferdinando Ruccellai, proprietor of the adjoining chapel, confirmed
the concession which he had made to Maffeo Barberini many years before of the passageway between the two chapels (BVAB5, No. 83). For the inscriptions under the medallions,
dated 1629, see Forcella, VIII, 266, Nos. 66869.
250
date of about 1620 for the Vigevano bust.97 The treatment of the mustache
and beard is extremely close to that of the head of Aeneas (Fig. 45). The
arrangement of the drapery seems to reflect that of the lost portrait of
Antonio Barbadori. As a terminus ante quem, we have the testimony of
Vigevanos will, drawn up in May 1622, in which he stipulates that he is to
be buried in his tomb newly made in the Minerva.98
Bernini here takes up again the classically inspired motif of the right
hand protruding through the enveloping drapery, which he had introduced
in the bust of Coppola. There are fundamental changes, however. The torso
is cut off at a higher level, and there is no hint of the existence of the right
arm beneath the drapery.99 The hand now grasps the drapery firmly, squeezing it into a cascade of deep, complicated folds. These folds, instead of running directly out to the edge, cartwheel fashion, seem constrained to follow
the semicircular curvature of the silhouette. The result of these devices is a
cramped effect, which makes us miss the forms that are not there. At the
same time, the vigorous gesture and slightly parted lips (compare the lips of
Ascanius and Aeneas, Figs. 42, 45) help to suggest an inner animation.
It will be seen that two complementary factors are involved at this stage
in the development of Berninis portraiture. Though the bust of Coppola
demonstrates that he was concerned virtually from the outset with the
problem posed by the truncated human body, he now seeks to make the
observer aware of the missing parts by emphasizing their absence. This negative effect, in turn, is enhanced by the now smoothly polished surfaces and
97
I return, in effect, to the date originally proposed by Reymond, 58, followed by
Wittkower, 1953, 21; Wittkower later shifted the bust to 161718 (1966, 17475, No. 5).
98
Il mio corpo voglio, che sia sepolto nella Chiesa di Sta Maria della Minerva di
Roma nella mia sepoltura fatta di novo.
Item per ragione di legato, et in altro miglior modo lascio alla Sig.a Laura Catani
mia socera la mia sepoltura Vecchia, essistente nella detta Chiesa della Minerva,
appresso alla detta Nova, dandoli faculta di posser levare la mia inscrittione che
nella lapide, et apporvi la sua nella qual sepoltura gi vi sepolto il quond Gioseffe
suo marito.
(ASR, 30 Notai Capitolini, Ufficio 28, Testamenti, Vol. 3 [Not. Vespignanus],
fol. 87)
For the inscription placed by Laura Catani on the earlier tomb slab, cf. Forcella, I, 476, No.
1848. Vigevano died in 1630; for the inscription on his tomb, ibid., 493, No. 1908.
99
The obscuring of a crucial part of the anatomy by an intricate mass of drapery became
one of Berninis most effective devices; see the St. Teresa and, in portraiture, the busts of
Francesco dEste and Louis XIV, where it serves to disguise the truncation of the body.
251
clearly defined details, which serve to intensify the physical presence of the
figure.
In the two portraits that follow, Bernini begins to exploit the positive
implications of this approach. Both works, the bust of Cardinal Giovanni
Dolfin on his tomb in San Michele allIsola in Venice and that of Cardinal
Escoubleau de Sourdis in Bordeaux (Figs. 47, 48), are parts of joint enterprises carried out by father and son. While Gianlorenzo made the patrons
portrait, Pietro executed accompanying figures: two female allegories for
the Venetian cardinals tomb, a Virgin and an angel of the Annunciation for
the French prelate.100 There is good evidence, albeit circumstantial, for dating the portraits. Giovanni Dolfin, who had lived for many years in Rome,
returned finally to Venice in May 1621, where he died the following year;101
the bust must have been made shortly before his departure, i.e., early in
1621. Cardinal de Sourdis had come to Rome early in the spring of 1621,
and he left to return to France by July 1622;102 in all likelihood the portrait
was done toward the end of his stay.
In these works Bernini developed a distinctive, bow-shaped lower edge
which became characteristic of nearly all his portraits during the first half of
Both busts are listed in Baldinuccis catalogue of. Berninis works (p. 176). Pietro
Berninis allegories of Faith and Hope on the Dolfin tomb are mentioned by Baglione, 305.
The sculptures for De Sourdis are mentioned in 1669 by Charles Perrault, who attributes
the bust as well as the Annunciation figures to Pietro; Gianlorenzos authorship of the portrait is obvious and has never been questioned since the sculptures were published by
Reymond, 45 ff. See Wittkower, 1966, 182, Nos. 14, 16.
Illustrations of Pietros figures may be found conveniently in Venturi, Vol. X, 3, 92021.
The architect of the Dolfin tomb is unknown; it is illustrated as a whole in V. Meneghin, S.
Michele in Isola di Venezia, Venice, 1962, I, Pl. 65 facing p. 353; cf. 34041.
101
See Ciaconius, IV, cols. 357-58. Dolfins departure from Rome in May 1622 is mentioned in B. G. Dolfin, I Dolfin (Delfino) patrizi veneziani nella storia di Venezia dall anno
452 al 1923, Milan, 1924, 156; cf. Martinelli, Ritratti, 2728.
A letter written by Dolfin to Pope Gregory XV from Venice on September 25, 1621,
begins: Essendo piaciuto al Sig.re Dio di farmi capitare in Venetia lunedi prossimo passato
con perfetta salute, giudico mio debito darne riverente conto alla Santita Vra . . . (BV, MS
Barb. lat. 8785, fol. 4).
102
De Sourdis was not present at the conclave that elected Gregory XV (February 8,
1621; cf. Ciaconius IV, cols. 465 ff.), but he is mentioned in a diary of the papal master of
ceremonies as participating in a ceremony on April 25, 1621 (P. Alaleone, Diarium die 30
Octobris ad diem 2 Maij 1622, BV, MS Barb. lat. 2817, fol. 427). His departure from Rome
is established by a letter written by him to the Pope from Bordeaux on July 17, 1622: Son
giunto per la gra di Dio alla mia Chiesa con salute; et nel passar da Toloso vi trovai S. M.ta
Christma. . . (BV, MS Barb. lat. 7952, fol. 96).
100
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
103
An important role in this development, which culminates in the lateral flourishes of
the busts of Francesco dEste and Louis XIV, is played by the late (probably posthumous)
portraits of Paul V and the busts of Gregory XV (162122). Wittkower, 1966, 17576, No.
6(2), 17980, No. 12; Martinelli, Ritratti, 13 ff. The increasing breadth of Berninis portraits
has been observed by Rinehart, 442.
104
Wittkower, 1966, 172, No. 6 (1).
105
Venturi, X, 3, Figs. 53839. These were commissioned by Scipione Borghese and paid
for in 1608 (see the documents published by I. Faldi, La scultura barocca in Italia, Milan,
1958, 80). Cordier, in fact, seems to have been one of the most important influences on Berninis early development (on the St. Sebastian, see p. 231 f. above; on the Cepparelli bust, see
p. 265 ff. below). The bust of Camilla Barbadori should be compared with Cordiers head
of Luisa Deti in the Aldobrandini chapel in Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Venturi, x, 3, fig.
527; cf. Martinelli, Commentari, 1956, 28), and the Flight from Troy is inconceivable without Cordiers King David in the Cappella Paolina at Santa Maria Maggiore (Venturi, X, 3,
Fig. 534). There are echoes of Cordiers St. Sebastian in the Aldobrandini chapel (ibid., Fig.
533) in Berninis David (the armor) and St. Longinus.
261
Contarini family in Santa Maria dellOrto in Venice.106 And in fact, the bust
of Gaspare Contarini, attributed to Alessandro Vittoria, has a lower silhouette of this basic type (Fig. 50).107
The Dolfin and De Sourdis portraits also show an increasing crispness
and precision in the treatment of details. Whereas Dolfins hair and beard
106
October 29, 1612: . . . se ci [i.e., death] aver in Roma voglio che il mio corpo sia
posto nella chiesa di san Marco di Roma, et poi in ogni caso voglio che si trasporti Venezia,
et si sepelischi nella chiesa di san Michel di Murano delli Monaci dellordine Camaldulense,
nella quale voglio, che linfrascritto mio herede sia tenuto, et debbia far fare quanto prima
un deposito tra le doi colonne di detta chiesa, nellistessa forma, che sono li doi depositi delli
sig.ri Contarini nella Chiesa della Madonna dellhorto in Venetia. (ASR, 30, Not. Cap. Uff.
10, Not. Franc. Micenus, fol. 281.)
Architecturally, there is a resemblance between the Dolfin tomb (cf. note 100 above) and
that of the Contarini (cf. F. Cessi, Alessandro Vittoria architetto e stuccatore [15251608],
Trento, 1961, 52, Pl. 40, with an attribution to Vittoria). The Dolfin tomb, moreover, conforms to a common Venetian type in that it frames the entrance to the church, with the sarcophagus placed high above. This may help to explain the design of the next tomb with
which the Berninis were involved, that of Cardinal Bellarmino in the Ges (see below); in
this case the architect is known Girolamo Rainaldi, who shortly afterward also seems to
have designed the Sfondrato tomb in Santa Cecilia, in which the same formula is repeated
(Bruhns, 31314, Fig. 235; for the correct date, cf. Martinelli, Contributi alla scultura del
seicento: IV. Pietro Bernini e figli, Commentari, 4, 1953, 148 n. 22).
107
Cf. Cessi, Alessandro Vittoria scultore (15251608). II Parte, Trento, 1962, 22 ff.
The significance of this fact becomes apparent when it is realized that the Dolfin bust
inaugurates a long dialogue that Bernini maintained with Venetian sculpture. The next
major advance in what I should call the positive approach to implied form took place toward
the end of the 1620s, in Berninis portraits of the Venetian cardinals Agostino and Pietro
Valier, now in the Seminary in Venice (for the date, see below at the end of this note). Here,
the busts are still broader and fuller, and the drapery is more complex and active; the result
is an uncanny illusion of hollowness, hence the imagined existence of the rest of the body.
The closest precedents for Berninis broad, voluminous torsos are in fact Venetian, and
particularly the portraits of Vittoria. More over, the fronts of Vittorias busts often have elaborate draperies arranged and cut so as to give a hollow, apronlike effect that anticipates
Bernini. Thus, an important aspect of the development of Berninis portraiture, in which he
moves away from the severe, tightly drawn silhouettes of Roman tradition, seems to reflect
Venetian influence (for a Florentine component, see below, pp. 266 f.). It can hardly be coincidental that two essential stages in this development, those represented by the Dolfin and
Valier busts, were reached in works made for Venetian patrons.
It should be emphasized that the comparisons with Vittorias portraits are never very precise; the relationship was one of spirit rather than detail. There are more specific connections
with Vittoria in Berninis works other than portraiture; compare Berninis figure of Daniel
in Santa Maria del Popolo with that by Vittoria in San Giuliano, Venice (Venturi, X, 3, Fig.
93, to which, however, should be added that in Rubenss painting now in Washington, GBA,
January 1966, Suppl., 50, Fig. 196), and Berninis St. Jerome in the Cathedral of Siena with
that by Vittoria in the Frari (Venturi, X, 3, Fig. 71).
262
have a flamelike quality reminiscent of the Vigevano bust, the hair and
beard of De Sourdis are defined by thin parallel incisions.108 What had been
abstract and generalized is now becoming minute and specific.
In the final group of works we shall discuss, one of which is the new portrait of Antonio Cepparelli in San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Bernini seems
to draw the logical conclusions from the approach he had taken two or
three years before; the group may be said to mark the climax and end of his
early development. The first in the series is the portrait that adorns the
tomb of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya, now in the Spanish seminary
in the Via Giulia, but originally in the Spanish national church of San
Giacomo degli Spagnuoli in Piazza Navona (Fig. 51). Montoya died in
1630, but it has always been recognized, for stylistic reasons, that the bust
must have been made substantially earlier.109 Documents from the archive
of the Confraternity of the Resurrection, which was the proprietor of San
Giacomo, provide evidence for a precise date.110 The minutes of the meetings of the confraternity record that in September 1622, Montoya peti-
The date of c. 1627 for the Valier busts proposed by Wittkower (1966, 194, No. 25) on
stylistic grounds can be supported by documentary evidence. The Vatican Library contains
some 32 letters written by Pietro Valier between March 1624 and February 1629 (he died
in Padua in April 1629). The letters were all written from north Italy and form a continuous series without significant interruptions, except for a period of a year between May 1626
and May 1627. Precisely during this period, on September 14, 1626, there is a letter by
Valier written from Rome. (1624:.March 13, June 1, 15, 30, August 29, October 20 [three],
November 16, December 26; 1625: March 3, August 23 [three], December 12, 20; 1626:
February 5, May 30, September 14 [from Rome]; 1627: May 29, October 15 [two]; 1628:
January 1, February 8, 15, 18, December 15, 18, 25, 31; 1629: February 1). Cf. BV, MSS
Barb. lat. 7794, 7797, 8781.
I share Wittkowers view that the two Valier busts are contemporary.
108
In this respect Bernini seems again to return to the early bust of Paul V, where the hair
and beard are also defined by fine parallel lines.
109
A terminus ante quem is provided by an anecdote recounted by Baldinucci, Domenico
Bernini, and Bernini himself (see note 114 below), according to which the bust was seen by
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini before he became Pope Urban VIII (August 3, 1623).
Cf. Wittkower, 1966, 181, No. 13, where the date 1621 is proposed.
110
A history of the confraternity and its benefactors is given by Fernndez Alonso
(279 ff.; on Montoya, cf. 31920), to whom I am indebted for facilitating my work in the
archive. The archive is housed in the library of the Instituto Espaol de Estudios Eclesiasticos, Via Giulia 151.
263
264
265
266
267
268
planes. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the sculptured bust, the
whole body is conceived as if it were in motion. The figure has something
of the romantic air of a dashing cavalier. Yet, the movement is relaxed, and
the face, with its melancholy, world-weary expression (in his will Cepparelli
speaks of an illness with which he was afflicted)127 conveys the vaguely tragic
impression of a great reservoir of human energy that is past maturity.128
The final work we shall discuss is the portrait of Cardinal Roberto
Bellarmino in the Ges, which originally formed part of a large monument
placed in the apse of the church to the left of the main altar (Fig. 60). This
is one of the instances when the portrait was made by the young Bernini,
while the two flanking allegories were carved, partly or entirely, by the
Item: voglio che il Corpo mio morendo a Roma di questo male . . . (ASGF, Busta
606, Testament of Cepparelli, April 12, 1622, Not. B. Dinius, p. 3). On May 31, 1622, the
confraternity paid 3 scudi to Madonna Lena, a Bolognese, of the Inn at the Sign of the Cat,
where Cepparelli died (see note 7 above), for her services to him during his last illness:
. . . a ma lena bolognese Camera locanda alla gatta quanto lei ha da havere -p del q. Sig.r
Antonio Cepparelli metre stato in casa sua amalato, et -p tt.o servitio che lei pretende haverli
fatto nella malattia (ASGF205, middle of volume, 130 written on back).
128
Some further points concerning the Cepparelli bust should be noted. The form of the
cartouche on the base is close to that on the busts of Cardinal Dolfin, and more particularly,
because the ends are bent around the corners, to those of Cardinal de Sourdis, Francesco Barberini, and the early bust of Urban VIII (Wittkower, 1966, Pl. 32; also the disputed bust of
Antonio Barberini the elder, ibid., Fig. 30).
The surface of the Cepparelli bust has a gentle luster (somewhat marred by the discoloration caused by the coating of whitewash) that recalls the bust of Francesco Barberini and
looks forward to that of Cardinal Bellarmino. In this respect it is paralleled by that of Carlo
Antonio dal Pozzo recently rediscovered and published by Rinehart, 437 ff., though there,
to judge from photographs, the polish is more uniform. There is also a marked resemblance
in the physiognomies of the heads (Dal Pozzo had died in 1607); in the slightly parted lips;
in the treatment of hair, beards and collars; and in the shape of the silhouette. The two works
must be virtually contemporary.
The bulging pupils, which lend a powerful climax to the forward thrust of Cepparellis
head, have no real duplicates in Berninis portraits. He used rounded, convex pupils again in
various forms, however (Wittkower, 1966, Pls. 36, 61, 83, 91, Fig. 53). Instances of unique
or individualized treatment of the pupils are not unusual in Berninis work; e.g., the eyes of
Anchises and those of Gabriele Fonseca (ibid., Pls. 15,116).
A faintly incised line may be seen running vertically along the central axis at the back of
the Cepparelli bust (Fig. 61). It seems possible, especially in the absence of any horizontal or
vertical axes in the bust itself, that the incision served as a reference line for measurements
taken in the course of execution.
127
269
father and another assistant.129 When the apse of the Ges was renovated
toward the middle of the nineteenth century, the tomb was dismantled, a
door inserted, and the portrait given an entirely new framework; the allegorical figures were lost.130
It has heretofore been possible to date the portrait only within relatively
wide limits. Bellarmino died on September 17, 1621, and we know from a
contemporary dispatch that the monument was not unveiled until August
3, 1624.131 Documents in the Jesuit archive now make the situation clear,
and show that the portrait has a most remarkable history. In his testament
Bellarmino had expressed the wish to be buried without pomp in the common grave of his Jesuit brothers. The general of the order complied with the
wish, but only for one year, at the end of which time he ordered that the
famous jurist and theologian, who was renowned for his ascetic piety and
was already being proposed for canonization, be provided with a fitting
memorial. His body was exhumed on September 14, 1622, and resealed in
a casket of lead.132 A diary of the church subsequently records that on
129
Cf. Wittkower, 1966, 182, No. 15. Baglione, 305, attributes the allegories (Religion
and Wisdom) to Pietro without distinction. Baldinucci, 76, 177, and Domenico Bernini,
16, attribute Religion to Gianlorenzo. Passeri, 247, speaks generically of Giuliano Finelli as
Pietros assistant in the work on the tomb. Fioravante Martinelli, 68, describes the work as
follows (I include the marginal corrections in parentheses): La statua della Religione, e della
Sapienza figure in piedi di marmo intorno al deposito del Card. Roberto Bellarmino (et il
suo ritratto) sono di Pietro Bernino, e del Cav.r Gio. Lorenzo (suo figlio, ma una di d.e figure fu lavorato sotto di lui da giuliano finelli Carrarino).
A seventeenth-century drawing of the tomb in its original form survives (illus. in
Fraschetti, 35; Bruhns, Fig. 237). The tomb is faintly visible in the painting by Andrea
Sacchi of the interior of the Ges, now in the Museo di Roma (1639; Pecchiai, Pl. IX opp.
p. 88).
130
On the restoration, cf. Pecchiai, 210 ff.
In the diary of the work on the apse the following references to the allegories are found,
under the date August 1621, 1841: Disfatto il Monumento del Ven: Card. Bellarmino, e
il suo Busto con le due statue laterali portate nelloratorio della Compa della B. Morte
(ARSI5, fol. 1); Furono traslocate da d.o Oratorio al Magazzino di S. Venanzio le due statue
che ornavano il Mausoleo del Ven. Card.e Bellarmino (ibid., fol. 5). The church of San
Venanzio, which stood near Piazza Santa Maria in Aracoeli, was recently demolished (M.
Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX, Rome, 1942, 1, 675 ff.); 1 have found no
trace of the warehouse mentioned.
131
Pollak, I, No. 332. G. Gigli refers to the tomb in describing, ex post facto, the death
of Bellarmino and the decorations in the Ges for the canonization of saints Ignatius of
Loyola and Francis Xavier (March 1622; Diario Romano, ed. G. Ricciotti, Rome, 1958, 54,
59).
132
The story is first told in published form by Fuligatti, 347 ff. Cf. also ARSI1, 2, 3.
270
August 3, 1623, the new sepulchre was begun;133 Berninis portrait must
therefore have been made during the twelve-month period between that
date and the unveiling in August 1624.
The sources also shed considerable light on Berninis conception of the
portrait. When the corpse was exhumed in 1622 a careful account of the
event was kept. It records that the body was found in part undecayed; the
head and torso were preserved intact, along with the arms and hands.134 This
fact is of great significance because bodily incorruption was one of the
important signs of divine grace. The body was reinterred at once, that is,
before Berninis portrait was made. The casket remained unopened thereafter until the dismantling of the tomb in the nineteenth century. Again a
record was kept, and it states that when the body was exposed it was found
in cardinals garb and in the same pose that Bernini had given the figure.135
It is clear, therefore, that the peculiar cut and pose of Berninis portrait
long to the waist and including arms and hands in an attitude of prayer
were intended as a specific reference to the grace of incorruptibility that was
accorded the future saint.136 The pious gesture and worshipful expression are
also intended to dramatize Bellarminos saintliness, in death no less than in
life. Berninis portrait was thus conceived as an instrument of propaganda
in the Jesuit orders campaign to achieve canonization for one of its most
illustrious members.
From the stylistic point of view Bellarmino seems to epitomize the development we have been tracing. The vivid precision of the Montoya is there,
but as in the Cepparelli the edges are not quite so sharp, the transitions
easier and more relaxed. It is as though in this series of portraits pent-up
tensions had been released. The Bellarmino, indeed, presents a veritable
counterpoint of movement: the hands forward, body and head to the left,
and shoulders inclined. Bernini here takes up once more the lead provided
August 3, 1623: Si comincio la sepoltura del Card.e Bellarmino (ARSI4, fol. 43v).
Il corpo era parte intiero parte corrotto. Il capo et il busto erano intieri con gran parte
delle braccia et mani. Il rimanente erano ossa con de nervi . . . La sera vestito con tonicella
pianeta stola et mani polo di taffetta pavonazzo fu collocato in una cassa di cipresso con
fodera di piombo et posato a sepellire . . . (ARSI2; cf. Fuligatti, 348).
135
. . . entro cassa di piombo non sigillata venne riconosciuto con gli abiti Cardinalizi e
nellattegiamento che presenta il Busto di marmo che soprastava nella nicchia del d.o
Monumento (ARSI5, August 1621, 1841, fol. 2v). Cf. Pecchiai, 210.
136
Bellarmino was finally canonized only in 1930; for a recent bibliography and summary of the controversies concerning his views on the temporal authority of the pope, cf.
Lexikon fr Theologie und Kirche, Freiburg, 1957 ff., II, cols. 160 ff.
133
134
271
by the bust of Cardinal Pio da Carpi in Santa Trinit dei Monti (Fig. 5);
Bellarminos head and glance are inclined toward the worshiper approaching the choir from the crossing, while the joined hands are directed toward
the office taking place at the altar. At the same time, the motif of the
deceased shown in an attitude of prayer had a long prior history in sepulchral art; an example that Bernini certainly studied was the bust of Cardinal
Albani in Santa Maria del Popolo, where the hands are frontal while the
head turns toward the altar (Fig. 62).137 But Cardinal Pio, does not actually
worship, and Cardinal Albani has no relation to the observer.
Thus, Berninis figure is not intended simply as a didactic invitation to
the visitor, on the one hand, nor as a kind of figural equivalent of an
inscribed prayer, on the other. Rather, Bellarmino is shown in a specific and
intensely personal moment of spiritual communication.138 Traditions that
had served mainly to record the aspect of what was dead are fused in order
to recreate the spirit of what was once alive.
* * *
The material assembled here coincides with a natural phase of Berninis
career, that is, from its inception until the year 1621 when Maffeo
Barberini, as Pope Urban VIII, became his chief patron. Yet, the discussion
can in no sense lay claim to being a comprehensive treatment of his development during this period, if only because a number of the most important
works have been left out of account or mentioned but incidentally. I refer
especially to the series of monumental sculptures commissioned by
Scipione Borghese at the end of the second and the beginning of the third
decade, the chronology of which has been established by Faldi, and to the
papal portraits (Paul V and Gregory XV), concerning which I have nothing
to add to the fundamental investigations of Martinelli and Wittkower.
Thus, although the works we have discussed offer a spectacle of creativity,
137
By Giovanni da Valsoldo. Albani had died in 1591; the date of the monument, situated on the north face of the easternmost pier on the south side of the nave, is unknown.
Cf. Bruhns, 290.
138
In a sense, the Bellarmino portrait is a prelude to the crossing of St. Peters (on which
Bernini began working in June 1624), where the whole space is conceived as the site of a dramatic action taking place at the altar, to which the sculptured figures respond (I. Lavin,
Bernini and the Crossing of Saint Peters, New York, 1968.
272
Appendix of Documents
(Multiple versions of the same document have been listed alphabetically under the
same number.)
Bust of Antonio Coppola
1.
2.
3.
4a.
4b.
August 10, 1612 (ASGF, Busta 369, Entrata et Uscita 1606 1624,
Part 2, p. 19):
273
Adi 10 di agosto 1612 Pagati a m. pietro bernini e per lui tiro contanti a
francescho schachi loro cassiere schudi Cinquanta -p la valuta di una testa di
marmo fatta -p la B memoria di m. antonio Coppola ______________ 50
5a.
5b.
6a.
274
6b.
7.
8b.
8c.
9a.
275
276
Sud.o m. Pietro a Conto di quattro putti di Marmo Bianco che mi deve fare
o
a
-p Serv. della Sud. Cappella _________________________________ 29
10b. February 21, 1618 (BVAB-9, p. CIII):
E addi d.o [February 21, 1618] di Ventinove m.ta che tanto si Valuta un pezzo
di Marmo bianco Statuario che si e Consegnato a Pietro Bernino Scultore et
e la meta di un pezzo di Marmo Grande di quat-tro carettate In circa che fu
compo da Gio: Bellini fattore della fabrica di San Pietro -p di 58 m.ta fino
Sotto li 11 di Ag.o 1611 ____________________________________ 29
10c. February 21, 1618 (ibid., p. 104):
E addi 21 do [February] di ventinove m.ta che tanto Si valuta un pezzo di
Marmo bianco Statuario di dua Carrettate In Circa consegnatoli
[ie. Pietro Bernini] qui In Casa che lo fece -ptare a Casa Sua _________ 29
11a. May 28, 1618 (BVAB8, P. L):
Sig.r Ruberto Primo Piaccia a V. S. pag.re a m. Pietro Bernino Scultore Scudi
Cinquanta m.ta Sono -p a buon conto delli quattro putti di Marmo bianco che
mi fa -p Serv.o della mia Cappella di Sant Andrea della Valle _________ 50
11b. May 28, 1618 (BVAB9, p. 104):
E addi 28 Magio di Cinquanta mta pag.li con Mandato diretto al s.r Ruberto
Primo _________________________________________________ 50
11c. May 28, 1618 (ibid., p. CVX):
E addi d.o [May 28] di Cinquanta m.ta pag.ti a Pietro Bernino Scultore -p a
buon conto di quattro putti di Marmo bianco che mi fa -p Serv.o della mia
Cappella di Sant' Andrea della Valle ___________________________ 50
12a. July 7, 1618 (BVAB8, p. LII):
Sig.ri Provisori del Sacro Monte di Pieta piacera alle Sig.rtie v'rePag.re a m.
Pietro Bernino Scultore Statuario Scudi Cinquanta mta Sono -p resto del pezzo
con lui Convenuto di quattro Putti di Marmo bianco che mi ha fatto et fattoli Condurre a Sue Spese conforme a che era obligato nella mia Cappella di
Sant Andrea della Valle quali Sono Stati Collocati Sopa li Fronte Spitij delle
-p te laterali della detta Cappella _______________________________ 50
277
14.
15.
278
Muratore Sono -p havre messo In opera li Sudi quattro putti di Marmo bianco
________________________________________________________ 6
16.
279
March 31, 1629: Payment for yellow marble bases; see note 95, above.
280
22b. August 7, 1622 (ASGF205, middle of volume):
Mag.eo m. Santi Vannini nr Camarlengho piacere al S.r Cav.re Gio: lorenzo
bernini scudi venticinque mta. quali sono a bon conto della testa di marmo
che deve fare del ritratto del S.r Ant.o Cepperelli che con una riceuta saranno
ben pagati Dal Nr Cong.e li 7 di Agto 1622 ____________________25mta
Hor Salco n sup.re
Fran.co Scacchi Depto
Domenico Migliari De Putato
Seb.no Guidi p.re
[verso]
Io pietro bernini scultore ricieuto li detti scudi venticinq.e contanti oggi li 13
d'agosto in fede o scritto la precedente di mano -p-p a
Io pietro bernini mano propria
22c. September 24, 1622 (ASGF430, p. CX):
E adi 24 di 7bre venticinque di mta pag.ti con mando a m. Pietro schultore
-p la testa fatta di Marmo ____________________________________ 25
23a. December 23, 1623 (ASGF651, fol. 64 right):
Al do [Sebastiano Guidi] scudi quaranta cinque fattili pagare da Ticci al Cav.re
bernini -p la statua di marmo fatta del s. Ant.o Cepparelli benefattore e messo
nello spedale sono -p resto _________________________________ 45
23b. December 23, 1623 (ASGF205, toward middle of volume):
Mag.eo Lorenzo Cavotti nr.o Cam.o piacere pagare a m Sebno Guidi nr Provre
scudi quaranta cinque tali fattli pagare da Ticci al s. Cavre Bernini -p la statua
di marmo fatta a Sr Ant. Cepparelli e posto nel nostro spedale -p memoria del
benefitio havuto da lui che con rict.o saranno ben pagati Dal Nr Cong.r li 23
di Xbre 1623
45 -p resto
Piero Landi, deput.to
no
Io Seb. Guidi ho
rito quanto sopra
Seb.no Guidi Prov.re
23c. December 23, 1623 (ASGF430, p. 118):
E adi detto [December 23, 1623] quarantacinque m.ta -p resto della statua
fatta di d.o Ceparello _______________________________________ 45
281
25.
26.
282
27.
28.
May 10, 1634 (ibid., slip numbered 1648 for year 1634):
M. Santi Vannini fornaro nro Camarl. pag.te a Alessandro Bracci
falegniame dua b 60 quali sono -p pg.to del pn'te Conto delle basse
Inpernature di ferro et altro fatte -p Mantenim.to delle due teste di Creta fatte
di Mano del Bernino, che si tengono sotto lo spedale, che con ricevuta ne
darete deb.o a spesa straord., dal d.o lugo il x Maggio 1634
283
284
Pope-Hennessy, J., Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Sculpture, London, 1963,
3 vols.
Reinhart, S., A Bernini Bust at Castle Howard, BurIM, 109, 1967, 437 ff.
Reymond, M., Les sculptures du Bernin Bordeaux, Revue de l'art ancien et moderne, 35, 1914, 45 ff.
Riccoboni, A., Roma nell'arte. La scultura nell'evo moderno dal quattrocento ad oggi,
Rome, 1942.
Rufini, E., S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini, Le Chiese di Roma illustrate, No. 39, Rome,
1957.
Siren, O., Nicodemus Tessin d.y:s Studieresor, Stockholm, 1914.
Wittkower, R., Bernini studies II: The Bust of Mr. Baker, BurIM, 95, 1953,
19 ff.
, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 2nd ed., London,
1966.
List of Abbreviations
AIEE:
ARSI:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
ASGF:
ASR:
BLF:
BV:
BVAB:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
285
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
BVAS:
BVASABL:
Biblioteca Vaticana, Archivio Segreto Archivio Boncompagni Ludovisi
GFN: Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale (Rome)
286
Addenda
Doc. 3bis
Doc. 22d.
Doc. 23d.
VI
Berninis Death
REMARKABLE picture of Berninis death emerges from the biographies by Filippo Baldinucci and the artists son, Domenico. They mention two works of art in this connection. One is Berninis Sangue di Cristo
composition engraved by Franois Spierre, which can be dated to the year
1670 (Fig. 1). The Crucified Christ is shown with the Virgin, God the
Father and a host of angels, suspended above a sea formed by the blood
pouring from His wounds. Two texts referring to the blood of Christ are
inscribed at the bottom of the print, one from Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews,
The blood of Christ, who offered himself without spot to God, will purge
our conscience, the other from St. Maria Madalena de Pazzi, I offer you,
eternal Father, the blood of the incarnate word; and if anything is wanting
in me I offer it to you, Mary, that you may present it to the eternal Trinity.
The second work is a bust of the Savior, the last sculpture by Berninis hand.
He began it in his eightieth year in 1679, and willed it to his friend and
patron, Queen Christina of Sweden (cf. Figs. 914). It was more than lifesize (103 cm. high) and represented Christ with His right hand slightly
raised, as if in the act of blessing. Bernini evidently attached particular
importance to this divine simulacrum, which he called his favorite and to
which he devoted all the forces of his Christian piety and of art itself ; in
the Savior he summed up and concentrated all his art. Although technically weak, it demonstrated for him the triumph of disegno over the physical depredations of old age. Both works were regarded by contemporaries
as extraordinary achievements, even for Bernini, and fitting capstones to the
artists extraordinary career.
288
BERNINIS DEATH
289
Filippo Baldinucci
Bernini was already in the eightieth year of his life. For sometime
past he had been turning his most intense thoughts to attaining eternal repose rather than to increasing his earthly glory. Also, deep
within his heart was the desire to offer, before closing his eyes to this
life, some sign of gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen of Sweden, his
most special patron. In order, therefore, to penetrate more deeply
into the first concept and to prepare himself better for the second, he
set to work with the greatest intensity to create in marble a halflength figure, larger than life-size of Our Savior Jesus Christ.
This is the work that he said was his favorite2 and it was the last
given the world by his hand. He meant it as a gift for the monarch,
but in this intention he was unsuccessful. The Queens opinion of,
and esteem for, the statue was so great that, not finding herself in circumstances in which it was possible to give a comparable gift in
exchange, she chose to reject it rather than fail in the slightest degree
to equal the royal magnificence of her intention. Bernini, therefore,
as we will relate in the proper place, had to leave it to her in his will.
In this divine simulacrum he put all the forces of his Christian piety
and of art itself. In it he proved the truth of his familiar axiom, that
the artist with a truly strong foundation in design need fear no
diminution of vitality and tenderness, or other good qualities in his
technique when he reaches old age; for thanks to this sureness in
design, he is able to make up fully for those defects of the spirits,
which tend to petrify under the weight of years. This, he said, he had
observed in other artists . . .
And while the city of Rome was preparing to acclaim him on the
propitious outcome of the restoration and strengthening of the
palace [the Palazzo della Cancelleria], Bernini had already begun to
lose sleep, and his strength and spirits were at such a low ebb that
within a brief time he was brought to the end of his days.
Bernino suo figliolo, e grossi legati Mons.r Bernino, et altri suoi figli e fig. le e varij Busti,
e statue sue alla M.t della Reg.a di Suetia, et al S.r Card.l Altieri oltre li Ieg.i Pij ascendenti
le sue facolt a sopra 300m scudi (Rome, Bibl. Corsini, Avvisi, vol. 1755, 38. C. 2, fol. 123r,
November 30, 1680).
2
Berninis use of the term beniamino may have been a play on the meaning of the
Hebrew name of the right hand.
290
BERNINIS DEATH
3. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
The Intercession of Christ and
the Virgin,
drawing, 229 x 205mm.
Leipzig, Museum der
bildenden Knste,
Graphische Sammlung
(from Brauer and Wittkower,
Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo
Bernini, pl. 128).
291
292
But before speaking of his last illness and death, which to our eyes
truly seemed like his life, we should here mention that, although it
may be that up until his fortieth year, the age at which he married,
Cavalier Bernini had some youthful romantic entanglements without, however, creating any impediment to his studies of the arts or
prejudicing in any way that which the world calls prudence, we may
truthfully say that his marriage not only put an end to this way of living, but that from that hour he began to behave more like a cleric
than a layman. So spiritual was his way of life that, according to what
was reported to me by those who know, he might often have been
worthy of the admiration of the most perfect monastics. He always
kept fixed in his mind an intense awareness of death. He often had
long discussions on this subject with Father Marchesi, his nephew
who was an Oratorian priest at the Chiesa Nuova, known for his
goodness and learning. So great and continual was the fervor with
which he longed for the happiness of that last step, that for the sole
intention of attaining it, he frequented for forty years continuously
the devotions conducted toward this end by the fathers of the Society
of Jesus in Rome. There, also, he partook of the Holy Eucharist twice
a week.
He increased the alms which he had been accustomed to give
from his earliest youth. He became absorbed at times in the thoughts
and in the expression of the profound reverence and understanding
that he always had of the efficacy of the Blood of Christ the
Redeemer, in which, he was wont to say, he hoped to drown his sins.
He made a drawing of this subject, which he then had engraved and
printed. It shows the image of Christ Crucified, with streams of
blood gushing from his hands and feet as if to form a sea, and the
great Queen of Heaven who offers it to God the Father. He also had
this pious concept painted on a great canvas which he wanted to have
always facing his bed in life and in death.
His time then came; I do not know whether I should say expected
because of his great loss of strength or because of his yearning for the
eternal repose that he had so long desired. He was ill of a slow fever
followed at the end by an attack of apoplexy which took his life.
Throughout it all he was very patient and resigned to the Divine
Will. Nor did he as a rule converse about anything but his trust in it.
His words were so striking that those in attendance, among whom
BERNINIS DEATH
293
294
BERNINIS DEATH
295
Domenico Bernini
But by now near death and at the decrepit age of eighty, the Cavaliere
wished to illustrate his life and bring to a close his practice of the profession he had conducted so well till then, by creating a work with
which a man would be happy to end his days. This was the image of
our Savior in half figure, but larger than life-size, with the right hand
slightly raised in the act of blessing. In it he summarized and condensed all his art; and although the weakness of his wrist did not correspond to the boldness of the idea, yet he succeeded in proving what
he used to say, that an artist excellent in design should not fear any
want of vivacity or tenderness on reaching the age of decrepitude,
because ability in design is so effective that it alone can make up for
the defect of the spirits,which languish in old age. He destined this
work for the very meritorious Queen of Sweden who, being unable
to compensate its value, chose rather to refuse it than descend from
her royal beneficence. But she was constrained to accept it two years
later, when the Cavaliere left it to her as a legacy . . .
Before beginning our narration it is well to turn back the discourse somewhat, and demonstrate how singular the goodness of life
was in the Cavaliere Bernini, and with what union of Christian maxims he rendered notable the many beautiful gifts of his soul. He was
a man of elevated spirit who always aspired to the great, not resting
even at the great if he did not reach the greatest; this same nature carried him to such a sublimity of ideas in matters of devotion that, not
content with the ordinary routes, he applied himself to those which
are, so to speak, the shortcut to reach heaven. Whence he said that
in rendering account of his operations he would have to deal with a
Lord who, infinite and superlative in his attributes, would not be
concerned with half-pennies, as they say; and he explained his
thought by adding that the goodness of God being infinite, and infinite the merit of the precious Blood of his Son, it was an offense to
these attributes to doubt Forgiveness. To this effect he had copied
for his devotion, in engraving and in paint, a marvelous design which
shows Jesus Christ on the Cross with a Sea of Blood beneath, spilling
torrents of it from his Most Holy Wounds; and here one sees the
Most Blessed Virgin in the act of offering it to the Eternal Father,
who appears above with open arms all softened by so piteous a spec-
296
tacle. And he said, in this Sea his sins are drowned, which cannot be
found by Divine justice except amongst the Blood of Jesus Christ, in
the tints of which they will either have changed color or by its merits obtained mercy. This trust was so alive in him that he called the
Most Holy Humanity of Christ Sinners Clothing, whence he was
the more confident not to be struck by divine retribution which,
having first to penetrate the garment before wounding him, would
have pardoned his sin rather than tear its innocence. He was wont for
many, many years before his death often to discourse at length with
learned and singular priests; he became so inflamed with these ideas
and the subtlety of his thought ascended so high, they were amazed
how a man who was not even a scholar could often not only penetrate the loftiest mysteries, but also propose questions and provide
answers concerning them, as if he had spent his life in the Schools.
Father Giovanni Paolo Oliva, General of the Company of Jesus, said
that discourse with the Cavaliere on spiritual matters was a professional challenge, like going to a thesis defense. Nor did he nurture
these noble thoughts in his soul without fruit, but he continually
practiced virtue with solid works. For the space of forty years he frequented every Friday the devotion of the good death in the Church
of the Ges, where he often received Holy Communion at least once
a week. For the same long space of time, each day after finishing his
labors he visited that Church, where the Holy Sacrament was
exposed, and left copious alms for the poor. Besides giving many
dowries to poor unmarried girls during the year, he always contributed one on Assumption Day, and obligated his children to six
more in his will. To gain merit by avoiding gratitude he even distributed copious alms through one of his servants, with the obligation not to reveal the benefactor. Although the practice of philanthropy was, so to speak, born and raised with him, yet in the last
years of his life he took it so much to heart that, not considering
himself sufficiently able to find the poor, he gave charge, and funds,
to many religious to pass on the aid. And because he loved secrecy in
such works, we may judge that he made many more of them than we
have notice of. From some notices he kept in a volume of household
finances we learn that, having three months before his death placed
two thousand scudi in a prayer-stool, only two hundred were later
found there; he ordered his children also to use these in a pious work,
BERNINIS DEATH
297
with clear indication that what remained was to make a similar exit.
In a letter written from Paris he orders his son, the Monsignore, to
double the amount of alms he had left instructions to give because
God is a Lord who will not be won over with courtesy. Often during the year he took his family to some hospital, where he wanted his
small children to follow his example in comforting the sick, presenting them with various confections he kept ready for the purpose. It
was an amazing thing for a man employed in so many important
occupations devoutly to hear Mass every morning, to visit the Holy
Sacrament everyday, to recite every evening on his knees the Crown
and Office of the Madonna, and the seven Penitential Psalms, a custom he constantly maintained until his death. When he then saw
himself approaching death he thought of and discussed nothing else
than this passing; not with bitterness and horror, as is usual with the
aged, but with incomparable constancy of spirit and using his memory in preparation for doing it well. To this end he had continuous
conferences with Father Francesco Marchese, priest of the Oratorio
of San Filippo Neri in the Chiesa Nuova at Rome, son of his sister
Beatrice Bernini, a person venerable for the goodness of his life and
noteworthy for his doctrine, of whom the Cavalier availed himself to
assist at his death. And he said, that step was difficult for everyone
because everyone took it for the first time; hence he often imagined
himself to die, in order by this exercise to habituate and dispose himself to the real struggle. In this state he wanted Father Marchese to
suggest to him all those acts usually proposed to the moribund, and
doing them he arrived, as if in preparation, at that great point.
Assuming also that, as is usual, words would fail him at the extremity of life, and he would suffer the anguish of one who cannot make
himself understood, they worked out a special way in which he could
be understood without speaking. With such precautions, with his
soul completely reinforced, he finally reached the proof.
We have already said how debilitated and strained he was left
from undertaking the restoration of the Palazzo della Cancelleria.
Whence he finally fell ill with a slow fever, to which was added at the
end an attack of apoplexy that took his life. Through the whole
course of the illness, which lasted fifteen days, he wanted a sort of
altar set up at the foot of his bed, on which he had displayed the picture of the Blood of Jesus Christ. What were the colloquies he held
298
now with Father Marchese, now with other religious who stood by,
concerning the efficacy of the most precious Blood and the confidence he had in it, can rather be conjectured than reported. For none
of those present could help bursting into tears on hearing with what
firmness of sentiments he then spoke, of whom neither the burden
of age and sickness, nor powerful enemies, had been able to obfuscate that clarity of intellect which always maintained itself equal and
great in him to the last breath of his life. Realizing that he could no
longer move his right arm because of the aforementioned attack of
apoplexy, he said, it is only right that even before death that arm rest
a little which worked so much in life. To Cardinal Azzolino, who
honored him with several visits in those days, he said one evening
that he should implore in his name Her Majesty the Queen to do an
act of love of God for him, because he believed that that great Lady
had a special language with God to be well understood, while God
had used with her a language which she alone was capable of understanding. The Cardinal did his bidding, and received from the
Queen the following note.
I beg you to tell the Cavaliere Bernini for me that I promise to
use all my powers to do what he desires of me, on condition that he
promises to pray God for me and for you, to concede us the grace of
His perfect love, so that one day we may all be together with the joy
of love, and enjoy God forever. And tell him that I have already
served him to the best of my ability, and that I will continue.
Meanwhile his house was a continuous flux and reflux of the
most conspicuous personages of Rome; they came or sent word, with
sentiment no less distinguished from the common convention, than
was distinct and particular in each of them his esteem and regret to
lose so great a man. Finally speech failed him, and because he felt
exceedingly pressed by the catarrh, he made a sign to the Cavaliere
Mattia de Rossi and to Giovanni Battista Contini, who, together
with Giulio Cartari and all his pupils stayed always by his bed, as if
amazed that they could not recall a method of drawing the catarrh
from his breast; and with his left hand he strained to represent to
them an instrument designed to lift exceptional weights. As he had
agreed with Father Marchese before taking ill on the method of making himself understood without speaking, it astonished everyone
how well he made himself understood with only the movement of his
BERNINIS DEATH
299
left hand and eyes a clear sign of that great vivacity of spirits,
which did not yield even though life withdrew. Two hours before
passing he gave the benediction to all his children, of whom, as has
been said, he left four boys and five girls. Finally, having received the
blessing of the Pope, who sent it through one of his chamberlains,
early on the twenty-eighth day of November of the year 1680, the
eighty-second of his life, he expired. The great man died as he had
lived leaving it doubtful whether his life was more admirable in deeds
or his death more commendable in devotion.
In his testament he left the Pope a most beautiful picture by
Giovanni Battista Gaulli representing the Savior, his last work in
marble; to the Queen, the Savior itself by his hand; to Cardinal
Altieri, the portrait of Clement X; to Cardinal Azzolino that of
Innocent X; and to Cardinal Giacomo Rospigliosi a picture also by
his hand, having nothing else at home in marble other than the
Truth, which he left in perpetuity to his descendants.
Mourning for the loss of this man was universal in the city of
Rome, which recognized its majesty greatly enhanced by his indefatigable labors; and as was his life so also was his death the subject of
many ingenious compositions at the Academies. The following day,
when the Pope sent a gift to the Queen, she asked the chamberlain,
What was being said concerning the legacy of the Cavaliere Bernini?
And having received the reply, About four hundred thousand scudi,
she added, I would be ashamed if he had served me and left so little.
His body was exposed with pomp in the Basilica of Santa Maria
Maggiore, with a funeral, distribution of wax, and charities to the
poor; attendance was so great that the burial was postponed till the
following day. He had already prepared the tomb for himself and his
family in that church, and he was placed in it in a lead box, with an
inscription giving his name and the day of his death.
* * *
Two major themes stand out in the biographers accounts, the devotions
concerned with death sponsored by the Jesuits,and the ministrations of the
artists nephew, the Oratorian priest Francesco Marchese. We shall first consider these factors in relation to Berninis death and the Sangue di Cristo
composition, and then discuss the bust of the Savior.
300
3
In general, cf. A. Tenenti, Il senso della morte e lamore della vita nel Rinascimento, Turin,
1957, 80 ff. In particular, M. C. OConnor, The Art of Dying Well, New York, 1942, with
an exhaustive list of manuscripts and editions; R. Rudolf, Ars Moriendi, Cologne, 1957. For
a recent discussion of the early illustrations, see H. Zerner, Lart au morier, Revue de lart,
XI, 1971, 730.
4
OConnor, Art of Dying Well, 157, n. 313.
5
Reproduced from Dellarte del ben morire . . . Opera . . . rivista . . . e . . . corretta . . . da
Tomaso Costo . . ., Naples, 1591; the latest illustrated Italian edition I have found is Larte del
ben morire, Rome, 1596.
BERNINIS DEATH
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Instruction to the dying man, which is that he should take Christs death
on the Cross as his model. Part 5 gives instructions to those present, such
as not to deceive moriens with false assurances of his recovery, or to give
precedence to medical over spiritual aid in their ministrations. The dying
man must also have before him holy images, especially the Crucified Christ
and the Virgin. Chapter 6 provides prayers to be said by a faithful friend.
It is evident that Berninis death was in many respects a literal enactment
of the Ars Moriendi. His prodigal charities, which displayed his ultimate disdain for the things of this world; his patient, indeed willing acceptance of
the inevitable; the very scene of the end conjured up by the biographers
accounts including the pious image by his bed and the colloquies with
Father Marchese all seem to fulfill the recommendations of the Ars
Moriendi. The imagery of the Sangue di Cristo composition, the Crucifixion
with the Virgin Mary and the angels, especially the guardian angel, recalls
that of the early illustrations. Even the use of a special sign language to communicate without speech belongs in this context, since its purpose no doubt
was to enable Bernini to respond to the crucial interrogations.6
To find an echo of the Ars Moriendi in the late seventeenth century is in
itself remarkable since the impetus of the original work in Italy was by then
long spent, although it was never forgotten. But no less significant are the
differences in Berninis death from that envisaged in the Ars Moriendi: style
in the Art of Dying Well had changed considerably. Some of these differences were personal to Bernini, while others reflect more general developments in the Ars Moriendi tradition.
Apart from editions of the Ars Moriendi itself, a number of Italian works
of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, for which it served more
or less directly as the model, give a measure of its immediate influence.7
Such, for example, are the De modo bene moriendi written about 1480 by
Pietro Barozzi, Bishop of Padua and chancellor of the university there, published in Venice in 1531, and the Dottrina del ben morire by one Pietro di
6
Also known as Anselms questions (cf. J. P. Migne, Patrologiae cursas completus, Paris,
1844 ff, Series latina, CLVIII, cols. 685 ff ), the interrogations had been a standard part of
the ritual of death until they were omitted in the official Ritual Romanum of 1614; but they
continued to be popular (e.g., V. Auruccio, Rituario per quelli, che havendo cura
danime . . ., Rome, 1615, 49 ff, reprinted 1619, 1624, 1625), and OConnor, Art of Dying
Well, 31 ff, esp. 35, records a number of instances of their use into the nineteenth century.
7
For what follows, see ibid., 172 ff, and Tenenti, Senso della morte, 112 ff, 330 ff.
302
BERNINIS DEATH
303
Bellarminos treatise is divided almost equally into two parts, of which only
the second is devoted to the preparations for death at the time it comes near.
Here he follows the Ars Moriendi tradition closely, including the temptations of the Devil (where he cites Pietro Barozzi among his sources), and the
ministrations of the faithful friend. Part I, on the other hand, deals with
remote preparations for death, which include practice of the theological and
moral virtues, and the sacraments beginning with Baptism and ending with
Extreme Unction. Bellarmino devotes most of the book to these central acts
of faith, and places particular emphasis on the Eucharist, the greatest of the
sacraments, in which is contained not only copious grace but also the very
author of grace. In contrast to Savonarolas exhortation to the constant contemplation of death, the keynote for Bellarmino is provided by his title to
the opening chapter, He who would die well, should live well.
The second major factor in the Ars Moriendi revival, a direct outgrowth
of Bellarminos concern with the subject, was the foundation of the
Confraternity of the Bona Mors at the Ges.13 The congregation differed
from earlier such organizations devoted to death in that it was not conceived primarily to carry out an act of mercy, that of burying the dead, but
to institute a program of devotions and exercise through which its members
might assure themselves the benefits of a good death. The essence of its spiritual program is evident from the organizations full name, Congregazione
del Nostro Signore Ges Cristo moribondo sopra la Croce e della
Santissima Vergine Maria sua Madre Addolorata, detta della Buona Morte.
The congregation was founded in 1648 by Vincenzo Caraffa, who was then
praepositus generalis of the Society of Jesus, of which the principal activity
was regular Friday devotions to the Crucified Christ and His wounds, to the
Sorrows of the Virgin, and to the Eucharist. A great altarpiece, now lost,
showing the Crucified Christ and the Mater Dolorosa was painted for the
congregation and unveiled before the High Altar of the church each
Friday.14 The Bona Mors was a phenomenal success, and by the end of the
century branches had been established throughout Europe.
13
A thorough history of the organization has yet to be written. Cf. A. LHoire, La congrgation de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ mourant en Croix et de la Trs Sainte Vierge, Sa Mre
participant a ses douleurs dite de la Bonne Mort, Paris, etc., 1904; G. B. Piazza, Opere pie di
Roma, Rome, 1679, 684 ff; P. Pecchiai, Il Ges di Roma, Rome, 1952, 314.
14
Piazza, Opere pie, 685 f, and Manni, Breve ragguaglia, 100 f (cited in the following
note).
304
From Bellarminos treatise and the foundation of the Bona Mors a continuous tradition was established at the Ges, in which Bernini directly participated. In 1649 the first moderator of the congregation, Giovanni
Battista Manni, published a volume describing its Friday devotions, and
subsequently brought out several illustrated works concerned with death.15
The confraternitys second moderator during Berninis lifetime was one
Giuseppe Fozi. In 1669, in connection with the canonization of Maria
Maddalena de Pazzi in that year, Fozi put into print a life of the saint that
had been left in manuscript by one of her early biographers, the Jesuit
Virgilio Cepari.16 Since Bernini, as his son reports, attended the devotions
of the Bona Mors for forty years, he must have participated from its very
inception. In the true spirit of the revived Ars Moriendi, preparation for
death became for him a life-long process. The basic imagery of his Sangue
di Cristo composition was clearly inspired by the congregations invocation
of the Crucifixion and the sorrowing Virgin, and its particular devotion to
the Eucharist. Bernini himself explained that he made the work as a personal votive offering for the benefit of the world at large;17 this may well
15
A list of moderators is in the Archive of the Ges: Catalogus Moderatorum Primariae
Congregationis sub invocatione D. N. G. C. in Cruce moribundi ac Beatissima Mariae Virginis
ejus Genetricis Dolorosae vulgo Bonae Mortis ab ejus Fundatione anno 1648 ad annum 1911.
G. B. Manni, Breve ragguaglio e pratica instruttione degli esercitii di piet cristiana che si
fanno nel Giesu di Roma ogni venerd mattina, e sera, per la divotione della Bona Morte da
ottenersi per li meriti della Passione, & agonia di Cristo in Croce: e de dolori della sua Madre
Santiss. sotto la Croce, Rome, 1649; idem, Varii, e veri ritratti della morte disegnati in immagini, ed espressi in essempij al peccatore duro di cuore, Venice, 1669; idem, La morte disarmata,
e le sue amarezze raddolcite con due pratiche, per due acti importantissime, luna del ben morire,
e laltra dajutare i moribondi, Venice, 1669.
Cf. De Backer and Sommervogel, Bibl. de la Compagnie, V, cols. 500, 502. Manni was
later closely involved in the negotiations for the decorations of the Ges (see n. 32 below);
Pecchiai, Il Ges, 113 ff.
16
Vita della Serafica Verg. S. Maria Madelena de Pazzi Fiorentina . . . Scritta dal Padre
Virgilio Cepari della Campagnia di Gies. Et hora con laggiunta cavata da Processi formati per la
sua Beatificazione e Canonizatione del Padre Giuseppe Fozi . . ., Rome, 1669. Cf. De Backer and
Sommervogel, Bibl. de la Compagnie, II, 957, III, 914. Among Fozis othcr works is one on
priestly assistance to the dying, Il sacerdote savio, e zelante assistente a moribondi, Rome, 1683.
17
1671. Il Sig. Cavalier Bernino dice che havendo in vita sua fatti tanti disegni per
Pontefici, R, Prencipi, uole sigillare con farne uno gloria dellofferta che si f al Padre
Eterno del pretiosissimo Sangue di Christo; stanto jn questo pensiro gli parso, che si possi
prgare la gloriosissima Vergine, a fare lej per noi, Padre Thologhi, et altri spirituali. Jl
pensiero gli parso bellissimo, molto utile per tutti; stante questo h fatto il presente disegnio, et in sua presnza lh fatto intagliare per poterne dare molti, mandarne per Jl
BERNINIS DEATH
305
306
which date will emerge presently), the first was a vast compilation in three
volumes of prayers to the Virgin gathered from an incredible variety of
sources and so organized as to provide devotions for every day of the year;20
the second was a book of meditations on the Stigmata, and the third a life
of the Spanish mystic, St. Pietro dAlcantara.21 They are thus eminently
practical and edifying works, and focus primarily on the mystical nature of
piety. This was characterized by Marchese not in quietistic terms of passive
contemplation, but as a process of active, passionate devotion. This gifted
nephew, at once learned and intensely concerned with the welfare of the
human spirit, must have provided an ideal counterpoint for Berninis own
reflections on death and salvation the faithful friend of the Ars
Moriendi. Although Marchese was the man of letters, their conversations
must have been truly reciprocal: witness Giovanni Paolo Olivas remark
that talking to Bernini on spiritual matters was like discoursing with a
professional.
In 1670 Father Marchese published two books which have as their central theme the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ to save the sinner who
repents before he dies. The message of one is stated in its title, Unica speranza del peccatore che consiste nel sangue del N. S. Gies Cristo. The other
book, entitled Ultimo colpo al cuore del peccatore, is conceived as the final call
to the hard of heart to accept the gift of grace offered by the Crucifixion. A
third work by Marchese, published posthumously, belongs explicitly to the
genre of the Ars Moriendi; the Preparamento a ben morire is a spiritual guide
to salvation through penitence, devotion to the Eucharist, invocation of the
Virgin, the saints and angels, and through prayer.22
Many of the most striking aspects of Berninis death are elucidated in the
writings of Father Marchese. The Unica speranza, an octavo volume of two
hundred pages, was actually written to accompany the Sangue di Cristo
print; Marchese states this in the preface, where he describes the design and
20
Diario sacro dove sinsegnano varie pratiche di divotione per honorare ogni giorno la
Beatissima Vergine raccolte dallhistorie de santi, e beati correnti in ciascun giorno dell anno e
dalle vite daltri servi di Dio . . ., 3 vols., Rome, 165558.
21
Il divoto delle sacre stimmate di S. Francesco, Rome, 1664; Vita del B. Pietro dAlcantara,
Rome, 1667.
22
Unica speranza del pecatore che consiste nel sangue del N. S. Gies Cristo spiegata con
alcune verit, con le quali sinsegna allanima un modo facile dapplicare a se il frutto del medesimo sangue . . ., Rome, 1670; Ultimo colpo al cuore del peccatore, Rome, 1670; Preparamento
a ben morire opera postuma del Vener. Servo di Dio Francesco Marchesi preposto della
Congregatione dellOratorio di Roma . . ., Rome, 1697.
BERNINIS DEATH
307
urges him who desires salvation either to fix his eye upon the image, or to
read the text.23 The print in turn served as the frontispiece to Marcheses
book.24 The Sangue di Cristo and the Unica speranza were thus conceived
together as complementary parts, text and illustration, of a modern Ars
Moriendi. It is in the light of this specifically propagatory function that the
original format of Berninis work, a drawing intended to be engraved, may
be understood.
The text of the Unica speranza helps clarify the meaning of Berninis
image, both in itself and as part of a sequence of ideas leading to salvation.
The substance of the work lies in fifteen truths formulated by Father
Marchese.25 The first three describe the unhappy condition of the sinner in
Sangue di Gies Crocefisso al Cuore di chi legge . . . Ah che lhuomo carnale non penetra le cose superne, e che da Dio prouengono: perci farle meglio capire, linfinita carit
del Signor Iddio h ora con particolar prouedimento disposto, che da mano di divoto artefice
sia delineata lImagine del Salvatore Crocefisso, grondante Sangue in tanta copia, che se ne
formi un ampio mare, e che per mani della Beatissima Vergine Maria conforme al pio sentimento di S. Maddalene de Pazzi io sia del continuo offerto alleterno Padre favore de peccatori, (per la cui esplicatione si composto il presente libro) affinche con tali mezzi agli
occhi dellhuomo carnale rappresentati, il tuo cuore sia pi facilmente disposto udire, e ad
ubidire suoi celesti ammaestramenti. Apri adunque lorecchio del cuore, mentre fissi locchio alla diuuta imagine, leggi questi fogli.
24
Copies with the engraving are in the Vatican Library and the British Museum. The
print has heretofore been known only separately (Bernini also distributed it so; cf. n. 17
above), and its connection with Marcheses book was unsuspected. The composition has
been variously related to Molinos Guia espiritual and Father Olivas sermons (W. Weibel,
Jesuitismus und Barockskulptur in Rom, Strassburg, 1909, 10 ff; Lanckoronska, Decoracja, 71,
n. 110 [cited in n. 32 below]; R. Kuhn, Gian Paulo Oliva und Gian Lorenzo Bernini,
Rmische Quartalschrift, LXIV, 1969, 229 ff ).
25
I quote here the fifteen truths, which constitute chapter headings in the book: 1. Lo
stato del Peccatore in questo secolo molto infelice, e prima per la perdita de beni naturali.
2. Lo stato del Peccature in questo mondo assai pi infelice per la perdita de beni spirituali. 3. Lo stato del Peccatore nellaltro secolo sar infelicissimo, e irreparabile. 4. LUnico
rimedio asopradetti mali il Sangue pretiosissimo di Gies Christo, il quale ne h ottenuta
la rimissione di tutte le colpe. 5. Il Salvatore ardentemente brama di farne partecipi del suo
Sangue. 6. Il frutto del Sangue du Christo con gran facilit si comunica allanime mediante
i Santissimi Sacramenti. 7. Lhuomo con grandissima facilit pu riceuer il frutto del Sangue
di Christo, e ottener il perdono delle colpe, e prima col Sacramento della Penitenza. 8. E
facilissima cosa partecipare della virt del Sgue di Gies Christo mediante il Sacramento
dell Eucharistia. 9. Il tesoro del Sangue di Christo facilmente si ottiene collacquisto
dellIndulgenze. 10. Non sono le operationi nostre buone, ne le penetze, ma il Sangue di
Gies Christo, che sodisf alle nostre colpe. 11. Il Sangue del Redentore conferisce somma
quiete allanima nelle sue imperfettioni. 12. Dalle mani della Madonna Santissima sofferisce, e si dispensa il tesuro del Sangue di Christo. 13. Chi uiue diuuto del Sangue di
23
308
the world and in the hereafter. The fourth truth is that the sole remedy for
the sinners ills is the Precious Blood of Christ, and the fifth is that the
Savior ardently desires the sinners participation in His Blood. Here a
lengthy passage is devoted to expressing the universal efficacy of the
Eucharist, through the metaphor of the Blood of Christ as an infinite sea
that covers the world. Marchese relates the concept to that of the Blood as
a fountain and as a river; he cites a variety of sources, including the prophets
Job (38:11, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?) and Micah (7:19,
and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea), St. John
Chrysostom (Hom. 41 in Ioann., This Blood, poured out in abundance,
has washed the whole world clean), and Maria Maddalena de Pazzi, who
described the era of grace, in which the Incarnate Word sent the Blood of
Christ into this small world, as the second flood, following that of Noah.26
Christo speri di far una buona morte. 14. E difficilissimo, e quasi impossibile ottener il
frutto del Sangue di Christo da chi del continuo non lapprezza. 15. Il Sangue del Redentore
infiamma il cuore del Peccatore ad abbracciare le verit conosciute.
26
I quote the entire passage: Doue sono ora quelle anime timorose, e diffidenti dottener
dal Signore il perdono delle loro colpe? Considerino, che il Sangue del Saluatore paragonato ad vn fonte, il quale non racchiuso, e occulto; ma tutti esposto; di cui ragion in
ispirito il Profeta Zaccaria. In illa die erit fons patens Domui Jacob, & habitoribus Jerusalem in
ablutionem peccatorum. [I.e., Zac. 13:1 In die illa erit fons patens domni David et habitantibus
Jerusalem in ablutionem peccatoris et menstruatae.] Il Sangue sagratissimo del Verbo Diunio
vn fonte, che si spande in abbondanza per tutta la Casa del vero Giacubbe, cio per la Santa
Chiesa: e questo principalmente serue mondar lanima dalle macchie di tutti gli errori. Anzi
che rassembra vn gran flume, che vscito del proprio letto, corre liberamente per le vie, e
giunge ad inondar le case, e da luoghi sotterranei ascende infin alle stanze, oue dimoriamo.
Tale appunto ci si rappresenta limmenso fiume del Sgue Diuinissimo del Redentore: esce
talhora da confini della sua ordinaria, e sufficiente gratia, e con modi speciali d impulsi
interni penetra l interiore del cuore, dentro al quale brama entrare per lauarlo, e purificarlo
da ogni macchia di colpa; e doue troua resistenza, colla forza possente della sua gratia, foramina parat ubi ipse vult [Gilbert of Holland, Serm. 43 in Cant.; Cf. Migne, Patr. lat.,
CLXXXIV, col. 228], si f apertura in quel cuore se chiuso; e indurato nell empiet, fine
d inondarlo cull affluenza della sua infinita misericordia.
Ma dissi poco: non solo il Sangue di Christo vn fonte perenne, vn vasto fiume; ma
forma vn mare profondissimo, e senza termine; anzi forma vn mare assai pi vasto & ampio
dell Oceano: peroche questo sono prescritti i confini dall Autore della natura. Hic confringes tumentes fluctus tuos: ma il Sangue di Gies Christo inonda, e ricopre tutta la faccia
della terra, ne ristretto da alcun lido e confine; impercioche la sua immensa misericordia,
che dispensa senza misura questo Sangue Diuino, non ha verun termine, dimensione.
Quindi , che Santa Maria Madalena de Pazzi hebbe dire, che due volte il Signor Iddio
haueua mandato al Mundo il diluuio: il primo f tempo di No nell inondatione vniuersale della terra, e l altro era stato negli anni della pienezza della gratia [Mand (sono le sue
parole) ancora in questo picciol Mondo il Verbo vmanato il diluuio; e che diluuio questo?
BERNINIS DEATH
309
The succeeding truths assert that the Blood of Christ is communicated easily through the Holy Sacraments, especially Penitence and the Eucharist.
The treasure of the Blood can also be obtained with the assistance of indulgences, but neither good works nor penances actually erase sins, only the
Blood itself. The twelfth truth is specifically related to Berninis composition, and states that the treasure of the Blood is offered and dispensed
through the hands of the Virgin; it is here that the passage from Maria
Maddalena de Pazzi, which in abbreviated form provided the subtitle to the
Sangue di Cristo engraving, is cited in full from the source, Part II, Chapter
6 of Vincenzo Puccinis life of the saint: I offer you, Eternal Father, the
Blood of the humanity of your Word; I offer it to you yourself, Divine
Word; I also offer it to you, Holy Spirit; and if anything is wanting in me,
I offer it to you, Mary, that you may present it to the Most Holy Trinity.27
Marcheses thirteenth truth establishes the relevance of the others to death,
which is that he who lives devoted to the Blood of Christ may hope to die
well.
Other aspects of Berninis death find a context in Father Marcheses
Ultimo colpo. In particular, echoes may be heard here of those aphoristic
vna soprabbondante gratia, e l infusione del Sangue] [Opere, ed. L. M. Brancaccio, Naples,
1643, 15], del quale disse parimente S Gio: Crisostomo: hic sanguis effusus uniuersum abluit
Orbem terrarum. [Hom. in Ioan. 46; Cf. Migne, Patr., Series graeca, LIX, col. 261] Adunque
neIlampio seno di questo mare, anzi di questo diluuio, che si dilata sopra tutta la terra, si
offerisce opportuna occasione qualsiuoglia peccatore di gittare l immenso peso de suoi
innumerabili errori: ne della prontissima volont del Signore in cancellarli pu punto
dubitare, hauendo egli stesso fatto scriuere al suo Profeta Michea. Deponet iniquitates nostras,
& proijciet in profundum maris omnia peccata vestra (Unica speranza, 32 ff ).
The ocean metaphor also occurs in the Ultimo colpo: . . . il Sangue, che se n formato
vn pelago, e vn Oceano immenso, che ricopre tutta la faccia della Terra. Or io con questo
gran diluuio di sangue dourei assorbire, e soffocare tutti voi altri huomini temerarij . . .
(page 26); Animo, Peccatore, alza la mente illustrata dalla fede, e contempla vnampio
mare formato dal Sangue del Redentore, che assai pi vasto, e immenso di quello, che sia
lOceano (page 29). See also in the text below.
27
Vi offerisco, Padre eterno, il Sangue dellvmanit del vostro Verbo; lofferisco voi
stesso, Diuin Verbo; lofferisco anco voi Santo Spirito: e se manca me cosa alcuna,
lofferisco voi, Maria; accioche lo presentiate alla Santissima Trinit (Unica speranza, 83).
The original text read as follows: Tofferisco adunque il sangue del tuo vmanato Verbo;
lo presento te Padre Eterno. Lofferisco te, Verbo; lo presento te Spirito Santo, e se
cosa alcuna ci manca, loffrisco te, Maria, che lo presenti alleterna Trinit, per supplimeto di tutti i difetti, che fossero nell anima mia, e ancora per soddisfazione di tutte le
colpe, che fossero nel corpo mio (V. Puccini, Vita della Madre suor Maria Maddalena de
Pazzi fiorentina, Florence, 1609, 241 ff ).
310
statements of doctrine and belief which Domenico Bernini calls his fathers
shortcut to heaven. For example, in the Ultimo colpo Marchese thus
expresses the notion that it is an insult to Gods magnanimity to doubt His
forgiveness: It would be a manifest injury to the sovereign Goodness to
doubt obtaining from it the remission of our sins, while such efficient
means of reaching it are offered to us. Marchese uses the fiscal metaphor of
God as a beneficent capitalist in His dealings with the sinner, in a long passage in the same work, which concludes, Who would not wish to deal with
such a liberal merchant, who sells his very rich goods at so low a price? The
idea of sins being drowned or tinted to another color in the sea of Blood
also occurs in the Ultimo colpo: Therefore, make therein this happy shipwreck of yourself, and of all sins, precisely in the way that a drop of water
thrown into a river is immediately absorbed by it and transmuted into it.
Do you not see that the benign aura of Divine goodness often lifts its
amorous odes toward you from the breast of this bloody sea, to drown you
in itself, and then, having become all white, to raise you up as high as the
Throne of God, where it illuminates you ?28
Above all, the extraordinary thought of preparing for death by practicing dying must have been a matter of special study by Bernini and his
nephew. In the Preparamento a ben morire Father Marchese devotes no less
than four chapters to exercises of this kind.29 For one of the most important
of them he follows the ancient Ars Moriendi tradition which recommended
contemplation of the Crucifixion and the Virgin at the time of death.
Marchese urges the reader, turned in his heart and with his eyes toward a
Crucifix, to take great confidence in the immense value of the Blood of the
Savior shed for his love, and to offer it by the hands of the Blessed Virgin
28
Si farebbe adunque manifesta ingiuria alla sourana Bont, diffidare dottenere da essa
la rimissione delle nostre colpe, mentre ci si offeriscono mezzi tanto efficaci conseguirla.
Chi non volesse negotiare con si liberal mercante, che si basso prezzo vende le sue ricchissime merci?; Adunque f iui questo felice naufragio di te stessa e di tutte le colpe, in
quella guisa appunto che vna goccia dacqua gettata in vn fiume, resta da esso incontante
assorbita, e in quello trasmutata. Non vedi, che laura benigna della Diuina carit solleua
bene spesso verso di te dal seno di questo sanguinoso mare lde sue amorose, per annegarti
in se, e poi diuenuta tutta candida innalzarti tanto in alto, quto e alto il Trono di Dio, oue
ti sublima? (Cf. Ultimo colpo, 33, 32, 29 f ).
29
Chapters 1114, titled: Assuefarsi morir prima del passaggio dell anima da questo
allaltro Mondo. Farsi ora presente quello, che futuro; e si stima lontano. Figurarsi alle
volte di morire. Ponderar bene lo stato dellAnima nellaltro Mondo (Preparamento a ben
morire, 99137).
BERNINIS DEATH
311
Mary, our most clement advocate, to the Divine Trinity as was often
done by Santa Maria Maddalena de Pazzi in satisfaction of the grave debt
contracted by her with eternal justice.30 It is here, one may suppose, that
the Sangue di Cristo was to serve its primary purpose, as it did for Bernini
himself when he subsequently had the composition painted and placed
before his own deathbed.
The Genesis of the Sangue di Cristo Composition
The essential point of the Sangue di Cristo is that Salvation is achieved
through the sacrifice of Christ, which His mother offers to the Father.31 The
genesis of this deceptively simple concept may best be approached through
a drawing in Leipzig which perhaps represents a prior stage in Berninis
thinking, and which in any case follows a closely related tradition (Fig. 3).32
Rivolto nel cuore, e con gli occhi ad un Crocefisso prenda confidenza grande nel valore immenso del Sangue del Salvatore per suo amore sparso, e per le mani della Beatissima
Vergine MARIA nostra clementissima Auvocata lofferisca alla Divinissima Trinit; sicome
spesso soleva fare Santa Maria Madalena de Pazzis, in sodisfattione del gravissimo debito da
lei contratto con leterna giustitia (ibid., 121).
31
A drawing of the composition in the Tylers Stitchting, Haarlem, bears an old adscription to Bernini, and the license of the papal censor. It is probably by Baciccio according to
H. Brauer and R. Wittkower, (Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin, 1931, 155,
n. 4); J. van Regteren Altena supported the attribution to Bernini (Cristina Queen of Sweden,
exh. cat., Stockholm, 1966, 464, No. 1146; cf. Le dessin italien dans les collections hollandais,
exh. cat., ParisRotterdamHaarlem, 1962, 201 f, No. 166); B. Canestro Chiovenda reaffirms Baciccios authorship Ancora del Bernini, del Gaulli e della regina Cristina,
Commentari, XX, 1969, 223 ff ).
On the various painted versions of the composition, see L. Grassi, Bernini pittore, Rome,
1945, 49 f, Figs. 8182; V. Martinelli, Le pitture del Bernini, Commentari, I, 1950, 103;
Canestro Chiovenda, Ancora del Bernini.
32
Brauer and Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 166 f, Pl. 128, regarded the Leipzig sketch as a
study for the Sangue di Cristo (cf. R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Sculptor of the
Roman Baroque, 2nd ed., London, 1966, 257). The precedence of the Leipzig drawing is
doubtful, however, and it may have been made for another purpose: it was evidently the
point of departure for the dome fresco of the Ges, executed 167275 by Baciccio with
advice from Bernini (cf. K. Lanckoronska, Decoracja ko cioa Il Ges na tle rozwoju baroku
w rzymie, Lww, 1936, 19 ff, 51 f; F. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, New York, 1963, 82; R.
Enggass, The Painting of Baciccio, University Park, Pa., 1964, 32 ff, 135 f ).
Presuming a direct connection between the Leipzig sketch and the Sangue di Cristo,
Lanckoronska was led to the conclusion that certain Baciccio drawings related to the latter,
in Dsseldorf and Berlin, were studies for an alternate version of the Ges dome. B.
Canestro Chiovenda suggested, instead, that the Baciccio drawings were preparatory for the
30
312
Christ is shown seated with His back to the spectator on a bank of clouds,
arms extended around a cross; the hands are opened, palms up, in a gesture
of offering to the Father, who appears above with arms outstretched. The
Virgin kneels facing Christ at the right, head inclined, her hands pressing
her breast. Panofsky, who first published the drawing, showed that the composition refers to a late medieval devotional formula, derived from the
Speculum humanae salvationis (Fig. 4).33 This illustrates the intercessional
roles in the process of salvation of Christ, who offers His sacrifice to the
judging Father, and of the Virgin, who offers her motherhood.
What requires emphasis, here is the fact that this theme was central to
the ideology of death in general, and to the Ars Moriendi in particular. It
appears, notably, in the interrogations, where moriens is advised, should
God wish to judge him, to reply thus: Lord, I will place the death of your
son and our Lord Jesus Christ between me and your damnation to the torments; I have no wish to contend with you. And if He should say that you
deserve eternal death, say thus, I place the death of the same Jesus Christ
between you and my demerits, and I offer the merit of His most worthy
passion for the merit I should have and, woe is me, do not yet have. And
add, I also put the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ between me and your
wrath 34 The thought and phraseology of these passages seem to reverberate in that from Maria Maddalena de Pazzi cited on the engraving, and in
mosaic in the dome of the vestibule of the Baptismal Chapel in Saint Peters, a commission
Baciccio received and began but never completed (Cristina di Svezia, il Gaulli e il libro di
appunti di Nicodemo Tessin d. y. [16871688], Commentari, XVII, 1966, 177); it appears
that this hypothesis is substantially correct, since the composition envisaged in the drawings
is reflected in the mosaic subsequently executed by Francesco Trevisani (cf. F. R. DiFederico,
Documentation for Francesco Trevisanis Decoration for the Vestibule of the Baptismal
Chapel in Saint Peters, Storia dell Arte, VI, 1970, 155 ff ).
33
Imago Pietatis, in Festschrift fr Max J. Friedlnder zum 60 Geburtstage, Leipzig,
1927, 294. Cf. J. Lutz and P. Perdrizet, Speculum humanae salvationis, Mulhouse, 190709,
293 ff, Pls. 137 f; D. Koepplin, s. v. Interzession, in Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie,
Rome, etc., 1963ff, II, cols. 346 ff. A further example is a panel ascribed to Bartolomeo di
Giovanni in the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (A. Neumeyer, Der Blick aus dem Bilde,
Berlin, 1964, Fig. 16).
34
Se Iddio ti volesse giudicare, di cosi, Signore, io metter la morte del tuo figluolo, e
Signor nostro Giesu Cristo fra me, e il giudizio tuo ai tormenti: con teco non voglio contendere. E se egli dicesse, che tu hai meritato la morte eterna; dirai cos; Io metto la morte
dello stesso Giesu Cristo infra te, e i miel demeriti; & il merito della sua dignissima passione
offerisco per lo merito, che io douerei hauere, e, misero me, non ho ancora. E soggiunga,
Io pongo medesimamente la morte del nostro Signor Giesu Cristo fra me, e lira tua
(Dellarte del ben morire, Naples, 1591, 28).
BERNINIS DEATH
313
Berninis idea, recorded by his son, of the humanity of Christ as the protective Veste de Peccatori.
In the Ars Moriendi itself the invocation had been illustrated paratactically, as it were, by the presence of the Crucifixion with the grieving Virgin
at the deathbed (cf. Fig. 2); the full dedication of the Bona Mors confraternity also juxtaposed the Crucifixion and the Mater Dolorosa with death.
The Speculum humanae salvationis and the Ars Moriendi thus represent two
complementary but distinct conceptions; the one focuses upon the process
of intercession through which salvation is attained, the other upon the sacrificial act which the dying man invokes.
In the Sangue di Cristo engraving these ideas are merged. Bernini was not
the first to combine them. Indeed, striking evidence that he intended the
merger is provided by the fact that a similar line of thought produced what
is in some respects the nearest antecedent for his design. This occurs in a
stained-glass votive window in the cloister of the Cistercian monastery at
Wettingen, Switzerland, dated 1590 (Fig. 5).35 Moriens is shown below giving up the ghost, while the interceding Virgin, Christ Crucified, God the
Father and the Dove are represented above as a cloud-borne apparition. The
chief difference between this and ordinary intercessional scenes is that, as in
the Ars Moriendi, Christ is shown on the Cross; as in the Speculum tradition, however, He points with one hand to the chest wound. The key to
such a depiction evidently lies in the donor: since the historical Crucifixion
is invoked by him, he is the subject of the scene; and since the symbolic
intercession is enacted for him, he is also the object.
This is the context to which the Sangue di Cristo belongs,and its fundamental innovation was the superimposition of the Eucharist as the dominant
theme. Though always present in the ritual of death in the form of the
viaticum, we have seen that the Eucharist had been given new emphasis in
Bellarminos De arte bene moriendi; special devotions to and exposition of the
Sacrament had followed upon prayers to the Crucified Christ and the Mater
Dolorosa in the Friday services of the Bona Mors congregation; for Father
Marchese the Eucharist was the sine qua non of the dying mans aspiration.
In the Sangue di Cristo it is, literally and figuratively, the solution in which
the act of sacrifice and the process of intercession are fused. The result was,
in effect, a new, synoptic presentation of the scheme of salvation, and it
entailed a variety of changes in the old formulations. One important inven35
314
tion concerned the Virgin. Kneeling beneath the Crucifixion, she no longer
presses her breast, but extends her hands to receive and offer the Blood to
God the Father. Shown thus, the figure is a conflation of the interceding
Virgin with the personification of Ecclesia, often represented standing
beneath the Crucifixion holding a chalice to collect the Blood, in allusion to
the sacrificial liturgy of the Mass. From a theological point of view the conflation was wholly justifiable, since Mary intercedes as Mater Domini while
as Mater Ecclesia she expresses the intermediary role of the Church. By having her kneel, and giving her a gesture of offering as well as receiving the
Blood, Bernini was able to make the Virgin intercede through the Eucharist
in conformity with the pious sentiment of Maria Maddalena de Pazzi, as
Father Marchese says in the preface to Unica speranza.36
The most dramatic new feature of the design, however, was the introduction of the Sea of Blood metaphor to portray the universality of redemption. The metaphor had ancient roots: witness Father Marcheses own citations and that from Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews which provided the main
caption for the engraving. The liquidity and universality of the Eucharist
had often been linked, as through the imagery of the Fountain of Life and
the river of blood, to which Marchese refers.37 An example of the latter
On Ecclesia with the chalice, cf. C. Schiller, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst, 2 vols.,
Gtersloh, 196668, II, 117 ff. As a floating figure the Virgin also recalls the flying angels
that often receive the Blood in chalices in Crucifixion scenes. The Virgin and angels occasionally have upturned hands, but as a gesture of dismay, not in connection with the Blood.
The notion of the Virgin offering the sacrifice is related to that of her priesthood; in a
Flemish engraving of the early seventeenth century she is shown kneeling, cloud-borne,
before an altar, and offering the chalice to God the Father and the Holy Spirit above (G.
Missaglia, et al., La madonna e leucaristia, Rome, 1954, Fig. 102).
The emphasis placed in the Sangue di Cristo and by Father Marchese on the transmission of the offering through the Virgins hands, is based on St. Bernard: Sentimento assai
comune de Santi Padri, e singolarmente di S. Bernardo non dispensarsi a fedeli alcuna gratia dal Signor Iddio, che non passi per le mani della Beatissima Vergine nostra signora
(Unica speranza, 82); compare St. Bernards . . . si quid spei in nobis est, si quid gratiae, si
quid salutis, ab ea noverimus redundare, quae ascendit deliciis affluens, and Forte enim
manus tuae, aut sanguine plenae, aut infectae muneribus, quod non eas ab omni munere
excussisti. Ideoque modicum istud quod offerre desideras, gratissimis illis et omni acceptione
dignissimis Mariae manibus offerendum tradere cura, si non vis sustinere repulsam (De
aquaeductu, Migne, Patr. lat., CLXXXIII, cols. 441, 448).
37
Panofsky also saw the relationship of the Sangue di Cristo composition to the Fons
Vitae and the Christ in the Wine Press (see below); Imago Pietatis, 284. For the relation to
the Fons Vitae, see recently M. Wadell, Fons Pietatis. Eine ikonographische Studie, Gteborg,
1969, 84 f.
36
BERNINIS DEATH
315
316
BERNINIS DEATH
317
318
7. Cherubino Alberti,
Triumph of the Cross.
Rome, Santa Maria sopra
Minerva (photo: GFN).
BERNINIS DEATH
319
320
321
BERNINIS DEATH
322
BERNINIS DEATH
15. Reconstruction of
Berninis Bust of the Savior
(drawing by Paul Suttman).
323
324
BERNINIS DEATH
325
326
BERNINIS DEATH
327
328
42
For this fresco, datable 160911, see L. Venturi, Storia dellarte italiana, 11 vols.,
Milan, 190107, IX, pt. 5, Fig. 539; F. Wrtenberger, Die manieristische Deckenmalerei in
Mittelitalien, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr Kunstgeschichte, IV, 1940, 112 ff. See also the examples
by Pietro da Cortona in the sacristy of the Chiesa Nuova, and by Lanfranco in the Cappella
della Piet in Saint Peters (G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona, Florence, 1962, 205, No. 50).
43
The striking parallel illustrated in Fig. 8 is from David de la Vigne, Spiegel van een
salighe Doodt, with engravings by R. de Hooghe, probably published at Antwerp in 1673 (cf.
J. Landwehr, Romeyn de Hooghe as Book Illustrator, Amsterdam, 1970, 79). De Hooghes
imagery is also closely analogous to that of the chapel of St. Anne and the Beata Ludovica
Albertoni in San Francesco a Ripa, which Bernini designed at this same period; there the
altar painting appears as a devotional picture beside Ludovicas deathbed.
Other scenes of visions of the Crucifixion should be compared as well; e.g., Pietro Liberi,
Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, before 1660 (F. Zava Boccazzi, La basilica dei Santi Giovanni
e Paolo in Venezia, Padua, 1965, Fig. 113), Luca Giordano, Santa Maria del Pianto, Naples,
166061 (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, Naples, 1966, Fig. 94).
44
What is known of its history will be found in Wittkower, Bernini, 265, and B.
Canestro Chiovenda, Cristina di Svezia (cited in n. 32 above), 172 ff.
BERNINIS DEATH
329
The descriptions in Tessin and the 1713 inventory are as follows: Im zimber inwendig
vor der andern Antechambre, stehet dass halbe grosse Christbildt von Marmer, welches Cav.
Bernini im Testament Ihr Maijesteten verlassen hat; unter ist die plinthe darvon von zweijen grossen knienden vergulten Engel artig sousteniret, die eine grosse plinthe unter sich
wieder haben (O. Sirn, Nicodemus Tessin d.y:s Studieresor, Stockholm, 1914, 184).
Un busto di Marmo, che rappresenta il Salvatore con una mano, e panneggiamento
scolpito dal Bernini; alto palmi di passetto 4 e due terzi, il suo piedistallo di diaspro di
Sicilia, alto palmo uno et un quarto, largo di sotto due palmi et un quarto, qual busto vien
sostenuto con ambi le mani da due angioli, che sono in ginocchio sopra un gran piede il
tutto di legno dorato, quali assieme col zoccolo son alti palmi nove di passetto (Brauer and
Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 179, n. 1).
Cf. also an Avviso of April 23, 1689, in which the base is said to be of porphyry (E. Rossi,
Roma ignorata Roma, XX, 1942, 215).
46
On the Odescalchi collections, see H. H. Brummer, Two works by Giulio Cartari,
Konsthistorisk Tidskrift, XXXVI, 1967, 106 f.
Wittkower suggested (Bernini, 265) that the Savior may have been taken to Spain in
1724, when a large number of Odescalchi sculptures was bought by Philip V. But it does not
appear in the list of works, ancient and modern, included in the sale (Rome, Archivio
Odescalchi, V.B.1, fasc. 20; cf. Brummer, Two works, 123, n. 12); in fact, it was among the
objects entailed in a fidecommisso by Livio Odescalchi (died 1713), none of which was sold
(Arch. Odescalchi, XI.B.F.4, fasc. 139, Mobili sottoposti dal Test.re D. Livio primo
Odescalcho alle leggi di Maggiorasco . . ., fol. 15r).
47
II na rien fait dpuis quun Ouvrage de devotion dont on verra bien-tost une belle
Copie saint Barthelemy. Cest un Buste dun Christ my-corps avec deux mains [italics
mine] donnant la benediction, par o il a fini sa vie. Il la laiss la Reine Christine de Suede,
qui dit fort obligeamment sa Famille, quand on le luy presenta, que le Cavalier le luy avoit
offert plusieurs foix de son vivant, mais quelle lavoit tojours refus, parce quelle navoit
pas dix-mille escus pour len rcompenser (loge de M. la Cavalier Bernin par M. lAbb
de la Chambre de lAcademie Franoise, Journal des Savans, February 24, 1681, 61).
48
The copy was in Saint-Barthlemy in 1686, but is not mentioned in later descriptions
of the church, which was pulled down in 1792 (Canestro Chiovenda, Cristina di Svezia,
172).
45
330
body, rendering the torso indistinguishable; the head and raised arm move
in opposite directions.49
In the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Virginia, is a marble bust of Christ
which corresponds so closely to the descriptions in the sources and the
Corsini drawing that it must be either Cureaus copy or the original (Figs.
1014) .50 In the course of studying the piece my own opinion has shifted
from the former to the latter attribution. Initially the work seems perverse,
not to say repellent. The proportions are curiously awkward; the massive
body, long neck and tapered head lack the classical balance and harmony
with which Bernini usually conceived the human body. The strained and
rather withdrawn pose is a reversal of Berninis predilection for open and
fluid movement. The surfaces of the face and drapery are generalized and
abstract, compared with the tremulous warmth and intimacy and fine differentiation of textures that ordinarily distinguish his autograph works. The
handling of the back, rough-hewn in the body, left unfinished at the head,
shows a degree of neglect almost unprecedented in his busts hardly evidence of the particular care he is reported to have lavished on the Savior.
These seemingly negative factors may actually speak in favor of the
Norfolk sculpture, given the subject and the special circumstances under
which the Savior was created. According to Baldinucci, Bernini himself
described the work as wanting in vivacity and tenderness and other good
I am not convinced (see Brauer and Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 179) that the head at the
right in this drawing is by a later hand; certainly it is not copied after the final work, as is
shown by the differences from the Norfolk marble. An anonymous drawing at Chatsworth
(Wittkower, Bernini, 265) seems unrelated to Berninis Savior.
50
Unpublished. I am indebted to Robert Wallace, author of The World of Bernini,
15981680 (Time-Life Library of Art), New York, 1970, for bringing this work to my attention. Height 93 cm.; width 92 cm. The three last fingers of the right hand have been broken and reattached; otherwise the condition is excellent.
Mr. Chrysler has given me, in litteris, the following account of its provenance. Purchased
in Paris in 1952 from the Vicomte Jacques de Canson (died 1958). De Canson, who knew
of Berninis gift to Queen Christina, reported that the sculpture had never left Italy before
entering his possession; he had received it from a pope (unnamed), to whom it had been
given before his election by Baron Giorgio Franchetti (died 1922), founder of the Galleria
Franchetti at the Ca dOro in Venice. My efforts to verify this account have been almost
fruitless. De Cansons daughter, Mme Jean Deschamps of Evry, remembers the piece vaguely,
and confirms that her father was received in private audiences by Puis XI and XII. Giorgio
Franchettis son, Baron Luigi Franchetti of Rome, has no knowledge of the sculpture but
recalls that his uncle Edoardo Franchetti had contacts with De Canson concerning works of
art. The Vatican secretariat of state was unable to help without more precise information.
49
BERNINIS DEATH
331
qualities of technique, owing to his advanced age. It was, in fact, his right,
working arm that ultimately gave way. One can readily imagine that Bernini
determined to husband his remaining energies, and concentrate on finishing the front. A no less important consideration than the artists physical
state is the ambiguous character of the image itself. A degree of austerity and
abstraction was inherent in the Salvator Mundi theme. We shall see that
Bernini deliberately referred to this traditional iconic type, in order to reinterpret it and achieve a new fusion of Christs heroic and human qualities.
Strongly affirmative, in my estimation, are passages like the subtly modelled
hands and arm and the loosely curling locks of hair, laced with running drill
holes, which are wholly in keeping with Berninis late style and match his
most brilliant technical effects. The very unevenness of quality is more readily understood as the work of a decrepit genius rather than a copyist, especially an able one, who would tend to transform the model uniformly
according to his lights.
Original or copy, the Norfolk sculpture serves to clarify and in some
respects correct the impression of the Savior given by the Corsini drawing,
the differences being due either to the angle of vision in the latter or, more
likely, I suspect, to a development in Berninis ideas between the drawing
and the final execution. The head is not only turned sideways, but upward
as well. The right arm is not extended forward, but held close to the torso;
nor is the gesture a conventional one of blessing, but the hand is raised vertically and the palm is turned slightly outward. Thus, the qualification
implicit in Domenico Berninis description of the gesture, alquanto sollevata, come in atto di benedire, becomes significant. Finally, the marble
makes quite plain what is barely discernible in the drawing and was
observed only by the Abb de la Chambre, namely, that Bernini in fact
included both hands; the wrist and upper part of the left hand are visible
under the right arm, lying against the breast.
The bust was completed by a monumental pedestal,which is described
by Tessin and in the 1713 inventory (cf. Fig. 15) . Under the bust was a base
of Sicilian jasper 28 cm. high and 50 cm. wide at the bottom. This was in
turn held in both hands by two angels who knelt on a large socle; angels and
socle together, which were of gilded wood, measured 198 cm. high. Overall
the work stood about 300 cm., or ten feet high. There is no proof that the
pedestal was made during Berninis lifetime, but there can be no doubt that
it was his invention. The general effect must have been similar to that seen
in a late drawing by Bernini for a sacrament altar, in which angels kneel on
332
the mensa and hold aloft by the base a monstrance containing the Eucharist
(Fig. 16).51
The bust of the Savior belongs typologically to the tradition of independent, bust-length sculptured portraits and images of holy personnages
that emerged in Italy around the middle of the fifteenth century.52 Within
this context the Savior is related to a class of busts in which both arms are
included; the bust appears complete and has a specific histrionic content.
Though common for reliefs and sculptures in niches or attached to architecture, the type is rather rare among independent busts. A few antique
examples are known;53 it was used from the Middle Ages on for reliquaries,
and was revived for ordinary busts by Verrocchio in the quattrocento.54
Characteristically such independent busts in the Early Renaissance were cut
through horizontally at the waist or above, worked fully in the round, and
displayed without a base, or on a low plinth. When in the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries the imperial Roman bust form was revived
51
Brauer and Wittkower, Zeichnungen, 172, Pl. 131 a. Needless to say, the weight of the
bust can hardly have rested on the wooden angels hands; presumably there was some additional, invisible support.
52
Cf. I. Lavin, On the Sources and Meaning of the Renaissance Portrait Bust, Art
Quarterly, XXXIII, 1970, 207 ff.
Among the earliest such portrait busts of holy personages, it seems, is the St. Lawrence
in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, Florence, often attributed to Donatello in the older literature (H. W. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, Princeton, 1963, 236 f; M. Lisner, Die
Bste des Heiligen Laurentius in der alten Sacristei von S. Lorenzo, Zeitschrift fr
Kunstwissenschaft, XII, 1958, 51 ff; C. Seymour, Jr., Sculpture in Italy, 1400 to 1500,
Harmondsworth, 1966, 240, n. 21, 246, n. 9).
53
Apart from the famous Commodus in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, I am aware of the
following ancient examples: the so-called Matidia in the Uffizi (G. A. Mansuelli, Galleria
degli Uffizi. Le sculture, 2 vols., Rome, 1958, II, 84, No. 86), a bust of a lady in the British
Museum (A. H. Smith, .A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman
Antiquities of the British Museum, 3 vols., London, 18921904, III, 190 f, No. 190), and
another in the Berlin Museum (C. BImel, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Rmische Bildnisse,
Berlin, 1933, 48 f, No. R 117).
But see also the related material concerning half statues discussed in A. Frantz, H. A.
Thompson and J. Travlos, The Temple of Apollo Pythios on Sikinos, American Journal
of Archaeology, LXXIII, 1969, 410 ff.
54
For bust reliquaries of this kind, see E. Kovcs, Kopfreliquiare des Mittelalters,
Budapest, 1964, Pls. 10, 11, 22, 36, 42.; P. Toesca, Storia dellarte italiana. II. Il trecento,
Turin, 1951, 899 f; J. Braun, Bstenreliquiar, in Reallexikon der deutschen Kunstgeschichte,
Stuttgart, 1937 ff, III, cols. 274 ff, Figs. 810.
The Verrocchio referred to is of course the Lady with Flowers in the Bargello (for which
see now G. Passavant, Verrocchio, London, 1969, 33 f, 180 f ).
BERNINIS DEATH
333
shaped at the bottom, hollowed at the back and set on a tall, narrow base
the two-armed type failed to conform. So far as I know,Berninis Savior
is the first monumental marble bust since antiquity that is hollowed at the
back, stands free on a pedestal, and includes both arms.55 It combines, in an
unprecedented way for a Christian image, the living and dramatic quality
of a narrative figure with the commemorative and idolous quality of a classical bust monument.
The Savior is equally unprecedented in the treatment of the bust form
itself. The crossed arms that conceal the lower torso and the arrangement of
the drapery that envelops the body make the bust seem virtually self-sufficient, that is, not arbitrarily severed. Visually speaking, it is practically
impossible to say whether we are confronted by the upper half of a whole
human being, or a whole being in half-human shape. Furthermore, there
was an obvious reciprocity between the bust and its pedestal: the jasper base
served as an abstract support for a material weight, the bust as such, the
angels served as figurated supports for a metaphorical weight, the image of
Christ.
In the sections that follow we shall explore the background for Berninis
treatment of the bust and its pedestal, and seek to define the religious significance of the work.
The Portrait Bust as Apotheosis
The idea of a reciprocal and explicitly meaningful relationship between
the bust and its support was revived toward the middle of the sixteenth century as part of a general tendency to charge the portrait with significance
beyond that of simply commemorating the individual represented.56 The
cope of Guglielmo della Portas Paul III in Naples (154647) is adorned
55
A possible antecedent is Algardis bust of Paolo Emilio Zacchia in Florence, but its base
is not original (A. Nava Cellini, Per lintegrazione e lo svolgimento della ritrattistica di
Alessandro Algardi, Paragone, 1964, No. 177, 23) and I suspect it was meant to be displayed
without one, perhaps in a niche.
At the beginning of his career, in the portrait of Antonio Coppola in San Giovanni dei
Fiorentini (1612), Bernini had revived the ancient type of bust with one arm showing and
set on a base (I. Lavin, Five New Youthful Sculptures by Gianlorenzo Bernini and a Revised
Chronology of His Early Works, Art Bulletin, L, 1968, 223 ff ).
56
Precedents among busts of the quattrocento type are those with figurated plinths by
Francesco Laurana (see now, G. L. Hersey, Alfonso II and the Artistic Renewal of Naples
14851495, New HavenLondon, 1969, 37 ff ).
334
See the exemplary study by W. Gramberg, Die Hamburger Bronzebste Paul III.
Farnese von Guglielmo della Porta, Festschrift fr Erich Meyer zum 60. Geburtstage,
Hamburg, 1959, 16072, where it is shown that the bases of this and a simplified workshop
version, also in Naples, were exchanged.
Reclining allegories of Ocean and Earth had appeared beneath the medallion portraits
of the deceased on Roman sarcophagi, a type that Michelangelo had earlier adapted in the
Medici Chapel (C. De Tolnay, The Medici Chapel, Princeton, 1948, 66, 166).
58
E. Plon, Leone Leoni sculpteur de Charles-Quint et Pompeo Leoni sculpteur de Philippe
II, Paris, 1887, 289 ff; H. Keutner, Sculpture Renaissance to Rococo, London, 1969, 308, No.
50, suggests that the allegories may represent Mars and Minerva. L. O. Larsson, Adrian de
Vries, Vienna, 1967, 36 ff, has recently studied Leonis bust in connection with the portrait
of Rudolph II made by de Vries in 1603 as a pendant to a version of the Charles V in Vienna.
In fact, I know of no direct prototype for Leonis conception (the Conservatori
Commodus, to which it has been compared, was discovered in the nineteenth century).
Rather, Leoni evidently combined elements from three different antique traditions: the bust
carried on the wings of an eagle (of which an example in the Capitoline had been known
since the fifteenth century; cf. ibid.; also G. Pozzi and L. A. Ciapponi, Francesco Colonna.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, 2 vols., Padua, 1964, I, 94, 108 f; A. Roes, Laigle psychopompe
de lpoque impriale, in Mlanges Charles Picard, II, Revue archologique, 1948, 88191; H.
Jucker, Auf den Schwingen des Gttervogels, Jahrbuch des bernischen historischen Museums
in Bern, XXXIXXL, 195660, 26688); the imago clipeata held by standing or flying victories, putti, etc. (cf. recently, R. Winkes, Clipeata imago. Studien zu einer rmischen
Bildnisform, [Ph.D diss., Bonn, 1969, 88 ff ]); and the cuirass trophy with defeated enemies,
often a male and a female, seated back-to-back underneath (G. C. Picard, Les Trophes
romains, Paris, 1957 [Bibliothque des coles franaises dAthnes et de Rome, Fasc. 187];
A. J. Janssen, Het antieke tropaion, Brussels, 1957 [Koninklijke Vlaamse academie voor
wetenschappen letteren en schone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren, Verhandelingen,
No. 27]). An arrangement comparable to Leonis occurs on the cuirass of a pseudo-antique
57
BERNINIS DEATH
335
coincide with the actual edges of an armored corselet, hence nothing is cut
off. This treatment represents an ingenious solution to the problem that
had confronted the Renaissance sculptor when the ideally shaped and supported classical bust form was revived, namely, how to allude to the whole
person of the sitter, an effect achieved automatically by the arbitrary truncation of the Renaissance type.59 Leonis empty cuirass is a visual pun, which
suggests that the bust not only contains the sitter, whom the viewer
inevitably imagines in toto, but is also a self-contained object, a commemorative monument in its own right.60
Other devices had been introduced by Benvenuto Cellini to suggest a
whole, living person. In his cuirassed Cosimo I (154547), Cellini, for the
first time, gave an asymmetrical movement to the arms, and almost completely disguised the cut-off (Fig. 18).61 At the right the amputation of the
arm coincides with the end of the epaulette; at the left the drapery, which
appears folded under itself rather than cut, hides the truncation as it moves
across to the knot at the center. Only the sheer, curving slice of the torso at
the right reminds the observer that the bust is an artificial, abstract thing,
rather than the upper part of a human being.
bust (head ancient) in Venice, perhaps by Vittoria (G. Traversari, Museo archeologico di
Venezia. I ritratti, Rome, 1968, No. 32).
Leonis idea also seems to me inconceivable without the inspiration, stylistic and otherwise, of Bambaias great panoply of trophies in the tomb of Gaston de Foix, formerly in
Santa Marta in Milan (Venturi, Storia, X, 1, Figs. 523 ff; cf. J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of
Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 3 vols., London, 1964, II, 542 f ).
59
See the observations in my article cited above, n. 52.
60
Early precedents for the cuirass bust may be the problematic portrait of Alfonso I of
Naples in Vienna (Katalog der Sammlung fr Plastik und Kunstgewerbe. II Teil, Vienna, 1966,
9 f, No. 193; cf. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. Meisterwerke, Vienna, 1955, Pl. 68), and
that of Francesco Gonzaga by Gian Cristoforo Romano in Mantua (Venturi, Storia, VI, Fig.
778). A conceit analogous to Leonis allusion to the empty corselet occurs in Francesco
Segalas portrait of Girolamo Micheli (died 1557) in the Santo in Padua, where the bust
appears to rest on an armor stand (Venturi, Storia, X, 3, Fig. 144).
It should be emphasized that the Charles V also owes a considerable debt to the tradition
of reliquary busts (as suggested by J. Pope-Hennessy, The Portrait in the Renaissance,
LondonNew York, 1966, 177).
61
On moving arms, cf. Lavin, Five New Youthful Sculptures, 241 ff, and idem.,
Duquesnoys Nano di Crqui and Two Busts by Francesco Mochi, Art Bulletin, LII, 1970,
140 f. On the Medicean symbolism of the armor of Cellinis bust, see now K. W. Forster,
Metaphors of Rule. Political Ideology and History in the Portraits of Cosimo I de Medici,
Mitteilungen des kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, XV, 1971, 76 ff.
336
BERNINIS DEATH
337
on an enameled copper globe of the world, which in turn rested on a drapery of copper emblazoned with trophies and virtues; the whole was to be
placed on a kind of platform.65 The globe was to bear the inscription
Picciola basa as a punning reference to its physical size, geographical form
and supporting function (cf. Fig. 21).66
In the Louis XIV, the bust, as such, is scarcely perceptible behind the
screen of drapery; only at the left elbow is the viewer free to decide whether
the arm is cut off or continues across the chest, in a vital contrapposto
movement unprecedented in bust portraiture.67 Conversely, the drapery is
globe pour empcher encore davantage, quon ne pt approcher du buste, et quil faudrait
couvrir le tout dun petite courtine de taffetas et le nettoyer de la poussire avec un soufflet
(P. F. de Chantelou, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed. L. Lalanne, Paris,
1885, 150, 156).
65
How the bust was to be mounted on the globe is clear from another passage: Le cavalier durant cela tait auprs du scarpelin qui travaillait au pied du buste. Il lui a demand
de quelle qualit tait son marbre. Il lui a rpondu: Cotto. Il est donc, a dit le Cavalier, de
mme que celui du buste (M. Roland Bossard of the Muse de Versailles kindly informs
me that the base is in fact made of a separate piece of the same marble as the bust). . . . Je
lui ai demand, voyant lassiette de ce pied de buste carre, comment elle se pourrait adapter
au globe de la base. Il ma rpondu quon creuserait cette assiette la proportion de la globulence (ibid., 166).
Concerning the platform on which the whole was to rest: Le douzime, jai trouv le
Cavalier dessinant son buste pour y faire le pidestal, quil a projet en forme de globe. Il le
pose comme sur une espce destrade (ibid., 228).
66
The engraving reproduced in Figure 21 (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Cab. des Estampes cote AA
4 Gantrel), which seems to reflect Berninis idea for the Louis XIV, was brought to my attention by Mr. Peter Fusco; cf. A. Dayot, Louis XIV, Paris, 1909, ill. page 80. It bears the inscriptions P. Seuin in. (i.e., Pierre Paul Sevin, 16501710), Gantrel f. (Etienne Gantrel
16461706), Ste. Gantrel ex C. F. R. The bust shown (in reverse) is one at Versailles attributed to Coysevox, c. 1675 (No. 2195, C. Maumen and L. DHarcourt, Iconographie des
rois de France. Second partie, Archives de lart franais, Nouvelle periode, XIV, 1932, 62; cf.
E. Bourgeois, Le grand sicle, Paris, 1896, frontispiece).
67
A likely source for the pose was the portrait attributed to Titian of Pier Luigi Farnese,
now in Naples, which was in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome until 1662 (R. Pallucchini,
Tiziano, Florence, 1969, 286, Pl. 313); cf. also the Julius Caesar of Titians series of the
emperors in the Palazzo Ducale at Mantua (ibid., 341 f, No. 608; E. Verheyen, Jacopo
Stradas Mantuan Drawings of 15671568, Art Bulletin, XLIX, 1967, 6267). The composition was taken up by Bronzino for his portrait of Cosimo I (A. Emiliani, Il Bronzino, Busto
Arsizio, 1960, Pl. 90) and, in reverse, by Giulio Romano for his portrait of Alexander the
Great (F. Hartt, Giulio Romano, New Haven, 1958, 218, Fig. 466.; be it recalled that the
armor Bernini used for the bust was said to have been designed by Giulio Romano, and
given to Francis I by a Gonzaga duke; Chantelou, Journal 49, 151).
On Alexander see further, n. 71 below.
338
To my knowledge, the only one who seems to have remarked on this effect of the drapery, albeit negatively, was Charles Perrault: . . . lcharpe, laquelle on donne tant de
louages, nest pas bien entendue. Comme elle enveloppe le bout du bras du Roi, ce ne peut
tre quune charpe quon a mise sur le buste du Roi, et non pas lcharpe qui toit sur le
corps du Roi quand on a fait son buste, parce que cette charpe alors nenvironnoit pas son
bras de la manire quelle lenvironne (P. Bonnefon, ed., Mmoires de ma vie par Charles
Perrault. Voyage Bordeau [1669] par Charles Perrault, Paris, 1909, 63).
The idea recalls the curtains on which portraits of the deceased on ancient sarcophagi
are often borne aloft (F. De Royt, tudes de symbolisme funraire. A propos dun nouveau
sarcophage romain aux Muses Royaux dArt et dHistoire, Bruxelles, Bulletin de lInstitut
historique belge de Rome, XVII, 1936, 16064; W. Lameere, Un symbole pythagoricien dans
lart funraire de Rome, Bulletin de correspondance hellnique, LXIII, 1939, 4385), and
medieval depictions of the soul carried heavenward on swaths of drapery (H. sJacob,
Idealism and Realism. A Study of Sepulchral Symbolism, Leiden, 1954, 121 ff. E. Panofsky,
Tomb Sculpture, New York, [1964], 93). Bernini first revived this motif in his memorial of
Alessandro Valtrini in San Lorenzo in Damaso (Wittkower, Bernini, 210, No. 43; dated
1639 by the inscription), and adapted it frequently thereafter in a variety of ways.
69
On this motif, whose connection with the Louis XIV seems not to have been observed,
see the literature concerning the Conservatori Commodus cited by H. von Heintze, in W.
Helbig, Fhrer durch die ffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertmer in Rom, 4th ed.,
Tbingen, 1963 ff, II, 306 ff, especially S. A. Strong, A Bronze Bust of a Iulio-Claudian
Prince (?Caligula) in the Museum of Colchester; With a Note on the Symbolism of the
Globe in Imperial Portraiture, Journal of Roman Studies, VI, 1916, 2746; H. Jucker, Das
Bildnis im BItterkelch, Olten, 1961, esp. 154, n. 11; T. Hlscher, Victoria Romana, Mainz,
1967, 10, 25, 44, 47. A spheroid object, probably a fruit but easily to be taken for a globe,
also appears under busts of private individuals on sarcophagi (De Ruyt, tudes de symbolisme, 15459). Monumental examples Bernini might have known in Rome are the porphyry columns with projecting imperial busts on globes, now in the Louvre (R. Delbrueck,
Antike Porphyrewerke, BerlinLeipzig, 1932, 52 ff ). The motif was revived from ancient
68
BERNINIS DEATH
339
instance, however, in which the globe and military spoils are combined, the
former resting on the latter. This was a splendid and once famous monument of the Emperor Claudius, excavated in the Via Appia near Rome in
the 1640s (Fig. 22).70 It was displayed on an elaborately carved pedestal in
the Palazzo Colonna in Rome until the year before Berninis trip to Paris,
when it was taken to Spain. The bust has since disappeared, but the base
and pedestal added by the Colonna, which together stand six feet high
(184 cm.), are still to be seen in the Prado (Fig. 23). The Colonna Claudius
showed the Emperor wearing the aegis, looking to the side and slightly
upward, with a radiate crown on his head; the bust was supported on the
outspread wings of the Jovian eagle,which held the globe and the thunderbolt in its claws, and rested in turn on a wide pile of military spoils. Bernini
coins by Leone Leoni in a medal of Charles V (cf. Larsson, Adrian de Vries, Fig. 93). See also
the bust of Cybele in Mantegnas Triumph of Scipio in the National Gallery, London.
In connection with the Louis XIV, Keutner, Sculpture, 325, No. 170, refers to a medal
bearing the date 1661 which shows the King as the Sun God seated on a globe; however, the
medal was made in 1687 (cf. La mdaille au temps de Louis XIV, exh. cat., Paris, 1970, 181,
No. 259). On the other hand, something analogous to Berninis conception had appeared in
a medal of 1664 illustrating the Kings motto Nec Pluribus Impar, where the radiant face of
the sun rises over a terrestrial globe (ibid., 89, No. 123, ill. page 90).; this is the device
referred to by Chantelou (n. 64 above), and the same juxtaposition is made in the engraving
by Sevin and Gantrel (Fig. 21; cf. n. 66 above), where in the center the sun appears above
the bust resting on the globe and the impresa is illustrated in the upper left corner.
70
A. Blanco, Museo del Prado. Catalogo de la escultura. I. Esculturas clasicas, Madrid,
1957, 115 f, No. 225-E, Pl. LXVI. Blanco reports that a copy of the bust, by V. Salvatierra
(17901836), is in the depot of the Prado; my inquiries after it have been in vain. The
engraving of the ancient portions of the monument reproduced here in Figure 22, which
reverses the original, is from B. de Montfaucon, Lantiquit explique, 5 vols., Paris, 1719, V,
Pl. CXXIX.
There has been some confusion concerning the dates involved, arising apparently from
errors in R. Lanciani, La villa castrimeniese di Q. Voconio Pollione, Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, XII, 1884, 196. Pietro Santi Bartoli (16371700)
recorded that the work, to which he refers as la famosa deificazione di Claudin, was found
ne tempi, che il card. Francesco Barberini si trasferi in Francia. and that a cardinal Colonna
brought it as a gift when he transferred to the court of Spain (Memorie, first published in
Roma antica, Rome, 1741, 351; reprinted in C. D. Fea, Miscellanea filologica critica e antiquaria, 2 vols., Rome, 17901836, 1, CCLXIV f.). Lanciani interpolated the date 1654 for
the discovery, probably a misprint for 1645; Antonio Barberini fled to France late in the latter year, Francesco fled in January, 1646 and stayed until 1648. Lanciani also slipped in calling the Colonna cardinal Ascanio (died 1608); in fact it was Girolamo (died 1666), who
went to Spain in 1664 for the wedding of Margarita Teresa and Leopold I (A. Ciaconius,
Vitae et res gestae pontificum romanorum et S.R.E. Cardinalium, 4 vols., Rome, 1677, IV,
col. 568).
340
must have remembered this extraordinary work when he designed the Louis
XIV. The pose is transformed from one of divine inspiration into one of
personal vigor and nobility. The role of the crown is played by the wig,
which recalls the leonine mane of Alexander the Great. The symbolic protection of the aegis and the levitational force of the eagle are embodied in
the shielding, airborne drapery. The globe, instead of symbolizing the heavens, Joves realm, actually represents the earth.71 Whereas Claudius was literally divinized through metaphorical identification with the celestial ruler,
Louis XIV is metaphorically apotheosized by being literally identified as the
terrestrial ruler par excellence.
71
On the sideward turn and upward tilt of the head, see H.P. LOrange, Apotheosis in
Ancient Portraiture, Oslo, 1947, Chap. 2, 19 ff, Heavenward-Gazing Alexander.
Concerning the resemblance to Alexander, it is remarkable that Vasari in speaking of
Giulio Romanos portrait of Alexander (see n. 67 above), and a coin collector who saw
Berninis Louis XIV in progress, both refer to medals of Alexander (Le doyen de SaintGermain est aussi venu, et lui qui est curieux de mdailles a trouv que le buste a beaucoup
de lair dAlexandre et tournait de ct come lon voit aux mdailles dAlexandre,
Chantelou, Journal, 183, also 178). So far as I can see, portraits of Alexander on ancient
coins and medals are always in profile (one exception, much disputed, appeared in 1902, cf.
M. Bieber, Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art, Chicago, 1964, 79 f, Fig. 114). One
possible explanation is that Giulio was using a profile type of the helmeted Alexander (K.
Kraft, Der gehelmte Alexander der Grosse, Jahrbuch fr Numismatik und Geldgeschichte,
XV, 1965, 732), whereas Berninis visitor recalled one of the facing types, such as Helios (le
Roi Soleil), that were minted in the time of Alexander (cf. A. Baldwin, Facing Heads on
Greek Coins, American Journal of Numismatics, XLIII, 190809, 21331). On the other
hand, another passage in Chantelou shows that medals might also include gems (Journal,
235), and a number of these with facing heads have been identified as Alexander (K.
Gebauer, Alexanderbildnis und Alexandertypus, Mitteilungen des deutschen archologischen
Instituts. Athenische Abteilung, LXIIILXIV, 193839, 30 f, also 25). In any case, the turning, tilting head of Alexander became ubiquitous as the Dying Alexander (E.
Schwarzenberg, From the Alessandro morente to the Alexandre Richelieu, Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXII, 1969, 398405).
Bernini was certainly thinking of Alexander when portraying the King (cf. R. Wittkower,
Berninis Bust of Louis XIV, London, 1951, 13 f ), and it is possible that the whole image
upward and sideward glance, as well as terrestrial globe below echoed the famous passage
in Plutarch describing Lysippuss portrait of Alexander and quoting its inscription: When
Lysippus first modelled a portrait of Alexander with his face turned upward toward the sky,
just as Alexander himself was accustomed to gaze, turning his neck gently to one side, someone inscribed, not inappropriately, the following epigram: The bronze statue seems to proclaim, looking at Zeus: I place the earth under my sway; you O Zeus, keep Olympos (J. J.
Pollitt, The Art of Greece 140031 B.C., Sources and Documents, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,
1965, 145). Perhaps this passage was in the mind of the observer who commented that the
world-pedestal enhanced the resemblance to Alexander (Chantelou, Journal, 178).
BERNINIS DEATH
341
With the bust of the Savior Bernini carried these ideas from the secular
to the religious sphere.
The Divine Simulacrum
In a formal sense the contrapposto relationship between the head and
right arm of the Savior may be viewed as a development from the composition of the Louis XIV. But the pose was motivated by more than formal
considerations. The Savior belongs thematically to the class of isolated,
bust-length depictions of Christ that include both arms. Such images may
be roughly divided into two groups, the Salvator Mundi and the Imago
Pietatis, according to whether Christs triumph or His human sacrifice is
stressed.72 Usually the Salvator Mundi shows the figure alive and clothed,
the left hand holding a globe, symbol of the universality of redemption, the
right hand raised in blessing, and the gaze fixed upon the observer in a
frontal stare.73 In the Man of Sorrows Christ is shown dead, the body is
nude, the head droops obliquely to the side, and the arms are folded across
each other on the breast.74 It seems clear that Bernini sought to amalgamate
the two traditional embodiments of the deity. In that the figure is clothed
and the right hand suggests a blessing, it evokes the Salvator Mundi; the
averted head and crossed arms allude to the Man of Sorrow. In expressive
terms the result is an almost ineffable combination of heroic suffering and
inspired benignity.
Berninis figure further recalls an intermediate type which has been
termed the rhetorical Man of Sorrows.75 Christ is shown alive, the nude
body exposed but draped in a mantle, the head bent downward to the side
and the glance oblique; one hand calls attention to the chest wound, the
other is raised in a gesture of pathetic exclamation. While Bernini must
have had this type in mind also, his Savior differs from it in two funda72
In general, cf. S. Ringbom, Icon to Narrative (Acta Academiae Aboensis, Ser. A.,
Humaniora, XXXI, No. 2), bo, 1965, 52 ff.
73
On the theme, cf. C. Gottlieb, The Mystical Window in Paintings of the Salvator
Mundi, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, LVI, 1960, 31332; L. H. Heydenreich, Leonardos
Salvator Mundi, Raccolta vinciana, XX, 1964, 83109; Ringbom, Icon to Narrative, 69 f,
171 ff.
74
The fundamental study is still that of Panofsky, Imago Pietatis, who regarded this as
the original form of the Man of Sorrows; for subsequent bibliography, see Eisler, The
Golden Christ of Cortona, III, n. 24.
75
Panofsky, Imago Pietatis, 289 f.
342
mental respects: the position of the head and eyes, and the gesture of the
right hand. The upward glance had become familiar in bust-length depictions of Christ, for example, in variants of the Salvator Mundi based on the
inspired figure in Federico Baroccis Last Supper in Urbino, and in pictures
of the agonized Ecce Homo crowned with thorns, by Guido Reni and
Guercino.76 But in these the head, though sometimes tilted, is not turned to
the side, and the eyes look directly aloft. Conversely, busts of Christ often
showed the head in three quarters, but the face and glance were not directed
upward.77 The Saviors gesture, with the arm held close to and across the
body and the hand raised vertically, is also sui generis. It is as suggestive of
intervention and rejection as of benediction or exclamation, and carries a
clear eschatological implication. In sum, Christ acts as though He were
interposing Himself between a threat coming from His upper right and
directed toward His lower left, the side of damnation, which He abhors.
It will have become apparent that essentially the same idea expressed in
Berninis Savior underlay the devotional pictures of intercession derived
from the Speculum humanae salvationis (Fig. 4). There Christ was represented with one hand indicating the chest wound, the other directed in
sympathy toward the spectator; the head and eyes turned to the side and
imploringly up toward God the Father. The rhetorical Man of Sorrows was
itself rooted in this tradition, which had already played a seminal part in the
development of the Sangue di Cristo composition. Berninis Savior, who
communicates with God, alludes to His own death, and conveys protection
to the observer, seems to act in response to the dying mans invocation in
the Ars Moriendi interrogations, I also put the death of Our Lord Jesus
Christ between me and your wrath.
Like the Sangue di Cristo the Savior constitutes in effect a new subject,
motivated once again by the desire to relate previously separate traditions to
the idea of death. The bust incorporates the act of intercession in which
Christ the sacrifice and Christ the redeemer are united. Hence the deeper
76
For illustrations, cf. J. Burns, The Face of Christ in Art, New York, 1907, ills. opp. pages
104, 108, 112.
77
See the examples in U. Schlegel, Eine neuerworbene Christusbste des Ludovico
Begarelli, Berliner Museen. Berichte, XI, 1961, 44 ff. Also a marble by Puget at Marseille,
dated 166263 by K. Herding, Pierre Puget, Berlin, 1970, 152 f, No. 20, but which may in
fact postdate Berninis Saviour (G. Walton, The Sculptures of Pierre Puget, Ph.D. diss.,
New York University, 1967, 241 f ); a fine bronze cast was recently acquired bv the Berlin
Museum (U. Schlegel, Alessandro Algardis Christusbste, Berliner Museen. Berichte, XXI,
1971, 23 ff, with attribution to Algardi).
BERNINIS DEATH
343
meaning of the pedestal becomes clear. The abstract base, traditional for
portraits, bears Christs mortal aspect. In general terms the kneeling and
supporting angels echo the ancient imago clipeata, where the medallion
framing a hallowed image was often lifted by winged genii; Christ and God
the Father had frequently been carried by angels; angels grasp the drapery
in many depictions of the Man of Sorrows; in reliquary busts the body
might appear angel-borne.78 But there was no real precedent for the bust
held aloft by its base.79 Most of all, Berninis arrangement recalls, as we have
seen, his own design for an altar of the Holy Sacrament (Fig. 16): the kneeling angels elevate the image as if it were the tabernacle of the Host. Thus,
both the figure and the pedestal the former through its expressive pose
and invisible truncation, the latter through its abstract and angelic supports
conveyed the dual nature of Christ and His work of atonement. At once
suffering and exultant as a portrait, the Savior is at once human and divine
as a bust.
The work belongs to still another tradition, which might be defined as
that of the sculptors last will and testament. The sixteenth century had produced several notable instances in which sculptors gave direct expression to
their own hopes for redemption, the Piet groups by Michelangelo and
Baccio Bandinelli, and Crucifixes by Benvenuto Cellini and Giambologna.
The shift from the dead to the living Christ is symptomatic: Berninis primary concern is not with Christ as the prototype of pathetic self-sacrifice,
but with His quintessential role as mediator in the process of salvation. It is
also symptomatic that, in contrast to these overtly narrative works, Bernini
chose the bust to express his thought; he created a kind of icon-portrait
monument because it enabled him to evoke more completely than any
other form the mystery of Christ, half god, half man. It is symptomatic,
finally, that these works were intended for the artists own tombs (and
might even contain autobiographical elements: Michelangelos and
Bandinellis include self-portraits, Cellinis alludes to a vision he had had in
For examples of the latter, see Toesca, Il trecento, 900, Fig. 746, and J. Montagu, Un
dono del Cardinale Francesco Barberini al Re di Spagna, Arte illustrata, IV, 1971, 50,
Fig. 8.
79
The concept has an analogue in Berninis adaptation of the framed image carried by
symbolic figures, which played a new and important role in his work; his use of this motif
in altarpieces has been the subject of an excellent study in an unpublished dissertation by R.
Jrgens, Die Entwicklung des Barockalters in Rom, Hamburg, 1956, 160 ff (typescript in
the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome).
78
344
prison), whereas Bernini intended the Savior to be given away, and his sepulcher was marked only by an inscription with his name and the date of his
death.
* * *
The Sangue di Cristo engraving and the bust of the Savior are related
beyond the obvious fact of their common concern with salvation. The one
concentrates upon Christ as the victim, the other upon Christ as the savior;
the one is predominantly public and universal, the other is predominantly
private and personal. Both make radical changes in the traditions from
which they are derived, and the changes were inspired mainly by the desire
to relate those traditions to death. They are related to death not simply as
pious votives but as part of a concerted plan, conceived and executed by
Bernini over a period of forty years, to achieve salvation by preparing for
death. The idea for such a program and many of its elements stem from the
heritage of The Art of Dying, but the focus has shifted. In place of the temptations to sin and heresy, the accent is on the central mystery of the
Eucharist as the key to redemption. This new emphasis was present from
the beginning of the Ars Moriendi revival, in Bellarminos treatise and in the
devotions of the Bona Mors confraternity. It became to Father Marchese
and Bernini the only hope. The good death was no longer largely a dialectical victory over the devil but an extreme act of faith, performed successfully after acquiring the necessary skills.
Panofsky defined the unprecedented role of the personification Death in
Berninis funerary monuments as that of a witness to life . . . a power
which delimits and shapes the indefinite and places in perspective what
otherwise could not be perceived as a whole.80 The observation might be
extended to Bernini himself: his enactment of death, his vision of redemption and his portrayal of the Redeemer concluded a life-long process of
objectification in which what had been obscure or but faintly perceived
became conscious and deliberate.81
E. Panofsky, Mors Vitae Testimonium. The Positive Aspect of Death in Renaissance
and Baroque Iconography, in Studien zur toskanischen Kunst. Festschrift fr Ludwig Heinrich
Heydenreich, Munich, 1964, 231.
81
The opening invocation of Berninis testament, though conventional in such documents, contains a variety of thoughts and phrases that are of interest in the light of what has
been said in this essay; I transcribe it here, along with some of the relevant provisions:
80
BERNINIS DEATH
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Appendix
Filippo Baldinucci
Correva gi il Bernino lottantesimo anno di sua vita e fin da alcun
tempo avanti aveva egli pi al conseguimento degli eterni riposi, che allaccrescimento della gloria mondana voltato i suoi pi intensi pensieri e forte
premevagli il cuore un desiderio di offerire, prima di chiuder gli occhi a
questa luce, alcun segno di gratitudine alla maest della gran regina di
Svezia, stata sua singolarissima protettrice; onde per meglio internarsi ne
primi sentimenti e disporsi ad effettuare i secondi, si pose con grande studio ad effigiare in marmo in mezza figura maggiore del naturale il nostro
A gloria della SS;ma Trinit, e della gloriosa sempre Vergina Maria, e di tutti li Santi miei
Protettori; Essendo la morte quel punto tremendo, donde dipende unEternit, di bene,
di pene, quindi che conforme lhuomo deue in ognhora pensare ben uiuere per ben
morire, cosi inescusabile errore il uolere trasportare in quellultimo passo laggiustamento
delle cose humane, quando lanima deue con gran timore prepararsi allinappellabile rendimento de conti alla Diuina Giustitia. Da ci mosso io infrascritto testatore al presente sano
per la Dio gratia di mente, di senso, et intelletto h pensato di fare il presente mio testamento scritto de uerbo ad uerbum dordine mio, e poi da me pi uolte letto, e maturamente
considerato
Primieramente raccomando lanima mia alla SS:ma Trinit, dalla cui infinita Bont, conforme h riceuto abondanza di gratie, cos la supplico di quella maggiore, senza la quale
nulla uale il mondo tutto, cio il perdono de miei peccati, e per conseguenza la salute
dellanima mia, mi raccomando inoltre allintercessione della gloriosissima Vergine Madre
Maria, dellAngelo mio Custode, e di tutti li Santi miei Auuocati, e particolarmente di
S. Giuseppe . . .
Lascio titolo di semplice Cappellania ad nutum amouibile, che dallinfrascritti miei
heredi gloria del pretiosissimo Sangue del Nostro Redentore Gies Christo si faccia celebrare una messa quotidiana in perpetuo suffragio, prima dellanima mia, e poi delli miei parenti, e finalmente di quellanima del Purgatorio, la liberatione della quale sar di maggior
gloria di Dio.
In oltre gloria della Beatis.ma Vergina Madre Maria lascio chogni anno in perpetuo nel
giorno dellAssunta si diano dallinfrascritti miei heredi scudi uenticinque m.ta per dote ad
una pouera zitella honesta, . . . Item lascio al Padre Don Francesco Marchesi Prete della
Chiesa Noua mio Nipote scudi cento moneta per una sol uolta pregandolo raccordarsi dellanima mia nelle sue orationi, e diuini offitij . . .
(Rome, Archivio di Stato, Not. A. C. (Mazzeschus], Busta, 4245, November 28, 1680,
fols. 278rv, 281).
It came to my attention after completing this article that Hans Kauffmann, with characteristic insight, speaks of Bernini as having been deeply concerned with the Ars Moriendi
(Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Die figrliche Kompositionen, Berlin, 1970, 334 f ).
346
Salvator Ges Cristo, opera, che siccome fu detta da lui il suo beniamino,
cos anche fu lultima, che desse al mondo la sua mano, e destinolla in dono
a quella maest, ma tal pensiero per gli venne fallito, perch tanto fu il
concetto la stima, che della statua fece la maest sua che non trovandosi
in congiuntura di poter per allora proporzionatamente contraccambiare il
dono, elesse anzi di ricusarlo che di mancare un punto alla reale magnificenza dellanimo suo; onde il Bernino gliela ebbe poi a lasciare per testamento, come noi a suo luogo diremo. In questo divino simulacro pose egli
tutti gli sforzi della sua cristiana piet e dell arte medesima, e fece conoscere
in esso quanto fusse vero un suo familiare assioma, cio, che lartefice, che
ha grandissimo fondamento nel disegno, al giugner dellet decrepita, non
dee temere di alcuno scemamento di vivacit e tenerezza e dellaltre buone
qualit delloperar suo, mercecch una tal sicurezza nel disegno possa assai
bene supplire al difetto degli spiriti, i quali collaggravar dellet si raffreddano, ci che egli diceva aver osservato in altri artefici . . .
E cos mentre dalla citt di Roma si apprestavano applausi al suo valore
per lo prospero riuscimento della restaurazione e assicuramento del palazzo,
egli avendo gi incominciato a perdere il sonno, diede in s fatta debolezza
di forze e di spiriti, che in breve si condusse al termine de giorni suoi. Ma
prima di parlare dellultima sua infermit e della morte, la quale veramente
apparve agli occhi nostri qual fu la vita, da portarsi in questo luogo, che
quantunque il cavalier Bernino fino al quarantesimo anno di sua et, che fu
quello, nel quale egli si accas, fusse vissuto allacciato in qualche affetto
giovenile, senza per trarne tale impaccio, che agli studi dellarte e a quella,
che il mondo chiama prudenza, alcun pregiudizio recar potesse, potiamo
dire con verit, che non solo il suo matrimonio ponesse fine a quel modo di
vivere, ma che egli, fin da quellora, incominciasse a diportarsi anzi da religioso, che da secolare e con tali sentimento di spirito, secondo ci, che a me
stato riferito da chi bene il sa, che pot sovente esser dammirazione ai
pi perfetti claustrali. Teneva egli sempre fisso un vivo pensiero della morte,
intorno alla quale faceva bene spesso lunghi colloqui col padre Marchesi suo
nipote sacerdote della Congregazione dellOratorio nella chiesa Nuova,
uomo della bont e dottrina, che nota; e con tal desiderio aspir sempre
mai alla felicit di quellestremo passo, che per questo solo fine di conseguirla dur quarantanni continovi a frequentar la divozione, che a tale
effetto fanno i padri della Compagnia di Ges in Roma; dove pure due volte
la settimana si cibava del sacramento eucaristico. Accresceva le limosine,
esercizio stato suo familiarissimo fino dalla prima et. Si profondava talora
BERNINIS DEATH
347
nel pensiero e nel discorso dunaltissima stima e concetto che egli ebbe sempre dellefficacia del Sangue di Cristo Redentore, nel quale (come era solito
dire) sperava di affogare i suoi peccati. A tale oggetto diseng di sua mano
e poi fecesi stampare unimmagine di Cristo Crocifisso, dalle cui mani e
piedi sgorgano rivi di sangue, che formano quasi un mare e la gran Regina
del Cielo, che lo sta offerendo allEterno Padre. Questa pia meditazione
fecesi anche dipingere in una gran tela, la quale volle sempre tenere in faccia al suo letto in vita e in morte.
Venuto dunque il tempo, non so sio dica da lui a cagione del grande
scapito di forze aspettato, o per lanelanza delleterno riposo desiderato, egli
inferm duna lenta febbre, alla quale sopravvenne in ultimo un accidente
di apoplessia, che fu quello che lo priv di vita. Stavasene egli tra tanto
paziente e rassengato nel divino volere, n altri discorsi faceva per ordinario,
che di confidenza, a segno tale che gli astanti, fra quali non isdegn di
trovarsi assai frequentemente leminentissimo cardinal Azzolino forte si
maravigliavano de concetti, che lamore gli suggeriva e fra questi il seguente
degnessimo di memoria. Preg egli instantemente quel porporato, che per
sua parte supplicasse la maest della regina a fare un atto damore di Dio per
se stesso, stimando (come egli diceva) che quella gran signora avesse un linguaggio particolare con Dio da esser bene intesa, mentre Iddio avea con lei
usato un linguaggio, che essa sola era stata capace dintenderlo.
Il continovo pensare, chei fece in vita a quel passaggio, gli aveva suggerito molti anni prima del suo morire un pensiero, e fu di rappresentare al
nominato padre Marchesi, il quale egli desiderava, che gli fusse assistente,
tutto ci, che egli gli doveva ricordare in quel tempo, e perch egli dubit,
che potesse avvenire ci che veramente accadde, di non potere in quellestremo usar la voce, volle chei fusse informato dei gesti e moti esterni
chegli aveva stabilito di fare per espressione dellinterno del suo cuore; e fu
cosa mirabile, che non avendo egli nella malattia, a cagione della flussione
del capo, potuto parlare se non balbettando ed avendo poi per lo nuovo
accidente perduta quasi del tutto la parola, il padre Marchesi lintendesse
sempre cos ed alle sue proposte desse cos adequate risposte, che bastarono
per condurlo con ammirabil quiete al suo fine. Avvicinavasi egli allultimo
respiro, quando fatto cenno a Mattia de Rossi e Giovan Battista Contini,
stati suoi discepoli nellarchitettura quasi scherzando disse loro nel miglior
modo, che gli fu possibile, molto maravigliarsi, che non sovvenisse loro
invenzione per trarre altrui il catarro dalla gola, e intanto additava colla
mano un instrumento matematico attissimo a tirar pesi eccedenti.
348
BERNINIS DEATH
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stancarono glingegni e le penne de letterati di comporre elogi, sonetti, canzoni, ed altri eruditi versi latini, e volgari spiritossisimi, che in lode di lul si
viddero pubblicamente esposti. Concorse tutta la nobilt di Roma e con
essa tutti gli oltramontani, che allora si trovavano in quella citt ed in
somma un popolo s numeroso, che fu necessario lindugiare alquanto di
tempo a dar sepoltura al corpo, il che poi fu fatto nella nominata sua
sepoltura, in cassa di piombo, con lasciarvi memoria del nome e persona di
lui.
Domenico Bernini
M prossimo ornai il Cavaliere alla morte, & in et decrepita di ottantanni volle illustrar sua vita, e chiuder latto di sua fin a quellhora tanto
ben condotta Professione, con rappresentare un opera, che felice quell
Huomo, che termina con essa i suoi giorni. Questa f lImmagine del nostro Salvadore in mezza figura, m pi grande del naturale, colla man destra
alquanto sollevata, come in atto di benedire. In essa compendi, e ristrinse
tutta la sua Arte, e benche la debolezza del polso non corrispondesse alla
gagliardia dellIdea, tuttavia gli venne fatto di comprovare ci, che prima ei
dir soleva, che UnArtefice eccellente nel Disegno dubitar non deve al giunger
dellet decrepita di alcuna mancanza di vivacit, e tenerezza, perche di tanta
efficacia la prattica del Disegno, che questo solo pu supplire al difetto degli spiriti, che nella vecchiaja languiscono. Destin quest Opera alla sua tanto benemerita Regina di Svezia, che elesse pi tosto rifiutarla, che collimpossibilit di contracambiarne il valore, degenerare dalla sua Regia beneficenza; M
f poi costretta di accettarla indi a due anni, quando dal Cavaliere le f lasciata in testamento . . .
Avanti dunque di entrare nella narazione delle cose proposte, convien
retrarre alquanto indietro il discorso, e dimostrare, quanto singolare nel
Cavaliere Bernino fosse la bont della vita, e con quanta unione di massime
Christiane rendesse riguardevoli le belle, e molte doti del suo animo.
Conciosiacosache comegli era unHuomo dingegno elevato, che sempre al
grande aspirava, e nel grande istesso non si quietava, se non giungeva al
massimo, questa medesima sua naturalezza lo port ad una subblimit tale
dIdee in materia di divozione, che non contento delle communi, a quelle
si appigli, che sono per cos dire la scortatoja per giungere al Cielo. Ondei
diceva, che Nel rendimento di conto delle sue operazioni haveva da trattare con
Signore, che Infinito e Massimo ne suoi attributi, non havrebbe guardato, come
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Cureau himself described his relation with Bernini as follows: Jay eu lavantage daccompagner Monsieur le Cavalier Bernin, quand il sen retourna de Paris en Italie. Je le pratiquay pendant un an Rome, o je le voyais familierement & toute heure. Jay depuis cultiv son amiti par un commerce regl de lettres lespace de quinze annes, & jusqu sa
mort, Prface pur servir a lhistoire de Ia vie et des ouvrages du cavalier Bernin (Bibl. Nationale,
Paris, K. 4280), n.d., n.p., but 1685 (see note 6 below).
4
Eloge . . . que je lis pour me consoler de sa perte la premiere nouvelle qui nous vint
de sa mort (Bernini died November 28, 1680), (Prface, 15).
5
Journal des Savans, February 24, 1681, 61.
6
Cited in note 3 above. For the date, see P. Bayle, Nouvelles de la rpublique des lettres,
January, 1685, in uvres diverses, 4 vols., The Hague, 172731, I, 201 f; also 362 f.
7
Page 24.
8
This emerges from a passage in C. Le Maire, Paris ancien et nouveau, 3 vols., Paris,
1685, I, 30203: La Maison o demeure Monsieur LAbb de la Chambre de lAcademie
Franoise, est entre lHostel de Conty, & le College des quatre Nations . . . lon trouve chez
luy ce quil y a de plus rare voir: entrautres trois Busts en Marbre faits par le Chevalier
Bernin. Le premier est le Bust du Chevalier Bernin mesme, fait Rome peu de temps avant
sa mort. Le second est un Bust du Christ; & lautre est de Monsieur de la Chambre Pre
. . . & des modeles en Cire de quelques Status de Bernin . . . Cureau mentions the self-portrait in his Eloge of 1681: . . . un buste de luy nouvellement arriv icy, qui est parlant &
comparable tout ce quil y a de plus precieux & de plus achev en ce genre-l (p. 62; it is
presumably that which appears in the engraved vignette to Cureaus Prface, by S. Leclerc
[Fig. 12]).
Cf. Vanuxem, Quelques tmoignages (cited in note 2 above), 160, 162, 163 and
Fig. 18.
3
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Furthermore, there is nothing to prove that the copy was made in Italy and
shipped to Paris, as has been assumed.9
Neither the authorship nor the provenance of the bust in Ses is
recorded.10 As far as I can discover it appears only in the local literature on
the Cathedral, where it is attributed vaguely to Caffieri and said to have
been acquired by J.-B. Du Plessis dArgentr (17201805).11 DArgentr,
who had been preceptor to the grandsons of Louis XIV, was bishop of Ses
from 1775 until the Revolution; he was responsible for extensive alterations
and embellishments to the Cathedral.12
Let it be said at once that the Ses sculpture is effectively excluded as a
candidate for the original by its size. Berninis Savior was recorded in an
inventory of 1713 as being 103 cm. high (alto palmi di passetto 4 e due
terzi). The Norfolk bust is 93 cm. (92 cm. wide), that in Ses 74 cm. high
(67 cm. wide).13 Anyone familiar with inventories of the period will realize
that the former is a negligible discrepancy, whereas the latter is not.
The work is of fine quality, with neither the awkward proportions and
strained pose, nor the uneven handling of the Norfolk sculpture. The surfaces of skin and drapery are polished to a uniform luster and the hair and
beard are treated as a regular system of striated masses, in contrast to the
lacy drill work and sharp penetrations of the marble that form the locks of
the Norfolk head. Consistent with these differences are the facts that the
large fold of drapery at the center is attached to the back of the right hand,
and that marble struts join the fingers; in the Norfolk bust all these forms
are carved free. In sum, the Ses sculpture is careful and unadventuresome
9
This assumption evidently originated in a misleading phrase of S. S. Ludovici (una
copia della statua era pervenuta in Francia), who first called attention to the passage in
Cureaus Eloge in the Journal des Savans (ed. of F. Baldinucci, Vita di Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Milan, 1948, 259).
10
I am greatly indebted to the Cur Flament, archivist of the Cathedral, who searched,
in vain, for documentation concerning the bust, and provided the references given in the following note.
11
First mentioned in L. de la Sicotiere, Notice sur la cathdrale de Ses, Alenon, 1844,
22: sur le mur du pourtoire du choeur, on a plac depuis peu dannes, un buste du Christ
en marbrc blanc, dun beau travail; il vient, croyons-nous, de lancienne salle capitulaire;
Abb Dumaine, Buste en marbre dans la cathdrale. XVIIIe sicle, Bulletin des amis des
monuments ornais, III, 1903, 25 f: . . . attribu par quelques-uns Caffieri . . . On croit que
cest Mgr. dArgentr qui en fit lacquisition, par occasion . . . .
12
On DArgentr, cf. Dictionnaire de biographic franaise, Paris, 1929 ff, III, cols. 576 ff.
13
A large section at the left elbow has been broken off and reattached; condition otherwise excellent.
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358
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Page 7
3. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Bust of the Savior (detail).
Norfolk, Va.,
Chrysler Museum
(photo: R. Thornton,
Providence, R.I.).
359
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5. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Bust of the Savior (detail).
Norfolk, Va.,
Chrysler Museum
(photo: R. Thornton,
Providence, R.I.).
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Page 9
7. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Bust of the Savior (detail).
Norfolk, Va.,
Chrysler Museum
(photo: R. Thornton,
Providence, R.I.).
361
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9. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Bust of the Savior (detail).
Norfolk, Va.,
Chrysler Museum
(photo: R. Thornton,
Providence, R.I.).
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Page 11
11. Gianlornzo Bernini, Study of the Bust of the Savior, drawing, 171 x 254mm,
Rome, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe.
363
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364
exactly what one would expect from an able copyist; that in Norfolk is
bold and challenging exactly what one would expect from the aged
Bernini.
In view of these considerations the Ses bust acquires an altogether
unexpected interest, since it is in many respects closer to the autograph
Corsini drawing (Fig. 11) than the Norfolk piece. The palm of the right
hand is not turned outward in an ambiguous gesture of abhorrence and
protection, but has the straightforward suggestion of benediction implied
in the drawing. The head and glance are not upward, but the head looks
directly to the side; the arrangement of hair and beard generally corresponds
more accurately with the drawing. To be sure, there are certain details in
which the Norfolk bust is closer: the locks falling on the right shoulder from
fluffy, clockwise spirals, whereas at Ses they turn back in tight, counterclockwise curls; the silhouette of the drapery at the Norfolk figures left is
also more like that in the sketch. Nevertheless, the Ses sculpture evidently
represents the conception shown in the Corsini drawing, whereas that in
Norfolk is a further development.
There is a simple and obvious explanation for this remarkable state of
affairs, the clue to which is provided by the inscription on the drawing. The
inscription chez S. A. M. le Duc de Bracciano refers to the bust and
indicates that it belongs to the Duke of Bracciano (Livio Odescalchi, who
inherited the work from Innocent XI, became Duke of Bracciano in 1696).
The inscription is in French, whence it is apparent that the drawing was
then in a French collection.14 In fact, Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini
(16851770), the great amateur and founder of the Corsini Collection,
spent years in Paris as minister of Grand Duke Cosimo III, and made many
acquisitions there.15 In all probability, Cureaus copy was made not from the
original, but from the drawing now in the Corsini Collection. Bernini himself must have sent the sketch to his friend, before his own work was finally
14
There was a French librarian of the Corsini in the early eighteenth century, J. D.
dInguimbert (16831757), native and subsequently Bishop of Carpentras (O. Pinto, Storia
della biblioteca corsiniana e della biblioteca dellAccademia dei Lincei, Florence, 1956, 22, 25,
40 f ); but he wrote and published many works in Italian, and his handwriting was completely different from that of the inscription (R. Caillet, Un prelat bibliophile et philanthropique. Monseigneur DInguimbert. Archevqiue-vque de Carpentras. 16381757, Audin,
1952, 101 ff, ill. opp. p. 80).
15
Pinto, Storia, 24 (cited in the preceding note); cf. F. Cerroti, Memorie per servire alla
storia dellincisione compilate nella descrizione e dichiarazione delle stampe che trovansi nella
biblioteca corsiniana, I, Rome, 1858, preface.
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carved.16 The inscription was added to the drawing while it was still in
France.
If this hypothesis is correct, the situation perhaps has an analogy in another
work commissioned by Cureau in Paris, reputedly after a design provided by
Bernini. This is the virtually unknown tomb of Cureaus father Marin Cureau
de la Chambre (16351669), physician to Louis XIV, in Saint-Eustache at
Paris (Fig. 13).17 Immortality is represented holding a medallion portrait of the
deceased.18 The Cureau tomb was executed by the Frenchified Roman
sculptor Jean-Baptiste Tuby (16351700); there are some similarities, in the
treatment of the drapery of the allegory and the hair of the portrait, which
suggest that Tuby might also have made the Ses bust.
Above all, I would emphasize the confirmatory evidence the Ses sculpture provides for the conceptual development between the Corsini drawing
and the version in Norfolk. While the unprecedented allusion within the
Salvator Mundi theme to Christ as intercessor was included from the outset, the horizontal glance and declamatory gesture of the Ses bust are distinctly extroverted; one modern observer understandably described the figure as teaching.19 The upward glance and reversed turn of the hand in the
Norfolk sculpture, by contrast, introduce a note of visionary withdrawal
and exaltation. I can think of no clearer insight into the tendency of
Berninis mind as he approached the end.
* * *
16
Brauer and Wittkower had suggested, and I doubted (Berninis Death, 172, n. 49),
that the head on the Corsini drawing was a later addition copied from the final work.
Perhaps the solution is that the head was added, to show Cureau how it would be.
17
The work was long at Versailles, but has recently been returned to Saint-Eustache.
According to another tradition, explicitly denied by M. Piganiol de la Force (Description de
Paris, 8 vols., Paris, 1742, III, 7), the design was by Le Brun (H. Jouin, Charles Le Brun et
les arts sous Louis XIV, Paris, 1889, 253 f, 615 f ). Cf. also E.-T. Hamy, Note sur un mdaillon de J.-B. Tuby reprsentant le portrait de M. Cureau de la Chambre, dmonstrateur au
Jardin Royal (16351669), Bulletin au Musum dhistoire naturelle, I, 1895, 22932; E.
Souli, Notice du muse national de Versailles, 3 vols., Paris, 188081, II, 67.
On Cureau father and son, see R. Kerviler, Marin et Pierre Cureau de la Chambre
(15931693), Le Mans, 1887, esp. 101, 118 f, 124 ff. On Cureaus artistic relations generally, cf. Kerviler, 127 f; he commissioned Pugets relief of St. Charles Borromeo at the Plague,
in Marseilles (K. Herding, Pierre Puget, Berlin, 1970, 198 f ).
18
On the tomb type, see R. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600 to 1750,
Harmondsworth, 1965, 294 f.
19
R. Gobillot, La cathdrale de Ses, Paris, 1937, 87.
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On the attitude toward death in the period generally, a valuable contribution will be found in M. Costanzo, Il Gran teatro del mondo, Milan,
1964, 47 ff, Pt. II, Mors victa.
In discussing Berninis drawing in Leipzig of the intercession of Christ
and the Virgin20 I overlooked two important contributions to the early
development of the theme, the study by M. Meiss, An Early Altarpiece
from the Cathedral of Florence, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
n.s., XII, 1954, 30217, and the extensive list of examples given by F. Zeri,
Italian Painting. A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. Florentine School, New York, 1971, 58 f; some later examples are discussed in B. Knipping, De Iconographie van de Contra-reformatie in de
Nederlanden, 2 vols., Hilversum, 193940, II, 34 ff.
Concerning the group of drawings by Baciccio related to Berninis
Sangue di Cristo composition, which B. Canestro Chiovenda, seconded by
myself, associated with Baciccios unexecuted decoration for the vestibule of
the Baptismal Chapel in Saint Peters,21 see now H. Macandrew, II.
Baciccios Later Drawings: A Rediscovered Group acquired by the
Ashmolean Museum, Master Drawings, X, 1972, 253 ff.
In considering the sources and meaning of the bust of Louis XIV and
the pedestal Bernini intended for it, which included a terrestrial globe with
the words Picciola basa, I referred to the kings impresa appearing on a
medal of 1664.22 This showed the sun rising over a terrestrial globe with the
motto Nec Pluribus Impar (not unequal to many).23 My emphasis was
upon the visual analogy, but since discovering Ernst Kantorowiczs genial
study of the theme represented by Louiss device, Oriens Augusti Lever du
Roi, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XVII, 1963, 117177, esp. 165 ff, it has
become plain to me that Berninis motto, too, was an allusion to that of the
king: this world is small for Louis, who is great enough to rule many.
Concerning the apparent weightlessness of the bust, suspended above the
globe by the wind-blown drapery, a passage in Domenico Berninis biography of his father documents the sculptors intention in this respect: Gli
Berninis Death, 169 ff, Fig. 3.
Ibid., 169, n. 32.
22
Ibid., 180, n. 68. A medal with the device bearing the date 1662 is reproduced in
C.-F. Menestrier, La devise du Roi justife, Paris, 1679, 30.
23
C. W. Faber, Symbol und Devise Ludwigs XIV., Mlhausen, 1878 (Staedtische
Gewerbeschule zu Mlhausen, Programm No. 427, Beilage).
20
21
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15. 17th-century
pedestal of the
Colonna Claudius
(detail).
Madrid, Museo
del Prado
(photo: Museo del
Prado).
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been responsible for the elaborate pedestal (Fig. 15) with eagles at the corners, relief landscapes representing cities, and phoenixes looking up toward
radiant emblems of the zodiac.27
On the pedestal cf. J. Villaamil y Castro, Grupo de mrmol conocido por la Apotosis
de Cludio que se conserva en el Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Museo Espaol de
Antigedades, V, 1875, 39 ff. We may add that the image of the phoenix looking toward the
zodiac recalls an emblem of the eagle gazing at the sun in G. Ruscellis
Le imprese illustri, Venice, 1566 (cf. F. A. Yates, The Emblematic Conceit in Giordano
Brunos De Gli Eroici Furori and in the Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences, Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, VI, 1943, 106) which, incidentally, appears as a religious
symbol on the balustrade of the altar of the Sacrament in San Giovanni in Laterano.
27
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VIII
OWARD Hibbards review of recent books on Roman Baroque architecture (The Art Bulletin, LV, March, 1973, 127135), which
included my monograph on the Crossing of Saint Peters, leaves an impression of the history of the baldachin that I fear may be misleading to the
casual reader. He writes (pages 128 f.):
Berninis design, preserved in the medal of 1626, in a sense contains almost no absolutely new elements: four angels, standing on twisted
columns, hold a baldachin. Over the whole are crossed ribs supporting
a figure of the Risen Christ. The ribs reflect Early Christian ciborium
designs. If the idea of bronze twisted columns was Madernos or at
least if it was an idea formulated under Paul V and if the idea of a
hanging that does not touch the columns or their cornice was also
Madernos, not much remains apart from the topmost statue and the
scale to attribute to Bernini but of course Madernos design may not
have looked anything like the medal of 1626. In the project of 1626 the
intimate combination of a ciborium with a permanent baldachin, apparently unprecedented, may be a reflection of the project reported by
Borromini [i.e., Madernos]. If one tries to envisage the Maderno project now, one inevitably sees such a combination thanks to the later
developments. And that is where we seem to be left.
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From all we now know of the pre-history of the baldachin, the fact remains that at least five revolutionary concepts appeared only after Bernini
entered the picture. Firstly, there is not the slightest evidence that Maderno
or anyone else had thought of true columns for the supports in a baldachin;
execution in bronze made it possible to preserve the tradition of twisted
columns in a monument of colossal scale. Secondly, the same may be said
for the angels who stand on the columns and carry the canopy by ribbons
(as, later, the Fathers of the Church sustain the Cathedra Petri by ribbons);
they work to link the architecture to the hanging. Thirdly, the same may be
said for connecting the columns by a cornice from which tasselled lappets
fall, a solution that actually preceded the 1626 medal (see further below);
this was also crucial to the ultimate fusion of the elements. Fourthly, the
same may be said for the basic point of the monument as a whole, which
is a new species comprising an architectural ciborium, a hanging canopy
and a processional baldachin; it is thus a kind of summa of the three main
honorific forms. All these features the baldachin-with-columns, the cornice-canopy, the carrying angels and the triune species are specifically
referred to Bernini in the criticisms of Agostino Ciampelli, who called his
design a chimera. Fifthly, the same may be said for the idea of imitating the
Early Christian form of the monument with open crossed ribs resting on
spiral columns, an allusion that became fundamental to the imagery of the
crossing.
Because its implications are relevant to the foregoing statements, I take
this opportunity to add a new piece that helps fill a large gap in the baldachin
puzzle. This is a temporary thalamus built by Orazio Torriani for the procession at Santa Maria sopra Minerva on the Feast of the Rosary (October 5)
in 1625, recorded in a description and an engraving (Fig. 1).1 It was over
My attention was first called to this work by the librarian at the Minerva, Benedetto
Cardieri O. P. See A. Brandi, Trionfo della gloriosissima Vergine del Santissimo Rosario celebrato
in Roma la prima Domenica dOttobre dell Anno Santo MDCXXV . . ., Rome, 1625, 5658,
ill. page 61 (copy in the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele, Rome). I quote the description in extenso: Prima bisogn pensare fabricare vn nobilissimo Talamo, che fusse come il carro
trionfale, in cui doueua portarsi limagine della Vergine, & essendo in Roma il Sig. Oratio
Torriani Architetto militare, & ciuile di S. M. Catolica, molto principale, adoperato
daSignori Cardinali, & da altri Prencipi, dal Sig. D. Carlo Barberino gli f commesso il disegno di questo Talamo, qual fece veramente ingegnoso, curioso, & vago. Era il Talamo
dordine Ionico, alto palmi trentadue, & mezo, & a proportione largo sedici, & haueua
nequattro angoli quattro basi, piedestalli alto palmi sei, & mezo, & di sopra quattro
colonne di rilieuo ritorte foggia di quelle del Tempio di Salomone, che hoggi si vedono
1
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capitello, dordine pur Ionico alto vn palmo, & mezo con suoi festoni, & voluti tutto messo
a oro, & sopra le quattro colonne recorreua vnarchitraue daltezza vn palmo, e vn quarto,
nel quale erano attaccati i pendoni a vso di baldachino dipinti con rose, & api che sono limpresa dell Eccellentissima fameglia Barberina, che dauano mirabil gratia a tutto il Talamo.
Sopra i quattro architraui veniua alzata in luogo di cupola vna bellissima corona imperiale
fatta alla grande, daltezza di palmi otto, & mezo, con sue costole inarcate, che andauano ad
vnirsi tutte insieme nella sommit. Era contornata tutta la corona di gioie, & di perle grosse
vnoncia, e meza lvna, & le gioie erano ouate, tonde, quadre, & a ottangoli, contornate doro
buono, & colorite di colore di smeraldi, di topazzi, carbonchi, giacinti, & diamanti, coperte
di talco per renderle pi lustre, che faceuano ricca, & superba mostra. Nella corona fra vna
costola, & laltra veniua posta con molto magistero vna tocca di finissimo argento fatta a
gelosia, con rose incarnate, rosse, & bianche di seta, & di cambrai negli scompartimenti, &
legature della mandola di detta tocca. Sopra le quattro colonne nequattro cantoni erano
quattro Angeli di rilieuo in piedi alti palmi tre, e mezo lvno, con le lorali, trauisati di tocca
dargento turchina, che teneuano da vna mano vna mappa grande di rose, & fior alla lor
grandezza proportionata, dallaltra rosari, e corone. Nella sommit in mezo a detta corona,
& cupola era vnAngelo dellistessa grandezza in atto di volare con vna mano piena di rose,
& laltra di corone, & di rosari, che parcua gli volesse gettare al popolo, & che linuitasse a
pigliarle.
Cf. G. Mazzuchelli, Gli scrittori dItalia, 2 Vols. in 6, Brescia, 175363, II, Pt. 4, 2010;
G. Ricciotti, ed., Giacinto Gigli, Diario romano, Rome, 1958, 8891.
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quite distinct tradition, that of the ceremonial cover suspended from above;
at the high altar he suggested hanging a canopy above twisted columns carrying an entablature, but with no contact between them. Urban VIII then
resolved finally to keep the tomb and high altar together, and gave the job
to Bernini. Berninis first proposal (as shown in the canonization engraving)
was to create a coherent monument by merging baldachin and ciborium
with each other and with the Early Christian prototype. The reference to
the central portion of the earliest, Constantinian shrine was accurate, and
the mixed marriage of types was complete. The union was sutured by the
cornice-canopy, and the result was a mysterious, hybrid creature. The next
stage was that shown in the medal of 1626. This was a merger of Madernos
project with Berninis initial design, motivated no doubt by the syntactical
criticisms levelled at the first version. The cornice between the columns was
eliminated and the canopy was suspended above the architecture; the angels
now provided a logical link by standing on the former and holding up the
latter. A new hybrid was created between hanging canopy and ciborium.
The final version was in turn a conflation of Berninis 1626 solution with
his original project, motivated this time by the practical objection we know
was raised, that the columns might give way under the weight of the figure
of Christ. The load was lightened by substituting the globe and cross, the
number of ribs was increased to add support, and their shape was changed
to verticalize the thrusts. But en revanche, the cornice-canopy was reintroduced to serve as ties between the columns. The contradiction in terms
inherent in the motif was resolved, or rather deliberately expressed through
the ambiguous task the angels now perform: they hold garlands that simply
disappear between the ribs and the cornice. The monument thus became
equally stable, logical and mysterious. So Bernini was able to eat Madernos
cake and have his own too.2
2
Incidentally, this interpretation, including Berninis ultimate return to his earliest design, helps to explain the latest in the series of his preserved sketches for the crown of the
baldachin (H. Brauer and R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin,
1931, Pl. 8). Here the ribs have virtually their final shape and the cornice-canopy runs between the columns. But the angels perform no task and the ribs are draped with ribbons, as
in the first project.
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IX
Calculated Sponteneity.
Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch
F all the treasures in the Fogg Museum perhaps the rarest and the richest is the series of clay preparatory sketches, or bozzetti, by the great
Roman baroque sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini (15981680). Bernini was
over eighty when he died and he was extremely prolific; along with a continuous stream of drawings, he must have made many hundreds of these
small and fragile terracottas, of which only some forty survive. The Fogg has
by far the largest and most important collection, with fifteen pieces by the
Master. Since they cover nearly the whole of Bernini's creative life and
include instances of multiple studies for the same project, they offer a unique
opportunity to follow the generative process that yielded his famous sculptures in marble and bronze. Their main interest, however, lies not in their
rarity, nor yet in the insights they provide into the sequence of Bernini's
visual ideas. Rather, it is their quality as works of art that primarily commands attention, and this for one reason above all others their astonishing freshness and spontaneity. Not only do the figures represented act with
profound emotion and vivacious movement, the clay itself is worked with
the fingers and modelling tools in deft touches and rapid strokes that record
the artist's handiwork, literally for he left his finger-prints everywhere
as well as figuratively. They bespeak a kind of perfervid creative energy that
is virtually without parallel in the history of sculpture.1
1
The Fogg terracottas were first published by R. Norton, Bernini and Other Studies,
1914, pp. 4449; Bernini's models were the subject of a dissertation by the writer (The
Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1955), who is preparing a critical corpus of these works for
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CALCULATED SPONTANEITY
377
The Bernini bozzetti are part of a group of twenty-seven models purchased by the Museum in 1937 from Mrs. Edward Brandegee of Brookline,
Massachusetts, whose husband had bought them in 1905 from Giovanni
Piancastelli, along with a portion of Piancastelli's large collection of Italian
baroque drawings.2 Piancastelli (18451926) was a well-known painter and
collector who was then Director of the Borghese Gallery in Rome. When
and where he obtained the terracottas is a mystery. The chances are that he
had not owned them for long when he sold them to the Brandegees: a major
exhibition of Bernini's work was held in Rome in 1899, which included a
number of Piancastelli's drawings; but none of the models is mentioned in
the reviews of the show, nor do any of them appear in the large biography
of Bernini published by Stanislao Fraschetti in 1900. They must have surfaced not long afterwards, and very probably as a group, since it is difficult
to imagine their being assembled from disparate sources in such a relatively
short period.
Piancastelli is known to have acquired the entire contents of artists'
studios from their heirs. Perhaps they had been brought together by some
previous collector, but it is tempting to suppose that those by Bernini had
always been together and that they originally came from the artist's own
studio. In the inventory of Bernini's possessions taken in 1681, shortly after
his death, it is in fact noted that a large number of such models were found
in the attic studio of the house; a second inventory taken in 1706 records
that many of the models had in the meantime been destroyed, but also that
a number of them had been given to the artist's favourite assistant in his
later years, the sculptor Giulio Cartari.3 It seems a fair guess that Cartari's
publication. Frequently discussed in the specialized Bernini literature,they are also noted in
the catalogue of the standard monograph on his sculptures by R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo
Bernini. The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 1966.
2
Piancastelli's drawings, later reunited, are now in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New
York.
3
'Nel d.o studio vi sono alcune quantit di teste di gesso et altre parti humane con alcuni
modelli di creta' (27 January, 1681); Rome, Archivio di Stato, Not. A.C. Mazzeschus,
Istrumenti, Busta 4246, fol. 501 verso.
'Nelli soffitti di sopra, in una vi una quantit di modelli di creta della b. m. del Sg.r Cav.re
. . . et altre robbe ...per la casa di poco valore, q.li robbe, cio modelli di creta col trasportarli in
altre stanze, e per il tempo di anni 25. si sono rotti . . .' (17 January, 1706); ibid., Not. A. C.
Francischinus, Istrumenti, Busta 3249, fol. 78 recto.
'Nel d.o studio vi erano alcune teste di gesso, et altre parti humane con alcuni modelli di creta
mezzi rotti, quali tutti per esser stati trasportati in guardaroba, si sono rotti, e
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collection formed at least the nucleus of that now in the Fogg; this would
offer a plausible explanation for the unique character of the group its
size, its wide chronological range and its inclusion of several studies for individual projects.
Although the making of models in preparation for works in sculpture
might seem to be a natural, and is in fact a very ancient practice, it does not
by any means enjoy a continuous history.4 Many Egyptian sculptors'
models are preserved, and the use of models in classical antiquity is amply
documented. In the Middle Ages, however, the practice was replaced by the
method commonly described as 'direct carving', that is, the work was conceived and executed simultaneously, as it were, without advanced preparation of this sort; the creative process, born of a millennial craft tradition,
was unified, internal and automatic. The sculptural model was reborn in
the Renaissance, when it acquired new forms and vitality it had never had
before. Its reappearance, both as an integral part of the sculptor's working
procedure and as an aesthetically appreciated art object, went hand in hand
with the emergence of a coherent theory of the creative process itself. In the
sixteenth century elaborate treatises, notably by Vasari and Benvenuto
Cellini, lay considerable stress upon successive stages in the preparation of
a work, and directions for making a sequence of models are set forth in
detail. From the same period, and beginning especially with Michelangelo,
various model-types are preserved which correspond more or less with these
prescriptions: the small, rapidly executed bozzetto; the more carefully finished intermediate study; and the full-scale model of which the final work
is essentially the duplicate in a permanent material. Paradoxically, therefore,
the record of the artist's spontaneous creative activity emerged as the
creative process itself became more discrete, external and deliberate.
While obviously rooted in this heritage, Bernini's models differ from
those of his predecessors in a variety of ways. One of these is in their number. Even the most stringent count leaves far more extant by him than by
spezzati, e non vi sono piu, e qualche portione ne fu donato al Sig.r Giulio Cardare allievo del
Sig.r Cav.re per esser cose di poco rilievo'; ibid., fol. 67 recto (published by S. Fraschetti,
Il Bernini, 1900, p. 431 n.).
4
For what follows see the writer's essay, Bozetti and Modelli. Notes on Sculptural
Procedure from the Early Renaissance through Bernini', in Akten des 21. internationalen
Kongresses fr Kunstgeschichte (1964), 1967, pp. 93104 The Standard collection of
sixteentheighteenth century examples is that of A. E. Brinckmann, Barock-Bozetti, 4 vols.
192325. For a general Survey of the history of sculptural procedure, see recently R.
Wittkower, Sculpture, Processes and Principles, 1977.
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any previous sculptor; and to judge from the report of a contemporary witness who was astonished to see in Bernini's studio no fewer than twentytwo small models for the figure of St. Longinus (the one now in the Fogg,
the only one preserved, may have been among them),5 there can be little
doubt that he actually produced many more such studies than had been
customary.
Other notable features of Bernini's preparatory sculptures concern their
physical character, that is, their relative scale, material and degree of finish.
Except under certain special conditions largely external to the imaginative
process when a try-out of the projected work was called for, when it was
to be submitted to a patron, when it was to serve as a prototype for execution by assistants or when it was to be cast in bronze Bernini seems to
have largely foregone the earlier system of bringing the work to completion
through stages of increasing scale and precision. To an unprecedented
degree, the small, rapidly executed terracotta sketch was his characteristic
instrument of creation in three dimensions. His preference for clay, which
may be worked rapidly but soon dries out, also contrasts with the frequent
earlier use of wax, which remains soft but must be laboriously modelled.
There are concomitant differences in technique from prior tradition.
Earlier models were generally built up by adding material and working with
the fingers, modelling tools being used to help achieve a relatively uniform
surface. Bernini continued to work partly in this way, but mainly he
gouged, scraped, poked and clawed away from a mound of clay, as if it were
a block of stone that had somehow become malleable, creating infinitely
more varied effects. Bernini's bozzetti are also novel in that they are normally worked only from one side. Heretofore, the sculptor's model was
almost always executed 'in-the-round', with the back as fully developed as
the front. The final works for which they were made were conceived to be
seen from all sides; indeed, one of the great achievements of the sixteenth
century was precisely this kind of sculptural self-sufficiency. By contrast,
Bernini's sculptures have a dominant viewpoint, and he tended to leave the
backs of his models rough, sometimes finishing them off into a smooth
pillar of clay that sufficed to buttress the figure.
5
Cf. J. von Sandrart, Teutsche Academie, Nrnberg, 1675, ed. A. Peltzer, 1925, p. 286
Sandrart notes that other sculptors made only one or two models. He mentions that the
studies were all three spans high (c. 68cm.) and made of wax; the material seems doubtful,
since this would be the unique instance of Bernini studying in wax.
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The sum of all these innovations is again paradoxical. On the one hand
it is clear that Bernini greatly increased the absolute quantity of preparation
for a work in sculpture, in the specific sense of trying out and rejecting
ideas in three dimensions. On the other, it is also evident that he did all
he could to 'streamline' the creative mechanism, reducing every aspect of
conception and manufacture to the barest minimum. His goal in this twofold method can only be understood from the relation of the models to the
finished products.
Among the earliest and most important of the Fogg terracottas is that for
the colossal marble figure of St. Longinus which the artist made in the 1630s
and '40s for one of the niches in the piers that support the dome of St. Peter's
in Rome (Fig. 1). The model documents the birth of one of Bernini's most
revolutionary conceptions a figure with both arms outstretched, and
therefore in utter defiance of the self-contained silhouette and closed form
that had been conventional for the monumental standing figure in marble.
The work alludes to the Roman centurion's sudden conversion at the
moment when he pierced the side of Christ on the Cross with his lance. The
event itself is not represented, however; instead, Bernini created an ideal
moment of self-realization in the crucifixion, to which the saint bore double
witness, as it were, through his actual participation and ultimately through
his own martyrdom. The shield and helmet at Longinus's feet refer to his
subsequent rejection of his violent worldly profession in favour of the religious life of peace. The pose not only imitates the crucifixion, but everything
in the composition strains upward in great, sweeping diagonals toward the
cross that was placed atop the baldachino over the high altar. Technically the
study is unusual among those remaining by Bernini. It is 52.7 cm. high,
rather larger in scale than the very small sketches, which average around 30
cm., it is smoothly finished and gilt, with the texture of the armour carefully
indicated by little pin-pricks; and it is hollowed at the back for firing (the
others must have been lightly baked, but would have cracked under very
high temperatures). All this indicates that the model had a special purpose;
perhaps Bernini used it to demonstrate his novel idea for the figure to the
governing body of the works at St. Peter's.
Another unusual model type is represented by the life-size (35.7 cm. high)
head of a bearded old man, which is a study for the marble figure of St.
Jerome Bernini executed during 166163 for the chapel of Pope Alexander
VII in the cathedral of Siena (Fig. 2). The lowered eyelids and open mouth
express the saint's utter devotion to the small crucifix he holds close to his
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6. Angel with the Crown of Thorns, 166768. Terracotta, height 33.7 cm.
Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, 1937.58.
385
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cheek in the final work. From a technical standpoint it is one of the richest of
all the studies, displaying in a kind of close-up view the subtly modulated
shapes and myriad textures Bernini achieved with his fingers and tools of different sorts not only the forms themselves but also highlights and shadows, even the tonal values of colours. This is especially evident in his use of
the toothed rasp: fine parallel lines evoke the feel and sheen of hair in the
beard, eyebrows, etc., as well as the reddening of the skin at the cheek-bone;
a stroke of a coarser rasp gives life to the depression at the left temple. Bernini
was acutely aware of the inherent colourlessness of sculpture and emphasized,
particularly in the matter of portraits, that it was often necessary to distort
natural form in order to render the effect of a change in hue. The Fogg terracotta is not a portrait, but the relationship is pertinent since, so far as we
know, it was only in preparing for portrait busts that Bernini modelled separate studies of the head from life. The work belongs in another context, as
well. Artists' studios at this period were filled with sculptural fragments of the
human anatomy such as hands, feet and heads; but mostly these were pieces
or casts from earlier sculptures, usually antiques, which served as reminders
and as examples to be copied by aspiring apprentices. The Fogg model is the
earliest monumental study-head that has come down to us, and as such it
anticipates the deliberately fragmentary portraits of Rodin.
The chief pride of the collection are the two series of studies for angels,
one standing, the other kneeling. The four standing figures form part of
Bernini's personal contribution to a project of the late 1660s in which,
under his general supervision the balustrades of a bridge across the Tiber
leading to the Holy City were decorated with ten over life-size statues in
marble of angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. Bernini's basic
conceit was to represent the figures as if they had just alighted from the blue
sky against which they are seen, bearing their mementos of Christ's sufferings. Bernini initially executed two angels, those carrying the inscription on
the cross and the crown of thorns; they were regarded as too fine to be
installed on the bridge and are now to be seen in the church of Sant' Andrea
della Fratte (Fig. 3). An assistant's copy of the angel with the crown was
installed on the bridge, along with a second version of the angel with the
inscription by Bernini himself. The Fogg possesses two models for the first
version of the angel with the inscription (Figs. 4, 5) and two for the angel
with the crown (Figs. 6 and 7),6 while several more are preserved in other
One of the Fogg bozetti (1937.68), sometimes identified with the angel with the crown, is
actually a study by Bernini for the angel with the scourge, which was executed by another sculptor.
6
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N an essay on Berninis death and the art he made in preparation for it,
I stressed the significance of the monumental support he designed for his
last work, the great marble bust of the Savior, now in the Chrysler Museum
at Norfolk, Virginia.1 The pedestal is described in an early inventory as consisting of a socle surmounted by two kneeling angels who held in their
hands a base of Sicilian jasper, on which the bust itself rested. The socle and
angels, made of gilt wood, were nearly two meters high, the jasper base was
28 cm. high and 50 cm. wide at the bottom, and the bust is 93 cm. high,
for a total of more than three meters. In a footnote I expressed puzzlement
as to how the weight of an over lifesize marble bust was sustained in the
hands of wooden angels.
I recently obtained a photograph of a splendid black chalk drawing in
the Bernini codex in the Museum der bildenden Knste (Fig. 2), which is
clearly an autograph study for the pair of kneeling angels and was no doubt
executed in conjunction with the famous sketch for the bust in the
Gabinetto delle Stampe in Rome (Fig.1).2 Although we still have no direct
1
Bernini's Death, Art Bulletin, LIV, 1972, 15886, cf. 171 ff; also, Afterthoughts on
Bernini's Death, ibid., LV, 1973, 429436.
2
151 x 188 mm. I am indebted for their kindness to Prof. Dr. Ernst Ullmann of Leipzig
University, to Prof. Dr. Gerhard Winkler, Director of the Leipzig Museum, and to KarlHeinz Mehnert, Curator of the drawing collection. The drawing is noted, without identification and as a workshop piece, in H. Brauer and R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des
Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin, 1931, 172, n. 2.
The Rome drawing measures 171 x 254 mm. The sketches are reproduced here in proportion to their actual sizes.
394
395
evidence for the lowermost part of the design, the Leipzig sketch makes several important contributions to our understanding of Berninis conception.
The problem of supporting the sculpture was resolved by an ingenious
use of drapery, which envelops the angels arms and hands and falls in loose
vertical folds to the socle below. The device should not be thought of simply as a deception; rather, in classic Berninesque fashion it makes a virtue of
necessity, incorporating the ancient tradition of covering the hands of those
who touch sacred things.3 In this case the material seems to come from the
shoulders and may have a liturgical, specifically Eucharistic import:
the humeral veil worn during Mass by the subdeacon, who uses it to hold
the paten on which the Host rests, and by the celebrant to carry the monstrance in the procession of Corpus Christi and in giving benediction with
the Holy Sacrament.4 The top of the socle may have been stepped, as in certain comparable projects of the late period,5 but the sketch suggests that its
upper surface was roughly domical; if so, it presumably referred to Mount
Calvary, above which the image of the Savior is borne in triumph. This, too,
has resonance in other works of Bernini, notably the equestrian statue of
Louis XIV, which was shown at the summit of the rocky peak of Herculean
virtue .6 The reference to the Crucifixion was echoed in the half-hidden gesture of Christs left hand, which alludes to the wound from the lance of
Saint Longinus. The base held by the angels was evidently polygonal, rather
than round or square or oblong.7 This design, unique among Berninis
busts, serves to differentiate the portrait of Christ from those of ordinary
men, and recalls the fact that the regular polygon was one of the shapes he
considered most perfect.8 Finally, extrapolating to the drawing the dimensions given for the base, one deduces that the angels and the socle must each
3
On the motive of veiled hands, see R. Hatfield, Botticellis Uffizi Adoration. A Study in
Pictorial Content, Princeton, 1976, 35 ff.
4
Cf. J. A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (Missarum
Sollemnia), 2 vols., New York, etc., 195155, II, 307; J. O'Connell, The Celebration of Mass.
A Study of the Rubrics of the Roman Missal, 3 vols., Milwaukee, 194041, I, 268 f.
5
See the sketches for sacrament altars reproduced in Brauer and Wittkower,
Zeichnungen, Pls. 131a, 133.
6
Cf. R. Wittkower, The Vicissitudes of a Dynastic Monument. Bernini's Statue of
Louis XIV, in M. Meiss, ed., De Artibus Opuscula, XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky,
New York, 1961, 497531.
7
The polygonal design of the base is reflected in that of the copy of the Savior in Ses
Cathedral (partly visible in Lavin, Afterthoughts, Fig. 2).
8
See the record of Bernini's statement in Paris in 1665, in L. Lalanne, ed., Journal du
voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France par M. De Chantelou, Paris, 1885, 167.
396
have been about a meter high. The angels would thus have appeared as lifesize adolescents; placed at eye level, they provided a direct measure of the
superhuman scale of the object they held aloft.
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* An earlier version of this essay appeared in Lavin et al. (1981) pp. 2554. Since the
original publication, Professor Dieter Wuttke of Bamberg has kindly brought to my attention an important article by Arndt (1970), in which several of the points dealt with here are
anticipated. In particular Arndt suggests (p. 272) a similar interpretation of the sketch by
Drer discussed below. On later appreciation of childrens drawings, see Georgel (1980).
Also, my colleague John Elliott acquainted me with a remarkable sketch in which Philip IV
of Spain and his minister Olivares are crudely portrayed as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza;
but the drawing is not independent and is clearly much later than the manuscript, dated
1641, to which it was added along with a postscript (on this point I am indebted to Sandra
Sider of the Hispanic Society of America). See Elliott (1964, Pl. 19 opposite p. 344).
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dentally, as in certain remote corners of the globe; or perseveres incidentally within the domain of high culture in certain extra-, preter-, or noncultural contexts, as in the art of the untutored (popular and folk, including graffiti), of children, of the insane.1
Without presuming to challenge the biological theory of evolution as
such, my view of the matter in art-historical terms is quite different. I would
argue that man has what might be described as an unartistic heritage that
persists, whether recognized or not, alongside and notwithstanding all
developments to the contrary. High and low, the sophisticated and the
naive, are always present as cultural alternatives in all societies, even
primitive ones exerting opposite and equal thrusts in the history of
human awareness and self-revelation. They may appear to exist, develop,
and function independently, but in fact they are perennial alter egos, which
at times interact directly. High and low art, like Beauty and the Beast, go
hand in hand.
A striking and surprising case in point is offered by a series of mosaic
pavements found in a great and lavishly decorated house at Olynthus in
Greece, dating from the early fourth century B.C.2 Here the figural compositions with concentric borders display all the order and discipline we
normally associate with Greek thought (Fig. 1). Traces of this rationality are
discernible in certain of the floors where large geometric motifs are placed
in the center above finely lettered augural inscriptions, such as Good
Fortune or Lady Luck, while various crudely drawn apotropaic symbols
circles, spirals, swastikas, zigzags appear here and there in the background (Fig. 2). Finally, the entire composition may be dissolved in an
amorphous chaos from which the magical signs shine forth mysteriously
helter-skelter like stars in the firmament the random arrangement is as
Insofar as the notion of high/low includes that of primitivism, there is a substantial
bibliography, beginning with the classic work of Lovejoy and Boas (1935); more recent
literature on primitivism in art will be found in Encyclopedia (195987, vol. 11, columns
70417), to which should be added Gombrich ([1960], 1985), and, for the modern period,
Rubin, ed., 1985. Further discussion of some aspects of the problem will be found in an
essay on Picassos lithographic series The BuIl, in a volume of my essays to be published by
the University of California Press (1991). If one includes related domains, such as popular
art, the art of children and the insane what I have elsewhere called art without history
the subject of their relations to sophisticated art has yet to receive a general treatment.
The development of interest in the art of the insane, in particular has now been studied in
an exemplary fashion by MacGregor (1989).
2
On the Olynthus mosaics, see Salzmann (1982, pp. 100 ff ).
1
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deliberate and significant as the signs themselves (Fig. 3). The entire gamut
of expressive form and meaningful thought seems here encapsulated, at the
very apogee of the classical period in Greece, when the great tradition of
European high art was inaugurated. The Olynthus mosaics reveal the common ground mans sense of the supernatural that lies between the
extremes of high and low to which we give terms like mythology and
superstition.
The subsequent development of Greco-Roman art also abounds in various kinds and phases of radical retrospectivity Neo-Attic, Archaistic,
Egyptianizing in which the naturalistic ideals of classical style were thoroughly expunged. Virtuoso performances by artists of exquisite taste and
refined technique recaptured the awkward grace and innocent charm of a
distant and venerable past. The retrospective mode might even be adopted
in direct apposition to the classical style, as in the reliefs of a late-fourthcentury altar from Epidaurus, where the archaistic design of the figure on
the side contrasts with the contemporary forms of those on the front (Figs.
4 and 5).3
A conspicuous and historically crucial instance of such a coincidence of
artistic opposites occurred at the end of classical antiquity, in the arch in
Rome dedicated in A.D. 315 to celebrate the emperor Constantines victory
over his rival, Maxentius. Parts of earlier monuments celebrating the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius were incorporated in the sculptural decorations of the arch, along with contemporary reliefs portraying
the actions of Constantine himself (Fig. 6). The rondels display all the
nobility and grace of the classical tradition, while the friezes below seem
rigid, rough, and ungainly, culturally impoverished. It used to be thought
that the arch was a monument of decadence, a mere pastiche in which
Constantines craftsmen salvaged what they could of the high style art of
their predecessors, using their own inadequate handiwork only when necessary. In fact, there is ample evidence to show that the juxtaposition was
deliberate, intended to create a complementary contrast that would illustrate Constantines intention to incorporate the grandeur of the Empire at
the height of its power with the humble spirituality of the new Christian
ideal of dominion. The latter mode may be understood partly in contemporary terms, as an elevation to the highest level of imperial patronage of
vulgar forms, whether native to the indigenous populace of Rome or
3
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2. Olynthus, Villa of Good Fortune, pebble mosaic with inscription and symbols
(double axe, swastika, wheel of fortune) [from Robinson (1934), p. 504, fig. 2].
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06:47
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402
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6. Arch of
Constantine,
medallions and
frieze on north side.
Rome (photo:
Alinari 12325).
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imported from the provinces.4 It has been suggested, however that the vulgar style, which was destined to play a seminal role in the development of
medieval art, was also a conscious evocation of Romes remote, archaic past,
when simplicity, austerity, and self-sacrifice had first laid the foundation of
a new world order.5
An analogous phenomenon has been observed in the context of
medieval art itself at the height of the Romanesque period. Many churches
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, including some of the most illustrious, display more or less isolated reliefs executed in a crude, infantile manner and illustrating grotesque or uncouth subjects (Fig. 7).6 Although they
were formerly dismissed as reused debris from a much earlier preRomanesque period, recent study has shown that such works are in fact
contemporary with, often part of the very fabric of the buildings they
adorn. They might even proudly display the inscribed signature of the
sculptor and the bold suggestion has been made that the same artist may
also have been responsible for the more familiar and more sophisticated
parts of the decoration. Such stylistic and thematic interjections must be
meaningful, especially since they inevitably recall the real spolia, bits and
pieces of ancient monuments, with which many medieval churches are
replete. These deliberately retrieved fragments, often discordantly incorporated into the new masonry, bore physical witness to the supersession of
paganism by Christianity. Perhaps the substandard Romanesque reliefs
express a similar idea in contemporary terms.
The particular subject of this paper may thus quite properly be viewed
as one episode in the general history of the phenomenon of cultural
extremes that sometimes touch. The episode, however is an important one
in the development of European culture because, despite the many
antecedents, something new happened in the Renaissance. The classical
ideals of naturalism and high culture were not only retrieved, they were also
revived, refined, regularized, and embedded in a theoretical framework.
This philosophical, mathematical, even theological structure, which culminated toward the end of the sixteenth century in a treatise by Gian Paolo
Lomazzo with the significant title Lidea del tempio della pittura (1590),
See the exemplary discussion of the arch in Kitzinger (1977, pp. 7 ff ).
This last is the luminous suggestion of Tronzo (1986). For the parameters of this idea
in terms of classical literary style, see Gombrich (19661).
6
On these works see Schmitt (1980); the fundamental importance of Schmitts study for
our understanding of medieval art has yet to be fully grasped.
4
5
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served not only to explain and justify the classical values themselves; it also
raised their practitioners to the level of liberal, and therefore noble artists.
The classical ideals, albeit in many variations, were thus enshrined in a code
of visual behavior as it were, that had every bit the force of indeed, it was
often directly linked to a code of personal behavior in social terms. To
this unprecedented idea of a pure, high art, elevated to the apex of an
explicit theoretical and social scale of values, there was an equal and opposite reaction, on the same terms. One of the products of this reaction was
the creation of caricature, an art form that we still today think of as peculiarly modern.
Berninis caricature of Pope Innocent Xl (Fig. 8) is one of the few traces
of the artists handiwork that have come down to us from the very last years
of his life. Bernini was seventy-eight and had only four years to live when
Benedetto Odescalchi was elected pope, at the age of sixty-five, in 1676. As
a work of art, the drawing is slight enough a few tremulous, if devastating, pen lines sketched in a moment of diversion on a wisp of paper measuring barely four and a half by seven inches.7 Despite its modest pretensions
in part actually because of them, as we shall see the work represents
a monumental watershed in the history of art: it is the first true caricature
that has come down to us of so exalted a personage as a pope. Signifying as
it does that no one is beyond ridicule, it marks a critical step in the development, perhaps the beginning, of what can properly be called the art of social
satire, a new form of visual expression in which the noblest traditions of
European art and society are called into question. The forces here unleashed
would ultimately, in the modern period, challenge the notion of tradition
itself.
By and large, before Bernini there were two chief methods of ridiculing
people in a work of art. The artist might poke fun at a particular individual, independently of any setting or ideological context, if the victim occupied a relatively modest station in life. Such, evidently, were the informal
little comic sketches of friends and relatives by Agostino and Annibale
Carracci, described in the sources but now lost. These ritrattini carichi, or
charged portraits, as the Carracci called them, were certainly among the
For a description and bibliography, see Lavin et al. (1981, catalogue number 99,
pp. 33637). Traces of further drawing appear at the upper right. Bernini evidently cut off
a portion of a larger sheet in order to make the caricature, which he may have drawn for his
personal satisfaction and kept for himself. Twenty-five caricatures are mentioned in a 1706
inventory of Berninis household; Fraschetti (1900, p. 247).
7
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primary inspirations of Berninis caricatures (Fig. 9). Alternatively, the victim might be grand, and he would be represented in a context that reflected
his position in society. The artists of the Reformation, for example, had
made almost a specialty of satirizing the popes as representatives of a hated
institution and its vices (Fig. 10). In the former case the individuality of the
victim was important, but he was not; in the latter case the opposite was
true.8
The differences between Berninis drawing and these antecedents have to
do, on the one hand, with the form of the work a particular kind of
drawing that we immediately recognize and refer to as a caricature and,
on the other with its content the peculiar appearance and character of a
specific individual who might even be the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman
Catholic Church. I shall offer my remarks under those general headings.9
Much of what I shall have to say was already said, at least implicitly, in
the accounts of Berninis caricatures given by his early biographers, who
were well aware of the significance of his achievement in this domain.
Filippo Baldinucci reports that Berninis boldness of touch (franchezza di
tocco) in drawing was
truly miraculous; and I could not say who in his time was his equal
For a general account of social criticism in postmedieval art, see Shikes (1969).
A fine analysis of the nature of the Carraccis ritrattini carichi, with the attribution to
Annibale of the drawing reproduced here, will be found in Posner (1971, pp. 6570,
Fig. 59; and cf. Fig. 60, certainly cut from a larger sheet), but see also Bohlin (1979, pp. 48,
67, nn. 83 f ); so far as can be determined, Annibales drawings displayed neither the social
content nor the distinctive draftsmanship of Berninis caricatures, nor is it clear that they
were autonomous sheets. On the papal satires of the Reformation, see Grisar and Heege
(192123); Koepplin and Falk (197476, vol. 2, pp. 498522).
9
For caricature generally and for bibliography see Encyclopedia (195987, vol. 3,
columns 73435). For a useful recent survey of caricature since the Renaissance, see
Caricature (1971). On the development in Italy the fundamental treatment is that of
Juynboll (1934); important observations will be found in a chapter by E. Kris and E. H.
Gombrich in Kris (1952, pp. 189203), and in Gombrich (1972, pp. 330 ff ). The pages on
Berninis caricatures in Brauer and Wittkower (1931, pp. 18084), remain unsurpassed; but
see also Boeck (1949), Harris (1975, p. 158), and Harris (1977, p. xviii, numbers 40, 41).
The latter has questioned whether the caricatures in the Vatican Library and the Gabinetto
Nazionale delle Stampe in Rome, attributed to Bernini by Brauer and Wittkower, are autographs or close copies; however, the issue does not affect the general argument presented
here. Caricature drawings attributed to Bernini other than those noted by Brauer and
Wittkower and by Harris (1977) will be found in Cooke (1955); Sotheby (1963, Lot 18);
Stampfle and Bean (1967, vol.2, pp. 54 f ).
8
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in this ability. An effect of this boldness was his singular work in the
kind of drawing we call caricature, or exaggerated sketches, wittily
malicious deformations of peoples appearance, which do not destroy
their resemblance or dignity, though often they were great princes
who enjoyed the joke with him, even regarding their own faces, and
showed the drawings to others of equal rank.10
Domenico Bernini, the artists son, gives the following formulation:
at that time [under Urban VIII] and afterwards he worked singularly
in the kind of drawing commonly referred to as caricature. This was
a singular effect of his spirit, in which as a joke he deformed some
natural defect in peoples appearance, without destroying the resemblance, recording them on paper as they were in substance, although
in part obviously altered. The invention was rarely practiced by other
artists, it being no easy matter to derive beauty from the deformed,
symmetry from the ill-proportioned. He made many such drawings,
and he mostly took pleasure in exaggerating the features of princes
and important personages, since they in turn enjoyed recognizing
themselves and others, admiring the great inventiveness of the artist
and enjoying the game.11
In Berninis drawings, Si scorge simmetria maravigliosa, maest grande, e una tal
franchezza di tocco, che propriamente un miracolo; ed io non saprei dire chi mai nel suo
tempo gli fusse stato equale in tal facolt. Effetto di questa franchezza stato laver egli
operato singolarmente in quella sorte di disegno, che noi diciamo caricatura o di colpi caricati,
deformando per ischerzo a mal modo leffigie altrui, senza togliere loro la somiglianza, e la
maest, se talvolta eran principi grandi, come bene spesso accadeva per lo gusto, che avevano
tali personaggi di sollazzarsi con lui in si fatto trattenimento, anche intorno apropri volti,
dando poi a vedere i disegni ad altri di non minore affare. Baldinucci ([1682] 1948, p. 140).
11
Ne devesi passar sotto silenzio lhavere ei in quel tempo & appresso ancora, singolarmente operate in quella sorte di Disegno, che communemente chiamasi col nome di
Caricatura. F queste uneffetto singolare del suo spirito, poich in essi veniva a deformare,
come per ischerzo, laltrui effigie in quelle parti per, dove la natura haveva in qualche mode
difettato, e senza toglier lore la somiglianza, li rendeva su le Carte similissimi, e quali in sostanza
essi erano, benche se ne scorgesse notabilmente alterata, e caricata una parte; Invenzione rare
volte pratticata da altri Artefici, non essendo giuoco da tutti, ricavare il bello dal deforme, e
dalla sproporzione la simetria. Ne fece egli dunque parecchi, e per lo pi si dilettava di caricare
leffigie de Principi, e Personaggi grandi, per lo gusto, che essi poi ne ricevevono in rimirarsi
que medesimi, pur dessi, e non essi, ammirando eglino in un tempo lIngegno grande
dellArtefice, e solazzandosi con si fatto trattenimento. Bernini (1713, p. 28).
10
408
8. Bernini, caricature of
Pope Innocent XI,
drawing. Leipzig,
Museum der bildenden
Knste.
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earliest such works that have come down to us (Fig. 13).14 Another category,
especially relevant in our context, was the portrait drawing, which by
Berninis time had also become a distinct genre. In the early seventeenth
century there was a specialist in this field in Rome, Ottavio Leoni; he portrayed many notables of the period, including Bernini himself (Fig. 14),
who also made regular portrait drawings of this sort (cf. Fig. 17).15 (In
Berninis case the complementarity and contrast between the two independent graphic forms extend even to the identifying inscriptions: on the
caricatures, a coarse scrawl with the name and professional qualification in
the vulgar language; on the formal portrait, a humanistic Latin epigraph in
calligraphic minuscules, but not the noble majuscules of classical epigraphy.) A common characteristic of these early autonomous drawings is that
they were highly finished, and the draftsman tended to invent or adopt special devices which distinguish them from other kinds of drawings:16
Michelangelos famous stippling and rubbing is one example, Leonis mixture of colored chalks is another. These works are carefully executed, rich in
detail, and complex in technique. The artist, in one way or another created
an independent form midway between a sketch and a painting or sculpture.
We shall explore the peculiar graphic qualities of Berninis caricatures
presently. For the moment it is important to note that they incorporate two
interrelated innovations with respect to this prior history of drawing as an
end in itself. Berninis are the first such independent drawings in which the
technique is purely graphic, i.e., the medium is exclusively pen and ink, the
forms being outlined without internal modeling; and in them the rapidity,
freshness, and spontaneity usually associated with the informal sketch
become an essential feature of the final work of art.17
Within the specific context of the autonomous portrait drawing,
Berninis caricatures also stand apart. The prevalent convention in this
Cf. Wilde (1978, pp. 147 ff ).
For portrait drawing generally see Meder (1978, pp. 335 ff.); for drawings by Leoni,
see Kruft (1969).
16
It is interesting that in both cases contemporaries were already aware of the distinctive
techniques used in these drawings; for Michelangelo, see Vasari ([1550, 1568] 1962, vol. 1,
pp. 118, 121 f; vol. 4, pp. 1,898 ff ); for the colored chalks and pencils of Leoni and Bernini,
see Baglione ([1642] 1935, p. 321) and Stampfle and Bean (1967, pp. 52 f ).
17
There was one class of sixteenth-century works, incidentally in which the loose sketch
might become a sort of presentation drawing, namely the German autograph album (album
amicorum or Stammbuch); see, for example, Thne (1940, pp. 55f, Figs. 1719) and
Drawings (1964, p. 23, numbers 33, 35).
14
15
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genre, and indeed in that of the painted portrait generally since the early
Renaissance, was to show the sitter in three-quarter views, whereas Berninis
caricatures are invariably either full-face or profile (Figs. 15 and 16). The
effect seems deliberately archaic, but his preference may also be seen in the
light of another equally striking fact: among Berninis own portrait drawings (other than caricatures) those that are independent are three-quarter
views (Fig. 17), while those that can be identified as studies for sculptured
portraits are in strict profile (Fig. 18).18 We know that the very first studies
he made from life for the famous bust of Louis XIV were two drawings, one
full-face, the other in profile.19 Bernini, of course, astonished his contemporaries by also making many sketches of the sitter moving and talking, and
18
For Berninis portrait drawings generally see Brauer and Wittkower (1931, pp. 11, 15,
29 f, 156 f ) and Harris (1977, passim.). It happens that the two preserved and certainly
authentic profile drawings by Bernini represent sitters of whom he also made sculptured portraits, i.e., Scipione Borghese (Fig. 18) and Pope Clement X [see Lavin et al. (1981, catalogue number 83, pp. 29499, 375)]. Conversely there are no recorded portrait sculptures
of the sitters of whom Bernini made drawings in three-quarter view. It is interesting in this
context to compare the triple views provided to Bernini by painters for four sculptured
busts to be executed in absentia by Van Dyck for portraits of Charles I and Henrietta
Maria, by Philippe de Champaigne for Richelieu, and by Sustermans and Boulanger for
Francesco I of Modena; cf. Wittkower (1966, pp. 207 f, 209 f, 224):
Subject
Right profile
Charles I
Henrietta Maria
Richelieu
Francesco I
x
x
x
x
Full-face
x
x
VIEW
Three-quarterto - left profile
x
x
Left profile
x
x
x
All four include the right profile, all but the third the full face, and all but the first the
left profile; only the first and third show the head turned three quarters (to the left).
Portraits, otherwise unspecified, were also sent from Paris to Bernini in Rome for the equestrian statue of Louis XIV; see Wittkower (1961, p. 525, number 47).
19
The first studies for the bust are mentioned in Chantelous diary June 23, 1665:
Le Cavalier a dessin daprs le Roi une tte deface, une de profil (Chantelou, p. 37);
cf. a letter of 26 June from Paris by Berninis assistant Mattia de Rossi, doppo che hebbe
fenito il retratto in faccia, lo fece in profile, Mirot (1904, p. 218n), and the remark of
Domenico Bernini (1713, p, 133), Onde a S. Germano f ritorno per retrarre in disegno la
Regia effigie, e due formnne, una di profilo, Ialtro in faccia. Charles Perrault in his
Mmoires of 1669 also mentions Berninis profile sketches of the king: [Bernini] se contenta
de dessiner en pastel deux ou trois profils du visage du Roi (Perrault, p. 61).
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these must have been extremely various.20 In actually preparing the sculpture, however the full-face and profile were evidently primary, perhaps
because the sculptor began by tracing them on the sides and front of the
block.21 We shall see that other factors were involved as well, but it seems
clear that in this respect Berninis caricatures transfer to the final work conventions proper to a preliminary stage.
Berninis caricatures have a distinct graphic style that marks them as caricatures quite apart from what they represent. They consist, as we have
noted, entirely of outlines, from which hatching, shading, and modeling
have been eliminated in favor of an extreme, even exaggerated simplicity,
The lines are also often patently inept, suggesting either bold, musclebound attacks on the paper or a tremulous hesitancy. In other words,
Bernini adopted (or rather created) a kind of lowbrow or everymans graphic
mode in which traditional methods of sophisticated draftsmanship are
travestied just as are the sitters themselves.22
If one speculates on possible antecedents of Berninis caricature technique, two art forms if they can be called that immediately spring to
mind, in which the inept and untutored form part of the timeless and
anonymous heritage of human creativity: childrens drawings and graffiti. It
is not altogether far-fetched to imagine that Bernini might have taken such
things seriously, as it were, in making his comic drawings, for he would certainly not have been the first to do so. Albrecht Drer drew a deliberately
crude and childish sketch of a woman with scraggly hair and prominent
nose in a letter he wrote from Venice in 1506 to his friend Willibald
Pirckheimer (Fig. 19). The drawing illustrates a famous passage in which
Drer describes the Italians favorable reaction to his Rosenkranz Madonna.
He reports that the new picture had silenced all the painters who admired
20
For the references to this aspect of Berninis procedure, see Brauer and Wittkower
(1931, p. 29), and Wittkower (1951).
21
Interesting in this context are Michelangelos frontal and profile sketches for the
marble block of one of the Medici Chapel river gods; see De Tolnay (194360, vol. 3, plate
131). Cellini (1971, p. 789), speaks of Michelangelos method of drawing the principal view
on the block and commencing carving on that side.
22
It is significant that Bernini employed a comparable technique when he portrayed
nature in what might be called a primitive or formless state, as in the sketches for fireworks
[Lavin et al. (1981, catalogue numbers 5658, pp. 21927)] or a project for a fountain with
a great display of gushing water [Brauer and Wittkower (1931, Pl. 101a); cf. Harris (1977,
p. xxi, number 70)].
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15. Bernini, caricature of
Cardinal Scipione
Borghese, drawing.
Biblioteca Vaticana, MS
Chigi P. VI. 4, fol. 15.
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his graphic work but said he could not handle colors.23 The clumsy-looking
sketch is thus an ironic response to his critics, as if to say, Here is my
Madonna, reduced to the form these fools can appreciate.
Something similar appears in certain manuscripts of Drers friend and
admirer Erasmus of Rotterdam (Fig. 20). Here and there he introduced
sketches one might almost call them doodles, except they are much too
self-conscious that include repeated portrayals of himself with exaggerated features, in what Panofsky described as the sharply observant, humorous spirit that animated his Praise of Folly.24 It might be added that the crude
style of the drawings also matches the ironic exaltation of ignorance that is
the fundamental theme of Praise of Folly. Although Erasmus was an amateur
it should not be assumed that the sketches are simply inept. He did know
better for he had practiced painting in his youth, and he had a discriminating art-historical eye that even encompassed what he called a rustic style,
which he associated with early medieval art.25 On the back of a
Leonardesque drawing from this same period, a deliberate graphic antithesis occurs in which a wildly expressive head is redrawn as a witty, schoolboyish persiflage (Fig. 21).
A childs drawing plays a leading role in a portrait by the mid-sixteenthcentury Veronese painter Giovanni Francesco Caroto (Fig. 22).26 Perhaps
the drawing is the work of the young man who shows it to the spectator.
He seems rather too old, however and a much more correctly drawn eye
Cf. Rupprich (195669, vol. 1, pp. 54 f ). The passage (my own translation) reads as
follows:
Know that my picture says it would give a ducat for you to see it; it is good and beautifully coloured. I have earned great praise for it, but little profit. I could well have earned
200 ducats in the time and have refused much work, so that I may come home. I have also
silenced all the painters who said I was good at engraving, but that in painting I did not
know how to handle colors. Now they all say they have never seen more beautiful colors.
Drer made the drawing immediately before he wrote this passage, which surrounds the figure. Lange and Fuhse (1893, p. 35, n. 1) noted long ago that the sketch must refer to this,
rather than the preceding portion of the letter
24
Panofsky (1969, p. 203). On Erasmuss self-mocking sketches, see Heckscher (1967,
pp. 135 f, n. 23) and the bibliography cited there.
25
Erasmus speaks of marveling and laughing at the extreme crudity of artists a century
or two earlier (admiraberis et ridebis nimiam artificum rusticitatem); see Panofsky (1969,
pp. 200, 202 f ), who also discusses Erasmuss early interest in and practice of painting and
drawing.
26
Franco Fiorio (1971, pp. 47 f, 100); for suggestive analysis of the painting, see
Almgren (1971, pp. 7173).
23
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(the eye of the painter?) appears at the lower right of the sheet.27 The suggestive smile and glance with which the youth confronts the viewer certainly convey a deeper sense of the ironic contrast between the drawing and
the painting itself.28
Graffiti have a particular relevance to our context because while their
stylistic navet may be constant, the sorts of things they represent are not.
Historically speaking, portrait graffiti are far rarer than one might suppose.
Considering the role of proper portraiture in classical times, it is certainly
significant that ancient draftsmen also inscribed many comic graffiti portraying real individuals often identified by name on the walls of
Roman buildings at Pompeii and Rome (Fig. 23).29 I feel sure Bernini was
aware of such drawings, if only because we know he was acutely aware of
the wall as a graphic field. It was his habit, he said, to stroll about the gallery
of his house while excogitating his first ideas for a project, tracing them
upon the wall with charcoal.30 Two extant wall compositions by him,
though not preliminary sketches, are in fact drawings (Fig. 24).31
The term graffito, of course, refers etymologically to the technique of
incised drawing. The beginning of its modern association with popular
On the eye of Painting, see Posner (1967, pp. 201 f ).
What may be a deliberately crude head appears among the test drawings and scratches
on the back of one of Annibale Carraccis engraved plates; Posner (1971, p. 70, Fig. 68); and
Bohlin (1979, p. 437).
29
Both ancient graffiti and grylloi (discussed below) are often considered in the literature
on comic art, e.g., Champfleury (1865, pp. 5765, 186203), but I am not aware that they
have hitherto been treated seriously as specific progenitors of the modern caricature. For
ancient graffiti generally see Enciclopedia (195866, vol.3, pp. 995 f ). For a recent survey of
the figural graffiti at Pompeii, see Cbe (1966, pp. 375 f ); for those on the Palatine in Rome,
see Vnnen (1966, 1970).
30
Il ma dit qu Rome il en avait une [a gallery] dans sa maison, laquelle est presque
toute pareille; que cest l quil fait, en se promenant, la plupart de ses compositions; quil
marquait sut la muraille, avec du charbon, les ides des choses mesure quelles Iui venaient
dans Iesprit (Chantelou, p. 19). The idea recalls the ancient tales of the invention of painting by tracing shadows cast on the wall; see Kris and Kurz (1979, p. 74 and n. 10).
31
I refer to the well-known Saint Joseph Holding the Christ Child at Ariccia [Brauer and
Wittkower (1931, pp. 15456, Pl. 115)], and a (much restored) portrait of Urban VIII in
black and red chalk, in the Villa La Maddelena of Cardinal Giori, Berninis friend and
patron, at Muccia near Camerino (Fig. 24). The attribution of the latter work, reproduced
here for the first time, I believe, stems from an inventory of 1712; Brauer and Wittkower
(1931, p. 151); cf. Feliciangeli (1917, pp. 9 f ). I am indebted to Professors Italo Faldi and
Oreste Ferrari for their assistance in obtaining photographs. Cf. also a portrait drawing in
black and red chalk in the Chigi palace at Formello; Martinelli (1950, p. 182, Fig. 193).
27
28
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35
ca forza I ventre appicca sotto I mento.
Girardi (1960, pp. 4f ); trans. from Gilbert and Linscott (1963, pp. 5 f ). The sheet has most
recently been dated 151112 by De Tolnay (197580, vol. I, p. 126), who also notes the disjunction between the two parts of the drawing.
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22. Giovanni
Francesco Caroto,
Boy with Drawing.
Verona, Museo del
Castelvecchio.
427
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ing contrast in style between the two parts of the sketch: the figure of the
artist is contorted but elegantly drawn in a normal way; that on the ceiling
is grotesquely deformed and drawn with amateurish, even childlike crudity,
Michelangelo transforms the Sistine ceiling itself into a kind of graffito,
deliberately adopting a subnormal mode to satirize high art in this case
his own. If as I suspect, the grotesque figure on the vault alludes to God the
Father (Fig. 28), Michelangelos thought may reach further still: the graffito
style would express the artists sense of inadequacy in portraying the
Supreme Creator and unworthiness in the traditional analogy between the
artists creation and Gods.36
Two further examples bring us to Berninis own time. In a view of the
interior of a church in Utrecht by the great Dutch architectural painter
Pieter Saenredam, a graffito of four men wearing curious armor and riding
a horse appears conspicuously on a pier at the lower right (Figs. 29 and
30).37 The drawing represents a well-known episode from a medieval French
romance, which had a wide popular appeal. Although the meaning of the
subject in the context of Saenredams picture is unclear the style of the
drawing may have been intended not only to suggest the hand of an
untrained graffito artist generally; it may also be a deliberate archaism to
evoke the medieval origin of the story and, incidentally, of the building
itself. Perhaps the boy standing nearby and about to draw on the wall refers
ironically to Saenredam himself; perhaps the companion group, a boy
seated with a schoolchilds box at his side and teaching a dog to sit up, refers
to the mastery of art achieved by instruction and practice. In any event, the
drawing must have had a special significance for Saenredam, since he added
his own signature and the date immediately below.38
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Our final example is from Rome, in the form of a drawing by Pieter van
Laer nicknamed il Bamboccio. He was the physically deformed leader of a
notorious group of Flemish artists in Rome in the seventeenth century
called i bamboccianti (the painters of dolls), a contemporary term that
refers derisively to the awkward figures and lowlife subject matter of their
paintings. The members of the group formed a loose-knit organization, the
Bentvueghel, and were notorious for their unruly lifestyle, which made a
mockery of the noble Renaissance ideal of the gentleman artist. The drawing (Fig. 31) shows the interior of a tavern filled with carousing patrons; the
back wall is covered with all manner of crude and grotesque designs, including a caricature-like head shown in profile.39 Many works by the bamboccianti are reflections on the nature of art, both in theory and practice,
and Van Laers drawing is surely also an ironic exaltation of the kind of satirical and popular art held in contempt by the grand and often grandiloquent
humanist tradition. We are invited to contemplate this irony by the figures
who draw attention to the word Bamboo[ts] scrawled beneath a doll-like
figure, seen from behind, and the profile head the latter certainly a selfportrait of Van Laer The subtlety of the conceit may be inferred from the
fact that bamboccio, like its synonym fantoccio used by Vasari in the anecdote about Michelangelo, was specifically applied to the crude mural drawings of the inept.40
One point emerges clearly from our consideration of the prehistory of
Berninis deliberate and explicit exploitation of aesthetic vulgarity. The
artists who displayed this unexpected sensibility generally did so in order to
make some statement about the nature of art or of their profession. The
statements were, in the end, deeply personal and had to do with the relation between ordinary or common creativity and what is usually called art.
of Saenredams views of the Mariakerk at Utrecht; Catalogue (1961, pp. 212 f ). On this
painting see Schwartz (196667), who notes the association between such drawings and the
artists signature (p. 91, n. 43). Saenredams sensitivity to and deliberate manipulation of
stylistic differences are evident in the relationship between Gothic and Roman architecture
in his paintings, for which see now the thoughtful article by Connell (1980).
39
For this drawing, see Janeck (1968, pp. 122 f ). The figure shown from the back on the
wall recurs among other graffiti in a painting attributed to Van Laer in Munich; Janeck
(1968, pp. 137 f ); see also Kren (1980, p. 68).
40
Cf. Malvasia (1841, vol. 2, p. 67), with regard to the youthful wall scribblings of the
painter Mastelletta. For this reference I am indebted to David Levine, whose Princeton dissertation on the bamboccianti (1984) deals with their art-theoretical paintings and the Berlin
drawing.
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The precise dating of the Borghese busts emerges from a letter of the following year
written by Lelio Guidiccioni [cf. DOnofrio (1967, pp. 38186)]. I plan to discuss the letter at greater length in another context.
42
On this and the following point, see Lavin (1970, p. 144, n. 75).
43
On Bernini and the theater see Lavin (1980, pp. 14557).
41
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30. Pieter
Saenredam,
Interior of the
Buurkerck, Utrecht
(detail).
London, National
Gallery.
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ambassador to the Holy See, that his coat of arms included a striding bull,
and that he was notoriously overbearing and tactless in pursuing his countrys interests at the court of Urban VIII, who was strongly pro-French.46
Borgia is absolutely furious because, to everyones delight, Bernini in
his comedy introduced a bull being beaten on the stage; he is quite
aware it referred to him since he was a bull in arms and was called
that by the pope. Borgia was also upset because elsewhere in the
comedy a Spaniard argues with a servant who, having been told by a
Frenchman not to let himself be bullied, beats up the Spaniard to the
amusement of all. Borgia, who understands without gloss the recondite meanings of the actions and words, considers the king and the
whole Spanish nation offended by the pope himself, who knows perfectly well all the scenes of the comedy before they are performed.
Borgia is also angry about other jibes, though these are the worst, and
heaven protect Bernini from a bitter penance in the future, for
Borgia is not one easily to forget offenses.47
It is clear that Berninis plays broke with the commedia del larte conventions in various ways, of which three are especially important here. One
is that Bernini introduced all sorts of illusionistic tricks houses collapse,
the theater threatens to catch fire, the audience is almost inundated
tricks that not only added a kind of visual scenographic interest that had
been confined mainly to court spectacles, but also communicated with the
spectator directly and in a way that seemed, at least at first glance, quite
uncontrived. Furthermore, Berninis comedies were not enacted extemporaneously by professional actors but by amateurs who had been carefully
instructed and mercilessly rehearsed and who recited parts that as we
know from the manuscript of one of his plays that has come down to us
might be completely written out, as in the regular theater. His productions
combined the technique of raw talent with the conception of high art.
Finally, Bernini introduced topical allusions to current events and real people; with unexampled boldness, he poked fun at some of the highest members of Roman society, who might even be present in the audience. Berninis
On Borgia, see Pastor (18941953, vol. 28, pp. 28194), for example.
Letter to the duke of Modena from his agent in Rome, 23 February 1634 [Fraschetti
(1900, pp. 261 f, n. 4; see also the description of comedies in 1638, pp. 264 f, and 1646,
pp. 26870)].
46
47
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49
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even said that one must disregard what had been written about the sculpture. No less remarkable is the reason he gave for his esteem that the
work contains the highest perfection of nature without the affectation of art
[italics mine].
The drawing of Innocent Xl is unique among the preserved caricatures
by Bernini because it is the only one datable to the very end of his life, and
because it represents the most exalted personage of all. The skeletal figure
with gargantuan nose and cavernous eyes is immediately recognizable
(cf. Figs. 8 and 35).52 What makes the characterization so trenchant, however; is not only the treatment of the popes physical features, but also the
fact that he is shown incongruously wearing the regalia of the bishop of
Rome and bestowing his blessing while reclining in bed, propped up by
huge pillows. The pope is thus ridiculed on two levels at once, both of
which reflect aspects of his personality and conduct that were notorious.53
This remarkable man was by far the most irascible and ascetic individual to
occupy the papal throne since the heyday of the Counter Reformation a
century before. He was utterly indifferent to the amenities of life himself
and lived in monastic austerity, He was indefatigable in his efforts to purify
the Church of its abuses, the boldest and best known of which was his war
on nepotism. He rigorously excluded his family from Church affairs and
sought to ensure that his successors would do likewise. He was equally
staunch in his defense of the Church against heretics and against attempts
to curtail the prerogatives of the Holy See. His financial contributions to
the war against the Turks, made possible by a fiscal policy of absolute parsimony, were a major factor in the victory at Vienna in 1683 that saved
Europe from the infidel. The process of sanctification was initiated soon
after his death and is still in progress; he was beatified in 1953.
Although his virtues may indeed have been heroic, Innocent Xl was not
without his faults. He demanded the same kind of austerity from his subjects that he practiced himself. Public entertainments were banned, and
with edict after edict he sought to rule the lives of his people down to the
pettiest details of personal dress and conduct. He suffered the consequences
of his disagreeableness, which won him the epithet The Big No Pope (Papa
Mingone, from the word minga, meaning no in his native Lombard
A photograph of Innocents death mask will be found in Lippi (1889, frontispiece).
For Innocent generally and bibliography see Bibliotheca (196169, vol. 7, columns
84856); for most of what follows, see Pastor (18941953, vol. 32, pp. 1337, 15367).
52
53
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dialect). A notice of 1679 reports that several people were jailed for circulating a manifesto with the punning and alliterative title, Roma assassinata
dalla Santit (Rome Assassinated by Sanctity santit in Italian means
both holiness and His Holiness).54
In addition, Innocent Xl was a sick man, plagued by gout and gallstones.55 These sufferings real and imagined, for he was certainly a
hypochondriac must have exacerbated the harshness of an inherently
acerbic personality. His ailments often conspired with a natural tendency to
reclusiveness to keep the pope confined to his room and to his bed. For
days, weeks, months on end he would remain closeted, refusing to see anyone and procrastinating in matters of state conduct that elicited a brilliant pasquinade, reported in July 1677:
Saturday night there was attached to Pasquino a beautiful placard
with a painted poppy [papavero in Italian the opium flower] and
the following legend [like a medicinal prescription] beneath: Papa
Vero = Per dormire [true Pope = to sleep]; next morning it provided
a field day for the wags, including the whole court, which is fed up
with the current delays and cannot bear such irresolution.56
On rare occasions during these periods, when the popes condition
improved or in matters of special importance, visitors might be admitted to
his chamber; where he received them in bed. Berninis drawing captures the
irony of this spectacle of the Supreme Roman Pontiff conducting the most
dignified affairs of state in most undignified circumstances.
54
E poi stato mandato in Galera quel libraro francese Bernardoni che faceva venir libri
centro cardinale e ministri della chiesa sendo anco stati carcerati alcuni copisti per essersi
veduto un Manifesto intitolato; Roma assassinata dalla santit. Unpublished avviso di Roma,
July 8,1679, Vatican Library MS Barb. lat. 6838, fol. 154v. For collections of pasquinades
on Innocent Xl, see Lafon (1876, p. 287); Pastor (18941953, vol. 32, p. 30, n. 8); Besso
(1904, p. 308); Romano (1932, pp. 7274); Silenzi (1933, pp. 251 f ) [reprinted in Silenzi
(1968), pp. 278 f ]; Cian (1945, vol. 2, pp. 260 f, 516, n. 22830).
55
On the popes health, see Pastor (18941953, vol. 32, pp. 51519); Michaud
(188283, vol. 1, pp. 158 f ).
56
Sabbato nette fu fatto a Pasquino un bellissimo Cartello con un Papauero dipinto,
e sotto la presente Inscrittione = Papa Vero = Per dormire, il che la mattina non pochi motivi
di discorso diede gli otiosi, nel cui numero vi si comprende la corte tutta, la quale attediata dalle lunchezze correnti non pu soffrire tante irresolutioni. Unpublished avviso di
Roma, July 5, 1677, Vatican Library MS Barb. lat. 6384, fol. 200.
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35. Bernini, profile of
Innocent XI, drawing.
Rome, Gabinetto
Nazionale delle Stampe,
Fondo Corsini 127535
(578).
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36. R. de Hooghe, The Death of Moriens, engraving [De la Vigne (1673?) pl. 39].
449
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450
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57
The drawing, in red chalk, conforms in type to Berninis studies for sculptured portraits (see above, p. 21), and its plastic modeling led Brauer and Wittkower (1931, p. 157)
to consider it a copy after a lost original; I suspect it is original, overworked by another hand.
No sculptured portrait of Innocent by Bernini is recorded, unless he made the model for a
bronze, datable 1678, by a certain Travani, once in S. Maria in Montesanto, Rome; see
Martinelli (1956, p. 47, n. 95).
58
On the foregoing, see Pastor (18941953, vol. 32, p. 35); Wittkower (1981, p. 260).
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evening.59 The image also reflects the tradition of the reclining effigy on
tomb monuments and the reclining Moriens in the innumerable illustrated
versions of the Ars Moriendi (The Art of Dying Well) (Fig. 36); the latter
genre had an important role in the devotions of the Confraternity of the
Bona Mors at the Ges, in which Bernini and the pope himself, when he
was cardinal, participated regularly.60 Bernini had only recently adapted this
convention for his portrayal of Blessed Lodovica Albertoni in a state of
ecstatic expiration in her burial chapel in San Francesco a Ripa in Rome
(Fig. 37). He may even have recalled a sixteenth-century Flemish tomb, an
engraving of which there are other reasons to suppose he knew, where a
beckoning skeleton replaced the figure of the deceased (Fig. 38).61 The
somewhat lugubrious irony of this conflation of regal pomp and funereal
decrepitude was surely deliberate.
So, too, were aspects of the rendering of the popes physiognomy and
gesture. Innocent followed like a chill wind after the florid exuberance of
the long, Baroque summer of the Church Triumphant. He was, as we have
noted, a veritable throwback to the rigorous pietism of the Counter
Reformation, and quite consciously so, for he took as the model for all his
actions the most austere pontiff of that whole period, Pius V (15661572),
who had also been unrelenting in his zeal to cleanse the Church of its vices,
including nepotism, and protect it from its enemies (the Turks were
defeated in the momentous naval battle at Lepanto during his reign).62 He
had been beatified in 1672, shortly before Innocent XI took office, and was
canonized in 1712. It happened that Innocent also bore a striking physical
resemblance to Pius, whose desiccated and otherworldly features seem perfectly to embody the spiritual fervor of his time. Innocent actually had him-
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Orsini (1648, pp. 63, 65); first published by Muoz (1919, pp. 369 f ).
74
Caricatures are mentioned in two sharp and revealing passages in the diary of Berninis
visit kept by Chantelou (1885, pp. 106, 151; interestingly enough, Chantelou uses the
phrase attributed to the Carracci, charged portraits). During an audience with the king
. . . le Cavalier a dit en riant: Ces messieursci ont le Roi leur gr toute la journe et ne
veulent pas me le laisser seulement une demiheure; je suis tent den faire de quelquun le
portrait charg. Personne nentendait cela; jai dit au Roi que ctaient des portraits que lon
faisait ressembler dans le laid et le ridicule. LAbb Butti a pris la parole et a dit que le
Cavalier tait admirable dans ces sortes de portraits, quiI faudrait en faire voir quelquun
Sa Majest, et comme lon a parl de quelquun de femme, le Cavalier a dit que Non
bisognava caricar le donne che da notte. Subsequently Butti was himself the victim
. . . quelquun parlant dun portrait charg, le Cavalier a dit quiI avait fait celui de labb
Butti, lequel il a cherch pour le faire voir Sa Majest, et, ne layant pas trouv, il a
demand du crayon et du papier et la refait en trois coups devant le Roi qui a pris plaisir
le voir, comme a fait aussi Monsieur et les autres, tant ceux qui taient entrs que ceux qui
taient la porte.
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from his activity as a diplomat. Bernini never lost touch with the humble
craft origins of his profession. He became early on a member of the marble
workers guild, to which he remained very attached and contributed generously later in life;75 and although much indebted to the humanist tradition,
he laid no claim to recondite learning or theoretical speculation. His freedom of wit and satire and his ability to consort on equal terms with the high
and mighty were based solely on the quality of his mind and art. In this
sense he fulfilled the Renaissance ideal, while helping to create a new role
for the artist in society.
In the end, however, the caricatures must be thought of as a deeply personal expression of Berninis creative genius, for two reasons in particular.
One is that and this is true of his comedies as well although he circulated them among his friends, there is no evidence he ever intended to
publish his drawings in the form of prints. We owe the caricature as an
instrument of social reform in this sense to eighteenth-century England.
Berninis little lampoons sprang from a deep well within, however, and were
far from mere trifles to him. Both points emerge from the last document I
shall quote, a charming letter Bernini wrote to a friend named Bonaventura
(Good Fortune in Italian) accompanying two such sketches, now lost:
As a cavalier I swear Ill never send you any more drawings because
having these two portraits you can say you have all that bumbler
Bernini can do. But since I doubt your dim wit can recognize them
Ill tell you the longer one is Don Giberti and the shorter one is Bona
Ventura. Believe me, youve had Good Fortune, because Ive never
had greater satisfaction than in these two caricatures, and Ive made
them with my heart. When I visit you Ill see if you appreciate them.
Rome, 15 March 1652.
Your True Friend
G. L. Bern.
75
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This is, incidentally, the first time the word caricature is used as we use
it today, as the name for a certain class of drawings.76
76
. . . mio sigre
Da chavaliere vi giuro di non mandarvi pi disegni perch avendo voi questi dui ritratti
potete dire davere tutto quel che pu fare quel baldino di bernino, ma perch dubito che il
Vostro corto ingegno non sapia conoscerli per non vi fare arrossire vi dico che quel pi lungo
Don Ghiberti e quel pi basso Bona Ventura. Credetemi che a voi e toccato aver la buona
Ventura perch mai mi sono piu sodistatto che in queste due caricature e lo fatte di cuore.
Quando vedr costi vedr se ne tenete conto. Roma li 15 Marzo 1652.
Vero Amico
G. L. Bern.
Ozzola (1906, p. 205); cf. Lavin (1970, p. 144 n. 75). Ozzela guessed from the letter itself
that the addressee might have been named Bonaventura. I have no doubt that the fortunate
recipient was, in fact, the Bolognese painter and Franciscan friar Bonaventura Bisi. Bisi was
a friend and correspondent of Guercino, who also made a caricature of him, datable
165759, with an inscription punning on his last name (cf. Galleni, 1975).
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* This note is excerpted from an entry in a projected corpus of the terracotta sketches of
Gianlorenzo Bernini, a work first envisioned by the writer in his doctoral dissertation written at Harvard in 1955 under John Coolidges supervision.
1
On Carlo Barberini, cf. Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome, 1960 ff, VI,
170173; on his death, L. von Pastor, The History of the Popes, 40 vols., St. Louis, Mo.,
18941953 XXVIII, 44.
2
Cf. S. Fraschetti, Il Bernini. La sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo, Milan, 1900, 9398.
On the Aracoeli plaque, R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Sculptor of the Roman
Baroque, Oxford, 1981, 195196; and most recently, N. Courtright in I. Lavin et al.,
Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini from the Museum der bildenden Knste, Leipzig, German
Democratic Republic, exh. cat., Princeton, 1981. 7277. On the catafalque, M. Fagiolo
dellArco and S. Carandini. Leffimero barocco. Strutture della festa nella Roma del600, 2 vols.,
Rome, 19771978, I, 7981; a ground plan in Vienna, drawn by Borromini, was identified
as for the Barberini catafalque by I. Lavin, Bernini and the Crossing of St. Peters, New York,
1968, 13, n. 58. On the statue of Carlo Barberini, Wittkower, Bernini, 196; M. Heimbrger
Ravalli, Alessandro Algardi scultore, Rome, 1973, 6061.
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470
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1. Gianlorenzo
Bernini, memorial
plaque of Carlo Barberini.
Rome, S. Maria
in Aracoeli (photo:
Moscioni).
2. Memorial plaque of
Alessandro Farnese.
Rome, S. Maria
in Aracoeli
(after Fasolo,
Rainaldi, fig. 3).
471
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472
4. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
study for the Barberini
plaque, drawing.
Leipzig, Museum der
bildenden Knste.
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6. Catafalque of Carlo
Barberini, Ferrara, 1630,
etching, detail
7. Gianlorenzo Bernini,
study for the Barberini
plaque, terracotta.
Cambridge, Fogg Museum.
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In both the Farnese and Aldobrandini memorials (Figs. 2, 3), the flat
inscribed surface is surrounded by elaborate frames and surmounted by
pediments upon which female allegories carved in high relief are seated; in
the Farnese monument two female terms in low relief also flank the inscription laterally. A sketch in Leipzig (Fig. 4) shows that Bernini, while greatly
simplifying the design, first adopted the traditional rectilinear shape and the
flanking figures of the Farnese plaque, replacing the latter by winged personifications of Fame that seem at once to rest against the framed inscription tablet, and to carry it aloft.7 In the final work Bernini adopted the idea
of seated allegories with complementary meanings that had also appeared
on the earlier plaques.
The allegory on the left, identified as the Church in the early sources,
has a shield bearing the papal arms; a huge snake, ancient symbol of heresy,
is under her right foot, the tail (partly broken) curling around the front of
the plaque. Between the forefinger and thumb of her right hand may be discerned a fragment of a thin rod, probably part of a staff (see below). The
shield of the figure on the right contains a laurel wreath and lightning bolt,
the significance of which is explained by a passage in Cesare Ripa's
Iconologia, under the heading Virt insuperabile:
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. . . for a crest she will carry a laurel plant, menaced but not struck
by lightning. . . . Virtue, as a warrior who struggles continually with
her enemy, is portrayed armed with lightning, which, as Pliny
recounts, cannot with all its violence damage laurel. . . .8
Under her foot is a globe encircled by the band of the Zodiac, of which only
the sign of Scorpio is visible. The scorpion as an astrological sign is the
attribute of Mars, God of War.9 The figures thus symbolize the Church's
victory over spiritual evil and virtue's victory over earthly strife, both
achieved through Carlo Barberini's military prowess. Perhaps the best
expression of their meaning is provided by the funeral oration delivered by
Giulio Cenci at the obsequies in S. Maria in Aracoeli, in which Barberini is
hailed as defender of the public well-being and maker of Christian peace.10
Bernini's explicit references to the earlier works provide a foil for the
fundamental thematic and formal transformations he introduced. Neither
Carlo Barberini nor the three others were actually interred in Aracoeli.
Hence the funereal note sounded in Bernini's final version, chiefly by the
winged skull at the base of the inscription, and the melancholic pose of the
figure on the right, was quite foreign to the purely commemorative import
of the tradition.11 Perhaps this reinterpretarion was motivated by the consideration that Barberini would not in fact have a public tomb; he was
buried in an obscure and inaccessible niche adjoining the family chapel in
8
. . . per cimiero, portar una pianta dalloro minacciata, ma non percossa dal fulmine.
. . . La virt come guerriera, che di continuo col vitio suo inimico combarte, si dipinge
armata, & col fulmine, il quale come racconta Plinio, non pu con tutta la sua violenza
offendere il lauro. . . . Ed. Rome, 1603 (reprint 1970), 509.
9
Cf. G. De Tervarent, Attributs et symbols dans lart profane, 3 vols., Geneva. 19581964,
II, col. 340.
10
propugnator publicae salutis et Christianae pacis auctor (In funere illustrissimi, &
excellentissimi principio Caroli Barberini generalis S.R.E. ducis. Oratio habita in aede B. Virg.
in Capitolio a Iulio Cincio Sacr. Consist. Aulae, & S.P.Q.R. advocato Anno Domin
MDCXXX.iij. Non Aug., Rome, 1630, 8).
11
M. Jaff has pointed out that the motif at the bottom in the Leipzig drawing is not a
skull but a helmet (review of I. Lavin et al., Drawings, in Times Literary Supplement, 15
October, 1981, 1127). On the pose of Melancholy, see recently W. S. Heckscher,
Melancholia (1541). An Essay in the Rhetoric of Description by Joachim Camerarius, in H.
Baron, ed., Joachim Camerarius (15501574). Beitrge zur Geschichte des Humanismus im
Zeitalter der Reformation, Munich, 1978, 4950.
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S. Andrea della Valle.12 In any case, the new figural type was evidently
derived from a great catafalque that had been erected in the Cathedral of
Ferrara for obsequies held in honor of Carlo Barberini on 13 May 1630 at
the behest of Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti, Archbishop of Ferrara, who was
Carlo's brother-in-law and a close friend and advisor of the Pope.13 The oration delivered on this occasion, by one Alfonso Pandolfi, was published
along with an illustration of the catafalque (Figs. 5, 6).14 Seated on the steps
before the structure is an allegory of the Church wearing the papal tiara and
carrying a long, crossed staff. Her costume, pose and heavy monumentality
12
On his burial, cf. G. Gigli, Diario Romano, ed. G. Ricciotti, Rome, 1958, III; cited by
Fraschetti, Bernini, 93,n. 1); a seated portrait of him in armor (cf. V. Martinelli, Contributi
alla scultura del seicento. I. Francesco Mochi a Roma, Commentari, II, 1951, 231, Fig. 284)
is placed in a niche above the sarcophagus.
13
On Magalotti, cf. von Pastor, History of the Popes, XXVIII, 3940.
14
Oratio in funere illustriss. & excellentiss. D. Caroli Barberini pontificiae classis imperatoris, habita iussu Eminentiss. & Reverendiss. D. Cardinalis Magalotti Ferrariae Episcopi, dum
in Cathedrali Ecclesia Sororio Principi magnificentissime parentaret. Ab Alfunso Pandulfo
Ferrariensi eiusdem Ecclesiae Canonico Theologo, Ferrara, 1630; O. Berendson, The Italian
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Catafalques, unpub. diss., New York University, 1961,
203; the text is also cited and the print illustrated, without comment, in Fagiolo dellArco
and Carandini, Leffimero, I, 80.
Cardinal Antonio and Taddeo Barberini, both sons of Carlo, were present at the ceremony in Ferrara. Its date, 13 May, is evident from the following passages in letters written
by Taddeo Barberini to Cardinal Francesco in Rome.
From Ferrara, 11 May 1630:
Qui in Ferrara me tratterr fino Lunedi matt.a pr.ma nella quale il S. Card.e
Magalotti vol fare lossequie al Sig. D. Carlo nr.o Pr.e di bo: me: (Biblioteca Vaticana,
Ms. Barb. Lat. 9268, fol. 6 recto.)
From Ancona, 19 May 1630:
Io part da Ferra insieme con lIll.mo S.re Car.le Ant.o nro. fratt.lo et mio S.re il Luned,
che fummo alle 13 assai tardi, ci alle 18 hore sonate. (ibid., fol. 7 verso.)
The presence of Cardinal Antonio and Don Taddeo is also noted in a description of the obsequies by the contemporary chronicler C. Ubaldini, Storia di Ferrara dallanno 1597 a tutto
lanno 1633, Ferrara,Biblioteca Comunale, Ms. Cl. I. 418, fol. 80 verso ff:
Venne (Antonio) di Maggio . . . a Ferrara . . . alla cattedrale, essendovi anche D.
Tadeo Barberini suo fratello, che era venuto da Roma, per ritrovarsi alle esequie di
Carlo loro padre.
(I am indebted to Dr. L. Capra, Director of the Biblioteca Comunale in Ferrara for having
transcribed the relevant passage for me.)
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closely anticipate Bernini's right-hand figure, and may have helped to determine his final treatment of the plaque.15
The change in the meaning of the work was accompanied by a change
in its design. In the Leipzig drawing the tablet was a closed, stable form,
while the flanking figures were irregular and dynamic. The entire monument would have been flat on the wall and carved in low relief. In Bernini's
bozzetto in the Fogg Museum (Fig. 7), the roles of the principal elements
tend to converge, the figure becoming solid and stable, while the tablet
takes on a curved, slightly concave shape.16 The figure and tablet are raised
into high relief released from the wall, as it were and a flat slab is
placed behind. In the executed version the inscription is given an almost
entirely curvilinear form which approximates a pediment at the top, and to
which the figures are even more tightly bound through the displacement of
the frame; the latter now serves to enclose the background slab. The ultimate effect of these changes is that the figures and inscription are perceived
as a single organic unit floating freely on be winged death's head at the bottom, within and before the space defined by the frame. Bernini adopted a
similar illusionistic device shortly thereafter in the plaque honoring Urban
VIII, which occupies the faade wall above the Carlo Barberini plaque;17 the
conception also reflects the kind of thinking that resulted in the perspectivized double niche of the Countess Matilda monument.18
The Fogg terracotta, for the right-hand figure, is broken at the bottom
but preserved intact at the top and sides; it was therefore executed separately
15
The Ferrarese ceremony is mentioned in the oration by Cenci in Aracoeli (above, n.
10). Its effect in Rome can be shown in another way. One of the early sources says that
Alfonso Pandolfis oration at Ferrara was so impressive (naming Cardinal Antonio specifically) that it won for him the bishopric of Corracchio (A. Libanori, Ferrara doro imbrunito,
3 vols., Ferrara, 16651674, I, 104). In fact, in a letter of 4 May 1630, i.e., before the obsequies, from Cardinal Magalotti to Cardinal Francesco reporting the imminent death of the
bishop of Comacchio. Pandolfi is merely listed with several other candidates among whom
the Pope and Cardinal Francesco might choose (Bibl. Vat., Ms. Barb. Lat. 8731, fol. 126
recto). Subsequently, in letters of 29 May, after the obsequies, Cardinal Antonio reports
Pandolfis selection by the Pope and praises him (Bibl. Vat., Ms. Barb. Lat. 6045, fol. 14
recto, to Pandolfi; ibid., Ms. Barb. Lat. 6046, fol. 8 recto, to Cardinal Francesco).
16
Inv. No. 193775, 101/4 x 10 in.
17
Illustrated in Wittkower, Bernini, 206. The memorial to the Pope may be thought of
as combining and developing elements from the early and final stages of the Carlo Barberini
plaque into a fully dynamic design: the supporting figures are now angels in full flight and
the inscription is wholly curvilinear.
18
Illustrated in Wittkower, Bernini, 200.
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and not as part of a study for the whole plaque. Baglione and Titi note that
the figure of the Church, i.e., that on the left, was the work of Stefano
Speranza,19 and her drapery in fact seems less animated than that of the allegory on the right. Hence it may be that, as the model also suggests, Bernini
assumed most of the responsibility for executing the latter figure.20 The
bozzetto is datable to the summer of 1630, after the obsequies in Ferrara.
The plaque is alluded to in Cenci's oration, and was probably completed
for the funeral.21 Bernini received final payment on 30 September.22
As pointed out by A. Muoz, Studi sul Bernini, Larte, XIX, 1916, III; cf. G.
Baglione, Le vite de pittori scultori architetti . . ., Rome, 1642, 352; F. Titi, Ammaestramento
utile, e curioso di pittura scoltura et architettura nelle chiese di Roma, Rome, 1686, 172 f.
20
Cf. Wittkower, Bernini, 196.
21
Pp. 2930 (cited above, n. 10).
22
Fraschetti, Bernini, 94, n. 1.
19
XIII
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
481
the problem was reached under Urban VIII; he renounced the arrangement
in the choir, leaving the monument in the crossing to convey the meanings
of both predecessors. The great achievement of Berninis baldachin was to
merge in coherent form the two traditionally independent prototypes,
adapting elements from each: a structural crown above a cornice with tasseled lambrequin resting on true spiral columns and sustained by angels.
Two points should be borne in mind when considering this development. The baldachin idea first appeared at St. Peters only when Paul V
decided to establish a second papal altar in the choir; indeed, only in such
a context would the baldachin type make sense, i.e., as a contrasting and
complementary supplement to the ciborium type that had been used by his
predecessors. Moreover, the final baldachins patently chimerical combination of elements from both prototypes was precisely what was attributed to
Bernini in a bitter criticism of the work by the painter Agostino Ciampelli,
recorded by Borromini on a manuscript guide to Rome written by one of
his friends: (Ciampelli) said that baldachins are not supported by columns
but by staves, and that the baldachin should not run together with the cornice of the columns, and in any case he wanted to show that it is borne by
angels: and he added that it was a chimera.1
In a recent article W. Chandler Kirwin has provided a good deal of additional information concerning this prehistory of Berninis baldachin.2 The
new material comes mainly from two kinds of sources, which Kirwin has
examined more thoroughly than any of his predecessors: on the one hand,
the actual accounts of payments to workmen, prepared by and for professionals in matters of architecture and construction; on the other hand, the
minutes of meetings of the Congregation of Cardinals that supervised the
building of St. Peters, and the diaries of the papal Masters of Ceremonies,
written by and for amateurs in such matters. We now know that the temporary structures erected over the two altars were more numerous than we
had suspected (though not so numerous as Kirwin makes out), we have a
clearer image of what certain of these structures were like, and we have a
better idea of how the altars were used. These are real, but disappointingly
modest gains, and evidently in a misguided effort to inflate his own contriFor details on all the foregoing, see I. Lavin, Bernini and the Crossing of St. Peters, New
York, 1968; also idem, Letter to the Editor, The Art Bulletin, LV, 1973, 475476, and
Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts, New York and London, 1980, 1921.
2
Berninis Baldacchino Reconsidered, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr Kunstgeschichte, XIX,
1981, 141171.
1
482
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
483
484
2. Detail of Fig. 1.
3. Sacrament altar,
St. Johns in the Lateran,
engraving (showing figures
falsely described by Kirwin as
angels reclining on the
pediment). After Buonanni,
Numismata pontificum,
1699, II, 457, fig. XI.
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
485
486
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
487
ing into the tribune.8 The baldachin shown in the Stockholm drawing
would thus have contrasted with the architectural monument in the choir.
The whole scheme adds to the accumulation of testimony I have given of
the importance of Clement VIIIs work at the Lateran for the subsequent
developments at St. Peters.9
We next learn that less than three years later, in the first months of 1597,
this ciborium was rebuilt or refurbished.10 The new structure, which must
have incorporated elements from the previous one, again consisted of eight
columns, four of feigned Portasanta marble and four of feigned yellow marble, placed against eight pilasters also in imitation marble, which supported
a superstructure with architrave, frieze, cornice and pediment, surmounted
by a cupola.11 Clement replaced the ciborium a second time in 1600 for the
jubilee year. The documents give no hint of the design of this work, but
again there is no reason to assume it was radically different from the extant
8
Nella visita del Papa a S. Gio. Laterano, volse vedere minutamente la capella et li
organi che vi si fabricano, et se bene S. S.ta sia molto essausta de danari ordin agli architetti
che tirassero lopera fine dovendovisi rimover quel gran tabernacolo che contien li corpi
delli dui Principi dApostoli et metter sotto la tribuna, et farvi il pavimento di nuovo (E.
Rossi, Roma ignorata, Roma, XII, 1934, 40). This matter will be discussed by Mr. Jack
Freiberg of New York University, in his dissertation on the sixteenth-century redecorations
of the Lateran.
9
Lavin, Crossing, 1618. Precisely the opposite must be said of Kirwins own attempt to
supplement the evidence. Discussing (p. 149, n.49; cf. also p. 163, n. 154) the motif of the
angels reclining on a pediment which appears on the canopy of the baldachin in the
Stockholm drawing, he cites, without illustration, an engraving published in 1699 depicting
a medal of the Sacrament altar erected at the Lateran by Clement VIII for the jubilee in 1600
(Fig. 3; F. Buonanni, Numismata pontificum romanorum quae a tempore Martini V usque ad
annum MDCXCIX, 2 vols., Rome, 1699, II, 457, Fig. XI [not IX as in Kirwin]). Kirwin
describes this engraving as a contemporary source according to which the Lateran altar was
also originally conceived to include two reclining angels on the outer edges of the pediment
above it. In fact, no such figures appear in the engraving or in the original medal on which
it was based (Fig. 4).
10
Kirwin, 151, App. II, pp. 165 ff.
11
Kirwin, 152, makes a separate project out of a summary invoice for the decoration of
a ciborium by the painter Cesare Nebbia, which includes a payment dated September 1598
(App. III, cf. No. 11, p. 166). The work must have been done on the structure built in 1597,
however, since two payments for that project made to Nebbia in March 1597 (Kirwin, App.
II, No. 1, p. 165) were deducted from the amount owed him in the later bill (Kirwin, App.
III, No. 11, p. 166).
Four papier mach bases paid for in March 1597 (Kirwin, App. II, No. 2, p. 165) were
evidently partial replacements for those of the 1594 ciborium.
488
ciborium.12 Three years later, canvas was purchased for still another state of
the ciborium, of which nothing more is heard before Clements death.13
Two conclusions, neither of them suggested by Kirwin, may be offered
at this point. The Stockholm drawing shows that Paul Vs idea for a baldachin supported by standing angels, used as a counterpart in the crossing
for an architectural ciborium in the choir, may have originated in Clement
VIIIs plans for the Lateran. Kirwins documents indicate that Clement
VIIIs ciboriums (ciborium, if my suspicion is correct that the successive
replacements were essentially refurbishings of the first monument) also
anticipated the form Paul V gave to the centerpiece of the ciborium he
added in the choir of St. Peters.
Paul Vs Baldachin in the Crossing and Ciborium(s) in the Choir
Paul adapted Clements baldachin by reducing the number of staves and
supporting angels, and he adapted the ciborium by flanking it with additional columns so as to create a screen across the apse. In essence, the latter
arrangement recalled the situation that had obtained in the Constantinian
presbytery at St. Peters, an evocation that was reinforced by incorporating
ten of the spiral columns from the original structure. Eight of the columns
were used for the centerpiece, while the screen consisted of three columns
extending laterally on each side, the two outermost being original marble
spiral columns while the two pairs of inner ones were made ex novo. Here,
Kirwins two kinds of sources create a problem because they contradict each
other, a problem which recurs and which each time Kirwin either overlooks
or ignores. In the present case, the papal diarist reports that the new
columns were made of cement and stone and imitated as closely as possible
the original marble columns, which were of the composite order;14 instead,
the actual bill for the work, submitted by the craftsman and countersigned
by the architect Carlo Maderno, shows that the new columns, like the
entire superstructure, were actually made of wood and were of the Doric
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
489
490
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
491
own new second altar in the choir is belied by the evidence alluded to above
that he began a refurbishment of the ciborium and screen. In any case, there
was never any doubt that the project of Maderno recorded by Borromini
was of seminal importance for Berninis design. The precise meaning and
implications of Borrominis canny formulation are debatable, but its veracity is not; and Kirwin utterly misrepresents the case in stating that I seriously questioned Borrominis accuracy and reliability.25
Gregory XVs Baldachins in the Crossing
The subsequent history of the baldachin at the crossing was also essentially one of renewing the structure erected at the beginning of Paul Vs
reign. A baldachin with staves supported by kneeling rather than standing
angels was erected for a canonization celebration in March of 1622.
Contemporary engravings show that the staves were richly carved with floral motifs and Kirwin cites a descriptive pamphlet in which the phrase
colonne allantica is used;26 but the term was obviously used loosely, for it
is evident from the engravings that the supports were not true columns.
Kirwin next shows that a design for replacing this baldachin was submitted by May 12, 1622.27 He would have us believe, however, that the
work was completed in less than three weeks, citing in evidence (but not
quoting) a passage in a papal diary to the effect that the pope celebrated
mass at the altar on June 29. The passage in fact says nothing about a new
baldachin and the design approved in May was surely that for which
Bernini made a set of kneeling angels.28 Payments to the craftsmen begin a
month later and thereafter complement each other chronologically as well
as substantively.29 Kirwin seeks to avoid the inevitable conclusion that only
one work was involved by again falsely accusing Pollak of an error, this time
Kirwin, 158.
Kirwin, 161, n. 125.
27
Kirwin, 161, App. IX, No. 1, p. 170.
28
Lavin, Crossing, 8 f, 41 f, No. 13. In a letter written before January 1, 1624, Teodoro
della Porta complains about the provisional works at the Altare magg(io)re che stato fatto
e rifatto quattro volte . . . come hora segue medemam(en)te (Pollak, Kunstttigkeit, 11, 71);
he was presumably referring to the ciborium of Clement VIII, Paul Vs baldachin of 1606,
the canonization baldachin of 1622, and the replacement baldachin of 16221624.
29
Cf. Pollak, Kunstttigkeit, II, 306 ff, Nos. 984 ff. Significantly, only payments to the
woodcarvers who made the supports predate the instructions to erect them (Kirwin, App.
IXB, Nos. 1, 2, p. 170); work by the other craftsmen followed afterward.
25
26
492
30
Kirwin, 161, n. 129. The essence of Kirwins method is betrayed by his discussion of
the year 1621 inscribed on the outside of this invoice, a summary of work done on several
projects submitted by the woodcarver G. B. Soria for final payment. Kirwin refers to the
document by citing Pollak, Kunstttigkeit, II, 1720, No. 35, and his operative sentence
concerning the data is as follows: The date 1622 is indesputable (see A.F., I Piano, serie 1,
vol. 4, fascioli n. 12). The implication is that proof of the emended date will be found in
the two documents cited in the parentheses. But fascicule 1 is the same as Pollak No. 35, and
fascicule 2 is nothing more than an order of July 1622 to pay one of the sums mentioned in
the invoice, one of the long series of payments to Soria that continued through 1624.
(Fascicule 2 had also been published by Pollak, whom Kirwin fails to cite although I had
given the reference, Ausgewhlte Akten zur Geschichte der rmischen Peterskirche
[15351621], Jahrbuch der preussischen Kunstsammlungen XXXVI, 1915, Beiheft, 107,
No. 57.)
Thus, with no justification, Kirwin transfers the date of the single, interim payment to
the whole invoice. This extrapolation in turn entails the extraordinary assumption that, for
no apparent reason, the woodcarver was paid for finished work in installments over the next
two years! The example of belated payment Kirwin cites as a parallel (App. III, p. 166) is
totally inapt: final settlement was delayed because the charges were disputed by the authorities and ultimately reduced.
The inscribed date does require explanation: Pollak thought it might be a scribes error
for 1624, when the invoice was submitted and final payment made; I suggested that it
recorded the intended beginning of work on the project.
31
Kirwin, 161, App. IXB, Nos. 1, 2, p. 170.
32
Kirwin, App. IXB, No. 4, p. 170.
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
493
7. Archivio della Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro, I Piano, serie 1, vol. 4, fasc. 1,
fol. 1 recto (showing date, 1621, correctly [not erroneously, as stated by Kirwin]
transcribed by Pollak). St. Peters, Rome.
8. Archivio della Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro, Serie armadi, vol. 240, fol. 19 verso
(showing portino of document di scarpello per li piedestalli intorno alaste
omitted by Kirwin). St. Peters, Rome.
494
have verified against the original (Fig. 8).33 In this case, Kirwin does not
refer to Pollak, a convenient oversight since Kirwin omits a crucial phrase.
The passage actually reads: . . . per lavori di scarpello per li piedestalli intorno
alaste del baldacchino alaltare (italics mine). In point of fact, the term
aste is used repeatedly and exclusively in the payments to the workmen and
in the invoices, which are countersigned by the architect, Carlo Maderno.
These men, unlike the cardinals of the Congregation, were professionals; we
must take them at their word and the word aste means stave. I emphasized that the staves of this last temporary baldachin before Berninis had
decorations (including colarini and piedi rather than capitals and bases)
which might have evoked the original twisted columns;34 but after Clement
VIIIs ciborium, column does not appear in the financial records concerning the structures erected at the altar of the apostles until the reference is to
Berninis project.
Urban VIIIs Competition and Berninis Contribution
Another interesting resolution of the Congregation is recorded in the
newly discovered volume of minutes. On June 7, 1624, that is, under
Urban VIII, the overseer of the Fabbrica was instructed to issue an edict
soliciting ideas and models for the baldachin to be prepared along with a
verbal explanation by the next meeting of the group fifteen days later.35
Kirwin sees this record as evidence of a formal competition, of which a
mockery was made by the foregone conclusion of Berninis victory as the
popes favorite. It is difficult to see why Urban VIII should have stooped to
such a subterfuge, and in fact nothing more is heard of the matter, although
there was plenty of criticism of Berninis ideas and we know a number of
alternative projects. Urbans choice of the designer for the baldachin was
certainly a foregone conclusion, however, and there can be no doubt of the
essential reason.
Despite Berninis manifold dependence on predecessors both in the far
and in the near past, the major novelties of his solution emerge clearer than
ever from Kirwins attempt to obfuscate them: Bernini used true columns
to support a baldachin, imitating the ancient spiral columns on a colossal
Kunstttigkeit, II, 307, No. 993.
Pollak, Kunstttigkeit,11, 18; cf. Lavin, Crossing, 9.
35
Kirwin, 162 ff, App. X, No. 1, p. 170. This document had already been cited by C.
DOnofrio, La papessa Giovanna, Rome, 1979, 243.
33
34
BERNINIS BALDACHIN
495
scale in bronze; he shifted the angels from beside the monument (where
they were no longer needed to support staves) to the tops of the columns
where they carry the canopy; and he completed the marriage of processional baldachin with architectural ciborium by connecting the columns
through a cornice from which, in place of the traditional architrave and
frieze, tasseled lappets hang. His design thus fused the three main types of
honorific covers, the architectural ciborium, the processional baldachin,
and the hanging canopy.36 Finally, Bernini imitated the early Christian form
of the altar covering, in which crossed ribs rested on spiral columns. I have
defined these innovations before and Kirwins material requires not the
slightest emendation to any of them.37
36
O. Berendsen has recently pointed out that canopies were suspended from domical
superstructures above the bier in certain catafalque designs (I primi catafalchi del Bernini e
il progetto del Baldacchino, in M. Fagiolo and G. Spagnesi, eds., Immagini del barocco.
Bernini a la cultura del seicento, Florence, 1982, pp. 133143.
Before encountering J. Traegers explication of the feigned canopy in the vault of
Raphaels Stanza dEliodoro especially the allusion to Peters vision of a great sheet let
down from heaven by four corners (Acts 10 :11, 11:5) I had not been fully aware of the
significance of this motif for the covering of the tomb of the apostle and for the Eucharist
(Raphaels Stanza dEliodoro and ihr Bildprogramm, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr
Kunstgeschichte, XIII, 1971, 2999, esp. 54 ff, 65 f ).
37
See above, n. 1.
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Ein Hamburger sammelt in London. Die Freiherr J. H. von Schrder Stiftung 1910,
Hamburger Kunsthalle 1984. The present note is by way of a preliminary announcement of
the discovery of the bust, which I shall discuss in a larger essay on Berninis portraiture.
The condition is excellent except for a nick in the upper edge of the figures left ear, and
the addition to the base, to be discussed below. Height overall 88 cm., with original portion
of base 79 cm., without base 68.5 cm.; width 65 cm.
1
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Alessandro in the Bode Museum, Berlin (Fig. 5). This sculpture, attributed
to Algardi since the mid-eighteenth century, was acquired in 1786 along
with an unfinished companion piece representing Alessandros brother
Michele (15711631), from the Villa Montalto in Rome.2
The list of Berninis works appended by Filippo Baldinucci to his biography of the artist published in 1682 includes a portrait of Cardinal
Montalto in Casa Peretti, the immense villa that had been created by Pope
Sixtus on the Esquiline hill (on the site now occupied mainly by the railroad station).3 The bust is mentioned in inventories of the villa and in a
guide to Rome written about 1660; it was placed on a carved and gilt
wooden pedestal in a room adjoining the main salone on the piano nobile of
the palace facing the Piazza di Termini, i.e., the Baths of Diocletian.4 The
Hamburg marble is so closely related to other busts by Bernini dating from
the early 1620s, and its quality is so high, that there can be no doubt of its
being the lost work and, in my opinion, a completely autograph masterpiece by the young sculptor.
Cardinal Alessandro was an impassioned builder and patron of the arts.
Among his most notable enterprises were the construction of the church of
Sant Andrea della Valle and, together with his brother, the embellishment
of the Villa Montalto. By far the most splendid addition to the garden of
the latter was Berninis Neptune Fountain that adorned the great fishpond
at the southwest corner of the property.5 There is no documentary evidence
concerning the fountain, but it is generally assumed to have been made
sometime between 1620 and 1623. The villa passed through several hands
during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, remaining more or
less intact until it was acquired in 1784 by a speculator who systematically
2
See M. Heimburger Ravalli, Alessandro Algardi scultore, Rome 1973, No: 26, 99 f, 179
(the bust of Alessandro, dated c. 1634, is wrongly reported as destroyed).
3
F. Baldinucci, Vita del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Florence, 1682, ed. S. S.
Ludovici, Milan, 1948,176; cf. R Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Oxford, 1981, 268,
No. 81(7). On the villa, besides the basic monograph by Massimo cited in the next footnote,
see C. DOnofrio, Una grande scomparsa, Capitolium 45, 1970, 5963; D. R Coffin, The
Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, Princeton, 1979, 36569.
4
V Massimo, Notizie istoriche della Villa Massimo alle Terme Diocleziane, Rome, 1836,
164; F. Martinelli, Roma ornata dallarchitettura, pittura a scultura, 166063; ed. C.
DOnofrio, Roma vista da Roma, Rome, 1968, 326: La testa con busto del Card. Alessandro
Montalto di marmo bianco del Cav. Bernino.
5
J. Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, 1964, No. 637, 596 ff; Wittkower, Bernini,177 f, No. 9.
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sold its contents. The Neptune group, now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, went to England in 1786 and in view of the fact that
the bulk of von Schrders collection was acquired during his stay in
England, one may surmise that Berninis bust of the cardinal had a similar
fate.
The bust must have been made at the same time as the Neptune group,
since it has two salient features in common with a series of portraits by
Bernini that can be dated 162123 on independent grounds. One of these
features is the low base with a cartouche carved on the front, the other is
the bow-shaped lower silhouette. Parallel instances are the busts of Cardinal
Giovanni Dolfin, before May 1621 (Fig. 6), Cardinal Escoubleau de
Sourdis, before July 1622 (Fig. 7) and Antonio Cepparelli, AprilAugust
1622 (Fig. 8).6 The carefully finished back of the Hamburg bust, with two
large hollows at the sides flanking a central vertical spine that includes the
base, is very close to that of Berninis recently rediscovered bust of Gregory
XV, datable FebruarySeptember 1621 (Fig. 9).7 Another feature common
to nearly all these works, including the new one, is the rendering of the iris
and pupil of the eye as a hemispherical depression surrounded by a thin,
faintly-incised ring and filled with a tear-shaped protrusion; the configuration imparts to the eyes depth, sharp focus and a lively glint.
While the cartouche base alone suffices to assign the work to the 1620s,
since the motif occurs in Berninis busts only at that time, the design of the
torso suggests a more precise date. A steady increase in the relative width
and in the curvature of the bottom of the torso is evident throughout the
series, culminating in the bust of Antonio Cepparelli. In the new portrait
the upward and outward flare is even more dynamic. Of particular importance is the fact that the shoulders in the Hamburg sculpture are not parallel to the picture plane: the right shoulder is thrust slightly forward,
imparting a subtle but insistent movement that is also found in the
Cepparelli portrait. This action, in turn, has its counterpart in the treatment of the drapery, which seems more complex and broken than in the
6
For the dating and a discussion of these works, see I. Lavin, Five New Youthful
Sculptures by Gianlorenzo Bernini and a Revised Chronology of his Early Works, The Art
Bulletin 50,1968, 238 ff. Very similar as well, although with a different kind of base, is the
bust of Monsignor Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, which is undated but must also belong to this
period: S. Rinehart, A Bernini Bust at Castle Howard, The Burlington Magazine 109, 1967,
43743.
7
I shall discuss this work in the study mentioned in n. 1 above.
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502
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Page 9
7. Cardinal Escoubleau de
Sourdis, by Gianlorenzo
Bernini. Marble,
height 75 cm.
(St. Bruno, Bordeaux).
503
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other works of the group. All these features, which will play significant roles
in the later developement of Berninis portraiture, situate the Hamburg
work toward the end of the series, 1622early 1623.8
Other considerations help to confirm this chronology and may indicate
the purpose for which the sculpture was made. Berninis bases were regularly carved from the same block as the bust, unless a different colored stone
was used. The base of the Hamburg portrait, which stood on its own
pedestal in the Montalto villa, has a separate lower section that must have
been added to increase the width and height. The upper, original portion
alone does seem disproportionately small, suggesting that the sculpture was
not designed to be seen in isolation but in an architectural context, such as
a niche.
Cardinal Montalto died on 3 June 1623. His testament has not yet come
to light, but according to the sources he stipulated that his heart be left to
the Theatine Fathers of Sant Andrea della Valle, and that his body be
buried in the sumptuous chapel built by his granduncle at Santa Maria
8
Cartouche bases also appear in three busts dating from early in the reign of Urban VIII,
elected August 1623. The type is virtually the same in the diminutive and exceptionally
lively, informal bust of the Pope now in the collection of Prince Augusto Barberini; the scroll
motif is developed into wing-like membranes combined with the Barberini bee in the portraits of Monsignor Francesco (National Gallery, Washington, previously dated by me two
or three years too early: Youthful Sculpture, 241 f ) and Antonio Barberini (Galleria
Nazionale, Rome, attribution disputed but in any case closely dependent on Bernini), where
the bulk and animation of the torsos are markedly increased; cf. Wittkower, Bernini, 184,
No. 19(1), 191 f., Nos. 24 (a, b).
I append here a table of the dimensions in centimeters of some early busts of Bernini;
those datable on external grounds are named in italics. (On the bust of Antonio Coppola in
San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Rome, cf. Lavin, Youthful Sculpture, see note 6, pp. 223 ff.)
H
h
W
Ratio
Ratio
Height
Height
without
Width
H
h
overall
base
W
W
____________________________________________________
Coppola
Gregory XV
De Sourdis
Cepparelli
Montalto
Dal Pozzo
F. Barberini
67
83.5
75
70
79
82.5
80.3
58
63.5
62
60
68.5
68.5
62.2
48
62.5
61
60
65
68.5
66.1
1.4
1.34
1.23
1.17
1.22
1.2
1.22
1.21
1.02
1.02
1
1.05
1
0.94
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507
Maggiore.9 These provisions were duly carried out, yet it seems anomalous
that no monument or inscription was installed in either building. A contemporary account of the funeral suggests that a sculptural commemoration
was intended at Santa Maria Maggiore, and most probably in the form of a
portrait.10 I submit that the image was commissioned as part of a memorial
to be placed in the Sistine chapel. The project was for some reason abandoned after the Cardinals death and the bust, its base raised, was displayed
in the villa as an independent work along with a bronze portrait of Pope
Sixtus himself.11
These observations may help to determine the date and purpose of the
work, but its historical importance derives from the extraordinary qualities
of vitality and refinement with which Bernini suffused the conventions of
formal ecclesiastical portraiture. The symmetrical shape retained from earlier tradition seems to take flight on the wings of the undulating lower edge.
A generally symmetrical arrangement of the drapery is also retained, but the
surfaces and edges of the folds are modulated and subtle asymmetries that
reflect the action of the sitter are introduced. The Cardinal had evidently
suffered from smallpox at some point in his life, and a remarkable feature
of the portrait is the pockmarks that dot the cheeks.12 Such a detail should
not be taken simply as a bit of virtuoso realism,or a moralistic proclamation
of unvarnished truth like Cromwells insistence that his portraitist include
pimples, warts and everything.13 In an uncanny way, the blemishes on
9
A. Chacon, Vitae et res gestae pontificum romanorum et S.R.E cardinalium, 4 vols.,
Rome, 1677, IV, 149, G. Gigli, Diario romano (16081670), ed. G. Ricciotti, Rome,
1958, 71.
10
. . . si port alla Chiesa di S. Maria Maggiore, dove finita la cerimonia dell Essequie f
sepulto nella ricca, a sontuosa Capella del presepio, fabricata con tanta spesa dalla buona mem.
di Sisto V. suo zio, dove essendo viva la memoria sua, & de Pio Papa V. viver ancora la sua scolpita ne marmi [emphasis mine], ma molto pi nel petto de glhuomini . . . (G. Briccio, Il
pianto, et la mestitia dellalma citt di Roma per la morte dellillustriss. et reverendiss. sig.
Alessandro Peretti cardinal Montalto, vescovo Vicecancellario, summator papae, & protettore di
Polonia, Rome, 1623, last page of preface).
11
On the portrait of Sixtus by Bastiano Torrigiani, which exists in two versions, see
Pope-Hennessy, Catalogue, No. 523, 494 f.
12
The pockmarks, faintly visible in our Fig. 4, should not be confused with the flecks of
black that occur naturally in the marble. Dr. Syamken kindly informs me that the pockmarks also appear in the bust in the Bode Museum.
13
Cf. The Dictionary of National Biography, 29 vols., Oxford, 191781. V. 182. (I am
indebted to William Heckscher for reminding me of the source of this dictum.)
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Cardinal Alessandros face also evoke the passage of time, comparable to the
movement of the drapery, the turn of the body, and the intense
concentration that animates the face.
XV
1
Recently, H. Feigenbaum Chamberlain has attempted to establish Berninis use of
Galileos theory of gravity in solids, The Influence of Galileo on Berninis Saint Mary
Magdalen and Saint Jerome Art Bulletin LIX, 1977, 7184; on Cigoli and Galileo, see E.
Panofsky, Galileo as a Critic of the Arts, The Hague, 1954.
2
Optica Philosophia Experimentis et Ratione a Fundamentis Constituta, 2 vols., Lyons,
165256; the frontispiece appears in both volumes. The engraving was first noted by H.
Brauer and R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin, 1931, 151, n. 3,
and first reproduced by M. and M. Fagiolo dellArco, Bernini. Una introduzione al gran
teatro del barocco, Rome, 1967, No. 136; see recently Bernini in Vaticano, exh. cat., Rome,
1981, 86 f., No. 63.
510
511
512
William, a devout and orthodox Catholic, was then actively engaged in the
effort to suppress the Jansenist movement in Flanders, of which he was
governor.9
Zucchis dedication begins on the page facing the engraving, with two
lines of Latin verse that explain the underlying meaning of Berninis image:
Parvos non aquilis fas est educere foetus/ante fidem solis iudiciumque poli:
Eagles may not rear their young without the suns permission and the good
will of heaven. These are the first two verses of Claudians panegyric on the
third consulship of the Emperor Honorius, and their significance emerges
in the subsequent lines of the poem.10 Claudian tells about the extreme trial
to which young eagles are put by their elders. The parent bird carries its offspring aloft and bids him look directly at the sun; if the fledgling cannot
bear the sight, he is immediately cast down to the earth; if he can, he is nurtured to be the king of birds, heir to the thunderbolt, destined to carry
Joves fiery weapon. The eagle of the engraving, identified as the imperial
bird by the lightning bolt held in its claws, refers to Leopold Williams
imperial heritage; the story depicted refers to the princes worthiness of that
heritage; and the motto inscribed below, between Berninis and the
engravers names UTROQUE POTENS, powerful in both (realms)
refers to the princes spiritual and terrestrial achievements, which are also
extolled in the text of the dedication.11 The image and its motto together
form an ingenious conceit incorporating an encomium of this particular
patron with an allusion to the theme of this particular book.
It is clear that in devising their invention Zucchi and Bernini turned primarily to works that invoked Hapsburg patronage. The three basic components of the frontispiece had appeared in the illustrations of earlier Jesuit
scientific texts published under the imperial aegis: Scheiners treatise of
1619 on the eye, dedicated to Ferdinand II (Fig. 2); and Kirchers 1646
work on light and shade, dedicated to Archduke Ferdinand III (Fig. 3).12
The two earlier designs are conceived as a panoramic landscape view with
an eagle appearing between the sun and the earth as part of the allegorical
Pastor (as in n. 6), XXX, 312 ff.
The source of the lines was printed in the margin in Zucchis second volume. Cf.
Claudian, ed. M. Platnauer, 2 vols., Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1956, I, 268 f.
11
Heroicae virtutis, & eximiae Pietatis Ferdinandi II. Imperatoris Haeres, in Solem eductus,
rebus pi fortitrque gestis, dignum te tanto Parente filium Christiano Orbi, hostibus autem
Imperij luminis & fulminis Arbitrum comprobasti . . . (Zucchi, Optica, dedication).
12
Discussed by Ashworth (as in n. 3), 181 ff., 187 f.
9
10
513
514
apparatus. Both birds are identified with the Hapsburgs: in the first case by
the famous motto PLVS VLTRA, further beyond, inscribed above; in the
second case by the double head.
In neither case, however, is the bird specifically identified as the imperial eagle. Nor is there any direct link between sun, eagle, and earth, whereas
the relationship between these three elements is the focus of Zucchis and
Berninis conception. These differences stem in part from a tradition of verbal and visual conceits that had contributed many individual motifs to the
composite allegories illustrating the scientific texts, the emblem or impresa.
In this mode, a coherent, overriding idea was expressed aphoristically in a
combination of words and picture, often as a personal or family device. The
story of the eagles trial by the sun well known from ancient sources and
in the later bestiary literature is the subject of many such devices.13
Several appear, for example, in Giovanni Ferros Teatro dimprese, published
in Venice in 1623 with a dedication to one of Berninis greatest patrons,
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII that same year
(Fig. 4).14
Although Zucchis and Berninis conceit is clearly rooted in the basic tradition represented by the emblems in Ferros compilation, there are important differences: The earth appears not as a landscape but as a segment of a
globe; the eagle is now the imperial bird, identified by the lightning bolt in
its claws; and both the motto and the birds action flying toward the
right while looking back over its shoulder convey the eagles pivotal role
between the two celestial spheres. I have found no single prototype that
incorporates these features. All but the first, however, were surely evolved
from a merging of two emblems reproduced in a great collection of papal,
imperial, and royal devices published at Prague at the turn of the century.
The author, Jacob Typotius, was a court humanist of Rudolph II and the
13
384 f.
Pt. 2, p. 82, upper two and middle-right emblems.
For a survey of eagle emblems, see A. Henkel and A. Schne, Emblemata. Handbuch zur
Sinnbildkunst des XVI.und XVII. Jahrhunderts, Stuttgart, 1967, cols. 757 ff.; on this theme
in particular, D. W. Jns, Das Sinnen-Bild. Studien zur allegorischen Bildlichkeit bei Andreas
Gryphius, Stuttgart, 1966, 148 f.
14
515
516
517
518
519
520
engraver was Aegidius Sadeler.15 A binary motto appears with the bicephalic
Hapsburg eagle in an emblem of Rudolph II himself (Fig. 3) inscribed
VTRVNQUE, both, or each (head). Typotius explains that the bird
perched atop the mountain represents the emperor enthroned; the two
heads are his Power and Prudence, one looking up to the sun, the other
looking down toward a swarm of serpents crawling up the summit.16 An
emblem of Philibertus II of Savoy inscribed PRESTANTIOR ANIMVS, the
spirit is superior, illustrates the eagles solar test and imparts a dual action
to the bird (Fig. 6). The explanatory text, following Pliny, cites the eagle
story without imperial allusion; the emblem is said to refer to the superiority of Philibertuss spirit, which aspires to the sun but relinquishes its
upward path and descends earthward, owing to the bodys weaknesses.17
In amalgamating these two prototypes, Zucchi and Bernini introduced
a number of critical changes. The new inscription (utraque potens) combined the duality of the first motto (utrunque) with the aggressiveness of
15
Symbola Divina & Humana Pontificum Imperatorum regum, 3 vols., Prague, 16013
(repr. Graz, 1972); on this work, cf. M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, 2 vols.,
Rome, 19641974, I, 518 f.; R. W. Evans, Rudolf II and His World. A Study in Intellectual
History 15761612, Oxford, 1973, 128 f., 170 ff.
16
Symbola, I, 56, No. XXXVII, I; p. 57: Aquila biceps, in rupe sedens, Imperatorem in
fastigio exhibet; & dm altero capite Solem suspicit, altero serpentes circa rupem reptantes
despicit; bona spe implet, divini auxilii, contra humanam cm vim, tm dolum. Atqve haec
duo sunt, quae contra duo capita erigat Imperator, necesse est. Quae illa capita? Potentia &
Prudentia, mente in Deo non sole, at solo fixa.
17
Symbola, III, 25, center left; p. 26: Quia proprium aquilae est Solem posse innoxie
inspicere, propterea pullos implumes subinde cogit (ut inquit Plinius) Solis radios intueri, &
si conniuentes, animaduertit, praecipitat nido, velut adulterinos, & degeneres. Intuetur hic
quidem Solem aquila: verum iter sursum institutum relinquit, ac deorsum tendit, non quod
Solis radios non ferat visus, sed quod corporis vires, ut Sol petat, non sufficiant. Haec eleganter Heros iste Symbolo suo accommodauit; Ostendere enim voluit, se omnibus animi, &
corporis viribus, ad res magnas, & sublimes tendere: verum ad propositam metam &
scopum peruenire non posse, corporis non animi defectu, quem praestantiorem & indefessum animaduertit. Is etsi absque corpore nihil praestare, ac corpus ad nutum regere non possit, tamen subinde eius vires auget.
521
522
523
The complex genesis of this modest and apparently simple work recalls
Baldinuccis statement quoted above, In his works, whether large or small,
Bernini did his utmost that there should shine forth that beauty of concept
which the work itself made possible. . . . Moreover, the illustration must
have been the fruit of a singularly close piece of cooperative research and
imaginative cross-fertilization between author and designer. The intimate
rapport that Bernini described feeling with Zucchi the orator seems to have
found expression here as well.
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page2
XVI
T is well known that Bernini made three major works for Louis XIV:
the design for rebuilding the Louvre, which brought him to Paris in
the summer of 1665 (Figs. 1, 4); the life-size portrait bust of the king executed while he was in Paris (Figs. 2, 5); and the monumental equestrian
statue executed after his return to Rome (Figs. 3, 6). Each of these works
has been studied separately, but they have hardly been considered
together or appreciated for what they really are, equivalent expressions in
different media of the concept held by one man of genius who was an
The main argument of this paper was first presented at a symposium entitled The
Ascendency of French Culture During the Reign of the Sun King sponsored by the Folger
Shakespeare Library in March 1985; an abbreviated version appeared in French (Lavin,
1987). Some of the material is incorporated in an essay devoted to the relationship of
Berninis ruler portraits to the anti-Machiavellian tradition of political theory and the idea
of the prince-hero (Lavin, 1991). These studies and the preceding chapter relate to a series
of attempts I have made to describe the nature, meaning and development of illusionism in
the Italian sculptured bust since the Renaissance (Lavin, 1970, 1975; see further Lavin,
1968, 1970; with the collaboration of M. Aronberg Lavin, 1970, 1972).
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525
Some of the thoughts and observations offered here were adumbrated in Fagiolo
dellArco, 1967, 90 f., and in the valuable studies by Del Pesco, Gli antichi di and Il
Louvre, both 1984. I have also profited greatly from the recent monographs by Berger,
Versailles and In the Garden, both 1985. For a general account of Berninis visit, see Gould,
1982. An excellent summary on the Louvre will be found in Braham and Smith, 1973,
12049, 25564; Daufresne, 1987, provides a useful compendium of the many projects for
the palace. On the bust of the king and its antecedents, see Wittkower, 1951; I. Lavin,
1972, 17781, and 1973, 434 ff. On the equestrian monument, see Wittkower, 1961,
497531, and, with supplementary material on the statues reception in France, Berger,
In the Garden, 1985, 5063, 6974; also Weber, 1985, 288 ff. The history of the work is
summarized in Hoog, 1989.
Mai, 1975, considers the bust and the equestrian together in the general context of Louis
XIV portraiture.
2
Chantelou, 1885; an English translation by M. Corbett, not always reliable but with
excellent annotations by G. Bauer, is now available (Chantelou, 1985).
1
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page4
526
kings;3 and it permits us to see his works for Louis XIV as reflections of a
single, coherent image that was among his most original creations.
The King, the Sun, and the Earth
The primary component of Berninis image of the king was the preeminent metaphor of Louiss reign, the sun in conformity with the millennial tradition of the oriens augusti, the rising of the august one, identifying the ruler with the sun.4 The richness, frequency, and programmatic
nature of the theme are illustrated in an engraving published in Claude
Franois Menestriers History of the King of 1689 (Fig. 7); the emblems linking Louis with the sun in the period from his birth to his majority in 1651
are gathered in a design that itself forms a composite solar emblem.5 In 1662
Louis adopted as his official device the sun as a face seen high above a spherical earth, with the famous motto Nec pluribus impar not unequal to several (worlds), that is, capable of illuminating several others (Fig. 8).6
Bernini had had ample experience with such solar imagery long before
his visit to Paris. The sun had also been an emblem of the Barberini pope,
Urban VIII, one of Berninis greatest patrons, and Bernini was intimately
familiar with an important document of this association, a frescoed vault in
the Barberini palace in Rome, executed by Andrea Sacchi around 1630
(Fig. 9).7 Divine Wisdom, with an emblem of the sun at her breast, appears
3
The translation given in Chantelou, 1985, 274 . . . buildings are the mirror of
princes obscures the very soul of Berninis metaphor!
4
See Kantorowicz, 1963, esp. 16776 on Louis XIV.
5
I have used the edition Menestrier, 1693, plate preceding p. 5; Kantorowicz, 1963,
175. A medal issued at Louiss birth in 1638 shows the chariot of the infant Apollo, with the
motto Ortus Solis Gallici (Menestrier, 1693, opp. p. 4; cf. Kantorowicz, 1963, 168, 170,
Fig. 45).
6
Cf. Kantorowicz, 1963, 162; Menestrier, 1693, Pl. 6, no. XXVI; Jones, 198288, II,
222, no.237.
7
Harris, Andrea Sacchi, 1977, 913, 5759; Scott, 1991, esp. 38 ff. I have discussed the
relevance of Sacchis fresco to an emblematic conceit, also involving the sun and earth, which
Bernini designed as the frontispiece of a book on optics, in I. Lavin, 1985.
Bernini must have already associated the Barberini solar imagery with that of Louis XIV
virtually from the kings birth in 1638; at least by 1640, the artist promised to reveal to
Mazarin the secret of a new method he had devised of portraying the rising sun on stage.
The episode is mentioned by Baldinucci, 1948, 151; Domenico Bernini, 1713, 56 f.; and
Chantelou, 1885, 116; on the date see Bauer in Chantelou, 1985, 143 n. 170; Brauer and
Wittkower, 1931, 33 n 7.
1. Bernini, third project for the Louvre, east facade (from Blondel, 175256, vol. 4, pl. 8).
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LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page6
528
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529
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530
4. Detail of Fig. 1.
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page9
5. Detail of Fig. 2.
6. Detail of Fig. 3.
531
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page10
532
enthroned in the heavens above the sphere of the earth. Bernini himself had
exploited the image in the allegorical sculpture of Time discovering Truth,
which he began toward the end of the 1640s in response to slanderous
attacks then being made on his reputation (Fig. 10).8 Truth is a splendid
nude whom a figure of Father Time, flying above, was to discover, literally
as well as figuratively, by lifting a swath of drapery. The figure of Time was
never executed, but the whole conceit drew on the traditional theme of
Time rescuing his daughter, who had been secreted by her great enemy
Envy in a dark cavern. Time was shown raising up Truth from the earth,
represented as a craggy peak below (Fig. 11). This tradition is alluded to by
the rocky base on which Berninis Truth sits, with one foot resting upon the
globe and an emblem of the sun in her hand. The joy of the occasion is
illustrated by the radiant smile on Truths face, the physiognomical equivalent of the suns own beneficent splendor.
The Palace Portrait
Roman antiquity offered three notable instances of solar imagery in
palaces. The imperial palace par excellence, built initially by Augustus on the
Palatine hill, included a Temple of Apollo crowned by a resplendent gilded
sculpture of the Chariot of the Sun (cf. Figs. 32, 33). Solar imagery was
associated with the building itself in the revolving circular dining hall of
Neros Domus Aurea and in the heavenly, high-columned dwelling of
Apollo described in Ovids Metamorphoses. Following these sources, Louis
Le Vau and Charles Le Brun had introduced the metaphor at
Vaux-le-Vicomte, the great residence of Louiss finance minister Fouquet, in
the oval salon and in the design for its vault decoration (Fig. 12). Bernini
admired Le Bruns composition when it was shown to him in Paris except
that, the design being oval, if the palace of the sun represented in it had the
same form, or indeed were round, it might have been better suited to the
palace and to the sun itself.9
Cf. Lavin, Bernini, 1980, 7074.
The importance of this drawing and the solar symbolism in the French projects for the
Louvre were emphasized by Berger (1970) and developed by Del Pesco (Il Louvre, 1984,
13772); also Berger, forthcoming.
Cf. Chantelou, 1885, 224, entry for October 11: Come cest une ovale, il a dit que si le
palais du soleil, qui y est represent, avait t de mme forme ou bien rond, peut-tre aurait-il
mieux convenu au lieu et au soleil mme.
8
9
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533
The allusion had, in turn, been introduced into designs for the new
Louvre proposed by Louis Le Vau and his brother Franois shortly before
Bernini came to Paris. Louis included an oval salon as the centerpiece of the
east wing (Fig. 13), and Franois included a relief showing Apollo in his
chariot, as well as the Nec pluribus impar motto, in the decorations of the
central pavilion (Fig. 14). Bernini must have been aware of Louis Le Vaus
Louvre project, which was sent to Rome as an example for several Italian
architects who were to comment and submit designs of their own. The two
projects Bernini sent to Paris before his visit develop the oval motif into
powerful curves that dominate the designs (Figs. 15, 16); significantly, he
emphasized the Sun-Apollo allusion in the architectural form of the projects, while evidently excluding any such imagery from the decorations of
the faades.10
Berninis distinctive approach to the problem began to emerge in a series
of dramatic developments at the outset of his visit. From his first inspection
of the Louvre, on June 3, 1665, the day following his arrival in Paris, he
concluded that what had already been built a considerable portion of the
palace was inadequate.11 At their first interview, on June 4, Bernini anticipated some of the allusions he would incorporate in his own designs,
telling Louis that he had seen the palaces of the emperors and popes and
those of sovereign princes located on the route from Rome to Paris, but the
king of France, today, needed something greater and more magnificent than
10
Colbert actually complained about the sparseness of ornament in the second project,
especially the absence of any statua o cifra in memoria del R above the portal (letter to
Bernini from the papal nuncio in Paris, March 23, 1665, in Mirot, 1904, 191n.; cited by
Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 140); Bernini, in turn, had criticized the minor ornaments in the
faades of Louis Le Vaus project as being pi proprii per un cabinetto, che per le facciate di
un gran palazzo (letter of March 27, Mirot, 1904, 192n.).
11
Berninis initial reaction is reported in several letters written by Italian members of the
court: Fu per da lui [i.e. Bernini] mercord sera doppo che hebbe visto il Louvre, e per
quel che mi disse pensa che quel che fatto possa servire poco (letter of the papal nuncio,
June 5, 1665, in Schiavo, 1956, 32); Si dice che le prime proposizioni furono di battere
tutto a terra, il che messe in confusione questi francesi (letter of Alberto Caprara to the
duke of Modena, June 19, in Fraschetti, 1900, 342 n. 1); . . . havendo detto dal primo
giorno, che bisognava abbattere tutto il Louvre se si havesse voluto fare qualche cosa di
buono . . . Hora s ridotto a dire, che far il dissegno per la gran facciata del Louvre in modo,
che si attaccar assai bene con la fabbrica vecchia... M non si parla pi di levare il primo
piano, che e quello che havrebbe obligato ad abbattere tutto il Louvre . . . (letter of Carlo
Vigarani to the duke of Modena, June 19, in Fraschetti, 1900, 343 n. 1).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page12
534
all that.12 He proposed to demolish the whole building and start over, a
drastic solution to which the king acceded only reluctantly. During the next
five days, however, Bernini changed his mind. On June 9 he proposed to
keep the existing structure and employ the ground floor as the base for the
colossal order he envisaged for his own project. In part, this change of heart
was a concession to practical necessity and fiscal responsibility;13 but surely
it was also motivated by a new solution, one that would assimilate the flat
faade of the traditional French chteau, resting on the foundation in a
moat to the image portrayed by Louiss solar emblem.14
The project Bernini offered the king on June 20 (Figs. 1, 4) represented
the royal device in a profound and utterly novel way not in geometrical
design or decorative sculptures but in the very fabric of the structure. The
elevation has three main levels: the colossal order that comprises the two
upper stories, the ground story with fine horizontal courses of drafted stone
masonry, and a massive, irregular foundation level that would have been visible in an open moat. The frequent references to it in Chantelous diary
show how important this foundation was to Bernini.15 He first presented his
project to Louis in drawings that showed two alternative ways of treating
the lowest level, one with ordinary rustication, the other with a rock-like
formation that he described as an entirely new idea. When the king chose
12
Jai vu, Sire, a-t-il dit S. M., les palais des empereurs et des papes, ceux des princes
souverains qui se sont trouvs sur la route de Rome Paris, mais il faut faire pour un roi de
France, un roi daujourdhui, de plus grandes et magnifiques choses que tout cela. The passage is followed by that quoted in the first epigraph to this essay (p. 524 above), to which
the King replied, il avait quelque affectation de conserver ce quavaient fait ses prdcesseurs,
mais que si pourtant lon ne pouvait rien faire de grand sans abattre leur ouvrage, quil le lui
abandonnait; que pour largent il ne lpargnerait pas (Chantelou, 1885, 15, June 4).
13
Bernini acknowledged the practical and financial considerations in a memo he read to
the king, adding, comme ltage du plan terrain du Louvre na pas assez dexhaussement, il
ne le fait servir dans sa faade que comme si ctait le pidestal de lordre corinthien quil met
au-dessus (Chantelou, 1885, 27 f., June 9).
14
The solution perfectly illustrates Berninis view that the architects chief merit lay not
in making beautiful or commodious buildings but in adapting to necessity and using defects
in such a way that if they did not exist they would have to be made: ...diceva non essere il
sommo pregio dellartefice il far bellissimi e comodi edifici, ma il sapere inventar maniere per
servirsi del poco, del cattivo e male adattato al bisogno per far cose belle e far s, che sia utile
quel che fu difetto e che, se non fusse, bisognerebbe farlo (Baldinucci, 1948, 146,
cf. Bernini, 1713, 32).
15
References to the rustication occur in Chantelous diary on June 20; September 22, 25,
26, 29, 30; October 6 (Chantelou, 1885, 36, 176, 179, 182, 189, 192, 203).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page13
535
the latter, even though it would be more difficult to execute, Bernini was
delighted and remarked that few people, even among professionals, had
such good judgment.16 He insisted on providing detailed designs himself,
on executing a model so that the workmen might see what he meant, and
on supervising the work on the foundations to make sure that the workmen
would do it properly. The reason for his care was that in carrying out the
rustication Bernini intended for the Louvre, the workmen would be functioning more as sculptors than as ordinary stonemasons.
Rustication, which had a long history, was discussed and its varieties
illustrated in the mid-sixteenth century by Serlio, in his treatise on architecture (Fig. 17).17 Traditionally, although the stones were given a more or
less rough surface, they were treated equally, and each stone or course of
stones was clearly separated from the next so that a more or less regular pattern resulted. This kind of rustication could become very rough indeed,
especially when it was used to evoke primitive or decaying structures, as in
Wendel Dietterlins book of architectural fantasies (1598); but the individual units remained separate and distinct (Fig. 18). Berninis natural rustica16
. . . un cueil ou espce de rocher, sur lequel il a fait lassiette du Louvre, lequel il a
couvert dun papier o tait dessin un rustique, fait pour avoir choisir, cause que cet
cueil tait de difficile excution, le Roi ayant considr lun et lautre, a dit que cet cueil
lui plaisait bien plus, et quil voulait quil ft excut de la sorte. Le Cavalier lui a dit quil
lavait chang, simaginant que, comme cest une pense toute nouvelle, que peut-tre elle ne
plairait pas, outre quil faudrait que cet cueil, pour russir dans son intention, ft excut
de sa main. Le Roi a rept que cela lui plaisait extrmement. Sur quoi le Cavalier lui a dit
quil a la plus grande joie du monde de voir combien S. M. a le got fin et dlicat, y ayant
peu de gens, mme de la profession, que eussent pu en juger si bien (Chantelou, 1885, 36,
June 20).
17
On the history of rustication, see most recently Ackerman, 1983, 27 ff.; Fagiolo, ed.,
1979. Berninis use of rustication has been treated most extensively by Borsi (1967, 2943),
but the nature and significance of his contribution has not been clearly defined.
As far as I can see, the first to note the character and intimate the significance of Berninis
rustication was Quatremre de Quincy in his Encyclopdie article on Opposition: Ainsi, des
blocs laisss bruts, des pierres de taille rustiques, donneront aux soubassemens dun monument une apparence de massivit dont lopposition fera paratre plus lgantes les parties et
les ordonnances suprieures. Lemploi de ce genre dopposition entre les matriaux a
quelquefois t port plus loins. Il y a des exemples de plus dun difice, o larchitecture a
fait entrer dans son appareil, des pierres tellement tailles et faonnes en forme de rochers,
que leur opposition avec le reste de la construction semble avoir eu pour but, de donner
lide dun monument pratiqu et comme fond sur des masses de rocs naturels. Tel est
Rome (peut-tre dans un sens allgorique) le palais de justice Monte-Citorio (17881825,
III, 36). The reference was brought to my attention by Sylvia Lavin.
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page14
536
7. Sun emblems of Louis XIV before 1651 engraving (from Menestrier, 1693, 4).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page15
537
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page16
538
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page17
539
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page18
540
13. Louis Le Vau, project for the Louvre, drawing. Muse du Louvre, Paris
(photo: Documentation photographique de la Runion des muses nationaux,
Receuil du Louvre I, fol. 5).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page19
541
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page20
542
15. Bernini, first project for the Louvre, drawing. Muse du Louvre, Paris
(photo: Documentation photographique de la Runion des
muses nationaux, Receuil du Louvre, vol. 1, fol. 4).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:57Page21
543
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page22
544
tion (this term seems most effectively to distinguish it from the traditional
artificial rustication) had its roots in artificially created natural settings
garden fountains (Fig. 19) and grottoes, for example, which were often conceived as artful accidents in an artificial world 18 and in such temporary
decorations as festival floats (Fig. 20) or theatrical stage sets, especially those
depicting the underworld (Fig. 21). Steps were even taken in the sixteenth
century to introduce irregular rustication into the permanent urban environment, as in the house of the artist Federico Zuccari in Florence (1579)
where rough-cut stones, carefully arranged, decorate the faade (Fig. 22).19
The stones remain separate and distinguishable, however, fragments from
another world introduced not as structural elements but as precious fragments like those from antique sculptures that were displayed symmetrically
on the walls of contemporary villas and palaces (Fig. 23).
By and large rustication since the Renaissance had been understood in
three ways. From the fourteenth century social value had been attached to
the technique because it involved more labor, and therefore expense, than
dressed stone.20 It had also acquired an expressive meaning when Alberti
spoke of its capacity to inspire awe and fear when used in city walls, for
example.21 Finally, rustication had metaphorical significance as an allusion
See the chapter on these types in Wiles, 1933, 73 ff. For the fountain illustrated in
Figure 195, see Zangheri, 1979, 157 f., and 1985, 38 ff.; Vezzosi, ed., 1986, 138 ff.
19
See now Salomone, in Fagiolo, ed., 1979.
20
An indicative case in point is the report concerning Filippo Strozzis feigned modesty
in building his palace in Florence: Oltre a moltaltre spese saggiunse anco quella de bozzi
di fuori. Filippo quanto pi si vedeva incitare, tanto maggiormente sembianza faceva di iritarsi, e per niente diceva di voler fare i bozzi, per non esser cosa civile e di troppa spesa
(Gaye, 183940, I, 355; cited by Roth, 1917, 13, 97 n. 22; Sinding-Larsen, 1975, 195 n. 5.
Many passages concerning rustication are assembled in an article by Morolli, in Fagiolo,
ed., 1979.
21
There are some very ancient castles still to be seen . . . built of huge unwrought stone;
which sort of work pleases me extremely, because it gives the building a rugged air of antique
severity, which is a very great ornament to a town. I would have the walls of a city built in
such a manner, that the enemy at the bare sight of them may be struck with terror, and be
sent away with a distrust of his own forces (Alberti, 1965, Bk. VII, ch. 2, p. 135); Visuntur
et vetusta oppida . . . lapide astructa praegrandi incerto et vasto, quod mihi quidem opus
vehementer probatur: quandam enim prae se fert rigiditatem severissimae vetustatis, quae
urbibus ornamento est. Ac velim quidem eiusmodi esse urbis murum, ut eo spectato horreat
hostis et mox diffidens abscedat (Alberti, 1966, 539).
18
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page23
545
to the work of nature, and this was its meaning in sixteenth century gardens
and other nonarchitectural contexts.22
Bernini, in effect, merged this representational tradition with that of
rustication as a proper architectural mode. In doing so he brought to a
mutually dependent fruition the three associative aspects of rustication the nobility of a magnificently carved, rather than merely constructed, foundation; the expression of awesome unassailability to all but
the most perservering and virtuous; and the actual depiction of a natural
form, the Mountain of Virtue, that served a structural as well as a
metaphorical purpose. Significantly, Bernini did not refer to his brainchild
by the technical term rustication, but instead called it a scogliera, or rocky
mass.
Bernini had long since taken the giant step of creating coherent irregular rock formations and using such wild, natural art works as major monuments in the heart of the city. In the Four Rivers fountain, the centerpiece
of the refurbished Piazza Navona, where Innocent X (164455) built his
family palace, an artificial mountain island supports an obelisk
(Fig. 24). Here, too, drawings show how carefully Bernini planned the accidental forms, and the sources emphasize his own participation in the actual
carving (Fig. 25).23 Because the obelisk was regarded as one of antiquitys
foremost solar symbols, the fountain itself has the same emblematic sense
that concerns us here.
A few years later Bernini introduced this idea of a rock-like foundation
into a properly architectural context in the faade of the palace, known
from its location as the Palazzo di Montecitorio, which he designed for the
same popes niece and her husband; here he used natural rustication on the
22
On the first of these points see, for example, Serlios remarks concerning the mixture
of nature and artifice, quoted by Ackerman, 1983, 28: It would be no error if within one
manner one were to make a mixture representing in this way partly the work of nature and
partly the work of artifice: thus columns bound down by rustic stones and also the architrave and frieze interrupted by voussoirs reveal the work of nature, while capitals and parts
of the columns and also the cornice and pediment represent the work of the hand; and this
mixture, according to my judgement, greatly pleases the eye and represents in itself great
strength.
On the second point, see Ackerman, 1983, 34.
23
Baldinucci, 1948, 140; Bernini, 1713, 89; for a detailed analysis of these studies see
Courtright, in Lavin et al., 1981, 10819.
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page24
546
basement story, beneath a colossal order of pilasters (Figs. 26, 27, and 28).24
Bernini may have adopted the natural form in the rustication of the new
palace for the popes niece to echo the motif of the Piazza Navona fountain. There may have been other reasons as well. The base of the Piazza
Navona fountain portrayed a mountain, after all, and the new palace was
situated on a prominence, the Mons Citatorius, that had been an important
center of urban life in antiquity.25 The idea of the Louvre as a palace
metaphorically on a mountain top may have germinated here. In the
Roman palace the rustication is confined to the strips beneath the outermost pairs of the order of pilasters. These powerful animated bases thus
appear as equivalents in living rock of the atlantean figures that support
the central balcony from which the pope would have greeted the populace
(Fig. 29).
Although there is no documentary evidence that Bernini planned a
piazza before the new Montecitorio palace, the monumental entrance and
balcony would scarcely have made sense without one. Perhaps because of
such a plan he first had the idea, to which we shall return, of moving the
column of Trajan to form a pair with that of Marcus Aurelius.26 The place
in front of the Montecitorio palace would have been the obvious choice for
the new location, especially because nearby portions of a third column were
preserved, that of Antoninus Pius. In fact, the name of the area was thought
to have derived from the colonna citatoria, so called because it was supposedly used to disseminate public decrees.27 In studying the ancient columns,
Bernini would have become aware not only of their Christianization to
be discussed presently but also of the unrestored condition of the
For a brief summary and recent bibliography, see Borsi, 1980, 315. Berninis original
project, identified by the arms of Innocent X over the portal, is recorded in a painting in the
Camera dei Deputati, Rome (Figs. 202, 203), often attributed to Berninis assistant, Mattia
de Rossi (cf. Borsi et al., 1972, Fig. 16).
The palace was left half finished after 1654, following a rupture between the pope and
his nieces husband Niccolo Ludovisi; it was finally completed in the early eighteenth century. Only the rusticated strip to the right of the central block was fully finished, along with
the rusticated window sills (another striking innovation in the design, which Bernini did not
repeat for the Louvre); see now Terracina and Vittorini, 1983.
25
Jordan, 18711907, I, pt. 3, 603; Gnoli, 1939, 175 f.
26
The possibility that this project (for which see further below, pp. 178 and n. 84) originated with Berninis plans for the Palazzo Montecitorio was evidently first suggested by
Capasso in 1966; cited by Fagiolo dellArco, 1967, 236 Fig. 47, scheda 201; followed by
Krautheimer, 1983, 207.
27
Jordan, 18711907, I, pt. 3, 603; cf. Nardini, 1666, 349.
24
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547
Aurelian column, which had long been confused with the column of
Antoninus. The original facing of the base had been hacked away, leaving
only the rough-hewn substructure, the condition recorded in many early
depictions. Berninis pilasters on rusticated strips were perhaps intended to
evoke the destroyed column of Montecitorio by echoing the Aurelian column in its ruinous state, the memory of which was still very much alive.
Indeed, the relationship was evidently appreciated by one artist who pointedly juxtaposed the unrestored column with the corner of Berninis unfinished palace in an engraved view of the Piazza Colonna published in 1679
(Fig. 30).28 If a reference to the decrepit triumphal column is thus incorporated into the faade of the building, it may serve, along with the supporting atlantes, to suggest the subservience of the power of antiquity to the
New Dispensation represented by the pope.
The pair of colossal figures flanking the doorway was another motif that
Bernini transferred from the Palazzo di Montecitorio to the Louvre. In
Rome they were subjugated to an ecclesiastical context, whereas in the secular domain at Paris they have become great guardian figures of Hercules
carrying clubs (cf. Fig. 4). Hercules had long been a favorite antetype of the
French kings, and sculptured depictions of Hercules and his Labors accompany the Apollo imagery that decorates the east faade of the Louvre in the
project of Franois Le Vau (see Fig. 14). Early in the century, in the antiquarian Giacomo Lauros fanciful recreation of the faade of the Golden
House of Nero, situated on the Mons Esquilinus, a pair of freestanding statues of Hercules with clubs had been placed before the central section
(Fig. 31).29 In Berninis Louvre, the figures flank the portal, and they stand
on rocky bases (on these supports, see p. 603 below); like the dressed
masonry behind them, the figures mediate between the rusticated foundation below and the actual dwelling of the king above. In a letter written
from Paris, Berninis assistant describes the figures as guardians of the
28
The base of the column of Antoninus Pius, now in the Vatican, and a portion of the
shaft were excavated early in the eighteenth century, toward the end of which the present
installation with the obelisk of Augustus was also created (DOnofrio, 1965, 238 ff.,
280 ff.). Early depictions of the Aurelian column are listed and some reproduced in Caprini
et al., 1955, 42; Pietrangeli, 1955, 19 ff.
The engraving by Johann Meyer the Younger appears in Sandrart, 166579, II,
Pl. XXII. Reproduced, without reference to Sandrart and dated in the eighteenth century, in
Angeli, 1926, frontispiece.
29
Lauro, 161241, Pl. 101, cited by Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 145 ff., and idem, Una
fonte, 1984, 423 f.
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page26
548
18. Wendel Dietterlin, fantastic portal (from Dietterlin, 1598, pl. 24).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page27
549
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550
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page29
551
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page30
552
24. Bernini, Fountain of the Four Rivers. Rome (photo: Anderson 300).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page31
553
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page32
554
28. Anonymous, Berninis project for the Palazzo di Montecitorio. Camera dei Deputati,
Rome (photo: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione E41848).
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555
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page34
556
31. Giacomo Lauro, Neros Domus Aurea (from Lauro, 161241, pl. 101).
32. Onofrio Panvinio, Palatine palace and Circus Maximus (from Panvinio, 1642, 49).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page35
557
33. Giacomo Lauro, Palatine palace and Circus Maximus (from Lauro, 1612-41, pl. 98).
34. Etienne Duprac, Palatine palace and Circus Maximus (from Duprac, 1621, pl. 9).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page36
558
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page37
559
effect that in the ingenious disposition of the temple the ancient Romans
taught that no one should be honored, or desire honors, who has not
entered and long dwelt with profit in the virtues. . . . Princes should take
this occasion to construct in their spirits similar temples of honor and
virtue...exactly as did a number of ancient emperors . . . who never would
accept the title of Maximus if they had not first earned it through virtue,
as did Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, whose virtuous actions have been preserved unharmed against the violence of time, war, and public calamities, as
one may understand from the most beautiful columns constructed in their
honor (on the columns see pp. 602 ff. below).33 Bernini must also have
drawn on the one important precedent for relating this idea of a moral progression in architecture to that of a physical progression to the top of a
rocky peak: a fresco made about 1600 by Federico Zuccari to decorate his
own home in Rome (Fig. 35), in which the two temples, linked in turn to
the temple of Fame, are perched on a high promontory reached by a
tortuous path.34
In sum, Bernini developed a whole new mode of architectural expression
at the Louvre to convey Louis XIVs adaptation of the traditional oriens
augusti theme to himself as the Sun King. Berninis project created a summa
of the major ancient Roman solar palaces, merging them with a quasi-religious notion of ethical achievement expressed through architecture. These
33
. . . li Romani antichi con questo insegnauano, che nissuno doueua essere honorato,
desiderare honori, che non fosse entrato, e lungamente con profitto dimorato nelle virt.
. . Da che dourebbono gli Principi pigliare occasione di fabricare nellanimi loro simili tempij dHonore, e Virt [see the dictum by Bernini that serves as the epigraph for this chapter]
. . . n giamai volsero accettare il titolo di Massimo, se prima per virt non lo meritauano .
. . come . . . fecero Traiano, & Antonino, li quali perche appoggiarono le attioni loro alla
virt, le hanno conseruate, & illese contro la violenza del tempo, guerre, & calamit publiche, come si pu comprendere dalle due bellissime Colonne che a honor di essi furono fabricate, & hoggi nella bellezza, & integrit antica si conseruano (Pl. 30v; the full Latin text
was quoted by Del Pesco, Una fonte, 1984, 434 f. n. 25).
34
Krte, 1935, 22 f., Pl. 11. Two drawings for the fresco are preserved, one in the
Morgan Library, where the buildings are labeled, the other in Berlin (cf. Winner, 1962,
168 ff., Fig. 14; Heikamp, 1967, 28 f., Fig. 22b; Hermann Fiore, 1979, 5153; Mundy,
1989, 23739). The Temple of Fame had particular metaphorical significance in artistic circles; it was also used by Van Mander (1973, 381 f.).
There was a tradition of temporary festival decorations in Turin that may have been relevant to Berninis idea: a hilly faade (in reference to the Piemonte) was erected in front of
the Palazzo Ducale, topped by a pavillion or temple and, in 1650, with an elaborate
Herculean allegory (Pollak, 1991, 63, 137 f.); for other connections with Turin see n. 68 and
p. 593 f. below.
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561
Pierre Seguin, also noted the strong Alexandrine air of the bust, which
turned to the side as one sees in the medals.38 Since the numismatic portraits of Alexander that can be identified with certainty are all in profile, the
latter reference was probably to Greek coins of Helios with a three-quarter
face or to a rare Roman type in which the head is turned up and to the side,
and the neck and part of the chest are included to convey the torsion
(Fig. 37).39 The beautiful heads must be the noted sculptures in Florence
(Fig. 38) and Rome (Fig. 39) then universally identified as Alexander.40 The
Roman version was associated with the group popularly known as the
Pasquino; Bernini admired this pathetically mutilated work, which was
thought to portray the death of Alexander, more than any other ancient
sculpture.41 Both the head and the movement of the figure one shoulder
forward in the direction of the glance, the arm wrapped round the body in
a powerful contrapposto recall Alexander as he had been portrayed in a
painting by Giulio Romano (Fig. 40). Giulio himself had adopted the pose
of the Greek hero from that of Julius Caesar in Titians series of the Twelve
Roman Emperors (Fig. 41).42 In Berninis sculpture the implied reversal of
the lower right arm checks the forward thrust suggested by the movement
of the upper torso and the drapery, a notable difference from the dEste bust
38
. . . le buste a beaucoup de lair dAlexandre et tournait de ct comme lon voit aux
mdailles dAlexandre (ibid., 183, September 26).
39
On the relationship to ancient Alexander portraiture, see Lavin, 1972, 181 n. 71. On
the coin of Vespasian reproduced here, see Vermeule, 1986, 11; I am indebted to
Dr. Vermeule for kind assistance in the numismatics of Alexander. M. J. Price brought to my
attention a coin of Alexander of Pherae in which a three-quarter head of Hecate appears on
the obverse (Gardner and Poole, 1883, 47 no. 14, Pl. X Fig. II). The relationship to
Alexander and allegorical portraiture generally was formulated perfectly by Wittkower
(1951, 18): . . . Bernini rejected the popular type of allegorical portraiture then in favour at
the court of Louis XIV which depicted le Roi Soleil in the guise of Apollo, of Alexander, or
of a Roman Emperor. Berninis allusion to Alexander was expressed by physical and psychological affinities, not by external attributes. Allegory was confined to the base, which also
reinforced the allusion to Alexander; see 573 f. below).
40
On the work shown in Fig. 38, see Haskell and Penny, 1981, 13436; on that in Fig.
39, see Helbig, 196372, II, 229 f. (the head has holes that served to hold metal rays).
41
Haskell and Penny, 1981, 29196; on Bernini and the Pasquino, see Lavin, 1990,
31 ff.
42
Cf. I. Lavin, 1972, 180 n. 67; on the treatment of the arms generally, 177 ff. Vergara,
1983, 285, has also seen Berninis reference to this model, perhaps through the intermediary of one of Van Dycks series of portrait prints, the Iconography; in adopting the pose Van
Dyck similarly raised the head and glance to suggest some distant and lofty goal or vision.
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562
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563
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564
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42. Bernini, Cenotaph of Suor Maria Raggi. Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome
(photo: Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo et la Documentazione, Rome E54086).
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570
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571
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572
43
Il ma ajout quil stait tudi faire, che non paresse che questo svolazzo fosse sopra un
chiodo . . . (Chantelou, 1885, 166, September 19).
44
See I. Lavin, 1972, 180 n. 68; on the treatment of the drapery generally, 177 ff.
45
Gamberti, 1659, frontispiece. The book (for which see Southorn, 1988, 38 f.) is a
description, profusely illustrated, of the decorations erected for Francescos funeral in
1658. The dedication is an elaborate metaphor on Berninis portrait, which in the engraving
has at the base papal and Constantinian insignia that announce the idea of the ideal Christian
ruler. Since, as is noted in the title of the book, Francesco was commander of the French
troops in Italy, Bernini may have had special reason to recall the work in connection with the
bust of the king. The importance of the Modena connection for Louis XIV and Bernini has
been emphasized by Burke, 1992, 187 f. See also p. 603 below. The expanding shape of the
pedestal would have helped keep spectators at a distance, something we know he considered
in designing the Louis XIV base (Chantelou, 1885, 150, entry for September 10).
On the notion of the heroic monarch, see De Mattei, 198284, II, 21 ff. De Mattei cites
the following definition by Gamberti, which is interesting in our context not only for the
concept itself but also for the sculpture metaphor and the contrast made between crude base
and heavenly head: Oltre il primo nome di Principe, vho aggiunto il secondo di Eroe, la cui
definizione si pu trarre al nostro proposito col di Luciano: Heros est qui neque homo est,
neque Deus, et simul utrumque est [Lucian, Dial. 3]. lEroe quasi dissi una terza natura, ed
una statua di elettro, fabricata con loro della Divinit e collargento delle pi squisite prerogative dellessere umano: bens sostenuta in pi da una base di sozzo fango, ma per
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circondata sul capo con una reale fascia dal Cielo (Gamberti, 1659, 102).
For more on the theory of the prince-hero and the related anti-Machiavellian tradition
of political ideology, see pp. 628 ff. below.
46
The images of Henry IV were made for triumphal entries: Vivanti, 1967, 188,
Pl. 22ab; cf. Bardon, 1974, 65, 141, Pl. XXXIV B.
On the ancient prototypes for Berninis pedestal, see I. Lavin, 1972, 180 f.; D.
Rosenthal, 1976, cites the depiction of Monarchia Mondana in Cesare Ripas Iconologia,
where the ruler is shown seated on the globe. For the emperor enthroned on the globe in
antiquity, see MacCormack, 1981, 12729.
47
The Sun King, 1984, 182, no. 3; Les Gobelins, 1966, 11, no. 1; Charles Le Brun, 1963,
239 no. 98; Montagu, 1962; Fenaille, 190323, I, 915; Jouin, 1889, 553 f.
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574
atic armorial display had suddenly come to life.48 The motivating force was
evidently Plutarchs familiar description of Lysippuss portrait of Alexander,
which combined the upward and sideward glance with a reference to the
earth below: When Lysippus first modelled a portrait of Alexander with his
face turned upward toward the sky, just as Alexander himself was accustomed to gaze, turning his neck gently to one side, someone inscribed, not
inappropriately, the following epigram: The bronze statue seems to proclaim, looking at Zeus: I place the earth under my sway; you O Zeus keep
Olympos.49 These references were quite evident to contemporaries. When
Bernini described his idea for the base, Chantelou drew the analogy with
the kings device.50 Another witness, no doubt aware of the passage in
Plutarch, perceived the link between the royal emblem and the ancient
monarch, remarking, as Bernini himself reported, that the addition of the
world as a base enhanced the resemblance to Alexander.51
The multiple allusions to the royal device and to the Helios-Alexander
tradition fill the bust with meaning; they contribute as well to its expressive
intensity and to the sense of supernatural aloofness it conveys.
The Equestrian Portrait
The bust of Louis is itself without any allegorical paraphernalia: the
king is shown wearing his own not classical armor, and his own
Venetian lace collar, in a vivid likeness with lips poised at the moment
Bernini described as just before or after speaking; one observer thought
Louis looked as if he were about to issue a command.52 All this was
Bernini visited the Gobelin tapestry factory and greatly praised Le Bruns designs on
September 6 Il a fort lou les dessins et tableaux de M. Le Brun et la fertilit de son
invention (Chantelou, 1885, 140) four days before he designed the pedestal for the bust
(see n. 50 below).
49
Pollitt, 1965, 145.
50
Je lui ait dit que sa pense se rapporte encore heureusement la devise du Roi, dont
le corps est un soleil avec le mot: Nec pluribus impar (Chantelou, 1885, 150, September 10);
cf. also Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 153 n. 16).
51
See n. 37 above.
52
For all these points, see Wittkower, 1951, 16, 17, 18.
The passage in Chantelou concerning the subtle expression of the mouth is worth quoting: Le Cavalier, continuant de travailler la bouche, a dit que, pour russir dans un portrait, il faut prendre un acte et tcher le bien reprsenter; que le plus beau temps quon
puisse choisir pour la bouche est quand on vient de parler ou quon va prendre la parole; quil
cherche attraper ce moment (Chantelou, 1885, 133, September 4).
48
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53
On the French tradition, see M. Martin, 1986; Prinz and Kecks, 1985, 25261;
Scheller, 1985, 52 ff. The Louvre projects with equestrian statues mounted on the faade are
conveniently reproduced in Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, Figs. 56, 57, 61.
54
See J. Brown and Elliott, 1980, 111 ff.; Torriti, 1984, 50 ff. But see also n. 72 below
55
See p. 594 and n. 73 below. On the Constantine and on its relation to the Louis XIV
monument see now respectively Marder, 1992, and Fumaroli, 1994.
56
On these gestures, see Lavin, Duquesnoys Nano di Crqui, 1970, pp. 145 f., n. 78.
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576
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577
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50. Bernini, study for the equestrian monument of Louis XIV, drawing.
Museo Civico, Bassano.
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Pegasus atop Mount Parnassus (see Fig. 19).57 In the final version a swirl of
windblown flags symbolized the conquest of the summit; like the drapery
of Louiss bust, the unfurling banners seemed to bear the portrait aloft
(see Figs. 56, 57).58
When the work was recut to represent Marcus Curtius hurling himself
into the fiery abyss, two major changes were made. The flowing hair at the
back of the head became the casque of a crested helmet, and the flags were
transformed into a mass of flames. I do not believe the expression was radically altered, since one of its most distinctive features, its benign smile,
must have seemed appropriate to the new subject; the theme of heroic
self-sacrifice preserved, as we shall see, an essential element of the meaning
Bernini intended for the work.59 The smile echoed the resplendent visage of
Berninis own image of Truth. The smiling sun was a traditional metaphor,
of course, and Bernini was not the first to portray Louis this way; the image
of radiant youthful benignity had appeared a few years earlier, for example,
in a portrait of the king as Jupiter, victorious after the rebellions of the
Fronde (Fig. 51).60 Also relevant, perhaps, was the description of an equestrian figure of the emperor Domitian by the poet Statius, who expresses the
57
The analogies with the Piazza Navona fountain and the Louvre rustication were also
observed by Bauer, in Chantelou, 1985, 37 f., n. 115. Wittkower (1961, 508 ff.) discussed
the relationship with the Pegasus-Mount Parnassus theme, which was often conflated with
that of Hercules at the Crossroads.
58
Wittkower (1961, 5025) argues convincingly that the smile and the victory flags were
introduced late in the execution of the work, following Louiss victorious campaign in
Holland in the spring of 1672.
59
The only records of the original face, two medals by Antonio Travani of about 1680
(cf. Figs. 56, 57), seem to me quite compatible with the face as we have it now (the replaced
nose notwithstanding). Nor do I consider contradictory to this idealization Elpidio
Benedettis statement in September 1672 that the face closely resembled that in other portraits of the king that had been sent to Rome (see Wittkower, 1961, 504 n. 21, 525,
no. 47). On the youthfulness of the face, see also Berger, In the Garden, 1985, 107 n. 11.
I might add that there is no real evidence that the smile itself was found offensive. The
specific objection raised by a Frenchman, to which Berninis reply is quoted in the text, was
that the smile was inappropriate to the military bearing of man and horse. Domenico
Bernini reports the episode as a misunderstanding of Berninis intention, based on a conventional view of the king and army commanders (the passage is quoted in full in n. 63
below). There was, incidentally, a venerable equestrian monument with a smiling rider,
Cangrande della Scala at Verona (Panofsky, 1964, 84, Figs. 385, 387).
60
Cf. The Sun King, 191 no. 20; Berger, In the Garden, 1985, 10, Fig. 7.
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joy of contemplating a face in which are mixed the signs of war and peace.61
To convey Berninis thought, however, I can do no better than to quote his
own words:
I have not represented King Louis in the act of commanding his
armies. This, after all, would be appropriate for any prince. But I
wanted to represent him in the state he alone has been able to attain
through his glorious enterprises. And since the poets imagine that
Glory resides on the top of a very high and steep mountain whose
summit only a few climb,62 reason demands that those who nevertheless happily arrive there after enduring privations [superati disaggi],
joyfully breathe the air of sweetest Glory, which having cost terrible
labors [disastrosi travagli] is the more dear, the more lamentable the
strain [rincrescevole . . . stento] of the ascent has been. And as King
Louis with the long course of his many famous victories has already
conquered the steep rise of the mountain, I have shown him as a
rider on its summit, in full possession of that Glory, which, at the
cost of blood [costo di sangue], his name has acquired. Since a jovial
face and a gracious smile are proper to him who is contented, I have
represented the monarch in this way.63
61
Iuvat ora tueri mixta notis belli placidamque gerentia pacem (Silvae, I, 1, 1516;
Statius, 1928, I, 6).
62
The locus classicus of the theme is in Hesiods Works and Days, lines 28991: . . .
between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the
path that leads to her, and it is rough at first; but when a man has reached the top, then she
is easy to reach, though before that she was hard (Hesiod, 1950, 24 f.). Berninis notion of
Glory at the apex of the mountain as the reward of virtue depends on a tradition stemming
from Petrarch (cf. Wittkower, 1961, 507 f.). See also 606 f., 618 f., 621 f. below.
63
The translation, with some alterations, is from Wittkower, 1961, 503. I quote the
whole passage, which concerns an ingegnoso cavalier Francese, che assuefatto alla vista del
suo R in atto Maestoso, e da Condottiere di Eserciti, non lodava, che qu allora collarmatura purindosso, e sopra un Cavallo medesimamente guerriero, si dimostrasse nel volto
giulivo, e piacevole, che pi disposto pareva a dispensar grazie, che ad atterririnimici, e soggiogar Provincie. Poiche spieggli a lungo la sua intenzione, quale, benche espressa adequatamente ancora nellOpera, tuttavia non arriv a comprendere il riguardante. Dissegli
dunque, Non haveregli figurato il R Luigi in atto di commandare a gli Eserciti, cosa, che finalmente propria di ogni Principe, m haverlo voluto collocare in uno stato, al quale non altri, che
esso era potuto giungere, e ci per mezzo delle sue gloriose operazioni. E come che fingono i Poeti
risieder la gloria sopra unaltissimo, ed erto Monte, nella cui sommit rari son quelli, che facilmente vi poggiano, ragion vuole, che quei, che pur felicemente vi arrivano doppo i superati dis-
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586
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587
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588
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589
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590
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591
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sculptors since the Renaissance, of large-scale monolithic sculpture as testimony to the prowess of both the artist and the subject.67
Berninis concept for the marble group had several notable precedents in
purely secular contexts, in Rome, and in Florence and Turin, where the
artist was received at court in grand style as he traveled to Paris.68 First and
foremost was the so-called Farnese Bull, representing the Fable of Dirce,
now in the Archeological Museum in Naples (Fig. 53).69 In Berninis time it
was to be seen in Michelangelos Palazzo Farnese in Rome, having been discovered in the Baths of Caracalla in 1545 and identified as a Labor of
Hercules, the heroic ancestor of the Farnese family. One of the most prominent of all ancient sculptures known in the Renaissance, a few months
before Berninis visit to Paris, Louis had sought more than once to acquire
the piece for himself. The significance of the sculpture was partly a matter
of scale and technique a huge mountain of marble, as it was called, with
multiple figures carved, it was also said, from a single block; the work was
mentioned for precisely these reasons in a discussion of important antiquities during Berninis stay at the French court. Furthermore, from Berninis
point of view, at least, the epithet mountain of marble could be taken literally, offering classical precedent for the unorthodox pedestal he envisioned for his own group. Finally, the great work had been the motivation
for an ambitious project of Michelangelo, described by Vasari, for the
Farnese palace then under construction. Michelangelo would have made
the sculpture the focal point of a vista extending from the square in front of
DAto e di Olimpo il doppio giogo altiero.
Humiliss., e Deuotiss. Seruitore
Carlo Cesare Malvasia.
IN ROMA, Nella Stamperia della Reuerenda Camera Apostolica.
M.DC.LXXXV.
CON LICENZA DESUPERIORI.
(The broadside is part of a collection mentioned by Lindgren and Schmidt, 1980, 187.)
67
Lavin, 197778, 20 ff.; Mockler, 1967, 23 f.
68
On his way north Bernini stopped in Florence for three days and in Turin for two. His
regal treatment by Ferdinando II of Tuscany and Carlo Emanuele of Savoy is described by
Baldinucci, 1948, 117 f., and Bernini, 1713, 125. Bernini also stopped in Turin on his way
back to Rome (cf. Mirot, 1904, 260 n. 2); a product of this visit was his role in an imaginary dialogue describing the ducal hunting lodge published by Di Castellamonte, 1674, see
Madama Reale prologue; further, Claretta, 1885, 517 ff.; Cavallari-Murat, 1984, 347 ff.
69
For the facts presented here see Haskell and Penny, 1981, 16567, with references, and
the important results of the recent restoration of the group in Il Toro, 1991. The Farnese Bull
measures cm. 370h x 295l x 293w = 31.98 m.3.
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the Farnese palace, through the building itself to the courtyard in the rear,
where the group would have been installed as a fountain, and beyond along
a new bridge across the Tiber to a Farnese garden and casino on the other
side of the river. The challenge of the heroic sculptural feat of the ancients,
the bold idea of a naturalistically carved base that served to raise the figure
to the summit of the earth, and the prospect of integrating the sculpture
along a grandiose urban, architectural and landscape axis all these features associated with the Farnese Bull were emulated in Berninis plan to
locate his monolithic, multifigured, mountain-top monument in the space
between the rear faade of the Louvre and the Tuileries palace.
No less essential to Berninis thought was an equestrian monument of
sorts that had also been carved from a single, if considerably smaller, block:
Giovanni Bolognas Hercules overcoming a Centaur, dated 1600, in the
Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence (Fig. 54).70 The group was intended to glorify
Ferdinando I and the Medici dynasty of Tuscany, which more than any
other set the direction for the European monarchic style that Louis XIV
would follow. The relevance of the work lay partly in its form and material
(especially the idea of using the rocky base to support the animals belly)
and partly in the way the Herculean theme was interpreted not simply
as a victory but as a labor, an obstacle overcome on the road to glory. This
message was spelled out on a commemorative medal, inscribed Sic itur ad
astra, thus one reaches the stars.71 Giambolognas sculpture itself, the
medal, and the inscription were all to be reflected in Berninis work.
In certain respects the nearest antecedent for Berninis idea was the
equestrian statue of Vittorio Amadeo I of Savoy, which had been installed
just a year before Berninis visit in a niche in the grand staircase of the
Palazzo Reale in Turin (Fig. 55).72 This mixed-media work by Andrea
Rivalta the horse is of marble, the rider and supporting figures of bronze
must have raised the prospect of a rearing equestrian portrait in stone as
70
I am indebted to Signoria Nicoletta Carmiel of Florence, who helped with the recent
restoration of the group, for obtaining its dimensions: cm 285h x 200l x 130w = 7.41 m3
(cf. n. 65 above); Avery, 1987, 117 f.
71
Avery and Radcliffe, eds., 197879, 222, no. 229; Avery, 1987, 117. On the motto,
from Virgil, Aeneid IX, 641, see Cheles, 1986, 63; Cieri Via, 1986, 55 n. 18; Tenzer, 1985,
240, 317 n. 124.
72
See most recently, Viale, ed., 1963, II, 25 f. Rivaltas horse was itself a substitute for an
unexecuted project of 1619 by Pietro Tacca that would have preceded the Philip IV in
Madrid as the first modern rearing equestrian monument in bronze (cf. Torriti, 1984, 31 ff.;
K. J. Watson, in Avery and Radcliffe, eds., 197879, 182 f.).
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73
Colbert asked Bernini to faire la figure du Roi de la manire de celle de vostre
Constantin, en changeant neantmoins quelque chose dans lattitude de la figure et du cheval
en sorte que lon ne puisse pas dire que sen est une Coppie, et que dailleurs ce bloc de marbre a lestendue et les mesures necessaires pour cela . . . (letter of December 6, 1669, quoted
in part by Wittkower, 1961, 521, no. 23); Bernini responded, Questa statua sar del tutto
diversa a quella di Costantino, perche Costantino st in atto damirare la Croce che glapparve, e questa del R star in atto di maest, e di comando, n io mai havrei permesso, che
la statua del R fosse una copia di quella di Costantino (December 30, Wittkower, 1961,
521, no. 24, cf. p. 501).
On the equestrian figures of Constantine-Charlemagne, Seidel, 1976. Bernini had
planned a correspondence between the rulers in the piazza of St. Peters: a schematic note
shows them derived from the metamorphosis of Peter (Menichella, 1987, 15 f., Fig. 25;
Morello, 1992, 206, with attribution to Alexander VII). In a letter of 155060 Guglielmo
della Porta recalled a proposal under Clement VII (152334) for a pair of equestrian monuments of the emperor Charles V and the Re Christianissimo Francis I, defenders of the
faith, to be placed before the portico of St. Peters (Gramberg, 1964, 120; cf. Mockler, 1967,
172).
74
The medals, by Antonio Travani, were first published by Dworschak, 1934, 34 f.
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596
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597
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598
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68. Mattia de Rossi, project for a monument containing Berninis equestrian Louis XIV,
drawing. Bibliothque Nationale, Paris.
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600
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601
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The pedestal of Berninis sculpture was to have borne the inscription Non
Plus Ultra, and it would have been flanked with two great columns alluding
both to the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome and to the
Pillars of Hercules (cf. Fig. 59).78 To my knowledge, these potent symbols,
real and mythical, of ancient imperial and Herculean triumph were here
linked for the first time.79 The idea of a portrait of the Sun King placed
between the Pillars of Hercules may have derived from an ancient devotional
. . . il lui tait venu dans la pense de faire dans cet espace deux colonnes comme la
Trajane et lAntonine et, entre les deux, un pidestal o serait la statue du Roi cheval avec
le mot de non plus ultra, allusion celle dHercule (Chantelou, 1885, 96, August 13). The
project is reflected in the medal of Charles VI of 1717 illustrated in Fig. 59 (Koch,
197576, 59; Volk, 1966, 61); here, however, the equestrian group, the pedestal, the
columns, and the motto are all returned to their traditional forms and reconverted to the
traditional theme of Hapsburg imperialism. For more of the legacy of Berninis idea, see n.
79 below.
Combinatory thinking as a means of superseding the great monuments of antiquity also
underlies Berninis alternative project for the area between the Louvre and the Tuileries a
double structure for spectacles and stage performances, joining the Colosseum to the
Theater of Marcellus (Chantelou, 1885, 96, August 13 perhaps reflected in a later project reproduced by Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, Figs. 43; cf. pp. 42, 49 n. 22).
79
A certain precedent is provided by Roman sarcophagi in which the labors of Hercules
are placed between columns with spiral fluting (cf. Robert, 1969, part 1, 143 ff., Pls. XXIV
ff.) and in works like the Hercules fountain in the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, where water
descends around the pair of columns in spiral channels (DOnofrio, 1963, Figs. 78, 82, 86,
90; Fagiolo dellArco, 1964, 82 ff.; R. M. Steinberg, 1965). The columns of the Hapsburg
device, often shown entwined by spiraling banners, were identified by Rubens (J. R. Martin,
1972, Pl. 37) with the twisted columns in St. Peters in Rome, supposedly brought from the
Temple of Jerusalem by Constantine the Great; see also a painting of Augustus and the Sibyl
by Antoine Caron (Yates, 1975, 145, Fig. 21). Yet, none of these cases involved Berninis
clear and explicit conflation of the triumphal and Herculean columns.
Perhaps Bernini was himself alluding to the pair of columns erected by Solomon before
the Temple of Jerusalem (1 Kings VII, 1422; 2 Chron. 3:17); these were frequently associated with the twisted columns at St. Peters, an association that had played an important
role in Berninis designs for the crossing of St. Peters. (Lavin, Bernini, 1968, 14 ff., 34; the
paired columns of Perraults Louvre faade have been linked to the Temple of Solomon by
Corboz, 1984). If so, Bernini would have been the first to extend the association to the
imperial spiral columns, an idea that was then taken up by Fischer von Erlach in the
St. Charles Church, Vienna, built for Charles VI: the pair of columns flanking the faade is
identified in one source as Constancy and Fortitude, in reference to the biblical names of
Solomons columns, Jachin and Boaz, meaning He shall establish and In it is strength
(cf. Fergusson, 1970, 321 ff.; further to Fischers columns in Chabrowe, 1974). Fischer seems
also to echo the design and the themes of Giacomo Lauros reconstruction of the ancient
temple of Honor and Virtue in Rome, to be discussed presently.
78
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603
relief much discussed by contemporary antiquarians as an epitome of classical mythological symbolism (Fig. 60). A radiate bust of Apollo appears
between a pair of Herculean clubs resting on rocky bases that anticipate the
supports of the Hercules figures flanking the entrance in Berninis third
Louvre project (see Fig. 4). The relief which was in the Mattei collection in
Rome, had been illustrated and interpreted by the great Jesuit polymath
Athanasius Kircher, who had worked closely with Bernini on the Piazza
Navona fountain, in a learned book on the fountains obelisk.80 Rearing
equestrian portraits and twisted columns had appeared together on the
catafalque of Francesco I dEste (Fig. 61); Bernini had once engaged to provide the model of a commemorative equestrian monument of the duke for
the Piazza Ducale at Modena.81 Paired columns representing the pillars of
Hercules and associated with the motto Non Plus Ultra were a common
emblem that might refer either to an unsurpassable achievement, physical or
spiritual, or a limitation imposed by prudence. Associated especially with the
Hapsburgs, the device also connoted the geographical extent of the empire.82
80
Kircher 1650, 235 f., also in Kircher, 165254,11, I, 206 (cf. Godwin, 1979, 60). The
relief had been elaborately interpreted by Girolamo Aleandro in a publication of 1616 (see
Allen, 1970, 27072), from which it was reproduced and discussed in our context by Del
Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 143, Fig. 114. On Kircher and Bernini, cf. Preimesberger, 1974,
102 ff.; Rivosecchi, 1982, esp. 11738; Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 138 f.
Kircher also wrote a book on the Piazza Minerva obelisk erected by Bernini shortly after
his return from Paris (Heckscher, 1947); in certain workshop studies for the monument the
obelisk is held up by allegorical figures posed on a rocky base (Brauer and Wittkower, 1931,
Pls. 176, 177b; cf. also DOnofrio, 1965, Fig. 134 opp. p. 235).
Berninis preoccupation at this period with the theme of the rocky mountain of virtue is
expressed also in a series of drawings of devotional themes, which evidently began during his
stay in Paris. The compositions portray penitent saints kneeling and ecstatically worshiping
a crucifix that lies prone before them; all portray the event taking place atop a rocky peak.
See Brauer and Wittkower, 1931, 151 ff.; Blunt, 1972.
81
Gambetti, 1659, 5, Pl. opp. p.190; cf. Berendsen, 1961, 134 ff., no. 8o, 219 ff. The
catafalque was designed by Gaspare Vigarani, who later built the Salle des Machines in the
Tuileries and whose son, Carlo, was in Paris as theater architect to Louis XIV during
Berninis visit (Chantelou, 1985, 80 n. 139, 81 n. 144). Surmounted by a trumpeting Figure
of Glory standing on a globe and triumphant over Death, the monument also anticipated
Berninis notion of Glory at the summit of the earth as the reward for virtue (see pp. 583).
The projected equestrian monument to Francesco I is the subject of correspondence in
June 1659 published by Fraschetti, 1900, 226.
82
On the Hapsburg device, see E. S. Rosenthal, 1971, 1974, and 1985, 81 f., 257 ff.;
and Sider (1989), who stresses the spiritual aspects.
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All these associations converged in Berninis mind with a stunning proposal he had evidently made to Pope Alexander VII in Rome before his trip
to Paris. The family of the pope in 1659 had acquired a palace on the Piazza
Colonna, immediately adjacent to the still unfinished Palazzo di
Montecitorio, which Bernini had designed for Alexanders predecessor.83
Bernini suggested moving the column of Trajan from the Forum, presumably to the Piazza di Montecitorio, to make a pair with the column of
Marcus Aurelius. This arrangement would have created an explicit reciprocity between the columns in the Montecitorio-Colonna area, and the
two papal palaces would have been linked by the citys most grandiose public square after that of St. Peters itself.84 Thus paired, the columns would
have suggested the columns and metas marking the spina of an ancient circus, and the whole arrangement would have recalled that at Piazza Navona
(Fig. 62) the ancient stadium of Domitian as well as the disposition
of the Vatican Palace beside the circus of Nero. The connection of palace
and circus evoked an ancient tradition of imperial, Herculean triumph,
based on the juxtaposition of the palace of the emperors on the Palatine and
the Circus Maximus (see Figs. 32, 33).85 The ancient columns had been
paired spiritually, as it were, ever since Sixtus V had crowned them with
statues of Peter and Paul, patrons of the Holy See. Sixtus also restored the
badly damaged column of Marcus Aurelius, and the inscription on the new
base refers to the triumph of Christianity over paganism.86 The ancient spiral columns had also been brought together physically as trophies on the
catafalque erected for Sixtuss funeral in 1591 (Fig. 63) and as background
See most recently Krautheimer, 1983 and 1985, 53 ff.
Bernini recalls his project on two occasions recorded in Chantelous diary: II a parl
ensuite de la proposition quil avait faite au Pape de transporter la colonne Trajane dans la
place o est la colonne Antoniane, et dy faire deux fontaines que eussent baign toute la
place; quelle et et la plus belle de Rome (Chantelou, 1885, 40, June 25); Il a dit quil avait
propos au Pape de la transporter dans la place o est lAntoniane, et l, faire deux grandes
fontaines, qui auraient noy la place en t; que cet t Ia plus magnifique chose de Rome;
quil rpondait de la transporter sans la gter (Chantelou, 1885, 249, October 19).
A legacy of Berninis idea, and an echo of his linking it to France, are evident in the pair
of monumental spiral columns that formed part of the temporary decorations erected in the
Piazza Navona to celebrate the birth of Louis XIVs successor in 1729 (Kiene, 1991).
85
The ancient tradition, admirably sketched by Frazer, 1966, was revived in the palace
architecture of the popes in sixteenth-century Rome, for which see Courtright, 1990,
119 ff.
86
See Pastor, 192353, XXI, 239 ff.; the inscriptions are given in Caprini et al., 1955,
41 f.
83
84
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605
87
On the catafalque, cf. Berendsen, 1961, 110 ff., no. 10, 166 ff. The columns are often
shown together in the imagery of Sixtus V (DOnofrio, 1965, Fig. 63 opp. p. 149, Fig. 89
opp. p. 187; Fagiolo and Madonna, eds, 1985, Fig. on p. 199). The temple (Lauro,
161241, Pl. 30) is cited by Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 147 f., and idem, Una fonte, 1984,
424 f. Lauros reconstruction had been compared to Berninis Santa Maria dellAssunta in
Ariccia by Hager, 1975, 122 f.; also Marder, La chiesa, 1984, 268.
88
The force of the ecclesio-political associations evoked by the columns is witnessed by
another project from the time of Alexander VII (published by Krautheimer, 1983, 206, and
idem, 1985, 58 f.) that envisaged making the column of Marcus Aurelius the mast of a fountain in the form of a ship the navicella of St. Peter, the ship of the church. Although
related to a specific boat-fountain type (for which see Hibbard and Jaffe, 1964), the project
obviously revives a proposal made by Papirio Bartoli early in the seventeenth century to create a choir in the crossing of St. Peters in the form of a ship whose mast was a bronze version of the column of Trajan, with reliefs of the Passion (Hibbard and Jaffe, 1964, 164;
Lavin, Bernini, 1968, 43); the spiral column also recalls the Solomonic twisted columns that
decorated the Constantinian presbytery at St. Peters.
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89
Marchesi, 1660; the work was published under the pseudonym Pietro Roselli. The
importance of Berninis relationship to his nephew, First emphasized by Lavin (1972), has
been greatly expanded by the recent studies of Marchesis ambitious project for a charitable
hospice for the indigents of Rome, for which Berninis last work, the bust of the Savior,
became the emblem; see the essays by B. Contardi, M. Lattanzi, and E. Di Gioia, in Le
immagini, 1988, 17 ff., 272 ff. (cf. p.273 on Marchesi, 1660), 285 ff.
90
Menestrier, 1662, opposite p. 54. The print was first related to Berninis project by K.
O. Johnson, 1981, 33 f., followed by Petzet, 1984, 443, and Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 150;
Johnson drew no implications concerning the interpretation of the statue, but he clearly
understood the Bernini project in the light of current political repercussions of the treaty. A
confusing error by Vivanti, 1967, Pl. 21e, concerning the print, was corrected by Johnson,
40 n. 12.
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over the advantages of his glory and sacrificed his interests to the
tranquility of his subjects.91
Precisely the same sentiment introduced the commemorative inscription
on a copper tablet that was immured by the king with the foundation stone
of the Louvre itself in a ceremony shortly before Bernini left Paris:
Louis XIIII
King of France and Navarre,
Having conquered his enemies and given
peace to Europe
Eased the burdens of his people.92
The themes of virtue and self-mastery as the true basis for rule were also
the leitmotif of Le Bruns great series of paintings from the life of Alexander
executed for the king beginning in 1661. Bernini, who saw and greatly
admired two of the compositions during his stay in Paris,93 took up this
Menestrier, 1662, 129 f.: II seroit souvent a souhaiter pour la gloire des Heros quils
missent eux mesmes des bornes volontaires leur desseins avant que le Temps ou la Mort
leur en fissent de necessaires . . . cest ce grand Example, qui doit faire admirer tous les
Peuples la moderation de nostre Monarque qui ayant plus dardeur & de courage que nen
eurent tous les Heros de la vieille Grece & de Rome, sceu retenir ces mouvements genereux
au milieu du succez de ses victoires, & donner volontairement des bornes sa fortune . . .
Ce sera aussi ce Trophe qui le rendra glorieux dans lhistoire de tous les sicles, quand on
saura que ce ieune conquerant prfer le repos de ses Peuples aux avantages de sa gloire,
& sacrifi ses interests la tranquillit de ses Sujets.
The Lyon image, in turn, was evidently modeled in part on Rubenss Arch of the Mint
from the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi (J. R. Martin, 1972, Pl. 99; and see McGrath, 1974).
The motif of a woman chained to two pillars was familiar from zodiacal depictions of the
constellation Andromeda (Murdoch, 1984, 252 f.).
92
Louis XIIIIe
Roy de France et de Navarre,
Aprs avoir dompt ses ennemis, donn la paix a lEurope,
A soulag ses peuples.
For the entire inscription and its Latin pendant, see Chantelou, 1885, 228, October 12,
and, for the ceremony, 240 f., October 17; Chantelou, 1985, 290 f., 306.
93
Chantelou, 1885, 219, October 10; on Le Bruns paintings see Hartle, 1957, 93f;
Posner, 1959, 240 ff.; Hartle, 1970, 393 ff., 401 ff., and idem, 1985, 109. Rosasco, 1991,
has shown that the same idea subsequently played an important role at Versailles. For other
aspects of the theme of Alexander as the self-conquering hero, see also, concerning an opera
first performed in Venice in 1651, Osthoff, 1960; Straub, 1969, 2019.
91
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608
72. Thomas
Bernard, medal of
Cardinal Franois
de la
Rochefoucauld.
Bibliothque
Nationale, Paris.
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609
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610
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611
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612
80. Jean-Baptiste
Martin, view of the
Alle Royale,
Versailles. Grand
Trianon, Versailles
(photo:
Documentation
photographique de
la Runion des
muses nationaux
64 EN 147).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page91
613
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page92
614
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page93
615
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page94
616
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617
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idea, combining the image from the Lyon festival with the centerpiece of
another project celebrating the Peace of the Pyrenees to which he himself
had contributed. To commemorate the event and further humiliate Spain
in Rome, the French minister proposed to create an elaborate stairway up
the Pincian hill from the Piazza di Spagna to the French enclave at Trinit
dei Monti. Bernini made a model for the project, and his idea may be
reflected in several drawings that include an equestrian monument in which
the king is shown charging forward with drapery flying (Figs. 66, 67).94 The
conception seems to anticipate the work Bernini made for the Louvre, but
it is far more aggressive. Indeed, Bernini may well have been referring to this
project when he pointedly remarked that he would not show Louis commanding his troops (see p. 583 above).
Menestriers comment on the image from Lyon explains Berninis
emphasis on the privations, the terrible labors, the lamentable strain,
and the cost of blood Louis suffered for his greatness. Bernini universalized
the idea; the Pyrenees became the mountain of virtue, and territorial containment became victory over the self. He thus managed to embody both
meanings of the Non Plus Ultra/Pillars of Hercules tradition, expressing
Louiss attainment of the extreme limit of glory through victories achieved
at great self-sacrifice. The essence of Berninis conceit lies in the profound
irony of the great hero reaching the heights of spiritual triumph by limiting
earthly ambition.95 The equestrian monument becomes thereby an emblem
The latest contributions concerning this project, in which references to the earlier literature will be found, are by Marder, The Decision, 1984, 85 f.; Laurain-Portemer, in
Fagiolo, ed, 1985, 13 ff.; and Krautheimer, 1985, 99 ff.
95
The significance of the Peace of the Pyrenees may be deeper still. Menestrier felt constrained to publish a whole volume (1679) in which he defended the kings Nec Pluribus
Impar emblem of 1662 against a claim that it had been used earlier by Philip II. Menestrier
was certainly right, but it is no less clear that the device was invented as a response, from
Louiss new position of power, to the Hapsburg claim to world dominion. (Although he did
not connect it to the treaty; K. O. Johnson, 1981, 40 n. 17, also recognized that Louiss
device had Spanish connotations from the beginning.) The Lyon tableau belongs to the same
context, and I suspect its rocky mountains may be reflected not only in the base of Berninis
equestrian statue but also in the scogliera of the Louvre itself. The Peace of the Pyrenees and
its implications were fundamental to Berninis conception of the Sun King, and linking the
globe of the Nec Pluribus Impar emblem with the mountain of the Non Ultra tableau provided the common ground for the image he created in all three projects for the king.
In an exemplary study Ostrow, 1991, esp. 109 ff., has emphasized the importance both
of the rivalry between Spain and France and of the Peace of the Pyrenees in the history of the
statue of Philip IV in Santa Maria Maggiore, designed by Bernini just before his trip to Paris.
94
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not only of military but of moral force, a vehicle not only of political but
also of ethical precept. Berninis image, above all, is that of potentially overwhelming power held in firm and benign restraint.
The King, Rome, and the Pope
All three works by Bernini for Louis XIV were composed of essentially
the same three elements, which serve in each context to create a form of
visual apotheosis: a lower realm of the natural earth; an intermediate, manmade, Herculean domain of dressed stone or providentially arranged drapery; and an upper level inhabited by the king. The community of Berninis
projects was clearly understood by his astute assistant Mattia de Rossi,
whose report from Paris, quoted on p. 547, 558 above, gave Berninis own
interpretation of the equestrian monument. A design signed by de Rossi
(Fig. 68), presumably dating from shortly after Berninis death, incorporates
the same three elements and allusions to all three projects.96 An isolated
tempietto containing the equestrian group on its rocky base stands on a
scogliera platform; the entrance is flanked by statues of Hercules with his
club, while above the portal a figure of Atlas, surrounded by military trophies, supports a globe displaying fleurs-de-lys.
I trust it is also clear that all three works convey essentially the same message: noble ideals are embodied in a man whose merit derives not from his
noble birth but from his virtue and labors. Bernini himself expressed as
much shortly before he left Paris, when he said to Louis that he would have
been happy to spend the rest of his life in his service, not because he was a
king of France and a great king, but because he had realized that his spirit
was even more exalted than his position.97 It is striking and symptomatic
that Berninis design for the palace is inordinately sparing of ornament and
almost devoid of regal or dynastic references an austerity that Colbert
had already complained of in the second project.98 Moreover, the visual and
conceptual hierarchy from crude mass to ideal form reflects Berninis underSee Berger, In the Garden, 1985, 72, 108 n. 25, Fig. 102 f.
. . . il sestimerait heureux de finir sa vie son service, non pas pour ce quil tait un
roi de France et un grand roi, mais parce quil avait connu que son esprit tait encore plus
relev que sa condition (Chantelou, 1885, 201, October 5; translation from Chantelou,
1985, 254, with modifications).
98
See n. 10 above. Fleurs-de-lys crown the cornice of the central oval in the first project
(Fig. 15; for a discussion of the crown motif see Berger, 1966, 173 ff., and idem, 1969,
96
97
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620
standing of the creative process itself He cited the example of the orator,
who first invents, then orders, dresses, and adorns.99 The processes of
achieving moral and expressive perfection are essentially the same. In its
context each portrayal of the king embodied on a monumental scale a single existential hierarchy in which form and meaning were permeated with
ethical content.100 It seems only logical that Bernini should have regarded
the medium through which the hierarchy is unified, stone, not as a rigid but
as a protean material subject to his will. It seems appropriate that he formulated this unorthodox notion precisely in response to a criticism of the
crinkled and perforated drapery and mane of the equestrian Louis XIV the
imputed defect, he replied, was the greatest praise of his chisel, with which
he had conquered the difficulty of rendering marble malleable as wax; not
even the ancients were given the heart to render stones obedient to the
hand as if they were of dough.101
The simplicity, grandeur, and unity of Berninis thought can be fully
grasped, however, only if one reconstructs in the minds eye how he imagined
the works would be seen. Following the path of the sun, as it were, the visi29 f.); a coat of arms appears above the portal in the third project (Figs. 1, 4); and fleurs-delys, monograms, and sunbursts appear in the frieze of the Stockholm version of the third
project (Del Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, Fig. 40).
99
Nel prepararsi del opere usava di pensare . . . prima allinvenzione e poi rifletteva
allordinazione delle parti, finalmente a dar loro perfezione di grazia, e tenerezza. Portava in
ci lesempio delloratore, il quale prima inventa, poi ordina, veste e adorna (Baldinucci,
1948, 145). Berninis is a simplified and more sharply focused version of the orator-painter
analogy drawn by Federico Zuccari: E Si come lOratore . . . prima inventa, poi dispone,
orna, manda memoria, e finalmente pronuncia . . . Cos il buon Pastore deve considerare
tutte le patti della sua Pittura, linventione, la dispositione, e Ia compositione (see Zuccari,
1607, part II, p. 9; Heikamp, ed, 1961, 229).
100
The rigor and astrigency of the project designed in Paris seem to have been mitigated
by the modifications Bernini introduced after his return to Rome, as recorded in drawings
preserved at Stockholm. Changes evident in the east faade (see also n. 98 above) include the
following: the natural rustication is confined to the main central block, and the horizontal
joins in the stone courses seem more emphatic; the Hercules figures are asymmetrical, they
are placed on regular low plinths, and their poses are more open and welcoming (cf. Del
Pesco, Il Louvre, 1984, 44 f. n. 7, Figs. 4042).
101
. . . Esser i panneggiamenti del R, & i crini del Cavallo come troppo ripiegati, e trafitti,
fuor di quella regola, che hanno a Noi lasciata gli antichi Scultori, liberamente rispose, Questo
che . . . gli veniva imputato per difetto, esser il pregio maggiore del sue Scalpello con cui vinto
haveva la dificolt di render il Marmo pieghevole come la cera . . . El non haver ci fatte gli
antichi Artefici esser forse provenute dal non haver lore dato il cuere di rendere i sassi cosi ubbidienti alla mano, come se stati fossero di pasta (Bernini, 1713, 149; cf. Baldinucci, 1948, 141).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page99
621
tor entered the mountain-top palace through the Hercules portals of the east
facade to have his audience with the king. While waiting in the antechamber
to be admitted to the august presence, he would gaze upon the kings portrait
bust hovering above its mundane pedestal.102 Bernini envisaged the equestrian
monument in front of the opposite, western, faade, between the Louvre and
the Palace of the Tuileries. There, the image of Louis, smiling as his mount
leaps to the summit of the Mountain of Glory and flanked by the imperial
triumphal columns as the Pillars of Hercules, would have been the focus of
the vista at the western limit of the suns trajectory.
The thinking displayed here had its only real precedent in Rome. To be
sure, despite Berninis notorious distaste for much of what he saw in France,
his projects for Louis were deeply and deliberately imbued with allusions to
French tradition; the visualization of the royal emblem, the retention of the
palace-in-a-moat the portrait mounted on a globe, the palace equestrian, all
bear witness to this acknowledgment 103 Yet, Berninis whole conception of the
Louvre seems intended to meld into one surpassing synthesis at Paris the two
quintessential monuments of Roman world dominion, secular and religious.104 This dual significance was defined explicitly in the medals issued to
commemorate the enterprise, of which those recording the equestrian portrait
have already been discussed (p. 594 f. above). The same idea was inscribed on
the foundation medal of the Louvre itself, by Jean Warin, showing Berninis
faade with the legend Maiestati ac Aeternit(ati) Gall(orum) Imperii Sacrum,
sacred to the majesty and eternity of the Gallic empire (Fig. 64).105
Seen in this light the complementary monumental allusions secular
and sacral of Berninis conception become all but inevitable. The colossal order crowned by a continuous balustrade with statues emulates
Michelangelos palaces on the Campidoglio (Fig. 70); these, too, like the
Bernini himself chose the position in the ante-chamber of the kings new audience
hall on October 13, a week before his departure (Chantelou, 1885, 231 f.).
103
The idea of Paris surpassing Rome was expressed by Bernini himself at his first meeting with the king (cf. p. 533 f. and n. 12 above) and was bruited in a French sonnet extolling
Bernini and the king (Chantelou, 1885, 149, September 9).
104
Robert Berger (1966) has persuasively argued that Berninis first Louvre project,
including its characteristic drum-without-dome motif, doffed its hat, as it were, to an ideal
chteau design of 1652 by Antoine Lepautre.
105
The medal (for which see La Mdaille, 1970, 81, no. 116; Jones, 198288, II, 224 ff.,
no. 239) was inserted in the foundation stone along with the inscriptions mentioned above,
n. 92; it is discussed several times in Chantelous diary (Chantelou, 1885, 164, 168 f., 215,
228 f., 240, entries for September 16, 19; October 8, 12, 17).
102
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The visitor to the Louvre would have been ravished by a secular version
of the awesome spectacle he experienced in Rome proceeding through the
embracing portico into the basilica to the high altar, surmounted by the baldachin, and beyond to the throne of the Prince of the Apostles in the apse.
When Berninis unitarian vision of the Sun King is viewed in this way, one
can readily understand Berninis view of his own contribution as an artist:
he was, he said, the first to make of the arts a marvelous whole, occasionally breaching without violence the boundaries that separate them.109
After-images at Versailles
The failure of Berninis visit to Paris is normally taken as a turning point
in French attitudes toward Italian culture since the Renaissance; the demise
of his various projects for the Louvre signaled the triumph of a new national
self-consciousness and self-confidence north of the Alps. Stylistically these
new attitudes are linked to the rejection of the fulsome rhetoric of the
Italian baroque and the development of the tempered logic of French classicism. Although correct in general terms, this analysis needs to be qualified,
especially on the evidence of what took place in the immediately succeeding years when the king determined to move both his residence and the seat
of government from the Louvre to Versailles. Le Brun adapted Berninis
equestrian project in designing a monument of Louis, intended initially for
no. 51. The reverse of the example in the Bibliothque Nationale reproduced in Fig. 248 is
inscribed T. BERl/l[sic]ARD. F., presumably the first medallist of that name, who was active
ca. 162265 (Forrer, 190430, I, 172 f., VII, 74). It should be noted that the Rochefoucauld
medal repeats the image of St. Peters on a rock on the medal by Caradosso of 1506 illustrating Bramantes project for the new basilica.
Bernini explicitly recalled the piazza of St. Peters in his planning for the area between
the Louvre and the Tuileries as well as for that in front of the Louvre (Chantelou, 1885, 42,
July 1; 52, July 15). Boucher (1981) has recently suggested that Berninis first design for the
Louvre reflected early projects by Peruzzi for St. Peters.
Another mountain-top theme with which Bernini must have been familiar appeared in
the 1644 medal commemorating the accession to the throne of Queen Christina of Sweden,
who later became the artists good friend. The medal shows a phoenix rising from a mountain top beneath a radiant sun, her favorite emblem (Eimer, 1992, 8487).
109
. . . egli sia stato fra Primi . . . che habbia saputo in modo unire assieme le belle Arti
della Scultura, Pittura, & Architettura, che di tutte habbia fatte in se un maraviglioso
composto . . . con uscir tal volta dalle Regole, senza per giammai violarle (Bernini, 1713,
32 f.; cf. Baldinucci, 1948, 140).
For a discussion of Berninis wholistic views on art generally, see Lavin, Bernini, 1980, 6 ff.
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the Louvre but then evidently to be placed before the faade of Versailles
(Fig. 73).110 Le Brun also presumably designed the stucco relief executed by
Coysevox in the Salle de la Guerre that serves as the antechamber to the ceremonial reception hall known as the Galerie des Glaces (Fig. 74). Depicting Louis crowned by a personification of princely glory, the composition
translates Berninis moral conceit into the grandiloquent language of high
allegory.111
Both of Berninis own sculptures were also brought to Versailles, after all.
The equestrian group was placed in the garden and moved several times,
but the common notion that it was sent into exile must be reconsidered. In
fact, it was given conspicuous locations as the focal point of the view along
the major transverse axis in front of and parallel to the faade of the palace,
first toward the north at the end of the Bassin de Neptune, reaching its final
destination in the early eighteenth century at the other extremity at the end
of the Pice dEau des Suisses. It was replaced at the Bassin de Neptune by
Domenico Guidis highly esteemed group of Time and History holding a
portrait medallion of the king, so that the two works faced each other at
opposite sides of the horizon. Berninis sculpture was thus displayed far
more prominently than many other works dispersed among the minor
recesses of the garden.112 Furthermore, the transformation of the group was,
in a way, singularly appropriate. Marcus Curtius was one of the great legendary heros of antiquity who sacrificed himself to save his country. In this
sense the revision showed a remarkably subtle understanding of the meaning Bernini emphasized in explaining his conception. I suspect, indeed, that
Girardons alterations were not intended to obliterate the reference to the
king but to transform the work into a moralized depiction of Louis XIV in
the guise of Marcus Curtius.113 The modification accommodated the sculp110
On this project, see Josephson, 1928; Wittkower, 1961, 513 f.; Hedin, 1983, 211,
no. 49; Souchal, 1977 , vol. G-L, 47 f., no. 47; Weber, 1985, 190 ff.; M. Martin, 1986,
5460.
111
Keller-Dorian, 1920, I, 37 ff., no. 30.; Kuraszewski, 1974; Souchal, 1977 , vol.
AF, 186 f., no. 25. On the personification of Gloria dei Prencipi holding an obelisk (Ripa,
1603, 189), see Petzet, 1984, 443.
112
See on this important point Berger, In the Garden, 1985, 63. The traditional, architectural pedestal the work ultimately received was supplied by Mattia deRossi (Menichella,
1985, 23 f.).
113
There was a striking and well-known precedent for such an interpretation of the
theme in Rome early in the century: Cardinal Scipione Borghese had been compared to
Marcus Curtius, and Berninis father, Pietro, had portrayed the subject by restoring an
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including a terrace between the two wings (Fig. 23).117 In the Palazzo
Barberini, where Bernini himself had worked, the orders and rusticated base
of the palace type were introduced in a U-shaped faade (Fig. 79). It can
hardly be coincidence that both these buildings are near, but not in, the city
center; hence they are topographically as well as typologically intermediate
between the two alternatives. Le Vau in effect combined these intermediate
suburban arrangements, partly by applying the unifying lesson of Berninis
Louvre: a rusticated base surmounted by a single order and crowned by a horizontal roofline with sculptured balustrade. Le Vau thus for the first time
fused the palace and villa types into a unified and consistent architectural system that incorporates the entire faade. The fusion perfectly expresses the
unique status of Versailles as a royal chteau in the venerable tradition stemming from Charlemagne Constantines great successor and Louiss model in
other respects as well a permanent extra-urban seat of the monarchy.
In another context a bold observation has recently been made concerning a painting of Versailles by Jean-Baptiste Martin (Fig. 80). The view
toward the west of the Bassin dApollon and the Grand Canal is framed by
poplar trees, sacred to Hercules. The arrangement seems to reflect Berninis
project for the Louvre, where the Pillars of Hercules would have framed the
view from the palace to the west, in reference to the Non Plus Ultra device
used by the Hapsburgs.118
Most intriguing of all is the evidence recently discovered that Bernini
actually made a design for Versailles and that, for a time at least, his design
117
Cf. Berger, Versailles, 1985, 23, 25. My analysis is merely an extension and refinement
of Bergers observation that the primary sources of Le Vaus Enveloppe at Versailles were the
Italian villa type with terrace and Roman High Renaissance palaces. French indebtedness to
Bernini later at the Louvre and at Versailles has also been stressed by Tadgell, 1978, 5458,
83 n. 121 and 1980, 327, 335.
118
K. O. Johnson, 1981, 33 ff. Our attention here being focused in the legacy at
Versailles of Berninis ideas for the Louvre, I will not pursue possible relationships between
the planning of the chteau and other projects in which Bernini had been involved
notably those between the tridentine avenues of approach with twin buildings at the angles
and the Piazza del Popolo at Rome (most recently, Castex et al., 1980, 7 ff., a reference for
which I am indebted to Guy Walton). A similar arrangement was proposed in 1669 by
Franois dOrbais for the approach to the main faade of the Louvre (cf. Chastel and Prouse
de Montclos, 1966, 181, Fig. 5 and Pl. V).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page105
627
For what follows, see Phringer-Zwanowetz, 1976. The author of the report to be discussed was probably Lorenzo Magalotti, whose interest in the Louvre is known from letters
written to him by the painter Ciro Ferri on September 30, 1665, and February 17, 1666
(Bottari and Ticozzi, 182225, II, 4752).
120
Chantelou, 1885, 154 ff., September 13.
119
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629
On Bernini, the anti-Machiavellian tradition and the prince-hero (p. 572 f. above),
see Lavin, 1991. The anti-Machiavellian tradition, first defined by Meinecke, 1957, has been
studied by De Mattei, 1969 and 1979, and the theories of the chief exponents in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been summarized by Bireley, 1990. This development
in the secular sphere had a close and surely related corollary in the theological principle of
heroic virtue, essential in the process of canonizing saints, first introduced in 1602 and elaborately formulated later in the century (for which see Hofmann, 1933; Enciclopedia cattolica,
194854, III, s. v. Canonizzazione, cols. 595 f., 605 f.).
An important and pioneering study by Keller (1971) discusses the major European
equestrian monuments of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in relation to contemporary political theory, including some of the writers who belong in the anti-Machiavellian
camp. In the present context, however, Kellers work has a critical shortcoming: although his
perception of Berninis intention is sound, Keller excludes Berninis equestrian Louis XIV as
expressing an allegorical conceit rather than a political theory (see pp. 17 and 68 ff.). In fact,
Berninis innovation lay precisely in merging these two levels of meaning.
122
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LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page109
631
Owing in part, perhaps, to the sheer logic of the situation but also in part,
surely, by design, Pei has brought into being several important elements of
Berninis dream of giving form to the glory of France.
From the time of Louis XIV and Bernini onward, the space between the
west faade of the Louvre and the Tuileries was not meant to stand empty.
Many projects were proposed (Fig. 82 includes those dating 1624-1829),
until the series finally came to an end in the glass pyramid designed by
another architect imported from abroad, who succeeded in illustrating the
breadth of French vision and the grandeur of French culture.125 Bernini
himself proposed for the area now occupied by Peis pyramid two theaters,
modeled on the Colosseum and the Theater of Marcellus in Rome, one facing the Louvre, the other the Tuileries.126 Placed back to back, with room
for ten thousand spectators on either side, the theaters would have realized
on a monumental scale the effect of one of Berninis fabled comedies, in
which he created the illusion of two theaters and two audiences in plain
view of one another.127 The two theaters at the Louvre would have reflected
the spectacle of French civic and ceremonial life at its very heart.
This is exactly what Pei has created a great spectacle at the veritable
center of French cultural life. And he has achieved this result, which might
be described as maximum, with means that can be described as minimum
(Figs. 83, 84). Apart from its symbolic associations (Pei denies that he
intended any cf. Fig. 85),128 the pyramid is the simplest and least obtrusive of structural forms, and glass, whether opaque or transparent, is the
most self-effacing structural material. When the glass is opaque, it mirrors
the scene of people from all over the world who have come to enjoy, participate in, and pay homage to French culture, with the sacrosanct faades
of the Louvre as their backdrop. When the glass is transparent, what does
one see? People from all over the world who have come to enjoy, participate
in and pay homage to French culture, with the sacrosanct faades of the
Louvre as their backdrop. Either way, the pyramid itself disappears, becomFor a complete and thorough survey of these projects, see Daufresne, 1987.
The sources concerning this proposal are conveniently gathered in Del Pesco, Il
Louvre, 1984, 41 f., 48 n. 22, who also reproduces several projects, including two by Claude
Perrault, that reflect Berninis scheme; further, Daufresne, 1987, 76 ff.
127
Berninis comedy of two theaters is described by Baldinucci, 1948, 151, and Bernini,
1713, 56.
128
In an interview Pei demonstrated to me (see Fig. 85) how he derived the pyramid
from the geometric configuration of Le Ntres garden parterre of the Tuileries.
125
126
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page110
632
ing a clear and limpid representation of its environment.129 Pei solved the
terrifying problem of making a monumental entrance to the Louvre by creating an almost invisible theater where the people of the world are the actors
and the Louvre is the stage set.
Almost exactly ten years after its desecration at Versailles, Berninis
equestrian image of the Sun King was restored (cast in lead) to the space
between the Louvre and the Tuileries for which it had originally been destined (Fig. 86).130 The restitution of the image to its proper position of leadership provoked almost the same furor as its original appearance in Paris
three centuries before appropriately enough, since Berninis sculpture,
far from adhering comfortably to the conventions of its genre, was meant
to convey the artists new, provocative, even subversive, conception of the
ideal head of state. In replacing the work, Pei used neither the same material nor the same location Bernini had envisaged. Instead, Pei used the
image of the Sun King to resolve one of the historic problems of ceremonial
urbanism in Paris the nonalignment of the Louvre with the axis formed
by the Tuileries, the Napoleonic arches of triumph and the Champs-Elyses.
Pei oriented the horseman and his pedestal on that axis, but aligned the
platform beneath the monument with the Louvre (Fig. 87).131 In this way,
the Pei-Bernini image of the Sun King came to serve precisely the function
for which it was intended, as the visual and symbolic link between the old
France and the new.
The whole conception, which is truly in the spirit of Bernini, also fulfills Berninis definition of the architects task: which consists not in making beautiful and comfortable buildings, but in knowing how to invent
ways of using the insufficient, the bad, and the ill-suited to make beautiful
things in which what had been a defect becomes useful, so that if it did not
exist one would have to create it.132
129
The importance of simplicity-opacity-transparency as Peis way of relating his pyramid to the historic buildings of the Louvre, has been observed by S. Lavin, 1988. The
transparancy of the pyramid was ably discussed in a paper by Stephen L. Rustow,
Transparent Contradictions: Peis Pyramid at the Louvre, delivered at the 1990 meeting of
the Society of Architectural Historians.
130
See Hoog, 1989, 57 ff.
131
The displacement of the statue on the grand axe of Paris is also noted by Fleckner,
1992.
132
. . . il sommo pregio dellartefice [is] il sapere inventar maniere per servirsi del poco,
del cattivo e male adattato al bisogno per far cose belle e far s che sia utile quel che fu difetto
e che, se non fusse, bisognerebbe farlo (Baldinucci, 1948, 146; cf. Bernini 1713, 32).
LavinXVI.Revised:Lavin2Chap1213/8/0706:58Page111
633
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Vezzosi, A., ed., Il concerto di statue, Florence, 1986.
Viale, V., ed., Citt di Torino. Mostra del barocco piemontese. Palazzo Madama
Palazzo Reale Palazzina di Stupinigi, 3 vols, Turin, 1963, II.
Vitruvius, On Architecture, ed. F. Granger, 2 vols., London and New York, 19314.
Vivanti, C., Henry IV, the Gallic Hercules, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, XXX, 1967, 17697.
Volk, P., Darstellungen Ludwig XIV. auf steigendem Pferd, Wallraf-RichartzJahrbuch, XXVIII, 1966, 6190.
Von Pastor, L., The History of the Popes, 40 vols., London, 192353, XXI. [84, 104]
Von Sandrart, J., Laccademia todesca della architettura, scultura & pittura: oder
Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau-Bild und Malereyknste, Nremberg and
Frankfurt, 2 vols., 196579, II.
Weber, G. Brunnen und Wasserknste in Frankreich im Zeitalter von Louis XIV,
Worms, 1985.
Winner, M., Gemalte Kunsttheorie. Zu Gustav Courbets Allgorie relle und der
Tradition, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, IV, 1962, 15285.
Wittkower, R., Berninis Bust of Louis XIV, London, etc., 1951 (Charleton Lectures
on Art).
_____ The Vicissitudes of a Dynastic Monument. Berninis Equestrian Statue of
Louis XIV, in M. Meiss, ed., De Artibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin
Panofsky, Princeton, 1961, 497531 (reprinted in his Studies in the Italian
Baroque, London, 1975, 83102).
Yates, F. A., Astraea. The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century, London and
Boston, 1975.
Zangheri, L., Pratolino il giardino delle meraviglie, Florence, 1979.
Zerner, H., Observations on Duprac and the Disegni de le ruine di Roma e come
anticamente erono, The Art Bulletin, XLII, 1965, 50712.
Zuccari, F., Lidea depittori, scultori, et architettori, Turin, 1607, part II.
Zupke, R. W., Italian Weights and Measures from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth
Century, Philadelphia, 1981 (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society,
vol. 145).
Visible Spirit
The Art of
Gianlorenzo Bernini
Vol. II
Irving Lavin
Printed by
Estudios Grficos ZURE
48950 Erandio
Spain
Contents
XVII
645
XVIII
681
XIX
748
XX
757
XXI
789
XXII
849
XXIII
XXIV
917
955
XXV
1018
XXVI
1046
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1127
XXIX
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XXX
1234
XXXI
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1336
Bibliography
1385
Index
1397
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Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy. 1600 to 1750, Harmondsworth, etc.
1980. p. 196.
3
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1. Nicolas Poussin,
Et in Arcadia Ego,
Paris, Muse du Louvre,
photo Archives
photographiques MNLP
360/112c.
2. Bernini,
Ecstasy of St. Teresa,
Rome, S. Maria della
Vittoria,
photo Alinari 6193.
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3. Borromini, Rome,
S. Carlo alle Quattro
Fontane,
photo Alinari 27898.
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changes that were being wrought in other art forms during the early seventeenth century in Rome, notably in the theater in drama, in music, and
above all in the combination of the two, opera. Here at last we begin to
reach the heart of the matter I wish to consider here, and I shall focus initially on these parallel phenomena, which I think may have some bearing
upon Berninis development.
As far as drama is concerned, it is too little known that among the major
forces in the development of Baroque theater were the Jesuits.8 From its
inception the Society had fostered a great tradition of stage productions as
part of its program of education and indoctrination. The plays were put on
in the Jesuit colleges, under the direction of the teacher of rhetoric, for the
benefit of the students, who were the actors; the students were often the
sons of powerful noblemen and the practice helped to perfect their Latin
and their oratorical prowess, while the lofty subject matter served to inculcate them with spiritual truth. By the early seventeenth century in Rome
these productions became quite elaborate and were among the citys stellar
attractions, serving to advance the twin causes of religious faith and the
Jesuit order. Perhaps the leading figure in the Jesuit theater during the first
quarter of the century was one Bernardino Stefonio, who was teacher of
humanities and rhetoric in Rome for more than a decade before 1618,
when he became tutor to the Duke of Modena.9 Stefonio wrote a number
of dramas whose success is witnessed by the several editions and performances they were given. Chief among them were two tragedies, one called
Crispus, first performed at the Collegio Romano in 1597, the other Flavia,
performed for the Jubilee year 1600. Both plays recount the stories of
Christian martyrdoms under Roman emperors, but they incorporate
important elements of plots and language from the tragedies of Seneca.
For a recent survey, see William H. McCabe, An Introduction to the Jesuit Theater, St.
Louis, 1983. For Rome, see Gualtiero Gnerghi, Il teatro gesuitico nesuoi primord a Roma,
Rome 1907, and the valuable but unpublished work by V. R. Yanitelli, The Jesuit Theatre in
Italy, Ph.D. Diss. Fordham Univ., 1945. See also a series of essays by various authors on the
theaters of the Collegio and Seminario Romano, in The Ohio State University Theatre
Collection Bulletin, No. 16, 1969.
9
Stefonios work has been the subject of two excellent essays by Marc Fumaroli, Le
Crispus et la Favia du P. Bernardino Stefonia S. J. Contribution lhistoire du thatre au
Collegio Romano (15971628), in: Jean Jacquot/Elie Konigson. Les ftes de la Renaissance.
III, Paris, 1975, pp. 505524, and Thtre, humanisme et contre-rforme Rome
(15971642): luvre du P. Bernardino Stefonio et son influence, in: Bulletin de lAssociation
Guillaume Bud, XXXIII, 1974, pp. 397411.
8
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doing, they took the first basic steps in the creation of Baroque opera.
Among the better-known participants were the theoretician Vincenzo
Galilei, father of the astronomer, the poet Ottavio Rinuccini, who later
wrote the libretto for Monteverdis Lament of Ariadne, and Emilio de
Cavalieri, who was instrumental in introducing the movement to Rome.
De Cavalieri (15501602) composed the music for the Rappresentatione
di Anima e di Corpo, while the text was written by a member of the Oratory,
Agostino Manni (15481618). The Rappresentatione was an extraordinary
and seminal production from many points of view. It marked a turning
point in the development and transferral from Florence to Rome of the new
technique of melodic recitation, or the use of song in a dramatic enactment
melodrama, in other words intended to recapture what was thought
to be the essential principle of ancient theatrical art. All this was stated
explicitly in the preface to the original edition of the text and score of the
Rappresentatione, as was the intention to move the audience by expressing
through the melodic dialogue the strongly contrasting emotions of the
characters: singular and novel compositions of music, made similar to that
style with which, it is said, the ancient Greeks and Romans in their scenes
and theaters used to move the spectators to various affections; played and
sung allantica, as it is said; affective music; able to revive that ancient
usage so felicitously; this style is also suited to move to devotion; this kind
of music revived by him [Cavalieri] will move to various affections, like pity
and joy, weeping and laughter, and others like them; the singer should
express well the words so that they may be understood and accompany
them with gestures and movements, not only of the hands but also of steps,
which are very effective aids to move the affection; [Cavalieri] would praise
to change instruments according to the affect of the singer; passing from
one affection to its contrary, as from mournful to happy, from ferocious to
gentle and the like, is greatly moving.11
The text of the play, which must certainly have been conceived with
musical enactment in mind, was no less innovative. The subject was a religious allegory which combined two forms of late medieval popular devotion that had been revived in the latter part of the sixteenth century: the
Lauda spirituale, or song of praise on a religious theme, which might
11
Translated from the dedication and preface to Rappresentatione di anima, et di
corpo. Nuouamente posta in musica dal Sig. Emilio del Cavaliere per recitar cantando, Rome,
1600 (facsimile ed., Westmead, England, 1967).
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include elements of narrative and dialogue but was not a proper enactment;
and the Sacra Rappresentazione, or religious play in verse, based normally on
a Biblical story, with parts often sung to musical accompaniment. The
three-act work, something between a recitation and a play, includes, besides
Body and Soul, allegorical characters such as Time, Understanding, Good
Counsel, Mammon, and Worldly Life. The plot consists entirely in the
exchange of arguments for good and evil, presented alternately in a kind of
contrapuntal symmetry, until Virtue triumphs in the end. The only events,
properly speaking, occur in the third act when Hell and Heaven alternately
open and close, and their denizens Damned and Blessed Souls intone
their respective laments and exaltations.
The impact of the jubilee production of the Rappresentatione di Anima
e di Corpo was immediate and extraordinary. A contemporary biographer of
Manni described the representation as the first in Rome in the new recitative style, which then became frequent and universally applauded.12 The
response of cultivated Roman society may be judged from the vivid recollections of an eyewitness, recorded after the death of Emilio de Cavalieri in
1602. I want to quote the report in extenso because it is quite moving in
itself and illustrates not only the thematic but also the expressive context of
our subject.
I, Giovanni Vittorio Rossi, found myself one day in the home of Signor
Cavaliere Giulio Cesare Bottifango, not only a fine gentleman but also one
of rare qualities excellent secretary, most knowledgeable poet and musician. Having begun to discuss music that moves the emotions (musica che
move gli affetti), he told me resolutely that he had never heard anything
more affecting (pi affettuosa), or that had moved him more than the
Representation of the Soul put to music by the late Signor Emilio de
Cavalieri, and performed the Holy Year 1600 in the oratory of the
Assumption, in the house of the Reverend Fathers of the Oratorio at the
Chiesa Nuova. He was present that day when it was performed three times
without satisfying the demand, and he said in particular that hearing the
part of Time, he felt come over him a great fear and terror: and at the part
when the Body, performed by the same person as Time, in doubt whether
to follow God or the World, resolved to follow God, his eyes poured forth
a great abundance of tears and he felt arise in his heart a great repentance
Cf. D. Alaleona, Su Emilio de Cavalieri, la Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo e
alcune sue composizioni inedite, in: La nuova musica, X, 1905, p. 18.
12
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and pain for his sins. Nor did this happen only then, but thereafter whenever he sang it he was so excited to devotion that he wanted to take communion, and he erupted in a river to tears. He also gave extreme praise to
the part of the Soul, divinely performed by that castrato; he said the music
was also an inestimable artifice that expressed the emotions of pain and tenderness with certain false sixths tending toward sevenths, which ravished
the spirit. In sum, he concluded, one could not do anything more beautiful or more perfect in that genre, and, so I might see for myself the truth of
what he said, he took me to the harpsichord and sang several pieces from
the representation, in particular that part of the Body which had so moved
him. It pleased me so much that I asked him to share it with me, and he
most courteously copied it himself. I learned it by heart, and often went to
his house to hear him sing it himself .13
It must be said, in sum, that the Jesuit and Oratorian productions for
the jubilee of 1600 represented two new, alternative and complementary
approaches to combining words and music in a specifically Christian dramatic performance inspired by a renewed emulation of antiquity. The highculture academic exercises of the Jesuits focused primarily on the classical
drama and scenic splendor, introducing music, singing and dance as ancillary ingredients of a moving effect. The Oratorians took the more popular
path of vernacular dramatic text, all of it sung to musical accompaniment,
but with relatively little emphasis on staging and scenography. Each of these
approaches had a long and fruitful legacy. The Oratorians subsequently suppressed the theatrical aspect altogether, focusing instead on the musicdrama itself in the development of the Oratorio form for which the Order
is famous. The Jesuits tended to suppress the musical in favor of the
theatrical aspects of the drama, and spectacular productions of Jesuit school
plays in the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became legendary.
There was one particular context, however, in which a clear and specific
effort was made to combine the two approaches and create a fully developed
music-drama, with elaborate staging, all roles played by actor-singers to
orchestral accompaniment, a corps de ballet performing dances that were an
integral part of the event, and a plot that recounted the inspiring spiritual
victories of the early church martyrs. These first great religious operas were
created in the second quarter of the seventeenth century under the patronCf. Marcello Fagiolo/Maria Luisa Madonna (Eds.), Roma sancta. La citt delle basiliche,
Rome 1985, p. 196.
13
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age of the family of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, who was Berninis greatest
patron.14 In a series of productions mainly in the Palazzo Barberini, newly
brought to completion by Bernini himself, the musical as well as the purely
theatrical possibilities of the earlier innovations were further developed. In
fact, one might say without too much exaggeration that it was largely in the
Palazzo Barberini that opera acquired the spectacular and scenographic
character with which it is still associated. The Barberini productions are also
of interest because they brought religion to the opera. Whereas previous
musical dramas had used mythological themes, the operas sponsored by the
papal family were mostly devoted to the lives of early saints and thus combined classical settings with an explicit Christian spiritual message.
Throughout this development those involved were quite conscious of
the revolution in progress, and there was much discussion of the nuova
musica, and musica rappresentativa, or monody meaning the setting of a
single melodic line, carried by the voice, against an orchestral accompaniment. This, it was said, constituted a simple, direct means of representing
dramatic situations and arousing the emotions quite impossible with the
complex formal configurations of sixteenth-century polyphony. The whole
discussion, I repeat, took place in terms of a new understanding of the relation between words and music in ancient tragedy. Hence it becomes understandable, for example, that one of the chief theoreticians of the new movement in Rome, Giovanni Battista Doni, to whom the term monody is due,
should also have been one of the founders of the modern study of ancient
music, especially Greek. He conceived of Greek tragedy, it seems hardly
necessary to mention, very much like early Baroque opera. He even
invented an instrument, the Lyra Barberina, with which he sought to
reconcile the requirements of ancient and contemporary technique.15
Both the continuity between the Roman and earlier Florentine tradition, and the self-consciousness of it all, are illustrated by the fact that the
first historical account we have of the origins of the melodrama is a letter
about the Camerata Fiorentina written by Piero Bardi, the original patrons
14
For an overview of Barberini theater patronage, see Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 11
vols. Rome 1975, I, cols. 146870, s. v. Barberini. The standard work remains Alessandro
Ademollo, I teatri di Roma nel secolo decimosettimo, Rome, 1888. The only comprehensive
study of the Barberini theater is the unpublished dissertation by M. L. Pietrangeli Chanaz,
Il teatro barberiniano, Univ. of Rome, 1968; see also Margaret K. Murata, Operas for the
Papal Court 16311668, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981.
15
On Doni, see Enciclopedia . . ., op. cit. (cf. n. 14), II. cols., 855 f.
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son, to Giovanni Battista Doni in 1634. Doni actually lived with the
Barberini from 1623 till 1640.
In the theater too, therefore, we are faced with the curious paradox of an
intimate link between the formation of early Baroque principles and a consciously renewed classicism. In as much as antiquity had always played a
preeminent role in Renaissance artistic theory, however, the idea of a
renewal is here particularly important. The difference may be illustrated
with special relevance in our present context by certain aspects of the history of dramatic theory.
The key document for the understanding of the theory and practice of
the theater in antiquity was the Poetics of Aristotle. Like the Rhetoric, the
Poetics is devoted ultimately to the art of persuasion, but whereas the
Rhetoric focuses primarily on discursive argument as the means toward that
end, the Poetics is concerned with mimetic representation. The theater persuaded not through analysis and demonstration, but through eliciting an
empathetic response in which the audience is transported out of its normal
frame of reference into one of the authors own design. Hence it was that
since the early years of the sixteenth century, after the first publication of
Aristotles Poetics, one of the crucial issues was the famous definition of the
function of tragedy, Catharsis.16 The portion of Aristotles treatise that supposedly explained the term was lost; hence the history of interpretations of
Catharsis is a perfect index to successive conceptions of ancient drama.
Generally speaking, two main views have prevailed. The first, which practically dominated sixteenth century thought on the subject, has been called
the moral or didactic (sometimes liturgical or religious) interpretation:
tragedy by demonstrating the effects of certain actions produces a moral
purification of the passions. The second interpretation has been called
pathological, or homeopathic, since it focuses not so much upon the ethical or didactic value of tragedy as upon its power to arouse our emotions.
Catharsis is a kind of treatment, curing emotion by exciting it. The basis for
this interpretation is Aristotle himself who, in a remarkable passage in the
16
Eugne Napolon Tigerstedt, Observations on the Reception of the Aristotelian Poetics
in the Latin West, in: Studies in the Renaissance, XV, 1968. pp. 724. For a recent survey of
interpretations of Catharsis, see Stephen Halliwell, Aristotles Poetics. Chapel Hill, 1986,
pp. 350356; see also Franz Susemihl/Robert D. Hicks. The Politics of Aristotle, New York,
1976, pp. 641 ff. A vast resource on sixteenth-century interpretations is provided by Bernard
Weinbergs A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance, 2 vols. Chicago, 1961,
and his Trattati di poetica e retorica del cinquecento, 4 vols., Bari, 19701974.
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Politics, describes the effect of certain kinds of music upon those possessed
of God, in a state of religious fervor, or enthusiasms. The music serves as a
physical stimulus that provides an outlet for the religious fervor, and the
result is a harmless joy. Similarly, the spectator who is brought face to face
with grander suffering than his own, experiences an empathetic ecstasy, or
lifting out of himself. In the glow of tragic excitement, feelings such as pity
and fear become universal and are so transformed that the net result is a
noble emotional satisfaction.
This sounds like a quite modern view of the matter, and much of the
phraseology I have used is actually taken from S. H. Butchers standard
work: Aristotles Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, London-New York, 1895. It
is also easy to see, however, that by adopting such a view Aristotle could not
only be reconciled with, but made into a prime witness for the direct appeal
to the emotions that is the core of Baroque theater. Indeed, although adumbrated earlier, the pathological interpretation flourished in the seventeenth
century and can be traced thenceforward down to our own times. To be
precise, it seems first to reappear, complete with a reference to the passage
on music and religious ecstasy from the Politics, in a treatise on tragedy published in 1621 by one Tarquinio Galluzzi a Jesuit father who was rector
of the Greek College in Rome from 1631 to 1644. Galluzzi, I might add,
wrote another treatise, significantly entitled The Revival of Ancient Tragedy,
specifically in defense of Father Stefonios Crispus.17
Of particular interest in our context is a circumstance often overlooked
or neglected in discussions of Catharsis. Aristotles explanation of the concept occurs not in the Poetics but in the Politics, and does not concern
tragedy as such, but music and its role in human society, especially the education of the young. Aristotle thus spoke directly to the Jesuit Baroque
theatrical endeavor, on several levels at once, the primary aim of the exercise was pedagogical, serving to produce an effect on the moral character of
the soul: the homeopathic view of Catharsis confirmed the emphasis on a
direct appeal to the emotions; and the focus on music as the agent of
Catharsis reinforced the effort to integrate music and words in the theater
to create a dramatic whole. Definitely, the air in Rome was filled with such
notions in the first half of the century. Interestingly enough, the passage in
17
See Ingram Bywater, Milton and the Aristotelian Definition of Tragedy, in: Journal of
Philology, XXVII, 1901, pp. 267275. On Galluzzi and his teacher, Stefonio, see Fumaroli,
op. cit. (cf. n. 9).
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malefactions of two scoundrels who finally get their reward when their
house collapses in the flood. In a comedy of 1637 called Of Two Theaters
the audience saw an actor on stage reciting the prologue; behind him they
saw the back side of another actor facing another audience, also reciting a
prologue. At the end of the prologue a curtain came down between the two
actors and the play began. At the end of the play the curtain went up, and
the audience saw the other audience leaving the other theater in splendid
coaches by the light of torches and of the moon shining through clouds.
In order to understand why Bernini became a legend in his day it is
essential to grasp the sense in which his achievements in this domain were
fundamentally new. Such tricks invariably depended on earlier theatrical
techniques. Stage pyrotechnics had been highly developed for scenes of hell,
and stage hydraulics for marine spectacles that often included real naval
battles. The play-within-a-play had a long history. and is familiar to us from
Shakespeare. Bernini used the old devices in such a way, however, that they
acquired a powerful new dramatic force. Upon the illusion normally
expected in the theater he superimposed another illusion that was unexpected and in which the audience was directly involved. The spectator, in
an instant became an actor, aware of himself as an active, if involuntary participant in the happening. It is clear that for Bernini the theater had a quite
specific and unique significance: it was here and only here that such
miracles became real experiences represented by real people, before a real
audience.
One would scarcely find a better description of such an experience than
cathartic mimetic persuasion par excellence. Herein precisely lies the
essence of the poetic view of Berninis sometimes seemingly contradictory
relationship to antiquity. His art of persuasion was to create a new reality,
by which the spectator is inevitably and forever transformed. Moreover, it
is symptomatic of the main point of this talk that contemporaries perceived
such works by Bernini in a distinctly classical light. His comedies were compared favorably to those of Terence and Plautus. Giovanni Battista Doni in
his Treatise on Music for the Stage even cites Berninis comedy productions
as exemplary of the use of masks in the ancient Greek theater.20
20
. . . Erano cosi significanti, spiritosi, e fondati sul vero, che molti Virtuosi ne attribuivano alcuni a Plauto; altri a Terenzio, altri ad altri Autori, che il Cavaliere non lesse giammai.
perche il tutto faceva a forza solo dingegno. Domenico Bernini, Vita del Cavalier Gio.
Lorenzo Bernino, Rome 1713, p. 54.
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Tragedy and Comedy (Fig. 22), as if restoring to them the deeper meaning
of the term persona, by which they were known in antiquity.
The second instance illustrates the specifically scenographic tradition of
the Jesuits and it is in fact the one great architectural commission Bernini
received from the Order, the oval church of Sant Andrea al Quirinale,
begun in 1658; the building was part of the Jesuits novitiate, where students prepared for admission to the Order (Fig. 23). It is noteworthy that
the basic conception of the building as a central plan structure preceded by
a vestibule and a convex wall that both embraces the space in front and
channels attention toward the entrance, reflects an earlier antiquarian
reconstruction of a famous classical monument, the Temple of Virtue and
Honor in Rome (Fig. 24).21 In this case the reference to the classical model
is more than purely formal: the Temple of Virtue and Honor was an illustrious instance of the incorporation of moral content into architectural
design the structure being conceived in two parts so that the devotee had
to pass through the sanctuary of Virtue to reach that of Honor. The architectural realization of such a moral progression was singularly appropriate
for the church of an institution devoted to embodying essentially the same
kind of progression in Christian form. Inside Sant Andrea, the steady
march of alternating piers and arches and the sweeping lines of the horizontal entablature draw the eye in a rushing movement toward the apse
(Fig. 25). The altar, flooded with light from a large lantern above, is framed
by columns supporting a pediment. The pediment in turn is crowned by a
gleaming white figure of St. Andrew swooshing into the heavens on a cloud.
The general effect is very like that of an engraving of a stage set used in a
1634 Barberini production of the opera S. Alessio, which Bernini must certainly have seen (Fig. 26).22 The rhythmic sequence of buildings engulfs the
worshipper and leads him toward an arched screen, also crowned by an allegorical figure riding on a cloud, and with a vista opening behind. The
patron of the opera, incidentally, was Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who
had been a pupil in the Collegio Romano during the most active years of
Bernardino Stefonio as a teacher and producer of plays.
21
Giacomo Lauro, Antiquae urbis splendor, Rome, 16121641, Pl. 30. This comparison
has been made before, though not in the moral sense suggested here; see most recently, D. del
Pesco, Una fonte per gli architetti del barocco romano; Lantiquae urbis splendor di Giacomo
Lauro, in: Studi di storia dellarte in memoria di Mario Rotili, Naples, 1984, pp. 424 ff.
22
In older literature the sets of this production were erroneously attributed to Bernini
himself, cf. Lavin, op. cit (cf. n. 19), pp. 147f., n. 7.
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Finally, I want to retreat. I want to retreat from what I fear may be indefensible positions on two fronts in my dramatically poetic view of Bernini
and antiquity. First, it must be emphasized that there is probably no single
element in Berninis work that owes its origin exclusively to the theater.
Every detail, every technique, every device can be shown to have roots in
the prior traditions of the permanent visual arts. What Berninis art has in
common with the theater is nothing more and nothing less that its role as
the medium in which miracles really do take place.
I also want to retreat by emphasizing that there is not the slightest evidence that Bernini adhered to the pathological interpretation of Catharsis,
or even that he read Aristotle. I rather doubt it, in fact, since he was not of
a very scholarly turn of mind. Nor can it be proved specifically that he
shared the views of those of his contemporaries who, in creating Baroque
drama, Baroque music and Baroque opera, found nurture in a fresh and
enthusiastic approach to antiquity. Wouldnt it be the nicest paradox of all,
however, if the most Baroque element of all in Berninis style its so-called
theatricalism was also conceived in terms of a return to classical
precedent?
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OME of Berninis most innovative works owe their novelty in part to the
revival of much earlier traditions. A notable case is the pair of busts portraying blessed and damned souls (Anima Beata and Anima Dannata) in
which Bernini explored what might be described as the two extreme reactions to the prospect of death (Figs. 1, 2).1 Bernini presumably made the
sculptures in 1619 (when he was twenty-two), at the behest of a Spanish
prelate, Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya, for whose tomb in the Spanish
national church in Rome, San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, Bernini carved the
portrait in 1622.2 Montoya died in 1630, and two years later the busts were
bequeathed by a certain Fernando Botinete to the Confraternity of the
Resurrection at San Giacomo, of which Montoya had also been a member.
The purpose of the sculptures is unknown, but their subject is appropriate
for a confraternity devoted to the Resurrection, for which Montoya may
have intended them from the outset; a further possibility is that Montoya
intended them eventually to decorate his tomb. The souls of the dead are
portrayed life-size, al vivo in contemporary terminology, an irony that was
surely deliberate.
Such powerful physiognomical and expressive contrasts have an ancient
history, occurring, like Beauty and the Beast, on opposite sides of certain
* First presented in March 1987 in a colloquium at the University of Maryland honoring my friend George Levitine, to whom it is now sadly dedicated in memoriam.
1
See Wittkower, 1981, 177, no. 7.
2
See Lavin, Five Youthful Sculptures, 1968, 239 f, and Appendix A. New documentary evidence presented here supports the 1619 date proposed by Wittkower for the Anime
busts on stylistic grounds.
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Greek coins of the fourth century B.C. (Fig. 3), and, juxtaposed, in the
familiar masks of Comedy and Tragedy from the classical theater (Fig. 4).3
In both cases the focus is on the face alone and one, male, is distorted in a
wild and grimacing shout, while the other, female, is beautiful and portrayed as if transmitting some lofty, portentous truth. The masks are particularly relevant because, like Berninis busts, they have generic as well as
specific meaning: they symbolize their respective theatrical genres, but they
also represent the actual roles or characters the actors performed the
ancients called them personas. The masks stand for heroic types, however,
not real people, as do Berninis sculptures. This reference to ordinary people relates the busts to the participants in those great medieval visualizations
of the Last Judgment in which the souls of the resurrected dead are weighed
by St. Michael and go, joyously or pathetically, to their fates (Fig. 5).
Three points above all distinguish Berninis sculptures not only from
these precedents, but from all precedents, as far as I know. The souls are
portrayed not as masks or full-length figures but as busts, they are isolated
from any narrative context, and they are independent, freestanding sculptures. The images are thus blatantly self-contradictory. They constitute a
deliberate art-historical solecism, in which Bernini adopted a classical,
pagan form invented expressly to portray the external features of a specific
individual, to represent a Christian abstract idea referring to the inner
nature of every individual. My purpose in this chapter is to shed some light
on the background of these astonishing works and their significance in the
history of our human confrontation with our own end.
Among the intense mystical exercises enjoined upon the pious in the late
Middle Ages was to contemplate death. Often regarded as a morbid symptom of decadence at the end of the Age of Faith, this preoccupation in fact
reflected a positive, indeed optimistic, view that people could provide for
3
On the coins, see Head, 1911, 805; G. F. Hill, 1914, lxxxviii f, 182 f, Pl. XX, 13. The
few instances of coins with facing heads on both sides (Baldwin, 19089, 130) nearly all
involve male-female confrontations. For the mosaic, found on the Aventine in Rome, see
Bieber, 1920, 162, no. 137. Theater masks were sometimes actually associated with portrait
busts, as on a Roman sarcophagus in the Camposanto at Pisa which shows three masks, a
youth, a female and a grizzled Pan, beneath a medallion containing busts of a man and his
wife (Aries et al., 1977, 114 ff ). Among the classical precedents revived and much illustrated,
often as bust portraits, from the Renaissance on were the philosophers Democritus and
Heraclitus who, respectively, laughed and wept at the foibles of the world).
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their well-being in the afterlife by looking death in the face. They could prepare for a good death, as it was termed, by putting their affairs in order and
examining their conscience, and they could consider the effect of their attitude and behavior upon Gods just and ineluctable judgment. These two
complementary exhortations, to prepare for death and consider the afterlife,
were converted into veritable techniques for achieving salvation in two of
the most widely distributed books of the fifteenth century, which had
remarkably similar histories. The Ars moriendi (The Art of Dying) prescribed the measures to be taken as life drew to a close, and the Quattuor
novissima (The Four Last Things) described the ultimate events in the curriculum of human existence: death, judgment, damnation, and salvation.4
Although not directly related the first work ends where the second begins.
After their original success The Art of Dying and The Four Last Things (Figs.
69), to which most of our attention will be devoted, were largely eclipsed
during the humanistic florescence of the early sixteenth century. Thereafter,
however, these popular eschatologies were retrieved and vigorously cultivated by the militant church activists of the Counter-Reformation,5 especially the Jesuits, who incorporated the Four Last Things into their catechisms. Among the most powerful offensive weapons in the Jesuitss spiritual arsenal, the catechisms were not theological tracts but served a primarily edificatory purpose, and from the beginning they were frequently
accompanied by illustrations (Figs. 1013).
There were even instances when the illustrations predominated over
the text, the latter being reduced to brief captions (Figs. 1417).6
Characteristic of the entire tradition of the Four Last Things illustrations is
that whereas death, following the Ars moriendi, might be confined to a sin-
I have discussed the revived Ars moriendi tradition and Berninis profound relationship
to it in life and death (1972). On the Ars moriendi, see Delumeau, 1983, 389 ff.
On the Quattuor novissima, see Lane, 1985. My own remarks on the visual tradition of
the Four Last Things, including Berninis busts, offer only modest supplements to those in
the excellent article by Malke, 1976.
5
See Franza, 1958; Turrini, 1982. The illustrated catechisms have been studied by
Prosperi, 1985.
6
On the engravings by Theodor Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, and a painting of
the same theme by Heemskerck, see Grosshans, 1980, 21443. Other important suites are
by J. B. Wierix after Martin de Vos (Mauquoy-Hendrickx, 1979, II, 271 f ), Hendrik
Goltzius after Johannes Stradanus (Strauss, ed., 1980, 309 f ), Jan Sadeler after Dirck
Barendsz (Judson, 1970, 64 f, 74, 14042).
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gle individual, the events of the afterlife judgment, damnation and salvation were conceived as universal occurrences and shown as panoramic
scenes with many participants.7
Berninis sculptures break with this tradition by eliminating the first two
events and focusing instead upon their ethical implications. Moreover,
Bernini conceived of damnation and salvation themselves in a novel way,
describing neither the tortures of hell nor the pleasures of paradise, but
instead concentrating on the single soul and its state of mind. Treated as
independent busts, Berninis sculptures are soul portraits: portraits of
Everyman and Everywoman, but of No-body.
As such, the sculptures seem unprecedented on two accounts. Antiquity
might deify certain personal qualities such as piety or magnanimity (Fig.
18), and the Middle Ages might personify certain moral qualities such as
virtues and vices (cf. Fig. 17). The pagan concepts were the subject of religious cults, and the Christian notions were part of an abstract scheme; but
neither personal nor moral qualities were represented as individual, isolated
sculptured busts. As far as I can determine, the Anima Beata and Anima
Dannata are the first independent images of the soul, and they are the first
independent portrayals of pure psychological states. Most scholars have
been preoccupied with these pyschological states. The sculptures are indeed
prime documents in the history of physiognomical expression in art, key
links in a chain that leads from Leonardos studies of grotesque facial types
(Fig. 19 note especially the juxtaposition of the smiling and howling
heads at the left) and Michelangelos explorations of extreme expressions
(Fig. 20), through the quasi-scientific classical tradition represented in the
late sixteenth century by Giambattista della Portas book relating animal
and human characterological traits (Fig. 21), to Charles Le Bruns systematic treatment of physiognomics and emotional expression in the midseventeenth century (Figs. 22, 23). The tradition culminated in the eighteenth century with the series of bronze busts by Franz Xavier
Messerschmidt (Figs. 24, 25), in which Berninis contrasting pair of object
lessons in affective morality is transformed into an extensive catalogue of
grimacing character masks, including the artists own.8
In these instances, it seems the purpose was to establish a deliberate link between the
universal character of the Quattuor novissima and the individual focus of the Ars moriendi.
8
Although the moral component of Berninis interest in expression was diluted, his position in this development is clear. So far as we know, Leonardos drawings do not portray any
particular emotions or pattern or system of emotions. Della Portas physiognomics are
7
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19. Leonardo,
grotesque heads,
drawing. Royal
Library, Windsor
Castle.
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21. Physiognomical
types
(from Della Porta,
1586).
698
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22, 23. Charles Le Brun, Amour and Dsespoir, drawings. Muse du Louvre, Paris
(photo: Documentation photographique de la Runion des muses nationaux).
699
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700
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26, 27. Alexander Mair, arms of Johann Conrad and Memento mori, engravings. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.
701
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28, 29. Alexander Mair, Death and Purgatory, engravings. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.
702
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30, 31. Alexander Mair, Hell and Heaven, engravings. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich.
703
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10
Giunse in Genova lAzzolini circa lanno 1510, ove vedutisi alcuni suoi lavorietti in
cera dal Sig. MarcAntonio Doria, tanto piacquero a questo Cavaliere; che alcuni gliene commise; i quali con indicibile accuratezza, e finezza furono dal Napoletano Artefice eseguiti:
onde ne sal in maggior credito presso i nostri Cittadini.
Ci, che egli al Doria compose furono quattro mezze figure rappresentative de novissimi. Ne volti di quelle rispettivamente spiravano gli affetti dunAnima beata: dunaltra
condannata a patire, ma con la speranza delleterno contento: della terza finta dentro uno
scheletro: e della quarta esprimente nellorrendo abisso lidea duna rabbiosa disperazione.
Lavori di spiritosa, ed efficace energa (Soprani, 1768], I, 417). On Azzolini, see Pyke, 1973,
8, and the important contribution by Gonzles-Palacios, 1984, I, 22636. There is considerable confusion with at least one other artist named Giovanni Bernardino (Prota-Giurleo,
1953, 12351; Mostra, 1977, 10913; Mongitore, 1977, 80112; Di Dario Guida, 1978,
14954).
For a checklist and illustrations of preserved and recorded examples of the Four Last
Things in the wax versions by Azzolini, plus a few related works, see Appendix B, p. 730,
and Figs. 4665. The traditional association of these works with the better known wax
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dramatic portrayals were very successful and many versions are known,
none of which can be ascribed to him with certainty. What is clear, both
from the descriptions and from the known copies, is that the reliefs were
based on Mairs prints, and it is possible that Azzolini, who registered with
the painters guild in Rome in 1618, may in turn have inspired Bernini to
make his own sculptural versions.11
Azzolini was known for another work that may have been relevant to
Berninis sculptures. This was a pair of colored waxs, now lost, described as
heads of infants, one crying the other laughing.12 Here, human emotions
were brought to expressive peaks and directly contrasted. The pertinence of
these sculptures is enhanced by an almost inevitable association with the old
tradition of representing the human soul in the form of an infant. Many
versions of the pair are known (Fig. 34), including the marble busts in the
ideal collection shown in a gallery picture of the seventeenth century by
the Flemish master Willem van Haecht the Younger (Fig. 35).13
This version, in turn, brings into focus another aspect of the prehistory
of Berninis soul portraits: his adoption of the bust form. The ancient
Romans developed the sculptured bust as the portrait form par excellence.14
The full-length statue might portray an allegory, a god, or a human being,
whereas the bust was reserved almost exclusively for people or rather, the
spirits of people, for it originated and remained intimately associated with
the ancestor cult (Fig. 36). The bust was thus antiquitys most conspicuous
form of personal commemoration and its role in the imperial cult made it
for early Christians the very symbol of idolatry. Certain Early Christian
sculptor Gaetano Giulio Zumbo (16561701), who also came from southern Italy and
worked for a time in Naples, is unfounded. Fagiolo dellArco and Fagiolo dellArco, 1967,
Scheda no. 12, noted the dependence of the Victoria and Albert waxes, attributed to the circle of Zumbo, on Berninis sculptures.
11
Azzolinis presence in Rome was noted by Orlandi (1788, col. 617).
12
E questo suo medesimo talento nella forza dellespressione diede pur egli a conoscere
allo stesso Signore in due altre modellate, e colorite teste di putti, ridente luna, e piangente
laltra: ove laffetto, che in esse appariva, vivamente eccitavasi neriguardanti (Soprani, 1768,
I, 417).
13
The theme of the Laughing and Crying Babies is discussed briefly, with great acumen
but without reference to Azzolini, by Schlegel (1978, 12931), who attributes the origin of
the type to Duquesnoy. For a recent discussion of the painting by Van Haecht, see Filipczak,
1987, 47 ff. Closely related are the crying babies attributed to Hendrik de Keyser (cf. Avery,
1981, 183 Figs. 18, 19, 184 ff ).
14
For what follows concerning the history and significance of the bust type, see Lavin,
1970 and 1975.
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35. Willem van Haecht the Younger, Studio of Cornelis van der Geest, detail.
Rubenshuis, Antwerp.
37, Nebuchadnezzar and the Three Youths, sarcophagus of St. Ambrose,
detail. SantAmbrogio, Milan (photo: Electa).
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depictions of the story of the three youths who refuse to worship the image
of Nebuchadnezzar show not a statue but a bust on a pedestal standing on
the ground (Fig. 37). The bust signified far more than met the eye, and this
quasi-demonic potency led to its virtually complete suppression in the
Middle Ages. When it was revived in the Renaissance, some of its supercharged meaning was transmitted to the modern cult of the individual, so
that the renewed form acquired an emblematic significance of its own. In
the seventeenth century, by a characteristic process that might be called paradoxical inversion, sculptured busts were often given prominent roles in the
flourishing genre of moralized still life, or vanitas, painting.15 These pictured
busts were never actual portraits but represented ideal types, such as were
kept in artists studios as models of classical beauty and expression. In this
context they might have dual significance, alluding not only to the transitoriness of life but also to the futility of the arts themselves, even that of
carving stone. A memento mori composition by Jan Davidsz de Heem (Fig.
38) evidently alludes to the three ages of man, with a skull in the center
flanked by sculptured heads of a serene child and a suffering man, perhaps
that of the son of Laocon in the ancient exemplum doloris group in the
Vatican (Fig. 39).16 By adopting the bust form for his soul portraits, Bernini
transformed a visual device that evoked generically the life of this world into
one that evoked individual life in the next.
Berninis busts form a complementary and contrasting pair in composition, sex, and expression. The action of the heads and direction of the
glances create a spatial environment that includes the spectator and extends
upward to heaven and downward to hell. The portrayal of the souls followed a tendency evident in some depictions of the Last Judgment to focus
on a representative male to convey the rabid fury of the damned and on a
female to convey the ecstasy of the saved (see Fig. 30).17 In the Anima Beata
Bernini omitted the deacons surplice Mair had provided (see Fig. 31) and
gave greater prominence to the wreath of flowers, an attribute of purity
Works of this kind, including that by De Heem reproduced here, are discussed in
Veca, 1981, 8591; Stilleben, 1979, 1069, 4557; Heezen-Stoll, 1979, 21821; Merrill,
1960, 7 ff.
16
See Ladendorf, 1953, 3745; Ettlinger, 1961. On the painting, see recently Leselust,
1993, 21011.
17
Frans Floris repeated the elements of the Vienna composition reproduced in Figure 33
(dated 1566) in a triptych in the Muse des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (cf. Van de Velde, 1975,
31418, nos. 17880).
15
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often worn by angels. The effect is to replace the liturgical and ritual
emphasis of Mairs interpretation with an embodiment of moral innocence.
Looking up and slightly to the side, with nostrils distended and lips parted
in a gentle sigh, the blessed soul responds to the beatific vision that all the
blessed in heaven enjoy. The expression of blissful suffering recalls, in positive terms, the physical torment and anguished groan of Laocons son.
The blunt features and unruly hair of the damned soul are derived from
the common identification of devils with satyrs, the ancient embodiments
of unrestrained passion. In certain instances the satyr-devils ghoulish grin
is quite deliberately matched by the howling grimace of the damned
(see Fig. 33). Specifically, the Anima Dannata seems to convert into negative terms the features of an ancient dancing satyr, a type for which Bernini
later expressed great admiration, and which was also given bust form in this
period (Fig. 40).18 In both of Berninis busts, therefore, the expressive qualities seem to have resulted in part from subtle and ironic inversions of
ancient expressive conventions.
Taken together, the sculptures convey a sense of the Last Things very different from that of earlier portrayals of the theme; Bernini emphasized not
the physical but the psychological consequences of good and evil. In this
respect the Anima Beata and Anima Dannata seem to embody medieval theological definitions of the summum bonum and the summum malum as the
judged soul aware of its destiny either to behold or to be banished from the
face of God, forever.19 These are the prospects Berninis images contemplate
and they react to what they see.
Finally, there can be little doubt that Berninis soul portraits reflect a
Roman theatrical event of the Jubilee year 1600, in which personifications
of damned and blessed souls appeared together outside their usual narrative
context. This was the Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo, a musical drama
sponsored by the Fathers of the Oratory, founded in the late sixteenth century in Rome by St. Philip Neri, and performed in the orders oratory at
For the type, see Haskell and Penny, 1981, 2058; Bober and Rubinstein, 1986, 97.
Berninis enthusiasm is recorded for a version of the type he saw during his visit to Paris in
1665: Il a dit, voyant de Faune qui danse, quil voyait cette statue mal volontiers, lui faisant
connatre quen comparaison il ne savait rien (Chantelou, 1885, 116; entry for August 23).
The bronze in Amsterdam reproduced in Figure 40 is ascribed to Rome, seventeenth century (Leeuwenberg, 1973, 404).
19
For a survey of the medieval history of this idea, and further bibliography, see
Bernstein, 1982.
18
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recitation and a play, included, besides Body and Soul, allegorical characters
such as Time, Understanding, Good Counsel, Mammon, and Wordly Life.
The plot consists entirely in the exchange of arguments for good and evil,
presented in counterpoint until Virtue triumphs. The only events, properly
speaking, occur in the third act when hell and heaven alternately open and
close, their denizens intoning laments and exaltations (cf. Figs. 41, 42).
So far as we know, the Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo was not performed again after the Jubilee of 1600, but its impact was immediate and
profound. A contemporary biographer of Manni described the performances attended by the whole College of Cardinals, as the first in Rome in
the new recitative style, which then became frequent and universally
applauded.23 The response may be judged from the vivid, moving recollections of an eyewitness, recorded after the death of Emilio de Cavalieri in
1602. The report illustrates not only the thematic but also the expressive
context from which Berninis sculptures emerged.
I, Giovanni Vittorio Rossi, found myself one day in the home of
Signor Cavaliere Giulio Cesare Bottifango, not only a fine gentleman
but also one of rare qualities excellent secretary, most knowledgeable poet and musician. Having begun to discuss music that moves
the emotions [musica che move gli affetti], he told me resolutely that
he had never heard anything more affecting [pi affettuosa], or that
had moved him more than the Representation of the Soul put to
music by the late Mr. Emilio del Cavaliere, and performed the Holy
Year 1600 in the oratory of the Assumption, in the house of the
Reverend Fathers of the Oratorio at the Chiesa Nova. He was present that day when it was performed three times without satisfying
the demand, and he said in particular that hearing the part of Time,
he felt come over him a great fear and terror; and at the part when
the Body, performed by the same person as Time, in doubt whether
to follow God or the World, resolved to follow God, his eyes poured
forth a great abundance of tears and he felt arise in his heart a great
repentance and pain for his sins. Nor did this happen only then, but
. . . fu rappresentato in scena coglhabiti nellOratorio nostro da due volte, con lintervento di tutto il sacro collegio di Card.li, e ve ne furono da quindici e venti per ciascuna
volta...Fu questa rappresentatione la prima che fosse fatta in Roma in stile recitativo, e di indi
in poi cominci con universale applauso a frequentarsi negli oratorii il detto stile (Alaleona,
1905, 17, 18).
23
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720
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to salvation, to acquire the true pain of sins, and to make a good death.
Following a series of daily devotions, the things principally relevant to salvation are treated in exercises which often include what Manni calls
imaginations on heaven and hell, the Four Last Things, and a good life
and death.28 Mannis exercises thus actually combine the two great late
medieval eschatologies, The Four Last Things and the The Art of Dying, with
which we began. The last edition, greatly abbreviated, appeared posthumously in 1620, shortly after Berninis sculptures were presumably made.29
There followed in 1625 a new publication excerpted from Mannis works,
this time in just two parts. The first consists only of the meditations on the
joys of heaven and the torments of hell; the second is none other than a
reprint of the text of the Rappresentatione di anima et di corpo.30 In effect,
the Four Last Things have been reduced to two, and the dramatic debate
between virtue and vice has become the model of preparation for a good
death. Significantly, however, the drama itself is given a new name. It is no
longer conceived in terms of body and soul, but rather and I quote the
new title as a representation in which by diverse images the individual
is shown the calamitous end of the sinner and the honored and glorious end
of the just man. I can think of no better description of Berninis sculptures.
In fact, when one recalls that they had only recently been made for a member of the Spanish church not far from that of the Oratorians, one cannot
help wondering whether they might in turn have played a role in the distillation, intensification, and visualization of the very dramatic work from
which they themselves seem to have derived.
28
Manni, 1609 and 1613. The full titles are given in the bibliography. The headings of
the pertinent sections in the 1613 edition are as follows: pp. 60 ff, Essercitio circa leternit
della felicit del cielo; 79 ff, Essercitio circa la consideratione delle pene dellInferno; 104,
Essercitio per haverin pronto le quattro memorie, della Morte, del Guidicio, dellInferno, e
del Paradiso; 105 ff, Memoria della Morte; 122 ff, Memoria secondo, del Giudicio; 132 ff,
Memoria Terza, dellInferno; 142 ff, Quarta Memoria, del Paradiso; 177 ff, Essercitio per
vivere, e morire felicemente.
29
Manni, 1620.
30
Manni, 1625; this edition, which I have not seen, is recorded in Villarosa, 1837, 162.
I give the full title from the edition published in 1637 (see Bibliography).
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Appendix A
New Documents Concerning the Anime Busts
and the Tomb of Pedro de Foix Montoya
The sculptures, mentioned by Berninis biographers Filippo Baldinucci
and Domenico Bernini as in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, were moved in
the late nineteenth century to the Palazzo di Spagna, residence of the
Spanish ambassador to the Vatican (replacement copies were made which
are now in Santa Maria di Monserrato). Having discovered that they came
to the church with the legacy of Botinete, I once questioned the traditional
association of these busts with Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya, for
whose tomb, also originally in San Giacomo and now in Santa Maria in
Monserrato, Bernini executed the famous portrait toward the end of 1622
(Lavin, Five Youthful Sculptures, 1968, 240 n. 114). I subsequently found
in the archive of the confraternity additonal documents concerning
Montoya and his tomb; these established that Montoya was indeed the
patron of the Anime, which were in his possession by December 1619, and
suggest that he may have intended them to decorate his tomb.
An inventory of Montoyas household possessions taken in December
1619 includes dos estatuas (see Document 1 below), the only such objects
listed; these must have been the Anime, which appear again in the inventory
taken after Montoyas death (below, and Document 2). On March 8, 1623,
Montoya signed an agreement with the stone-cutter Santi Ghetti for his
tomb (Document 8), to be made according to a design provided by the
architect Orazio Turriani, who received payment on March 11 (Document
9). The monument was to include two angels that are specifically excluded
from Ghettis responsibility, indicating that they, like the portrait, were to
be (or already had been) executed by someone else. Perhaps Fernandez
Alonso (1968, 106) was alluding to this document in suggesting that the
busts formed part of the tomb. The tomb was not finished at Montoyas
death on May 31, 1630, and the executors paid for the remaining work over
the next few months (Documents 37).
The Anime are listed in an inventory of Montoyas possessions, undated
but taken shortly after his death (Document 2), after which they evidently
became the property of Ferdinando Botinete, one of Montoyas confreres;
they next appear in a 1637 inventory of San Giacomo, as a legacy of
Botinete (Document 10).
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All the documents listed below are in the Archive of the Instituto Espaol de
Estudios Eclesiasticos, Rome.
Busta 1746, Papeles de la memoria de Mons. Montoya:
Fols. 20 ff: Memoria de toda la Ropa que hasta oy Jueves de dicembre de 1619
Aos Quai en caza de Mons.or De Foix Montoya, Misenor Para el servisio de su casa
y persona.
1. fol. 27: dos estatuas
Fols. 29 ff: Inventory of Montoyas household possessions ordered
executors of his will.
2. fol. 31r: Item dos medios cuerpos de piedra de statuas
by
the
Fols. 35 ff: Nota de como se una cumpliendo los legados y ultima voluntad de
Monseor Pedro de Foix Montoia por sus executores testamentarios desde el dia de
su muerte, que fu alos 31 de Maio de 1630.
3. fol. 42b: Io Giovanne Mariscalco ho receuto dalli ss.ri Essecutori testamentarij
di monsre Montoia in 2 partite scta quarentacinco sonno per il deposito et lapida et
bon conto. Et in fede qto di 16 Xbre 1630 scta 45
[in margin: scarpellino).
4. fol. 43b: Io francesco Pozi muratore ho riceuto dalli ss.ri Essecutori testam.ri del
q. Monre Montoia scudi sedici m.ta sonno per saldo et intiero pagamto di tutti li
lauori di muratore fatti da me nel deposito di d.o Monsre conforme alla lista tassata
dal sig.to della Chiesa.
Et in fede etc. sc 16 q.o di 6 di Genaro 1631.
Io fran.co Pozo a fermo come sopra mano propria.
5. fol. 43b: Io infrascritto ho riceuto dalli Ill.ri sig.ri essecutori testamentarii del
q. Monsig.re Montoya scudi tre mta -p hauere indorato le Arme e le lettere del suo
sepolcro e in fede ho fatto la pte di mia ppa mano questo di 23 Aprile 1631 et dico
______sc 3
Io Giovanni Contini Mano -p-p a
6. fol. 44: Adi 23 Marzo 1632
Io Santi Ghetti ho riccuuto dalli ss.ri Essecutori testamentarii del q. Mons.re
Montoya scudi Trenta m.ta & sonno li scudi venticinq. per la lapida che ho fatto per
la sepoltura di esso Monsig.re et li scudi Cinque per saldo, et intiero pagamento del
deposito.
Et in fede di q.o di
sc.ta 30
Io santi Ghetti afermo come sopra sua mano pp.a
Fols. 46 ff Memoria de lo que se ha sacado de Mons.re foix de Montoya conforme al Inuentario, y al moneda que se hizo
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726
7. fol. 48: al pintor por las armas que hizo _____sc. 5.60
al murador por abrir la sepoltura y cerrarla _____sc. 4
fol. 48 verso: al scarpelino abuena quenta de la sepoltura _____sc. 45
de dorar las armas de la sepoltura _____sc. 3
al murador por los labores hechos en poner el deposito de Monseor _____
sc. 16
al scarpelino por intero pagamento de la lapida y sepoltura _____sc. 30.
al murador por abrir y poner la lapide _____sc. 3.
Fols. 5556b. Contract with Santi Ghetti for Montoyas tomb:
8. Douendosi dal Molto Ill.mo et R.mo Monsig.re de Foix Montoija far fare un
deposito nella Chiesa di s. Giacomo delli spagnioli vecino alla porta che va in
sagrestia mano manca nel entrare, sotto al organo, qual deposito n stato fatto il
disegnio da Horatio Torriani Architetto in Roma per altezza di pi 17 et nel modo,
e forma che si uede detto disegnio, si douera eseguire conforme alli patti capitoli,
conuentioni infrascritti. Pertanto il detto Monsig.re da a fare il sudetto deposito
tutta robba di m.o santi Ghetti scarpellino rencontro la pista piccola di santa
Adriano alli pattani, et campo vaccino a tutte sue spese nel modo, e forma che si
dechiara in questo foglio. _____
Item che detto scarpellino sia obligato di fare il frontespitio sopra larme di
marmo bianco di Carrara.
Il timpano sotto il frontespitio di bianco e nero antico orientale _____
La cornicia sopra larme di marmo bianco di Carrara, atorno al arme il simile
_____
Larme con il cappello, et fiocchi sia tutto di un pezzo di marmo bianco di
Carrara, et il repiano del arme di bianco e nero antiquo orientale, et le cartelle
accanto larme di marmo bianco, et incastrato di marmo, e bianco e nero antiquo
orientale _____
Il frontespitio sopra alle colonne di marmo bianco di Carrara, con il timpano
di bianco e nero antiquo orientale _____
La cornice sotto larme, et che ricorre sopra alle colonne, et membretti si fara di
marmo bianco di Carrara _____
Il campo sotto la cornice, et intorno al retratto, et cassa si fara di bianco e nero
antiquo orientale _____
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727
Cartelle dalle bande del ouato che fa modello si farano di marmo bianco
dCarrara con campanella di marmo simile _____
Louato cioe la fascia si fara di brocatello de Spagnia _____
Lo sfondato del retratto dentro la nicchia si fara -p dentro piano, et di nero
assoluto _____
Il fregio sopra alle colonne si fara di bianco e nero
antiquo orientale _____
La prima iscritione si faccia di paragone senza macchia tutto negro _____
Il tellaro atorno addetta iscritione sia di gialdo orientale _____
fol. 55b
Le caretelle sotto la prima iscrittione siano di marmo bianco di Carrara et repieni di bianco e nero antiquo orientale _____
La cassa sia di gialdo, et nero di portovenere del pi bello che uenghi conforme
quella della cappella del Cardinal Gaetano in santa Potentiana, et sia della medesima fattura ne piu nemeno _____
Il zoccholo sotto alla cassa sia di alabastro rigato antiquo, et il simile sotto alle
base delle colonne, et membretto _____
Le colonne si farano di nero, et gialdo de portovenere come di sop.a conforme
alla cassa de S.a Potentiana, et della medesima bonta di pietra _____
Li contrapilastri delle colonne si farano di marmo bianco di Carrara _____
Li membretti delle colonne cioe dalle bande di brocatello di
Spagnia _____
Le base, et capitelli come si uedono in disegnio siano de marmo bianco di
Carrara _____
La cimasa la colonna di marmo bianco di Carrara _____
La seconda iscritione che fa piedestallo sia di marmo bianco di
Carrara _____
con suo membretti _____
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728
Sopra della 2.a iscrittione si fara un poco di fregio di bianco e nero antiquo orientale dove e il collarino del pedestallo di tutta lunghezza _____
Il basamento che andera sotto a d.o iscritione, et alli pedestalli delle colonne et
membretti si faranno di marmo bianco di Carrara _____
Lultimo zoccholo sotto il fine del opera al piano di terra si fara di africano bello,
et antiquo _____
Ite. che tutta la detta opera sia fatto nel modo e forma detto di sopra con le
pietre dechiarate in questo foglio, et non altrimenti, quale tutte doverano essere
poste in opera, con ogni diligenza, et ataccate con mistura, et stuccate a foco et
doveranno alustrare il tutto ad ogni bellezza, et paragone tutto a spese del detto m.ro
santi scarpellino _____
Ite. che detto m.o santi sia obligato di dar fornito tutta lopera di detto deposito a tutta perfettione intermine di quattro mesi prossimi da cominciarsi da hoggi
_____
fol. 56
Ite. che il detto mons.re sia obligato a tutta sue spese di far mettere in opera il
detto deposito -p quello che spettera al muratore con patto che vi debbia intervenire,
et assistere continuamente il d.o m. santi mentre si mettera in opera, et con interuento alle cose principali del Architetto _____
Ite. che detto m.o santi debbia fare a sue spese una croce di gialdo al detto deposito atutte sue spese ancorche non vi sia nel disegnio, et gli Angeli che sono in d.o
disegnio non si comprendino nel patto, et conventione che si obliga d.o scarpellino
_____
Ite. che detto scarpellino sia obligato di fare intagliare tutte sue spese tutte le
lettere che si daranno da s. R.ma tanto nella prima iscritione di paragone negro come
in quella seconda di marmo bianco di Carrara _____
Che lhoro che andera sopra alle lettere della pietro di paragone si debbia mettere a spese di ss. R.ma et doue anderanno di tenta negre sul bianco a spese del do
scarp.no _____
Ite. che detto scarpellino debbia mostrare primo a s. R.ma et al Architetto tutte
le pietro dette di sop.a avanti li lavori -p mettere in opera, et che non debbia lauorare il detto deposito se prima non habbia hauto li modeni in carta di tutta la detta
opera dal Architetto, et a quelli modeni non sminuisca, et no preterisca di cosa
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Page 49
729
alguna, et d.i modeni siano dati -p primo che cominci et cole picture siano uiste
prima _____
Che volendo disegniare il detto deposito lo scarpellino in prima grande debbia
il do Monsig.re fare che lArchitetto debbia intervenire -p do disegnio in quel modo
che piu piacera, et sara comodo allo scarpellino, et questo si faccia senza spese dallo
scarpellino _____
Ite. che il detto deposito sintenda allallezza, et larghezza che seconda la scala
delli p.mi che stanno disegniati sotto do deposito et non altrimenti _____
fol. 56b
Ite. che -p tutto quello che si possa pretendere tanto per la fattura come del valore della robba del detto deposito il detto mons.re et santi Ghetti scarpellino si convengono di accordo de farlo p prezzo et valore di sc.di cento sessanta di moneta li
quali s. R.ma promette di pagarli liberamente in questo modo, scudi sessanta al -p te -p
un ordine al banco, et altri sc.di cinquanta nella meta del opera, et li altri scudi
cinquanta fornito che haueua detto deposito subbito _____
Ite. che mancando di fare detto scarpellino alcuna delle cose sud.e che non
fussero a contentimento del s. R.ma possa d.o Monsig.re a tutte spese danni, et interessi di d.o scarpellino farli rifare conforme alli patti, et conventione, et di quello che
importera defalcarlo dal prezzo che douera hauere d.o scarpellino _____
Et -p osservanza delle cose sud.e tanto -p il denaro che douera pagare d.o Mons.re
R. come -p lopera che deue fare il detto m.o santi Ghetti scarpellino, conforme alli
patti conuentioni d.e di sopra, luna parte el laltra si obligano nella piu ampla della
forma della Camera Apostolica, con ogni sorte di clausole, et consuete che si aspettano ado obligo Camerale et -p ci ad ogni beneplacito del una et laltra parte da
adesso -p allora danno faculta, a qualseuoglia Notaro di potere stendere d.i capitoli
come Istrumento publico, che -p segnio della uerita hanno sottoscritto la presente
de loro propria mano alla presentia delli infrascritti Testimonij questo di, et anno
sud.o 8 de Marzo 1623 _____
Licen.do po de Foix Montoya
a
Io santi ghetti afermo quanto di sop
- mano pp _____
o
a
Io Ju yvaniz fui psente quanto di sop. .
Io Jacomo Turriani fui presente quanto di sopa mp
-.
mo
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Page 50
730
allo scarpellino che verra a tutte spese mie fatta in Roma alli 19 di Agosto 1623
a
a
Io santi Ghetti mi obligo et prometto come di sop
- mano -p-p
o
a
Yo Ju. ybanez fui presente a quanto di s.
Io Jacomo Turriani fui presente quanto di sop.ra
Appendix B
Checklist of Preserved and Recorded Examples of the Four Last Things in the
Wax Version by Giovanni Bernardino Azzolini:*
1. Convento de las Carmelitas Descalzas, Pearanda de Bracamante, Spain. Five
wax panels forming a cross, Death in the center, Purgatory on the left, Limbo (a
naked child) on the right, Hell below, Heaven above. Gmez-Moreno, 1967, I,
453; Gonzles-Palacios (1984, 227) gives evidence for a Neapolitan provenance.
(Fig. 46)
2. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Purgatory and Hell. Pope-Hennessy,
1964, II, 633f. (Purgatory mistakenly identified as Paradise); Lightbown, 1964,
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Page 51
731
46. Death (center), Purgatory (left), Limbo (right), Hell (bottom), Heaven (top), wax
reliefs. Convento de las Carmelitas Descalzas, Pearanda de Bracamante, Spain (photo:
Antonio Casaseca, Salamanca).
15/11/08
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47, 48. Purgatory, Hell, wax reliefs. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
732
15/11/08
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49, 50. Purgatory, Hell, wax reliefs. Palazzo Pitti, Florence (photos: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici,
Florence 12274344).
733
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51, 52. Limbo and Purgatory, wax reliefs. Galleria Nazionale dArte Moderna, Rome.
734
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Page 55
735
53, 54. Hell and Heaven, wax reliefs. Galleria Nazionale dArte Moderna, Rome.
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Page 56
736
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Page 57
737
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59, 60. Death and Judgment, wax reliefs. Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich.
738
15/11/08
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Page 59
739
61, 62. Hell and Heaven, wax reliefs. Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich.
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Page 60
740
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Page 61
741
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Page 62
742
495 n. 20; Cagnetta, 1977, 497; idem, 1976, 219, Curiosit, 1979, 41; GonzlesPalacios, 1984, 227. (Figs. 47, 48)
3. Museo degli Argenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence. Purgatory and Hell. Lightbown,
1964, 495; Aschengreen, 1968, 176; Cagnetta, 1977, 497; idem, 1976, 218;
Malke, 1976, 57; Curiosit, 1979, 41; Gonzles-Palacios, 1984, 227. (Figs. 49, 50)
4. Galleria Nazionale dArte Moderna, Rome. Limbo, Purgatory, Hell, Heaven.
Ex coll. Mario Praz, prov. Sestieri, Rome, 1961, from Black, London. Attributed to
Azzolini c. 1560 by Praz, who also noted the relation to the Ex coll. Schevitch
group. Cagnetta, 1977; 498; idem, 1976, 219; Curiosit, 1979, 41. (Figs. 5154)
5. Ex Coll. Schevitch, Paris. Purgatory, Hell, Heaven. Catalogue, 1906, 213f.,
no. 313, ill.; Pyke, 1973, 8; Cagnetta, 1977, 498; idem, 1976, 219; Malke, 1976,
57 n. 18; Gonzles-Palacios, 1984, 227. (Figs. 5557)
6. Ex Coll. Gonzles-Palacios, Rome. Heaven. Attributed to Azzolino.
Cagnetta, 1977, 498; idem, 1976, 219; Gonzles-Palacios, 1984, 227; Finarte,
1986, 81. (Fig. 58)
7. Schloss Nymphenburg, Munich. Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven. GonzlesPalacios, 1984, 236 n. 97; Metken, ed., 1984, 2628, no. 14. (Figs. 5962)
8. Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence. Hell. Attributed to
Zumbo. Rhode Island, 1985, 30 f. (Fig. 63)
9. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Paintings of Purgatory and Heaven. Attributed to
Francisco Ribalta (d. 1628), Gmez-Moreno, 1967, I: 453; Ribalta, 1987, 144.
(Figs. 64, 65)
10. Coll. Duke of Alcal, Seville. Five wax images framed in ebony, showing the
four souls and one dying, by Giovanni Bernardino [Azzolini]. Recorded in an early
inventory. Brown and Kagan, 1987, 254, no. 131.
11. Coll. Alczar, Madrid. Three wax heads, Purgatory, Hell, Heaven, with
frames of ebony and glass. Recorded in an early inventory. Bottineau, 1956, 450,
no. 47.
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743
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750
was not just a Maecenas in the popular sense of a vulgar Renaissance tyrant
bent on a vulgar display of wealth and power, but a man of rare intelligence
and refined taste who, moreover, followed the work personally, participating in the most minute details of planning with a passion that can only have
been borne of an innate gift and cultivated interest. In a sense, I suspect that
this last may have been one of the mainsprings of Krautheimers own interest, arising from his study and ultimate publication of the passages dealing
with art and artists from Alexanders personal diary.1 This document is in
itself utterly extraordinary: I am not aware of a comparable personal record
of any previous pope. No less astonishing, however, is the amount of time
and effort Alexander devoted to these matters. Bernini and Alexander were
together constantly consulting, discussing, planning, designing often
for long periods on a weekly basis, sometimes even more often. In this
respect, too, Alexander was unprecedented and Krautheimer perceived that
not only was the pope mad about architecture, but that his madness encompassed the whole of the city. Alexanders improvements were not only
focused on the obvious, major places and monuments in the heart of Rome,
but also extended to the outskirts, the disabitato, to use the term
Krautheimer preferred, although it was often populated with the poor, the
dispossessed and vagabond gypsies. I myself came to appreciate from the
book that the Cathedra Petri was only the last stop on a physical and conceptual pilgrimage that began at the Porta del Popolo. The sharpness and
comprehensiveness of Alexanders vision is attested in many subtle ways
beyond, or underlying, the works themselves the new accuracy and comprehensiveness of the maps of Alexanders Rome, the lists of his works compiled and portrayed in illustrated series of engravings. But perhaps there is
no better index both to the intimacy and the comprehensiveness of
Alexanders vision than the fact that he kept in his private chambers a model
of the city. (It is interesting to speculate where Alexanders miniature Rome
fits in the history of city models;2 it was, I suppose, as complete and accurate as the maps of Alexanders Rome, and it is the first model I can recall
1
Richard Krautheimer and R. S. B. Jones, The Diary of Alexander VII: Notes on Art,
Artists and Buildings, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr Kunstgeschichte, 15 (1975), pp. 199233; supplemented by G. Morello, Bernini e i lavori a San Pietro nel diario di Alessandro VII, in:
Bernini in Vaticano, exhib. cat., Rome, 1981, pp. 321340.
2
See M. Aronberg Lavin, Representation of Urban Models in the Renaissance, in: The
Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo. The Representation of Architecture, exhib. cat.
ed. H. Millon and V. Magnago Lampugnani, Milan, 1994, pp. 674678.
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made for the purpose of urban planning; evidently, the pope not only
thought about the city in a modern, comprehensive way, he also had a
modern, comprehensive way of representing it a new kind of threedimensional urban consciousness, one might say.)
As Alexanders vision was global, so was Krautheimers, as he extends the
normal purview of architectural history itself, and this in two senses. He is
at pains to consider not only individual buildings but also to relate them to
their contexts, their immediate surroundings as well as their interlocking
connections with other works throughout the city, and even beyond.
Moreover, architecture itself is no longer conceived in terms of permanent
structures, but includes city squares and public spaces of all sorts market
places, theater sets and ephemeral spectacles, gardens, streets, and tree-lined
alles everything we tend to call, for want of a still more comprehensive
term, the built environment. A vast panorama is deftly captured in what is,
after all, a relatively brief text.
Considered thus, the book itself is a compromise: profile would have
been an even better title here than for the earlier volume, since the term
alludes to specific personalities and suggests the thin line drawn in this work
between the genres of building history and urban history. The ten chapters
carry the reader through a sequence of ideas, beginning with the career and
character of Alexander VII: his family, his education, his learning, his wit,
his financial nonchalance, his love of architecture. The second chapter deals
with what Krautheimer calls the urban substructure: the popes efforts to
widen and straighten the citys messy tangle of medieval ways, partly to
make them grand and beautiful, and partly to accommodate the growing
traffic problems created by that monstrous newfangled conveyance, the
horse-drawn coach; and his campaign to clean up the equally messy and
unsightly markets that encumbered public spaces of high visibility, like the
Forum and the Pantheon, by confining the vendors to less conspicuous
locations and/or providing new, more efficient accommodations. Chapter
III deals with the popes architects and some of their major projects. The
central figure, of course, is Bernini, followed by Pietro da Cortona;
Borromini, Krautheimer observes, was such a difficult character that
Alexander wanted as little as possible to do with him! Chapter IV explores
the contemporary notion of Teatro, not in the narrow sense of a spectacle
but in the large sense of any global, encompassing idea, especially as the
term applies to churches and the spaces before and around them. Cortonas
Santa Maria della Pace, Berninis SantAndrea al Quirinale and St. Peters,
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both the square and the Cathedra, are cases in point. Chapter V concerns
Overall Planning and Opposition, primarily the careful control Alexander
exercised, at vast expenditures of his own time and energy, over his projects
and those of other patrons (who sometimes resisted) throughout the city.
Chapter VI, called Prospects deals with unrealized projects that give some
idea of what Alexander might have achieved had he lived longer and had
more money, but which also testify to the colossal scale of what he did manage to carry out. Chapter VII, called Roma antica and moderna, deals with
the treatment of the classical remains, showing that while ancient works
could be treated cavalierly on occasion, the principle objective was to integrate them into the modern city so that they, too, could contribute Ad
Maiorem Gloriam Dei. Chapter VIII is devoted to Piazza del Popolo as a
deliberately theatrical, that is, emulating contemporary stage designs, reformation of the principal entrance to Rome from the North. The piazza was
the prelude to a whole series of works intended to embellish and aggrandize
the processional way through the city to St. Peters and the Vatican. Chapter
IX, The Reverse of the Medal, is devoted to the seamier side of Rome, the
part which the kind of audience Alexander had in view was not supposed
to see. Alexanders Rome may have been beautiful, but for many people it
was not a very nice place in which to live.
Together, these chapters amount to a recitation of the main types of
monumental urban and architectural projects undertaken under
Alexanders direct or indirect control. Although richly informative, awash
with stimulating observations, and written in Krautheimers inimitably
lively informal style, they are essentially repetitions of the same theme
Alexanders passion for building and the grandeur of his ideas, as aided and
abetted by his favorite artist-entrepreneur Bernini. From a formal point of
view, the accent is on the perspective vista, the dramatic focus, and majestic scale. Except for Chapter IX, there is nothing about what we would
today call the urban infrastructure utilitarian projects (other than public markets), such as sewage and sanitation, ordinary housing and the like.
When Alexander said, let nothing built in honor of the Virgin be anything
but great, it matched Berninis statement when he reached Paris to redesign
the Louvre for Louis XIV let no one speak to me of anything small.3 And
Krautheimer gives a corresponding vision of grand ideas on a grand scale
P. Frart de Chantelou, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed. L. Lalanne,
1885, p. 15 (June 4th, 1665).
3
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that defined Rome as a special place with a special role to play on the world
stage. True to his subjects Alexander VII, Bernini, and Rome
Krautheimer did not write microhistory!
If all this sounds very Baroque, the architecture of Krautheimers book
is itself rather Baroque. In fact, this sequence of contrapposto-like repetitions
and variations on a dominant theme creates an increasing feeling of suspense as one wonders what, in the end, is the point. The point appears dramatically in the last chapter, City Planning and Politics: The Illustrious
Foreigner, where Krautheimer presents what he considered to be the guiding principle the political motivation that lay behind Alexanders
urban enterprises, which were concentrated primarily along the principle
ceremonial route throughout the city, and intended primarily to impress the
illustrious foreign visitor. Here it is important to bear in mind that in a
Bibliographical Note Krautheimer explicitly disclaims competence as a
historian, declaring his dependence in such matters on von Pastors History
of the Popes and others standard works on the period.
And his political motivation turns out to be the standard one, familiar
to all students of Italian Baroque: the victories of the Protestants and the rise
in the industrial and mercantile power of the North, the establishment and
hegemony over European affairs of the great national states, especially
France, Spain and the Hapsburgs all these factors had led to a drastic
diminution in the real power of the church, in the face of which pope
Alexander adopted what might be described as a policy of overcompensation, seeking to aggrandize and embellish the physical power of the city to
make up for the loss of political power. He sought to convince the world
that the papacy remained a factor to be reckoned with, by transforming
Rome into a great, modern city, or at least the appearance of one.4 This perception of a diplomatic rationale underlying and motivating Alexanders
architectural mania, may be Krautheimers most original contribution in
the book.
Paradoxically, then, the modern city is created not from any fundamental shift in attitude or values, but as an act of deception. At bottom, from a
strictly art historical point of view, the ultimate argument of the book is
rather conventional. The effect is to instrumentalize the Baroque, which
4
The notion of Alexanders Rome as Roma Moderna, articulated in the publications of
the period, stems from von Pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages,
40 vols., London, 192353, XXXI, p. 312.
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becomes an art of propaganda and representation, rather than the expression of a new world view, which the idea of modernity would suggest. This
conception of the Baroque as an artificial, bombastic, overcompensatory
reaction to the challenge of Protestantism, an art of rhetoric, display, and
theatricality coincides with the equally conventional, absolutist conception of political consciousness in the seventeenth century.5 Alexanders was
preeminently an urban renewal program conceived as of the elite, by the
elite and for the elite.
* * *
There was another side to the medal, however, partly, but only partly
perceived by Krautheimer a reverse, not less important, in my view, than
the obverse. Alexanders new urbanism had what I should call a subversive,
underground aspect, of which Krautheimer caught glimpses but the implications of which he did not fully perceive. The point begins with the fact
that the urban population of Rome was, after all, a very powerful force,
moral, economic and political. In this sense, Rome was like many other
cities in Europe, where there was a growing consciousness of and concern
for social problems that had no doubt long existed. Krautheimer is aware of
this background to the extent that he devotes the next-to-last chapter, The
Reverse of the Medal, to a remarkable document written by an absolutely
minor and otherwise insignificant administrative employee, one Lorenzo
Pizzati from Pontremoli, in which he details the execrable conditions of
everyday life in the city and the pitiable state of its underprivileged population, along with drastic and utopian suggestions for alleviating them. For
Krautheimer the report simply reveals an underlying reality for which
Alexanders urban program was a kind of cosmetic cover-up for the benefit
of visiting dignitaries. However, the improvements were surely meant for
the edification of the people of Rome, as well, and not only as embellishment. For example, more than once it is reported that an important function of the vast expenditures for the Piazza San Pietro was as a public work
program to provide employment for the indigent, especially the unskilled.6
See on this point my introduction to Panofskys essay What is Baroque?, in: I. Lavin
ed., Erwin Panofsky. Three Essays on Style, Cambridge, MA, 1995.
6
See pp. 70, 80, 174; von Pastor, XXXI, p. 291. I think a good case could be made that
this attitude originated with Bernini himself, who certainly promoted it. A primary source
is a remarkable document prepared by Bernini in response to objections to his project, in
5
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When it is said, rightly, that Alexanders program nearly ruined the papal
finances, it was not merely a vanity and extravagance, it was also the result
of what today would be called a program of social welfare and rehabilitation, the cost of which was ultimately beyond the reach of the economic
system on which it was based. The proof of this point lies in the fact that
Alexander was specifically opposed to outright gifts to the poor, not only
because it engendered dependency on the dole but also because it was an
indignity; instead, he favored helping the poor by providing work for which
they could be paid and so retain their Christian pride.7
The great weight and force of the populace is portrayed in full force in
a fundamental source that is overlooked in Krautheimers Roma
Alessandrina: an official document, deliberately complied at the popes
behest. I refer to the apostolic visitations commanded by Alexander VII to
all the churches and dioceses of Rome. Apostolic visits had a long history,
to be sure, and earlier in the century Urban VIII had ordered one that fills
three very substantial volumes. But none of these precedents even remotely
approaches the scope, depth and systematic coverage of Alexanders effort to
gather and organize information about what ultimately mattered, the spiritual conditions of the people of Rome. Alexanders apostolic visitation
which continued throughout his reign has been described as the most
comprehensive in the modern history of Rome.8
My reasons for emphasizing this reverse of the medal are two. I am not
concerned to reveal the existence of this social substructure of the city and
its problems in Alexanders Rome; they had existed for a long time. What is
important for the notion of Alexanders modernity, and the scope and
meaning of his vision for the city is that he was aware of their existence; he
which he eulogizes Alexanders efforts to deal with precisely the problems of homelessness
and unemployment described by Lorenzo Pizzati (Berninis statement was published by H.
Brauer and R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo Bernini, Berlin, 1931, p. 70, who
date it 165960, whereas Krautheimer, p. 174, gives 165758; Pizzatis diatribe was composed 165659, as noted by Krautheimer, p. 191). This was also the basic philosophy of a
major papal welfare program developed subsequently, with which Bernini was closely associated. In particular, Pizzati proposes establishing a hospice for the poor in the Lateran
palace, a project for which Bernini was later reportedly engaged, and which was eventually
actually carried out (I deal with these matters in a forthcoming essay, Berninis Bust of the
Savior and the Problem of the Homeless in Seventeenth-Century Rome).
7
This attitude is emphasized by Alexanders friend and biographer, the Jesuit Sforza
Pallavicino, Della vita di Alessandro VII, 2 vols., Prato, 183940, II, pp. 177 f.
8
L. Forlani, Le visite apostoliche del cinque-seicento e la societ religiosa di Roma,
Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma, 4 (1980), pp. 53148, cf. p. 133.
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perceived the conditions in the city, not only as a physical but also as a social
and moral whole; he sought to grasp them by studying them carefully and
in detail, and to do something about them in a conscious, and comprehensive way. I do not want to overstate my case. Alexander was a product of his
age, not ours. He had his own failings, he failed to realize many of his projects, and many of the projects he did complete failed to achieve their purpose. But just as his urbanistic projects on the obverse of the medal bore
fruit in the subsequent history of architecture and urban planning, so did
his ideas on the reverse. Alexander was the first pope in modern times to
make a serious effort to end the tradition of nepotism, and his effort was a
direct inspiration for Innocent XI, who actually did finally break the tradition.9 And the social need for reform of which Alexander became explicitly
aware, engendered a sequence of developments later in the century that
established institutions and programs of social welfare whose history can be
traced thereafter down to our own time. My point here is that the obverse
and reverse belong to the same medal, after all. Alexanders collective awareness of his distinguished, aristocratic visitors from abroad was part and parcel with his equally collective awareness of his ordinary, often underprivileged subjects at home. In this sense, too, he helped transform Roma Antica
into Roma Moderna.
My second, and final, point is to pay homage to The Rome of Alexander
VII with the praise I think Krautheimer would have appreciated more than
any other: Fa pensare.
Alexanders effort, and ultimate failure, to break the tradition of nepotism, are
described by von Pastor, XXXI, pp. 24 ff.
9
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Lavin 1998. For the shipping records, see Docs. 357, 41, 445, 4759, 61, 634.
See Appendix, Doc. 43.
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tial qualities, color, spirit and life, to each of which he attached particular
meaning and importance. Difficult in any case, the challenge was virtually
futile quasi impossible when the subject was before the sculptor only
in the form of paintings. The full meaning of Berninis conceit becomes
evident when one considers the implications of his three critical points of
reference.
The problem of creating a sculptured likeness from painted models had
a profound resonance arising from the concern of artists since the
Renaissance to provide theoretical foundations for their vocations and raise
them from the level of the medieval crafts to what came to be thought of as
the Fine Arts. Painting and sculpture, though hand-made, were to be
regarded as equivalent to the traditionally exalted intellectual arts of music
and literature, notably poetry.10 One of the key agencies of this transformation was the great heritage of professional rivalry over the relative merits and
difficulty hence nobility of painting versus sculpture, known as the
Paragone, or comparison of the arts.
It can hardly be coincidental that the earliest testimony to this debate in
the context of portraiture comes from Leonardo, the inventor of the
Paragone as a formal disputation on the arts: a drawing by Leonardo showing the same head in what might be described as the three minimal positions, profile, three-quarter, and full-front (Fig. 3).11 The head is often identified as that of Leonardos patron Cesare Borgia, but there is no evidence
that a sculptured portrait of Borgia was intended and the omission of the
torso speaks against such a purpose. Leonardos drawing seems rather
intended to demonstrate the possibility of representing simultaneously in
two dimensions what the sculptor represents successively in three. In its
most developed stage, however, the Paragone was not simply a matter of
form, but also of color, that is, two-dimensional polychromy versus threedimensional monochomy. This issue underlies the earliest known example
of a painted triple portrait a goldsmith, by Lorenzo Lotto, now with
three views united in a single composition (Fig. 4). There is no evidence
that the Lotto was intended for a sculptured portrait; indeed, the nature of
the poses (the inclusion of the lost profile and the omission of a frontal
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16
On Berninis drawings for portraits and caricatures, and the process of marble carving,
see Lavin 1990, 24, 39 f., nn. 18, 19.
17
For the dates see Lightbown 1981, 442, 445.
18
The large literature on the Champaignes and Berninis Richelieu portraits may be
reached though the important contributions of Gaborit 1977, and Laurain-Portemer 1985.
19
Laurain-Portemer 1985, 87.
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Bernine) I conclude that itt is the inpossible thinge in the world to make a
picture in stone naturally to resemble any person.
The circumstances of the observation are relevant. Bernini is speaking of
his portrait of a visitor from England, Thomas Baker, which he made after
that of Charles because itt should goe into England, that thay might see the
difference of doing a picture after the life or a painting. 20 In the succeeding
passage Stone reports Berninis oath not to make such portraits, even if by
the hand of Raphael (clearly a recognition of the beauty of Van Dycks
painting), given in response to a request by the pope himself that he make
a portrait after a painting for some other prince; this latter can only have
been Richelieu.21 Bernini repeated the white-face analogy more than once
to Paul Frart de Chantelou, who kept a detailed diary of Berninis visit to
Paris in the summer of 1665 to redesign the Louvre; and it was reported by
Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini where it is used not as a defense, but to
20
On this portrait, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, see Wittkower
1981, 208.
21
. . . after this he began to tell us here was an English gent: who wooed him a long time
to make his effiges in marble, and after a great deale of intreaty and the promise of a large
some of money he did gett of doing a picture after the life or a painting; so he began to
imbost his physyognymy, and being finisht and ready to begin in marble, itt fell out that his
patrone the Pope came to here of itt who sent Cardinall Barberine to forbid him; the gentleman was to come the next morning to sett, in the meane time he defaced the modell in
diuers places, when the gentleman came he began to excuse himselfe that thaire had binn a
mischaunce to the modell and yt he had no mind to goe forward with itt; so I (sayth he) I
returnd him his earnest, and desired him to pardon me; then was the gent. uery much
moued that he should haue such dealing, being he had come so often and had sett diuers
times already; and for my part (sayth the Cauelier) I could not belye itt being commanded
to the contrary; for the Pope would haue no other picture sent into England from his hand
but his Mai ty; then he askt the youg man if he understood Italian well. Then he began to tell
yt the Pope sent for him since the doing of the former head, and would haue him doe another
picture in marble after a painting for some other prince. I told the Pope (says he) that if
thaire were best picture done by the hand of Raphyell yett he would nett undertake to doe
itt, for (sayes he) I told his Hollinesse that itt was impossible that a picture in marble could
haue the semblance of a liuing man; then he askt againe if he understood Italian well; he
answered the Cauelier, perfectly well.
then sayth he, I told his Holinesse that if he went into the next rome and whyted all his
face ouer and his eyes, if possible were, and come forth againe nott being a whit leaner nor
lesse beard, only the chaunging of his colour, no man would know you; for doe not wee see
yt when a man is affrighted thare comes a pallness on the sudden? Presently wee say he likes
nott the same man. How can itt than possible be that a marble picture can resemble the
nature when itt is all one coulour, where to the contrary a man has on coulour in his face,
another in his hair, a third in his lipps, and his eyes yett different from all the rest? Tharefore
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Modenese agent in Rome gave the Duke a wide-eyed report of the spectacular gift the artist received for his efforts;24 and memory of the royal commission was still an important factor years later in the discussions concerning Francescos portrait.25
While it is wholly characteristic that Bernini should be preoccupied by
the representation of color in marble sculpture, the dilemma is inherent in
the medium, and color is in fact only one of the qualities to which Bernini
refers when in his letter to the Duke he calls the feat he accomplished in the
bust quasi impossibile.26 The unique problem here lay not so much in the
material as in extrapolating a likeness from only painted models, never having seen the natural, as Bernini says. After the experience of Charles I he
had sworn never again to hazard such a task.27 In the case of Francesco
dEste the problem was compounded by the fact that Bernini actually had
before him in working the portrait only two profile views; delivery of the
frontal view he urgently requested was delayed, and in the end he had to
make do with the side views and simple measurements of the Dukes height
See the letter of February 22, 1642, in Freaschetti 1900, 112 n. 2: Per la Citt si
saputo che il Cardinale di Richeli ha donato un gioiello superbissimo al Cavalier Bernino,
et che il Cardinal Mazarino lha regalato nobilissimamente per la statua che di sua mano ha
fatto al primo: onde mille sono gli Encomij che si fanno sopra la Generosit di ambidue.
The gift was mentioned by Bernini 1713, 68: Grad quel Principle [Richelieu] in modo tale
il Ritratto che ne dimostr il gradimento col dono di un Giojelo, che mand al Cavaliere di
trentatr Diamanti, fra quali ve nerano sette di quattordici grani luno di peso. Al Balsimelli
f dare per mancia otto cento scudi. The jewel is evidently one with a portrait of Richelieu
listed among Berninis notable remunerations, valued at 8000 scudi (see n. 50 below); it is
among the many listed in the inventory of Berninis possessions: . . . un gioiello con il
ritratto di Re di Francia circondato da tredici diamanti grossi quanto un cecio, tondi lavorati a faccette e numero novantasei diamanti tra piccoli e mezzani. Borsi et al. 1981, 113.
25
Docs. 10, 20, 35.
26
See our epigraph Doc. 43. Cardinal rinaldo had used the phrase quasi impossibile in
the same context, doubtless repeating what he had heard from Berninis comments to
Nicholas Stone in 1638, cited in n. 21 above.
27
Berninis oath was reported by Stone (n. 21 above) and is also mentioned in the correspondence concerning the bust of Francesco, Docs. 10, 38.
In the end, Bernini was reluctant to do portraits at all, and cited Michelangelo as precedent: Il a rept le difficult quil y a faire un portrait de marbre . . . Il a dit que MichelAnge nen avait jamais voulu faire. . . . Il a dit ensuite ces Messieurs la peine o il tait
toutes les fois quil tait oblig de faire un portrait; quil y avait dj du temps quil avait resolu dans son esprit de nen plus faire, mais que le Roi lui ayant fait lhonneur de lui demander le sien, il navait pas pu refuser un si grand prince . . . Chantelou 1885, 94 (August 12);
cf. Chantelou 1885, 111 (August 21).
24
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and treat the DEste Duke as if he were bargain hunting would have been
beneath both their dignities. Ironically, in his reply of July 22, the Duke
suggested a gift of 100 doubloons to Bernini (worth 200 scudi), while
expressing his indifference as to whether Bernini or Algardi made his portrait.32 In the end, because he wished himself to be seen in a class with the
leading monarchs of his time, Francesco was happy to pay Bernini 3000
scudi for what he might have obtained from Algardi for 150 scudi and the
price of the marble! We shall consider the significance of Berninis attitude
presently. The important point here concerns the nature of the difficulty of
executing a portrait from painted prototypes alone, which seems to have
presented no extraordinary obstacle to Algardi,33 but which Bernini found
intimidating to the point of defeat.
The real reason for which he considered the task quasi impossible and
for which he could never be fully satisfied with the result, lay elsewhere than
in the matter of achieving likeness in the traditional and normal sense of
that term. The problem arose inevitably from the fundamental principles of
what might be called Berninis psycho-philosophy of portraiture, and his
method of creating portraits, as these may be gathered from his letters, his
various statements reported by his biographers, and especially from the
detailed account that has come down to us of his work on the bust of a
monarch, the last in the concatenated series of Berninis secular ruler portraits
to whom he did have ready and frequent access, Louis XIV (p. 923, Fig. 2).34
Chantelou records that the king sat for the artist on no less than seventeen
occasions, five for drawing the subject and twelve for working the marble.35
From this wealth of direct testimony concerning the artists working methods which is itself unprecedented in the history of art it is clear, first
of all, that the notion of likeness had for Bernini a very singular meaning.36
Bernini did not conceive of the sitter as a sitter at all. He insisted on sopping up the character and personality of the subject by sketching him end-
Doc. 6.
On this point, see also Tratz 1988, 466.
34
Berninis earlier portraits of royal heroes (for which concept, see Lavin 1998, 3352)
were specifically recalled in one of the poems on the bust of Louis (Chantelou 1885, 100,
August 16).
35
See Chantelou 1985, 38, n. 116.
36
For what follows, Wittkowers splendid study (1951) remains an inspiration.
32
33
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ently unselfconscious phases of what is, after all, the rhetorical act par excellence, speaking).39 Algardi felt able to satisfy his patron (and himself ) by
preparing the sculpture from the painted models, and finishing it in the
presence and to the satisfaction of whoever was responsible for the work.
Such a procedure could never have satisfied Bernini, since only from the living model could he could observe and reproduce, not only the subjects features but also, and especially, his characteristic expression and movement
in a word, his spirit and life. A corollary of this definition and mode of creating a likeness was the equally unorthodox way Bernini put the final
touches on the bust of Louis. To the amazement of those who witnessed the
process, he deliberately discarded the preparatory studies and models he had
so laboriously produced, and completed the work not from memory but
directly from the living model, in the presence of the king in person
otherwise, he said, he would be copying himself, not Louis XIV.40
The central point, however, central also in Berninis list of the three
39
Le Cavalier, continuant de travailler la bouche, a dit que, pour russir dans un portrait, il faut prendre un acte et tcher le bien reprsenter; que la plus beau temps quon
puisse choisir pour la bouche est quand on vient de parler ou quon va prendre la parole; quil
cherche attraper ce moment. (Chantelou 1885, 133, September 4.) On the notion of the
speaking likeness, see important paper by Harris 1992.
40
See the passages in Chantelou cited in n. 34 above and n. 39 below. The procedure is
described by the biographers: Per fare il ritratto della maest del re di Francia, egli ne fece
prima alquanti modelli; nel metter poi mano allopera, alla presenza del re tutti se gli tolse
dattorno e a quel monarca che ammirando quel fatto, gli domand la cagione del non volersi valere delle sue fattiche, rispose che i modelli gli erano serviti per introdurre nella fantasia le fattezze di chi egli dovea ritrarre, ma quando gi le aveva concepite e dovea dar fuori il
parto, non gli erano pi necessari, anzi dannosi al suo fine, che era di darlo fuori non simile
amodelli, ma al vero. (Baldinucci 1948, 144); In oltre f suo costantissimo proposito in
somiglianti materie, far prima molti disegni, e molti della figura, chegli dovea rappresentare,
m quando poi nel Marmo metteva mano allopera, tutti se li toglieva dattorno, come se a
nulla gli servissero: E richiesto dal R, che prese maraviglia di questo fatto con domandargliene la cagione, del non volersi valere delle sue istesse fatiche, rispose, che i Modelli gli
erano serviti per introdurre nella fantasia le fattezze di ch egli doveva ritrarre, m quando
gi le haveva concepite, e doveva dar fuori il parto, non gli erano pi necessarii, anzi dannosi
al suo fine, che era di darlo fuori, non simile alli Modelli, m al Vero. (Bernini 1713, 134.)
See also the report of Berninis enemy in Paris, Charles Perrault: Il travailla dabord sur
le marbre, et ne fit point de modle de terre, comme les autres sculpteurs ont accoutum de
faire, il se contenta de dessiner en pastel deux ou trois profils du visage du Roi, non point,
ce quil disoit, pour les copier dans son buste, mais seulement pour rafrachir son ide de
temps en temps, ajoutant quil navoit garde de copier son pastel, parce qualors son buste
nauroit t quune copie, qui de sa nature est toujours moindre que son original. (Perrault
1909, 61 f.)
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essential qualities he sought in his portraits, lay beyond even the creation of
a living likeness. The point is already evident in another, complementary
peculiarity of Berninis portrait-working procedure: at the very outset, even
before working on the likeness, he sketched in clay the action he intended
to give the bust;41 he began, that is, with a concept, which he continued to
develop in the model, while studying the details of the kings features in life
drawings. And this idea of the subject is what preoccupied him when he
put aside the drawings to work on the marble. Bernini himself defined the
point in the explanation he gave of the relationship between his way of
working on a portrait and the meaning he wanted it to convey. The statement occurs in a passage where Bernini explains to Colbert the rapid
progress he was presently making in carving the bust of Louis XIV: until
now he had worked entirely from his imagination, looking only rarely at his
drawings; he had searched chiefly within, he said, tapping his forehead,
where there existed the idea of His Majesty; had he done otherwise his work
would have been a copy instead of an original. This method of his was
extremely difficult, and the King, in ordering a portrait, could not have
asked anything harder; he was striving to make it less bad than the others
that he had done; in this kind of head one must bring out the qualities of a
hero as well as make a good likeness.42 Here it is clear that the ultimate difficulty lay in Berninis ultimate goal, to realize his own idea of the monarch
his spirit by capturing the Kings heroic qualities while recording
Louiss likeness, as Bernini understood that notion. For Bernini a portrait
was a preternatural thing, a composite counterfeit of an idea and of vitality
41
. . . il a demand de la terre afine de faire des bauches de laction quil pourrait donner au buste, en attendant quil travaillt la ressemblance. Chantelou 1885, 30, June 11.
On the point see Wittkower 1951, 6. Giulio Mancini in the early seventeenth century made
the fundamental distinction btween the ritratto semplice, that of pure imitation, and the
ritratto dellattion et affetto (Mancini 19567, I, 115 f.; see the perspicacious note by Bauer
in Chantelou 1985, 85 f., n. 154).
42
M. Colbert Lui a tmoign tre tonne combien louvrage tit avanc, et quil le
trouvait si ressemblant quil ne jugewait pas quil ft besoin quil travaillt Saint-Germain.
Le Cavalier a reparti quil y avait toujours faire qui voulait faire bien; que jusqiici il avait
presque toujours travaill dimagination, et quil navait regard que rarement les dessins quil
a; quil ne regardait principalement que l dedans, montrant son front, o il a dit qutait.)
lide de Sa Majest; que autrement il naurait fait quune copie au lieu dun original, mais
que cela lui donnait une peine extrme et que le roi, lui demandant son portrait, ne pouvait
pas lui commander rien de plus pnible: quil tcherait que ce ft le moins mauvais de tous
ceux quil aura faits; que, dans ces sortes de portraits, il faut, outre la ressemblance, y mettre
ce qui doit tre dans des ttes de hros. (Chantelou 1885, 72 g., July 29.)
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itself. For this reason, above all, to carve a marble portrait of a living subject without seeing him in action was for Bernini not only difficult, but
quasi impossible; and, after the bust of Francesco, he kept his vow never to
do so again.
The second, sociological point I want to consider concerns Berninis
attitude toward the DEste commission. It is very clear that Bernini was not
anxious to undertake the portrait, and there may have been other reasons
than the difficulty of the task. Francesco I was, after all, not as important as
Charles I or Richelieu. There may also have been a political factor.
Francesco I was closely tied to France, most conspicuously in his capacity as
commander of the French troops in Italy. Bernini had been intimately associated with Urban VIII Barberini, who had also been a partisan of France.
When Urban VIII was succeeded by Innocent X Pamphili, the arch-enemy
of both the Barberini and the French, Bernini fell from favor and had only
recently redeemed himself with his invention for the Innocents pet project
for the fountain in the Piazza Navona, where the pope was building his new
family palace. Perhaps Bernini felt it unwise to work too closely with the
French faction. Even so, Berninis dealings with his noble patron must have
seemed even more remarkable then than they do today. He was so occupied
with other projects, notably the Piazza Navona fountain that he had no
time;43 he was so busy that it was difficult to reach him;44 he worked only
for friends and important patrons; he had to be frequently coaxed and
reminded, and sufficiently remunerated; he would never discuss time or
money,45 and specific terms only emerged indirectly, in relation to payments
and honoraria he had received from other grand patrons: 3000 scudi from
Innocent X for the Piazza Navona fountain,46 a diamond ring worth 6000
scudi from Charles I for his bust of the king.47
All this reflects the attitude, and acumen, of the most successful and
sought after image-maker of the day. But the attitude involved much more
than finances. The social status of the artist was involved. In so many words,
Docs. 9, 25.
Doc. 23.
45
Doc. 4.
46
Doc. 32, 40, 41, 68, 69.
47
Doc. 20 and n. 50 below. Other sources put the value at 4000 scudi (Lightbown 1981,
447 ff., who also compares the costs of other works by Bernini, e.g., 1000 scudi for the portrait of Scipione Borghese).
43
44
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Bernini was said to act independent (opera da s)48 and I suspect this was
precisely the point. Berninis attitude must indeed have seemed arrogant,
especially for an artist; but for this very reason it signified that he belonged,
and clearly thought of himself as belonging, in a long tradition reaching
back to antiquity and including in his own time the likes of Velasquez and
Rubens, of artists who sought to rise above the condition of servile artisan
to the level of an aristocracy of the spirit, a meritocracy of the intellect and
creativity. Nobility was not paid wages, and the proper, indeed only, form
of recognition among the aristocracy was the gift. It is symptomatic in this
context that throughout the correspondence the consideration for Bernini
is exclusively referred to as a gift (regalo), never as a payment or a fee.49 The
distinction is clear from the fact that for all three princely busts (Charles I,
Richelieu, Francesco I) Bernini received, or was offered in the case of
Francesco, gifts, whereas the messengers who delivered the sculptures were
given tips.50 The phraseology was significant when Francescos agent in
Rome reported that Mazarin had regalato nobilissimamente. 51 Francesco
resorted to a delicate subterfuge in deference to this principle of social disquesto opera da s, et vi vuole destrezza nel sollecitarlo (Doc. 23).
See the documents cited in n. 46 above; also Doc. 37. On the significance of the gift
as remuneration, see the section on Old and New Ways of Evaluating Works of Art in
Wittkower, R. and M., 1963, 2225, and recently Warwick 1997, 632 f. The Wittkowers
tended to see the gift in relation to the earlier, craft tradition of barter and payment in kind,
rather than in the tradition of noble courtesy. The main difference is that in the former case
the goods were generally of a practical nature, whereas in the latter they were conspicuously
luxury items. On the Nobility of the artists profession and related factors, see the
Wittkowerss chapter Between Famine and Fame, 25380. In one instance Bernini himself
uses the phrase mi f pagare (Doc. 76).
50
The gifts for the portraits are mentioned in a list of some of Berninis notable remunerations, among the Bernini papers in the Bibliothque National in Paris:
Aclune remunerazioni haute dal cav.re Bernino
Per il ritratto del R Carlo 2.o dInghilterra undiamante che portava in ditto, di valore
di sei mila scudi
Per il ritratto del Card.le Richelie una gioia di quattro mila scudi
Per il ritratto del Duca Fran.co di Modena tre mila scudi in tanti Argenti B.N. ms ital
2084, fol. 126 r.
Domenico Bernini mentions the generous mancia given to the assistants who accompanied to their destinations the busts of Charles I, . . . si cav dal dito un Diamante di sei
mila scudi di valore, e consegnatelo a Bonifazio disse, . . ..; in oltre mand al Cavaliere
copiosi regali di preziosissimi panni, & a Bonifazio f donare per mancia mille scudi
(Bernini 1713, 65 f.), and Richelieu (see n. 24 above).
51
See n. 24 above.
48
49
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tinction, instructing his emissary to tell Bernini that the Duke had sent
3000 scudi in order to purchase a suitable gift, but that the artist might take
the money, if he preferred.52 Bernini opted for the cash, because he was
already sufficiently provided with jewels and silver!53 People, including
Bernini, were saying that the size of the consideration, being equal to the
generosity of Innocent X for the Piazza Navona fountain, risked putting
even the pope to shame.54 Bernini described the value of the gift as the mark
of the more than regal generosity of the House of Este.55 It is important to
understand that the idea and value of a princely reward worked both ways:
the report that he had outclassed the pope was certainly intended to flatter
Francesco, who had himself remarked that by making Bernini happy he
would affirm his own status as a patron: col far restar contento il Bernino
penso di conservarmi il credito di stimar la virt et i virtuosi.56 The credit
Francesco earned by this grand gesture of magnanimity contributed to the
reputation that contemporary political theory required of the virtuousruler.57 For Bernini, indeed, the idea of a meritocracy also worked both
ways, as when years later he told Louis XIV he admired the king more for
his virt than for his noble birth (see Lavin, 1998, 47).
From a formal point of view the series inaugurates a new phase in the
history of European art. Two portraits of Charles I, very different from one
another, have good claim to reflect Berninis bust, which was lost in the
famous fire of Whitehall in 1698. Most frequently cited are a bust shown
in an engraving attributed to Robert Van Voerst and, with a different
pedestal, a sculpture attributed to Thomas Adey (Figs. 12, 13). A strong
argument against this work being a true copy after Berninis sculpture is that
everything about the image, including the pedestal shown in the engraving,
coincides with the conventional bust-type of Charles I developed by
Franois Dieussart before Berninis sculpture arrived in England58 everyThe Duke conceived the plot when he discovered that the German silver credenza he
had thought to acquire was exorbitant and not worth the price: Doc. 30. The 3000 scudi for
Bernini are mentioned in Docs. 66, 77, 79. Cf. also Docs. 86, 87, 88.
53
Doc. 69. On Berninis collection of jewels see n. 24 above.
54
Doc. 68.
55
Doc. 76.
56
Doc. 18; see also Doc. 85.
57
On reputation see Lavin 1998, 35, 37.
58
The engraving and the Windsor bust were first related to Berninis lost portrait, respectively by Cust 19089, and Esdaile 1938, 1949. The counterargument, based on the earlier
busts by Dieussart, was made by Vickers 1978.
52
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thing, that is, except for one feature, the sideward and upward thrust of the
head the theme of the divinely inspired monarch which thereafter
became one of the signal features of Berninis ruler portraits. On the other
hand, there are strong reasons to find a reflection of Berninis bust in a terracotta portrait of Charles attributed to Roubiliac, notably the fact that,
unlike other busts of the King, this one includes both the order of St.
George as a pendant at the breast and the Star emblazoned on the cloak over
the heart as in Van Dycks portrait (Fig. 13);59 and the fact that the lower
torso is enveloped by the drapery in such as way as to dissimulate the
amputated edges an idiosyncratic illusionistic device that Bernini also
developed into a buoyant vehicle of apotheosis.
In any case, it seems clear that Bernini departed from Van Dycks model
in three essential ways, by showing the king in armor, by changing the disposition of the head, and by treating the drapery as a metaphorical adjunct
of the bust form. If we imagine the figure of the king heroicized by the military costume, the heads psychological expression of lofty inspiration, and
the uncanny, floating effect of the torso, we shall have some sense of what
must indeed have seemed a revolutionary and ideal way of portraying a
Christian head of state. Even the bust of Cardinal Richelieu, as quasi-head
of state, has an exalted, regal bearing that does not appear in Philippe de
Champaignes portrait, and has no counterpart in Berninis busts of other
ecclesiastics, including the popes.60
All these considerations lay behind the portrait of Francesco I, so that,
mirabile dictu, the very factors that made the bust an impresa quasi impossibile also made it the herald of a new epoch in the history of European
culture.
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Bibliography
Avery, C., Bernini. Genius of the Baroque, Boston, etc., 1997.
Baldinucci, F., Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Florence, 1682; ed.
S. S. Ludovici, Milan, 1948.
Bentini, J., and P. Curti, eds., Arredi, suppellettili e pitture famose: degli
Estensi. Inventari 1663, Modena, 1993.
Berger, Robert W., In the Garden of the Sun King. Studies on the Park of
Versailles under Louis XIV, Washington, DC, 1985.
Bernini, D., Vita del cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Rome, 1713.
Bireley, R., The Counter-Reformation Prince, Raleigh, N.C., 1990
Borsi, F., et al., Gianlorenzo Bernini. Il testamento la casa la raccolta dei beni,
Florence, 1981.
Brown, C., Van Dyck, Oxford, 1982.
Brown, D. A., et al., Lorenzo Lotto. Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance,
exhib. cat., New Haven and London, 1997.
Chantelou, P. Frart de, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed.,
L. Lalanne, Paris, 1885.
Diary of the Cavaliere Berninis Visit to France, edited and with an introduction by Anthony Blunt, annotated by George C. Bauer, translated by
Margery Corbett, Princeton, 1985.
Cust, L., Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections. The Triple Portrait of
Charles I by Van Dyck and the Bust of Bernini, The Burlington
Magazine, XIV, 19089, 33740.
Esdaile, K. A., Two Busts of Charles I and William III, The Burlington
Magazine, LXXII, 1938, 16471.
The busts and Statues of Charles I, The Burlington Magazine, XCI,
1949, 915.
Farago, C. J., Leonardo da Vincis Paragone. A Critical Interpretation with a
New Edition of the Text in the Codex Urbinas, Leiden, etc., 1992.
Fraschetti, S., Il Bernini. La sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo, Milano,
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1900.
Gaborit, J.-R., Le Bernin, Mocchi et le Buste de Richeliu du Muse du
Louvre. Un Probleme dattribution, Bulletin de la Socit de lHistoire de
lArt Francais, 1977, 8591.
Gould, C., Bernini in France. An Episode in Seventeenth-Century History,
Princeton, 1982.
Harris, A. S., Vouet, le Bernin, et la ressemblance parlante , Rencontres
de lcole du Louvre, 1992, 192206.
Humphrey, P., Lorenzo Lotto, New Haven and London, 1997.
Johnston, C., et. al., Vatican Splendour: Masterpieces of Baroque Art, exhib.
cat., Ottawa, 1986.
Keisch, C., Portraits in mehrfacher Ansicht. berlieferung und
Sinnwandel einer Bildidee, Staaliche Museen zu Berlin. Forschungen und
Berichte XVII, 1976, 20539.
Larsen, E., The paintings of Anthony Van Dyck, 2 Vols., Dsseldorf, 1988.
Laurain-Portemer, M., La Politique Artistique de Mazarin, in Il Cardinale
Mazzarino in Francia: colloquio italo-francese (Accademia nazionale dei
Lincei, Atti dei convegni lincei 35), Rome, 1977, 4176 (reprinted in
her tudes mazarines, Paris, 1981, 177235).
Fortuna e sfortuna di Bernini nella Francia di Mazzarino, Bernini e lunit
delle arti visive, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome, 1985, 11329.
Lavin, I., Five Youthful Sculptures by Gianlorenzo Bernini and a Revised
Chronology of his Early Works, The Art Bulletin, L, 1968, 22348.
Berninis Death, The Art Bulletin, LIV, 1972, 15886.
High and Low Before their Time: Bernini and the Art of Social Satire,
in K. Varnadoe and A. Gopnik, eds., Modern Art and Popular Culture.
Readings in High & Low, New York, 1990, 1850.
PastPresent. Essays on Historicism in Art from Donatello to Picasso,
Berkeley, CA, 1993.
Bernini e limmagine de principe cristiano ideale, Modena, 1998.
Lee, Rensselaer W., Name on Trees: Ariosto into Art, Princeton, 1977.
Lightbown, R. W., Berninis Busts of English Patrons, in M. Barasch and
L. F. Sandler, eds., Art the Ape of Nature, Studies in Honor of H. W.
Janson, ed., New York, 1981, 43976.
LOrange, H. P., Apotheosis in Ancient Portraiture, New Rochelle, N.Y., 1982.
Mancini, G., Considerazioni sulla pittura, eds. A. Marucchi and L. Salerno,
2 Vols. Rome, 19567.
Mendelsohn, L., Paragoni. Benedetton Varchis Due Lezzioni and
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Berninis Bust of the Medusa: An Awful Pun
1 The
2
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the more provocative in that the Pasquino was the most notorious of the
speaking statues of Rome to which the common, and often the uncommon populous, like Aretino, Bembo, Francesco Berni, gave voice by affixing to the disfigured and disreputable sculpture acerbic, mocking diatribes
against the august and powerful, written in vulgar (in terms of content as
well language) prose and poetry (Fig. 6).
It should be said at once that Bernini was not the first to appreciate the
Pasquino; even the popular Rome guidebooks pointed out the high quality
of the group.5 But as far as I can discover, Bernini was indeed the first (and
perhaps also the last) to give it the highest rating among the statues of
Rome. That he meant the evaluation seriously is evident from the critical
compositional role the Pasquino played throughout the early series of heroic
male figures, Aeneas, Neptune, Pluto, and David; the theme reverberates
again years later in the centerpiece of the Fontana del Moro perhaps with
a particular significance, since the fountain is located in the Piazza Navona,
adjacent to the Piazza Pasquino (Figs. 711).6
essendogli una volta stato domandato da un oltramontano qual fusse la pi bella statua di
quella citt e respondendo che il Pasquino, il forestiero che si credette burlato fu per venir
con lui a cimento. (Baldinucci 1948 [1682], 146) Con uguale attenzione pose il suo studio
ancora in ammirar le parti di quei due celebri Torsi di Hercole, e di Pasquino, quegli riconosciuto per suo Maestro dal Buonarota, questi dal Bernino, che f il primo, che ponesse in
alto concetto in Roma questa nobilissima Statua; Anzi avvenne, che richiesto una volta da
un nobile forastiere Oltramontano. Quale fosse la Statua pi riguardevole in Roma? e rispostogli, Che il Pasquino, quello di s le furie, stimandosi burlato, e poco manc, che non ne
venisse a cimento con lui; E di questi due Torsi era solito dire, che contenevano in se tutto
il pi perfetto della Natura senza affettazione dellArte. (Bernini 1713, 13f.)
5 See Lavin 1990, 43 n. 51
6 It might be said that Berninis preoccupation with the Pasquino distinguishes the contrapostal action of his figures, which he developed from the serpentine movement he learned
from his father: compare Pietro Berninis St. John the Baptist in S. Andrea della Valle (Lavin
1968b, where the infusion of the spirit of antiquity generally in Berninis early work is
stressed). Nor was Bernnis interest in the Pasquino purely formal. He certainly appreciated
the tradition of anonymous public satire with which the sculpture was associated, since he
undoubtedly referred to it (rather than himself, as usually assumed) when he spoke of someone in Rome qui le public a toujours rendu la justice qui tait due son savoir, quelque
chose quon ait pu dire et faire contre lui; ce qui fait voir que si le particulier est injuste
Rome, enfin le public ne lest pas (Chantelou 1885, 59); Bernini may have linked this high
moral function with the noble style of the work. Although identifications varied, all understood the group as portraying an heroic action of salvation; see Haskell and Penny 1981,
192. DOnofrio 1986, 444, also notes the relation of the Moro to the Pasquino.
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true but physically false), the other monochrome but sculpted in the round
(that is, visually false but physically true).9
Specifically, Berninis observation concerning the Laocons leg
inevitably calls to mind what were perhaps the most conspicuous and portentous depictions of such a transformation, the pictures of Perseus rescuing Andromeda and slaying Phineus on the facing end walls of the Farnese
Gallery (Figs. 1315). In the first scene the pale coloration of the body
of Andromeda seems to allude to Ovids comparison of her nude body
chained to the rock as resembling a marble sculpture; and for the episode of
Perseus killing the sea monster, Carracci adopted a version of the story in
which Perseus dispatches the beast not with a sword, as in Ovid, but by petrifying it with the head of Medusa, a process that the stony color of the animal indicates has already begun. In the Phineus scene the competition
among the arts in the representation of nature is given an additional turn
through a specific reference to one of the acknowledged masterpieces of
antiquity. Perseus wields the Medusas head toward the enemy band, while
Phineus recoils in fear, his upper body undergoing the unholy transformation from flesh to stone metamorphosed proleptically into its obvious
sculptured prototype, the Belvedere Torso (Fig. 5). 10 Given the exalted reputation of the Torso, Carraccis reference to it here constitutes an ironic
thrust in the epic battle of the visual paragone. Having intruded in Perseus
wedding feast to abduct the bride, the defeated Phineus pleads for mercy.
Perseus responds ironically by sparing his cringing enemy a proper warriors
death by the sword, and using instead the Medusas head to turn him into
a monument of stone for permanent display in his father-in-laws house.11
The putatively heroic remnant of the classical sculptors art thus embodies
9 On the significance for Bernini of this aspect of the illusionism of the Farnese Gallery
see Lavin 1980, 425. On the Gallery in general in relation to the painting-sculpture
paragone see Scott 1988. The literary paragone of sculpture with poesis as metamorphosis has
not been extensively explored; references will be found in Preimesberger 1989, Barolsky
1996, Schmidt 1998, and especially Bolland 2000. On Dantes Medusa in this context, see
Freccero 1979.
10 On these transformations see Scott 1988, 252f., Dempsey 1995, 95f. Bellori carefully noted the color changes in these scenes (see n. 13 below). For repercussions of these
themes in Rubens, see Muller 19812.
11 Metamorphoses V, 2268; Ovid 1984, I, 254f.: nullo violabere ferro. quin etiam
mansura dabo monimenta per aevum, inque domo soceri semper spectabere nostri.
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I believe that Carraccis display of artifice in the service of truth was crucial to the genesis by a process of visual and conceptual inversion, a
sculptors paragone of one of Berninis most remarkable and least considered works. I refer to the Medusa in the Capitoline Museum (Figs. 16,
17, 18), which bears an enigmatic inscription on its pedestal recording that
it was donated by Marchese Francesco Bichi in 1731, and describing it as
the work of a most celebrated sculptor, who is not named. 14 Although the
sculpture is otherwise undocumented, its stunning (I use the word advisedly, as will become evident) quality the powerfully expressive physiognomy and the brilliant display of technical virtuosity in the fragile locks,
twisted, perforated and daringly suspended in space inevitably evoke
Berninis name, and the attribution to him has been generally accepted. 15
that he won immortal praise: Pose nel vero Annibale ogni pi esquisita industria nel ritrovare ed ordinare le favole con gli episodii di questo suo nobilissimo poema; cos pu chiamarsi tutto il componimento, nel quale egli prevalse tanto e tanto si elev con lingegno, che
acquistossi al nome suo unornatis simo lode immortale (75).
14 The image of Medusa once inscribed on the shields of the Romans to the terror of
their enemies, now shines in the Capitol, the glory of a most celebrated sculptor. The gift of
Marchese Francesco Bichi Consul in the month of March of the year of Our Lord 1771.
MEDUSAE IMAGO IN CLYPEIS/ ROMANORUM AD HOSTIUM/ TERROREM
OLIM INCISA/ NUNC CELEBERRIMI/ STATURARIJ GLORIA SPLENDET/ IN
CAPITOLIO/ MUNUS MARCH:/ FRANCISCI BICHI CONS:/ MENSE MARTIJ/
ANNO D/ MDCCXXXI (Forcella 186984, I, 78, No. 230). Bichi was elected Capitoline
Consul of Rome in 1731 and 1740 (Forcella 186984, XII, 13, 14).
The Bichi were an important old Sienese family. As we shall see, the most likely candidate as recipient of the sculpture would be Cardinal Alessandro Bichi (15961657), who
shares a splendid tomb with his brother Celio (16001657), including remarkably fine portrait busts of both, in the church of S. Sabina (Darsy 1961, 134f., 143; see the biographical
inscription in Forcella 186984, VII, 313, no. 640). Alessandro was a particular protg of
Berninis patrons Urban VIII and Alexander VII, Celio a notable jurist of the Roman Curia.
A portrait of Cardinal Antonio Bichi (16141691), nephew of Alexander VII, was made by
Berninis pupil Baciccio (Matitti, ed., 1994, 61, fig. 63). On Alessandro, Antonio and Celio
see Dizionario 1960ff., X, 33447). My search for documentation concerning the Medusa
bust in the Bichi family archive (Bichi Ruspoli 1980) were unsuccessful; see also the catalogue entry by Cirulli, 1999.
15 First published and attributed to Bernini by Fraschetti 1900, 405, who mentions two
bronze (recte marble) copies in the Louvre, and notes the attribution to Bernini by Nibby in
183841, II, 626; Wittkower 1981, 208f.; Nava Cellini at first doubted but later, 1988, 30,
emphatically affirmed the attribution (...inconfutabile e lopera dichiara, a chi lesamina
senza pregiudizio, tutta la sua suggestione ed anche la rarit del suo significato); Fagiolo
dellArco 1967, cat. no. 83; aspects of the iconography of the sculpture have been discussed
by Posq 1993. The extremities of the interlace of snakes have been broken off at many
points, so the sculptural pyrotechnics would have been even more spectacular originally.
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I want to discuss certain aspects of the sculpture that have not been commented upon, and which together help to define its distinctive character
and significance.
The physiognomy and expression are quite different from the riveting
repulsiveness frequently attributed to the Medusa, as in Caravaggios
famous version of Minervas shield (Figs. 1921), and Rubenss depiction of
her decapitated head (Figs. 22, 23). Berninis Medusa also seems to reflect
the tradition, exemplified by the dangerous beauty of the famous Medusa
mask from the Palazzo Rondinini (Fig. 24), that she was the most beautiful
of the three Gorgon sisters, and the only one who was mortal; her deadly
appearance was Minervas punishment for having defiled the temple of the
maiden goddess of truth and wisdom.16 This sort of maleficent vanity and
flirtation with beauty was actually focused on the venomous hair: Lucan
writes that Medusa was by nature evil, and that the snaky tresses actually
pleased her, like the stylish coiffeurs that women wore. 17 Moreover, rather
than screaming out her horrendous cry, Berninis Medusa seems to suffer
a kind of deep, moral pathos, a conscious, almost meditative anguish
16 Metamorphoses IV, 794803; Ovid 1984, I 234f. On the Rondanini Medusa, the
most famous of many examples of the beautiful Medusa type presumably invented by
Phidias, see Vierneisel-Schlrb 1979, 627; its history can be traced to the early seventeenth
century in Rome. On the humanization by Phidias of the grotesque Gorgoneion of early
Greek art, see classic study by Buschor 1958, whose brilliant insight is epitomized by his
phrase gefhrliche Schnheit. (p. 39). On the many permutations of the Medusa
Ronadanini, see Noelke 1993.
17The Civil War IX, 62837; Lucan 1928, 552f.: In her body, Malignant nature first
bred these cruel plagues; from her throat were born the snakes that poured forth shrill hissing with their forked tongues. It pleased Medusa, when snakes dangled close against he neck;
in the way that women dress their hair, the vipers hang loose over her back but rear erect
over her brow in front; and their poison wells out when the tresses are combed. These snakes
are the only part of ill-fated Medusa that all men may look upon and live.
Hoc primum natura nocens in corpore saevas
Eduxit pestes ; illis e faucibus angues
Stridula fuderunt vibratis sibila linguis.
Ipsa flagellabant gaudentis colla Medusae,
Femineae cui more comae per terga solutae
Surgunt adversa subrectae fronte colubrae,
Vipereumque fluit depexo crine venenum.
Hoc habet infelix, cunctis inpune, Medusa,
Quod spectare licet.
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of the soul; this affective passion is clearly related to, but also quite different from the utter abandon of Berninis bust of the Damned Soul, with
which the Medusa is often compared, conceived as the counterpiece to his
Blessed Soul (Figs. 25, 26). I think it no accident that in discussing the
Medusa, and affirming the attribution to Bernini, Antonia Nava Cellini,
with her wonted perspicuity, compared the head to the splendid rprise of
the head of Laocon in the Galleria Spada, which Italo Faldi had earlier
attributed to Bernini (Fig. 27).18 As we shall see presently, I suspect that the
peculiar expressive quality of the Capitoline head has a significance of its
own. Here I want to emphasize the irony that, in this sense, the sculpture,
in contrast to what might be called the hyper-realism of the paintings by
Caravaggio and Rubens, has the natural affectivity Bernini admired in the
ancient works.
The Capitoline sculpture owes much of its impact to the fact that it is
an independent, free-standing work of art. In the case of the Medusa, whose
raison dtre, as it were, consists in her severed head, this isolation and selfsufficiency constitutes a startlingly evocative visual pun. The nearest precedent for a Medusas head sculpted fully in the round also evocative of the
Rondanini Medusas dangerous beauty was brandished before the people of Florence by Cellinis great figure of Perseus in the Loggia dei Lanzi
(Figs. 28, 29). Despite the obvious differences both in form and context, I
doubt whether the Capitoline sculpture would have been conceived without Cellinis example, and not only for formal reasons. The Perseus was
endowed with an unequivocal ethical and political message, as a warning to
the actual and potential enemies of Duke Cosimo de Medici, liberator and
defender of the Florentine Andromeda.19 The bronze Perseus was also
18
Faldi 1977.
See Braunfels 1948, 37; further to the Medicean political symbolism of the sculpture in Mandel 1996, with intervening literature. I would add that the beaux gestes of
Perseus-Cosimo, brandishing head in one hand and sword in the other, seem to recreate the
explicit message of the emperor Commodus menacing the senators of Rome from the
amphitheater: And here is another thing that he did to us senators which gave us every reason to look for our death. Having killed an ostrich and cut off his head, he came up to where
we were sitting, holding the head in his left hand and in his right hand raising aloft his
bloody sword; and though he spoke not a word, yet he wagged his head with a grin, indicating that he would treat us in the same way. Dio, Roman History LXXIII, 21; Dio 1982,
IX, 1125.
19
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phraseology as well, are redolent of the story of the Medusa, except that in
the Capitoline bust the conceit, or rather the wizardry of the artist, is turned
against the Medusa herself.
To make a free-standing portrait bust of the Medusa is a stunning idea,
comparable indeed to Berninis equally unprecedented depictions of human
souls as portrait busts: independent, self-contained images of extreme psycho-theological states.24 But whereas in the soul portraits the bust form
served to evoke the disembodied human spirit, in this case the mezzo
busto, as the type was frequently termed in contemporary sources, was a
kind of existential metaphor for the fact that the Medusa was indeed only
half-human, part woman part bestial. I suspect, however, that here the bust
form also had an affective significance, alluding to the power of the sculptor, and the sculptor alone, physically to mimic human nature in its most
terrifying, and terrified, aspect.
Bernini must have been familiar with the famous madrigal written by
Giambattista Marino to celebrate Caravaggios Medusa shield, then in the
collection of Grand Duke Ferdinando de Medici, to whom it had been presented as a wedding gift.25 The poem, which is included in the section
devoted to painting in Marinos collection of poetic evocations of works of
visual art, La Galeria, is significant in our present context because it makes
two important inversions of the classical story. Perseus had avoided being
petrified by looking at the Medusa only as a reflection in Minervas polished
shield. Mirror imagery was thus inherent in the classical Medusa story.26
But Marinos poem begins by referring to the enemies who will be turned
to stone by looking upon the Grand Dukes painted shield: Now what enemies would not be quickly turned to cold stone regarding that fearsome and
cruel Gorgon in your shield...? 27 Caravaggios image, which in the classical story can only be a mirror, has instead the wondrous power of reality
24 On Berninis soul portraits see Lavin 1993; on the evocative nature of the bust
form, Lavin 1970, and Lavin1975.
25 See the rich discussion of the Caravaggio-Marino relationship and its implications
for the poetry-painting paragone, by Cropper 1991. Caravaggios picture has inspired a large
bibliography recent years, including much new iconographical material: Marini 2001, 178f,
180f., 4147; Caneva 2002, Caravaggio 2004
26 On the mirror motif in the classical Medusa story, see the many astute observations
in Ziegler 1926, and Vernant 1991, 95111 (In the Mirror of Medusa).
27 Or quai nemici fian, che freddi marmi/ non divengan repente/ in mirando, Signor,
nel vostro scudo/ quel fier Gorgone, e crudo...? (Marino 1979, I, 31).
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itself: like the actual Medusa, it can turn the Dukes adversaries to stone.
The poem concludes by transferring the Medusas power to the Duke,
declaring that Ferdinandos real defense, his true Medusa, is his own valor:
But yet! That formidable monster is of little use among your weapons,
since the true Medusa is your valor. 28 Marinos association of personal
virtue with the power of the Medusa was, following the leads of Cellini and
Carracci, a critical step in transforming the image into a sort of reverse
reflection of personal rectitude. A further step occurs in two, less wellknown poems, a madrigal and a sonnet, which Marino included in the section of La Galeria called Statue. Here portrayals of the Medusa are indeed
treated as independent, sculptured images. Both poems are based on the
conceit that, unlike Caravaggios picture, the Medusa, which turns viewers
into stone, is itself here turned to stone. In the madrigal the image speaks:
I know not if I was sculpted by mortal chisel, or if by gazing into a clear
glass my own glance made me so. 29 In the sonnet, the poet speaks: Still
alive one admires the Medusa in living stone; and whoever turns his eyes
toward her is by stupor stoned. Wise sculptor, you so vivify marble that
beside the marble the living are marble. 30 Although to my knowledge there
is no classical warrant for the idea that the Medusa was turned to stone, it
was not Marinos invention.31 He was preceded and no doubt inspired by a
poem by the Andrian poet Luigi Groto, entitled, significantly, Scoltura di
Medusa: This is not a sculpture by him who changed it into stone, but
28
Ma che! Poco fra larmi/ a voi fia duopo il formidabil mostro:/ ch la vera Medusa
il valor vostro (Marino 1979, I, 32).
29 Non so se mi scolp scarpel mortale,/ o specchiando me stessa in chiaro vetro/ la
propria vista mia mi fece tale (Marino 1979, I, 272).
30 Ancor viva si mira/ Medusa in viva pietra;/ e chi gli occhi in lei gira,/ pur di stupore
imptra./ Saggio Scultor, tu cos l marmo avivi,/ che son di marmo a lato al marmo i vivi
(Marino 1979, I, 272).
31 Curiously, in his essays dealing with Caravaggio and Medusa imagery, Marin 1995,
118 (cited by Cropper 1991, 204), imagines a Medusa who petrifies herself by looking at
her image reflected in the shield; and he gives no source for the idea. A variant on the theme
occurs in a madrigal by Marino on a sculpture of Andromeda, in which the monster is turned
to stone, obviously based on the same version of the story adopted by Carracci, and the poet
does not know whether it is the work of the Medusa or of Love or of Art: Ma che resti di
marmo,/ non so sopra sia questa/ (veggendo ch scolpita ogni sua parte)/ di Medusa,
dAmore, o pur de lArte (Marino 1979, I, 271; cited in connection with the Farnese
Gallery by Dempsey 1995, 33).
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Medusa herself. ... Looking into a mirror to regard herself, she turned to
stone.32 Grotos poem on the transformatory power of vision becomes
especially poignant when one recalls that he was blind and was famously
known as il Cieco dHadria. Caravaggio himself may have had something
of this kind of self-reflexive metamorphosis in mind as his Medusa looks
down in horror to perceive the pale underside of the head of one of her
snaky locks as a presagement of her stony fate (Fig. 20). These are the only
instances I have found of the conceit that clearly inspired the Capitoline
sculpture: the Medusa is herself turned to stone by gazing into the reflexive
chisel of the sculptor, whose virtue lies in mirroring the truth in stone with
all the vividness of life, in portrait-bust form.
For a contemporary viewer the Medusa would have had two, contradictory moral associations, which in the Capitoline sculpture have become
complementary. Partly no doubt owing to her association with Minerva, the
Medusa was an emblem of wisdom and reason: according to Lomazzo, just
as the Medusa turned men who looked upon her into stones, so wisdom
silences those who do not understand.33 For Cesare Ripa, the head of
Medusa shows the victory attained by reason over the enemies of virtue,
rendering them dumb, even as the head of Medusa rendered dumb those
who looked at her.34 In the Ovide moralis, on the other hand, the serpents
engendered by the blood flowing from Medusas head are interpreted as the
evil thoughts that spring from evil hearts.35 It is noteworthy in our context
that the same attribute is taken up by Ripa in his description of Envy, which
might well be identified with the Medusa: Her head is full of serpents,
32 Non scolptura di colui, chen sasso/ Cangiava questa, ma Medusa stessa./ Pero
tien, chi qua giungi, il viso basso!/ ... Che poi, che gli occhi in uno specchio tenne,/ Per stessa
mirar, sasso diviene (cited by Fumaroli 1988, 173f.).
33 Lo scudo, sotto la tutela di Minerva, sigificava riparo, e con la testa di Medusa in
mezzo, sapienza; percioch, s come quella faceva diventar gluomini che la guardavano sassi,
cos la sapienza ammutisse quelli che non sanno (Lomazzo 19734, II, 406).
34 ...testa di Medusa ... dimostra la vittoria, che h la ragione de gli inimici contrarij
alla virt, quale gli rende stupidi, come la testa di Medusa, che faceva restare medesimamente
stupidi quelli, che la guardavano (Ripa 1603, 426). Cited also by Posq 1993, 20, who,
although in a different sense, also stresses the moral nature of the Capitoline sculpture in
relation to the libido.
35 Derechief par les serpens qui furent engendrs du sang cheant du chief de la Meduse
sont entendues les mauvaises penses qui procedent de mauvais couraiges (De Boer 1954,
162).
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Gorgon sisters had not been destroyed by the divine retribution but now
suffered, physically from the pain of decapitation, and psychologically from
the awareness of its own misfortune. This understanding of the event as a
specifically human tragedy had been expressed by Hesiod in terms of
pathos: speaking of the three Gorgon sisters he says that Medusa suffered
woes [ ]. She was mortal, but the others
are immortal, the two of them.38
The new image reflects, in effect, a new focus on the origin of Medusas
viperous transformation, namely that her beauty had induced Neptune to
ravish her in the temple of Minerva, a desecration of her sanctuary for
which the goddess exacted retribution by turning Medusas hair into snakes
and applying the horrendous decapitated visage to her shield to frighten
future violators of her sanctity. Crucial to the significance of the story was
the nature and reason for Minervas punishment as recounted by Ovid: the
attraction and the stimulus for Neptunes lechery, was precisely Medusas
hair, the most beautiful of all her attractive features:
The hero [Perseus] further told of his long journeys
and perils passed, all true, what seas, what lands he had
beheld from his high flight, what stars he had touched on
beating wings. He ceased, while they waited still to hear
more. But one of the princes asked him why Medusa only
of the sisters wore serpents mingled with her hair. The
guest replied: Since what you ask is a tale well worth the
telling, hear then the cause. She was.once most beautiful
in form, and the jealous hope of many suitors. Of all her
beauties, her hair was the most beautiful for so I
learned from one who said he had seen her. Tis said that
in Minervas temple Neptune, lord of the Ocean, ravished
her. Joves daughter turned away and hid her chaste eyes
behind her aegis. And, that the deed might be punished as
was due, she changed the Gorgons locks to ugly snakes.
And now to frighten her fear-numbed foes, she still wears
upon her breast the snakes which she has made. 39
38 Theogony,
39
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Hence the object of Minervas retribution, Medusas hair, was appropriate to the cause of the offense. And, quite apart from the formal and physiological significance, the nature of the punishment, turning the hair into
snakes, was equally appropriate. For in antiquity snakes were above all
emblematic of lust, and specifically of its dire, indeed mortal, consequences
for men: according to Pliny, the serpents having intertwined their bodies
during copulation, the male thrusts his head into the mouth of his mate who
bites it off as the couple reaches the climax of their orgy (Figs. 36, 37).40
In essence the tale is one of illicit, carnal lust and just retribution, and
so the story came to be interpreted ever after by moralizing Christian interpreters in the Christian tradition Medusa, carnal vice, Minerva-Perseus
righteousness and justice. In the Ovide moralise, of the three Gorgon sisters, Medusa embodied delectacion charnelle.41 For Natale Conti, To
demonstrate how constant we must remain in our confrontation with pleasquae freta, quas terras sub se vidisset ab alto
et quae iactatis tetigisset sidera pennis;
ante exspectatum tacuit tamen. excipit unus
ex numero procerum quaerens, cur sola sororum
gesserit alternis inmixtos crinibus angues.
hospes ait: quoniam scitaris digna relatu,
accipe quaesiti causam. clarissima forma
multorumque fuit spes invidiosa procorum
illa, nec in tota conspectior ulla capillis
pars fuit: inveni, qui se vidisse referret.
hanc pelagi rector templo vitiasse Minervae
dicitur: aversa est et castos aegide vultus
nata Iovis texit, neve hoc inpune fuisset,
Gorgoneum crinem turpes mutavit in hydros.
nunc quoque, ut attonitos formidine terreat hostes,
pectore in adverso, quos fecit, sustinet angues.
40 Snakes mate by embracing, intertwining so closely that they could be taken to be a
single animal with two heads. The male viper inserts its head into the female vipers mouth,
and the female is so enraptured with pleasure that she gnaws it off. Natural History X, 169;
Pliny 193863, III, 398401. Rursus in terrestribus ova pariunt serpentes, de quibus nondum dictum est. coeunt complexu, adeo circumvolutae sibi ipsae ut una / existimari biceps
possit. viperae mas caput inserit in os, quod illa abrodit voluptatis dulcedine. Plinys text and
the emblem of Camerarius 15901604, f. 92r, were cited by Koslow 1995, 147, in connection with Rubenss Medusa. I have argued in another context that Caravaggio was deeply
conversant with Capaccios theological texts, especially as concerns light and penitence,
Lavin 2001..
41 De Boer 1954, 162.
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2. Laocon,
heads of Laocons sons.
Cortile del Belvedere,
Vatican, Rome.
Page 20
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809
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810
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7. Bernini,
Aeneas and
Anchises.
Galleria Borghese,
Rome.
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813
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814
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815
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816
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817
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13. Annibale Carracci, Perseus and Androme.da, Galleria Farnese. Palazzo Farnese, Rome.
14. Annibale Carracci, Perseus and Phineus, Galleria Farnese. Palazzo Farnese, Rome.
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820
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821
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20. Caravaggio,
Medusa, detail.
Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
21. Caravaggio,
Medusa, detail.
Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
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823
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824
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25. Bernini,
Anima Dannata.
Palazzo di Spagna,
Rome.
26. Bernini,
Anima Beata.
Palazzo di Spagna,
Rome.
825
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826
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827
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828
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32. Archaic
Gorgoneion.
Syracuse,
Museo Regionale
"Paolo Orsi".
33. Archaic
Gorgoneion,
antefix, from
Taranto.
Antikenmuseum,
Heidelberg
University.
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831
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832
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38. Medusa,
plate from Cafaggiolo.
Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
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42. Bernini,
Medusa, detail.
Palazzo dei Conservatori,
Rome.
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covered that his younger brother, and invaluable assistant, Luigi was also
trysting with the woman, in a fit of rage he attacked and wounded Luigi and
ordered a servant to cut Costanza with a razor. Berninis exasperated mother
wrote a desperate letter to Cardinal Francesco Barberini recounting the event
(but without explaining the motivation) and imploring him to control her
arrogant elder son, who was behaving as if he were Padron del mondo.
Luigi and the servant were sent into exile and Bernini was fined three thousand scudi. In the end Urban VIII himself issued an official document
absolving him, for no other reason, as Domenico says, than that he was
excellent in art and a rare man, sublime genius, and born by Divine inspiration and for the glory of Rome, to bring light to that century.
Bernini was, in effect, an inordinately gifted, indispensabile, and
divinely ordained national treasure. The popes absolution was evidently
accompanied by an urgent recommendation that Bernini mend his ways
and marry. Bernini at first resisted the idea but soon acquiesced and on 15
May 1639 married Caterina Tezio, reputed la pi bella giovane che habbia
Roma, by whom he had nine children and with whom he lived so far
as we know faithfully ever after. (It may not be coincidental in our present context that he appreciatively described for the pope Caterinas many
perfections which included her Beauty without affectation in terms
of a portrait of his own making.49)
The tangible results of Berninis fulminary affair with Costanza were a
painted double portrait of himself and this unconventional woman, now
stato pubblico, e dannevole, doveva con non dispregievole pena punirsi. Il Papa assicurato
del fatto, diede ordine, che allesilio fosse condennato il servo, & al Cavaliere mand per un
suo Cameriere lassoluzione del delitto scritta in Pergamena, in cui appariva un Elogio della
sua Virt degno da tramandarsi alla memoria de Posteri: Poiche in essa veniva assoluto non
con altro motivo, che, perche era Eccellente nellarte, n con altri Titoli era quivi nominato,
che con quelli di Huomo raro, Ingegno sublime, e nato per Disposzione Divina, e per gloria di
Roma a portar luce a quel Secolo. (Bernini 1713, 27)
The story is retold with relish by DOnofrio 1967, 1308; and by Avery, as in n. 52
below. The full documentation is conveniently summarized by Oreste Ferrari in Bernardini
and Fagiolo dellArco 1999, 307f. Much new light will be shed on the subject in a monograph on Costanza currently in preparation by Sarah McPhee.
49 Bernini 1723, 51: che gli venne fatto trovarla, quale appunto, comegli poi disse al
medesimo Urbano, non averebbe potuto da se medesimo farsela meglio, se convenuto gli
fosse lavorarla a suo gusto nella cera: Docile senza biasimo, Prudente senza raggiri, Bella
senza affettazione, e con una tal mistura di gravit, e di piacevolezza, di bont, e di applicazione, che potea benella dirsi dono conservato dal Cielo per un qualche grandhuomo.
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lost, which he cut in two but which remained in his house, and the hauntingly seductive sculptured portrait bust of his mistress, itself unconventional in the sense that it was made without a commission, to fill a personal
need literally for love (Figs. 40, 41). Costanza Bonarelli is depicted,
equally unconventionally, in a disheveled negligee that seems to evoke the
intimate, revelatory state in which Bernini saw her during their assignations. It embodies in a personal and private domain the conversational
warmth, intimacy, and informality Bernini had vested in the open-lipped,
unbuttoned, cocked hat, motion-filled busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese
and Pope Urban himself (1633).50 The bust must have been made sometime between October 1636, when Matteo Bonarelli started working at St.
Peters, and March 22, 1638, when Luigis regular payments as overseer of
the works there ceased. Luigi worked on a Bernini project in Bologna during his exile, and returned to work at St Peters, having been absolved in
October 1639 by Cardinal Francesco at Berninis instigation.51
Shortly after his marriage, in companion gestures signfying his change
of heart, Bernini gave the sculpture away, and, so I am convinced, created
its moral counterpart in the bust of the Medusa, also for purely personal
reasons, and also, I suspect, to be given away.52 Taken together, the two
sculptures may be understood as companion-counterpieces contrapposti was the term Bernini used to describe such mutually dependent,
complementary contrasts that were fundamental to his conception of his art
in this case personalized lineal descendents of his portraits of the blessed
and damned souls (Fig. 42).53 It is worth noting, finally, that the circumstances of the Medusas creation discussed here coincide with the dating on
stylistic grounds generally agreed upon in recent years. Wittkower perceived
that the Medusa is not an early work. He assigned it rather to what he
regarded as a deliberately classicizing period of Berninis development,
50 On the informal urbanity of these portraits, including the unbuttoned ecclesiastical mozzetta, see Lavin (2004) in course of publication.
51 Curiously, the payments to Luigi resume in August 1639; DOnofrio1967, 132, 138.
Years later (1670) Luigi committed a violent act of pederasty, from which Bernini again
redeemed him with great difficulty; the records were retrieved and discussed by Martinelli
1959 (1994).
52 After I realized that the busts of Bonarelli and Medusa were related, I discovered that
Charles Avery had offered the very same hypothesis (1997, 91f., 274f.). I am glad to
acknowledge Averys precedence.
53 On Berninis concept of the contrapposti see Lavin 1980, 9f.
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about 1635.54 Maurizio and Marcello Fagiolo dellArco then made bold to
place it still later, in the mid-1640s, relating it stylistically to elements of
the tomb of Urban VIII (Figs. 43, 44).55 Another remarkable insight of
Nava Cellini was to recognize the extravagant forms and expressivity that
linked the Medusa to the figure of Truth, made in the same period (Fig. 45).
The name of Cardinal Alessandro Bichi appears in Chantelous diary, in
an amusing passage that follows a curious thread through a conversation at
dinner, which was interrupted by a message that some ladies were asking to
be allowed to see the bust of Louis XIV, then in the making. The subject of
women must have stuck in Berninis mind when the subject then turned to
purchases Bernini planned to make. Bernini quoted the adage, who decries
wants to buy (chi sprezza vuolcomprar), to which Chantelou replied that he
had heard the phrase used by Cardinal Bichi. Bernini remarked that he had
once made use of the proverb in one of his comedies, in which the servant
of a painter was told by his employer not to admit to the studio any young
men who might not be interested in buying but in cajoling his pretty daughter. He obeyed zealously, refusing to admit some young men who came praising the paintings. The painter rebuked the servant who defended himself by
saying that he had remembered the proverb and assumed that their real purpose was to flirt with the daughter. The servant told a young suitor who
wanted to gain favor with the girl that he did not know how, that he kept
speaking of past things, that with women one must deal neither in the past
nor in the future, but stay on top in the present (con le donne non bisognava
trattar di cose passate, neanche delle future; ma star sopra il presente).56 It has
been aptly suggested that this play was identical with one mentioned by
Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini entitled How to give women in a com54
Wittkower 1980, 209. In a review of Wittkowers book I argued that this formal reference to antiquity was as much thematically as stylistically motivated, since other, contemporary works were more Baroque. (Lavin 1956, 258; also Lavin 1968b, 38f.). The juxtaposition and contemporaneity of Bonarelli and the Medusa support this view.
55 For a summary chronology of the Urban VIII tomb see Wittkower 1981, 198f.
56 Chantelou 1885, 195f.: A lissue de table, discourant ensemble de quelques achats
quil devait faire, il ma allgu le proverbe qui dit : chi sprezza, vuol comprar. Je lui ai dit que
je lavais autrefois appris de M.le cardinal Bichi. II ma cont sur cela, quil sen tait une fois
servi dans une de ses comdies o il avait introduit un peintre, dont la fille tait fort belle,
que le Raguet, valet du peintre, tant demeur une fois la maison, le matre lui avait dit qu
il ne ret point chez lui ces Zerbins qui ne venaient pas pour acheter, mais pour cajoler sa
fille. Apres quoi, quelques jeunes galants tant venus et louant les tableaux quil avait mis
ltalage, dabord il leur ferma la porte au nez et ne voulut jamais les laisser entrer quelques
instances qu ils fissent; de quoi s tant plaints au peintre et dit quils taient cavaliers et gens
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Bibliography
Avery, Charles, Bernini. Genius of the Baroque, Boston, etc., 1997
Acidini Luchinat, Cristina, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari: fratelli pittori del
Cinquecento, 2 vols, Milan and Rome, 19981999
Apollodorus, The Library. With an English translation by Sir James George
Frazer, 2 vols, Cambridge, MA, 1921
Baldinucci, Filippo, Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Florence, 1682;
ed. S. S. Ludovici, Milan, 1948
Barolsky, Paul, The Metamorphoses of Art, in Roy Eriksen, ed., Contexts
of Baroque. Theatre, Metamorphosis, and Design, Oslo, 1997, 1325.
Barton, Eleanore D., The problem of Berninis Theories of Art, Marsyas,
19451947, 81111
Battisti, Eugenio, Rinascimento e barocco, Turin, 1960
Bellori, Giovanni Paolo, Le vite de pittori, scultori e architetti moderni, ed. E.
Borea, Turin, 1976
Bernardini, Maria Grazia, and Maurizio Fagiolo dell Arco, eds., Gian
Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del barocco, Milan, 1999
Bernini, Domenico, Vita del cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Rome, 1713
Bichi Ruspoli, Tommaso, Larchivio privato Bichi Ruspoli, Bullettino
senese di storia patria, LXXXVII, 1980, 194225
Bolland, Andrea, Desiderio and Diletto. Vision, Touch, and the Poetics of
Berninis Apollo and Daphne, The Art Bulletin, LXXXII, 2000,
30930
Braunfels, Wolfgang, Perseus und Andromeda von Benvenuto Cellini, Berlin,
1948
Buschor, Ernst, Medusa Rondanini, Stuttgart, 1958
Camerarius, Joachim, Symbola et emblemata. (Nurnberg 1590 bis 1604),
eds. Wolfgang Harms and Ulla-Britta Kuechen, Graz, 19861988.
p.91r
Caneva, Caterina, La Medusa del Caravaggio restaurata, Rome, 2002.
Capaccio, Giulio Cesare, Delle imprese, 3 vols., Napoles, 1592,
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Farnese Gallery and on the Rubens House, Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, LI, 1988, 25060
Shearman, John, Only connect . . . Art and the Spectator in the Italian
Renaissance, Princeton, 1992
Shearman, John, Art or politics in the Piazza?, in Alessandro Nova and
Anna Schreurs, eds., Benvenuto Cellini. Kunst und Kunsttheorie im 16.
Jahrhundert, Cologne etc., 2003, 3958
Varriano, John, Leonardos lost Medusa and other Medici Medusas from
the Tazza Farnese to Caravaggio, Gazette des Beaux-arts, CXXX, 1997,
7380
Vernant, Jean-Pierre, Mortals and immortals. Collected Essays, Princeton, NJ,
1991
Vierneisel-Schlrb, Barbara, Klassische Skulpturen des 5. und 4. Jahrhunderts
v. Chr., Munich, 1979
Virgil. With an English translation by H. Rushton Fairclough, 2 vols.,
Cambridge, MA, and London, 1999
Wittkower, Rudolph, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Sculptor of the Roman
Baroque, London, 1981
Ziegler, Konrat, Das Spiegelmotiv im Gorgomythos, Archiv fr
Religionswissenschaft, XXIV, 1926, 118
XXII
850
Homo sapiens has been defined as the only animal that knows it is going
to die. This paradox of a living creatures self-conscious awareness of and
preoccupation with its own death was a prominent theme in European culture from antiquity on. The process of intellectualization of this fatal aspect
of human nature culminated toward the end of the middle ages in a coherent and logically conceived system, a veritable theory of dying. The technique was entitled, significantly, Ars moriendi, The Art (crafte or cunnynge, as it was often called in early English) of Dying. To achieve a good
death (bona mors) the first prerequisite was precisely that the individual
acknowledge his knowledge of his own demise and face death deliberately
meditate upon it, remind himself constantly that I might die today,
recall his past life, examine his conscience, affirm his faith in Gods ultimate
judgment, and practice the cardinal virtues, Faith, Hope and, the highest of
all, Charity. In this last respect, especially, the model to be followed for a
good death was Christ, whose sacrifice on the cross was the supreme act of
charity. Many such pious medieval traditions were revived in the zealous
religious spirit of the Counter Reformation, the Ars moriendi among them.
In this context, it should come as no surprise although it did to me when
I became aware of it that unmistakable echoes of the medieval Ars
moriendi may be discerned in the extensive accounts of Berninis last illness
and death in the early biographies of the artist.
What emerges from these descriptions is that Bernini not only practiced
the art of dying in the technical sense, he actually conceived of his own death
as a kind of artwork, which he prepared and calculated to the last detail, with
the same kind of care and devotion he lavished on the buildings, sculptures
and theatrical productions for which he was famous. In point of fact,
Berninis death involved three great creative acts. One was the death itself,
or rather the procedures he followed in preparing for the end, which were
those of the Ars moriendi. The recipe for attaining salvation called for frequent colloquies with a spiritual advisor, in Berninis case his nephew,
Francesco Marchese, a priest of the order of the Oratory. The dying man,
Moriens, is also instructed to contemplate constantly holy images, especially
the crucified Christ and the Virgin, and to invoke Christs sacrifice in appealing to the vengeful Father for redemption. To fulfill these injunctions
Bernini made two other art works more conventional in kind but no less
remarkable in form. All three together constitute Berninis art of dying.
His last work in sculpture was the bust of the Savior, which he gave to
his close friend Queen Christina of Sweden; it is mentioned in the collec-
851
tion of her heir in an inventory of 1713. Known previously from a preparatory drawing (Fig. 1), the original was lost until it reappeared some years
ago in the collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., and it is now to be seen in
the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va. (Fig. 2). We also have a drawing by
Bernini for the elaborate pedestal (Fig. 3), which corresponds to the
description given in the sources. The bust rested on a base that was held in
the draped hands of two angels who knelt on a high platform. It is important to bear in mind that the bust is heroic in scale, well over three feet high,
and on the pedestal it was placed at human-proportional height; the whole
image was more than ten feet tall. Held aloft by the angels, the bust was perceived as a superhuman vision, a miraculous apparition presented to the
viewer by a pair of divine messengers. It is no accident that the nearest analogy for this mode of presentation is a design by Bernini for the display of
the Holy Eucharist (Fig. 4).
The bust itself is also extraordinary in a number of ways. So far as I can
discover, it is the first monumental sculpture of this kind since antiquity in
which both hands are included, a milestone in the history of the bust as an
independent art form. The drapery is treated in an unprecedented way,
wrinkled and folded so that no cut edges appear at the bottom. The drapery functions like a proscenium, creating the illusion that the figure is not
amputated but appears complete in the minds eye. Jesus does not act as he
normally does in bust-length portraits of the two-handed type, that is, in a
rigid pose staring at the spectator with right hand extended in blessing and
holding in his left a cross-surmounted orb as the emblem of his universal
dominion (Fig. 5).4 Berninis Christ is not the usual austere, autonomous,
triumphant Savior. Instead, in a complex, dynamic action he looks up
imploringly to his right, indicating his chest wound with his left hand; he
reaches across his chest with his right hand, which he turns palm outward
to ward off the evil he abhors at his lower left. What Bernini did was amalgamate this tradition of the two-armed, bust-length Savior with two quite
different, interrelated themes in which Christ alludes to his place in Gods
scheme by pointing to the chest wound with his left hand. In the Last
Judgment Christ often raises the blessed to heaven at his upper right, the
auspicious side, and condemns the sinner to hell at his sinister lower left
4
The example illustrated here follows a famous lost composition by Leonardo, for which
see Heydenreich 1988, 10112.
852
(Fig. 6). The second tradition comprises intercessory themes that illustrate
Christs plea with his wrathful Father on behalf of mankind (Fig. 7).5
Evidently, Bernini created his unprecedented image of the Savior to illustrate Christs role as judge in the process of salvation, and as protector in the
artists personal Art of Dying. The Art of Dying specifically enjoins the
moribund to affirm his belief in the just retribution of the Father and his
trust in the infinite mercy of the Son. These proclamations of faith and
hope are the ultimate act of charity toward God, which the good Christian
offers in death in exchange for Christs ultimate act of charity toward
mankind on the cross. Indeed, the dying man was instructed to offer the
following prayer to God: I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between
me and your wrath. What is important here is that Christs charity serves
as the model for human charity as well.
Berninis third work of eschatological art made in connection with his
own death was an equally powerful graphic image that came to be known
as the Sangue di Cristo, the Blood of Christ. He kept a painted version
before his sickbed, and also had it engraved for wider distribution (Fig. 8).6
Christ is shown crucified, with blood gushing from his wounds; the Virgin,
identified as always with the church, kneels below him washing her hands
in his blood while God the Father flies up above with outstretched arms
presenting the dramatic event to the spectator like some great, cosmic
impresario. This design, too, is deeply indebted to the Ars moriendi, which
suggested that moriens from his deathbed contemplate an image of the
Crucifixion while imploring Christ and the Virgin to intercede on his
behalf. The subject was illustrated, as in a sixteenth century stained glass
window in Switzerland (Fig. 9), by a portrayal of the dying man expiring on
his deathbed while in the clouds above appear the crucified Christ looking
up toward God the Father and pointing toward his chest wound, and the
Virgin who kneels on a cloud and appeals for mercy. Although the elements
of Berninis design are traditional, the fundamental conception is radically
new. He eliminated moriens but retained the view at an angle from below.
As a result, the image is perceived as a miraculous apparition to the spectator, who thus replaces the man on his deathbed. The angle and elevation
Ronen 1988; Marshall 1994, 527. The formula is based on the tradition of the
Speculum humanae salvationis, for which see Lavin 1972, 169.
6
On the painted and engraved versions of the composition, see now the catalogue
entries in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 26770.
5
853
here perform the same visionary function as the form of the torso of the
bust of the Savior and the supporting angels of the pedestal.
The Sangue di Cristo composition is an independent vision, the full
meaning of which we shall see presently. The print is also monumental in
scale (10 x 18), considering that, folded into quarters, it retained a physical connection with the Art of Dying as the frontispiece to a small book
published by Berninis nephew, the same Father Francesco Marchese the
biographers describe as the artists close companion and counselor in death.
Born in 1623, the son of Berninis older sister, Marchese was a remarkable
man, active, learned and devout. He is best known as a dedicated opponent
of the Quietist leader Miguel de Molinos, whose downfall he helped bring
about during Molinoss trial by the Inquisition in the 1680s. By the time he
died in 1697 Marchese had published twenty-one books, including a fourvolume history of heresies, a treatise on the Peace of the Pyrenees and its
political implications, as well as many hagiographies and devotional works.7
Marchese wrote several tracts in the tradition of the Ars moriendi, one of
which, published in 1670, was illustrated by the Sangue di Cristo engraving.
In the preface to this work Father Marchese urges those who seek salvation
either to contemplate the image or read the text. Entitled The Only Hope
of the Sinner Consists in the Blood of Our Father Jesus Christ (Unica speranza del peccatore consiste nel sangue di N S. Gies Cristo), it is a modernized,
mystical Ars moriendi focused on a single theme, the blood of Christ, which
is conceived as the universal key to salvation. The text explains Berninis
spectacular vision of the crucified Christ suspended in the air, his blood
pouring down through the Virgins upturned hands to form a limitless
ocean in which all sins will be washed away. Christs sacrifice is the second
universal flood, after that of Noah, in which the sins of the old dispensation
are cleansed to reveal the immaculateness of the new; the blood of Christ
inundates the world with salvation. The intercessory role of the Virgin who
offers her sons sacrifice is explained by a passage from the writings of the
great Florentine mystic, Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi; echoing the Ars
moriendis invocation of Christs sacrifice as protection against the wrath of
the Lord, this prayer is cited in the text and as the subtitle to the engraving:
I offer you, Eternal Father, the blood of the incarnate word . . . and if anyThe fullest account of Francesco Marchese is that by Lattanzi in Contardi et al., eds.,
1988, 27283. For the relevance of Marcheses tract on the Peace of the Pyrenees to Berninis
work for Louis XIV, see Lavin 1993, 182, and 1999, 4607.
7
854
855
856
1.. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Study for the Bust of the Savior, drawing. Rome, Gabinetto
Nazionale delle Stampe.
3. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Study for the upper part of the pedestal of the Bust of the Savior,
drawing. Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Kunste, Graphische Sammlung.
2. Gianlorenzo Bernini.
Bust of the Savior.
Norfolk, Va., Chrysler Museum
(photo: R. Thornton.
Providence. R.I.).
857
858
6. Michelangelo,
The Last Judgement,
detail of Christ.
The Sistine Chapel,
Vatican City
(photo: Alinari 7578).
859
860
861
862
863
864
12. Workshop of
Bemini, project for
the apse of S. Maria
Maggiore, drawing.
Formerly in the
Archive of the
Chapter of S. Maria
Maggiore
(after Brauer and
Wittkower 193 1
, pl. 182).
865
866
867
868
869
870
18. Medieval facade of S. Maria Maggiore, showing column of the Virgin erected
by Paul V, engraving by Israel Silvestre (after Silvestre [1641461, pl. 5).
19. Gianlorenzo Bemini, project for the east facade of the Louvre, drawing.
Paris, Muse du Louvre (photo: SPRMN P8027).
20. Anonymous, Piazza S. Pietro, Corpus Domini procession of Innocent X.
Rome, Museo di Roma (photo: ICCD E38783).
871
21. Reconstruction
of the tomb of
Hadrian (after
Lauro 1642, pl.
116).
872
22. Reconstruction
of the temple of
Vesta
(after Lauro
1642, pl. 39).
873
874
24. Fresco of Christ and saints with inserted image of the Madonna and Child.
Rome, Temple of Vesta (S. Maria del Sole)
(photo: Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut, Rome, 63.15161.
875
876
that Bernini, confronted with this prospect, made the Sangue di Cristo composition in order to demonstrate his incomparable virtue (impareggiabile
nella sua virtt).12 The connection between the engraving and the architectural project would seem at first glance gratuitous, and yet it offers the key
to an understanding of an important aspect of both works. Virt can mean
something like prowess, and since Bernini was then 71 years old he may
have felt it necessary to demonstrate that his professional capacity was undiminished. But virt also has an ethical significance, and in this sense the
print is relevant to the S. Maria Maggiore project in a deeper, thematic way.
The nature of this relationship can only be fully grasped through an exploration of what was evidently a deliberate effort by Bernini to synthesize a
wide range of visual and ideological references, modern as well as ancient,
Christian as well as classical, into a kind of epitome of the citys architectural and religious life.
The concept begins to emerge when one recalls that the great popularity of S. Maria Maggiore is due largely to its being the center of what can
only be described as the cult of the Assumption of the Virgin, celebrated
there each August 15 for at least 1000 years. Throughout the middle ages,
the event was celebrated by an immensely popular procession in which a
miraculous image of the Savior (cf. Fig. 40) was carried from the Lateran
through the city to S. Maria Maggiore, where it was met by an equally
miraculous image of the Madonna whose status as the virtual embodiment
of the people of the city came to be denoted by the sobriquet Salus populi
romani (Fig. 15).13 The icon forms the centerpiece of the altar display in
Paul Vs chapel that opens off the south aisle of the church just inside the
western entrance to that aisle (Fig. 16). Placed side by side, the two icons
both of which were acheropita, not made by hand became the protagonists of a reenactment of the marriage of Christ and the Church and
the assumption of the Virgin, when she joined him, her son and her spouse,
on the throne of heaven. By the mid-sixteenth century the procession,
which took place by torchlight throughout the night of the 14th, had
become the occasion for unruly behavior and in 1566 it was abolished by
12
Vedendosi il cavaliere Bernini scartato dallopera che al presente serge della scalinata
nella basilica Liberiana ed in sua vece subentrato il cavaliere Rainaldi si posto ad intagliare
in rame componendovi sopra una figura di un Christo con una gloria che poscia improntandolo in carta dar a vedere essere impareggiabile nella sua virt (Claretta 1885, 520).
13
Recent studies of the icons and the procession are: Ingersoll 1985, 22452, Tronzo,
ed., 1989, Wolf 1990.
877
878
have performed an architectural wedding that conjoined the Marian basilica to the Lateran by a ring of precious stones.
It might be said in the first instance simply that the colonnaded portico
provided a modern equivalent facing the city of the medieval narthex at the
front of the church (Fig. 18). At the same time, however, screening the
semi-dome of the apse behind a horizontal balustrade with statues contributed to the effect of a festive and truly regal majestic was the contemporary word facade. This was surely Berninis reason for interpolating
here the famous early project he had worked out a few years before for the
faade of Louis XIVs Louvre. The design featured a ring of attached
columns that supported a balustrade with sculptures suggestive of a regal
crown (Fig. 19);17 at S. Maria Maggiore, the motif becomes a diadem for
the Queen of Heaven. The colonnade also could not fail to recall, in form
as no doubt in function, the other great work Bernini had conceived under
Alexander, the colonnaded porticos before St. Peters. The pope himself
described the porticos as a crown for that royal edifice where they provided a worthy canopy for the citys other great religious procession, that of
the Corpus Domini (Fig. 20).18 At S. Maria Maggiore, one can readily imagine the Madonna icon similarly paraded, from the Cappella Paolina to the
nearby side aisle portal and through the colonnade to the center of the apse,
where it would be met by its counterpart from the Lateran; the images
would then proceed together through the other half of the portico into the
church for the remainder of the ceremony. The two monumental, curving
porticoes at St. Peters and S. Maria Maggiore would thus have complemented each other, visually as well as ceremonially, across the papal city.
17
Architectural crowns, both secular and religious, were common in ephemeral works,
and Carlo Rainaldi had actually surmounted the three pavillions of his louvre project with
royal crown motifs. See Fagiolo dellArco 1997, 78 (Rainaldi), and passim.
18
The popes observation is quoted by Krautheimer 1985, 72. The editio princeps of
the motif, which I have discussed as a royal theme in connection with Berninis Louvre projects (Lavin 1993, 187, 191), were Michelangelos palaces on the Campidoglio. The relevance for the conception of the St Peters colonnades of the papal Corpus Domini procestion, for which long temporary canopies were erected before the colonnades were built, has
been noted, but not fully appreciated; I hope to return to this theme on another occasion.
See Pastor 192353, XXXI, 296; Kitao 1974, 131 n. 254 f; and Fagiolo 1982, 119; Fagiolo
and Madonna, eds., 1985, 13840; Krautheimer 1985, 65.
In a sense, the project at S. Maria Maggiore might also be said to have fulfilled the veritable program of colonnades carried out or planned under Alexander VII throughout the
city, which included a vast network of treelined avenues; see Krautheimer 1985, 109 ff, 120,
190.
879
The relationship to the ancient imperial tombs (including that of Augustus, which was
preceded by two obelisks) was suggested by Fagiolo dellArco 1967, 242, and developed in
an excellent thesis at the University of Rome by Anselmi 19923. on the bridge, see Weil
1974; DOnofrio 1981.
20
On the importance of Lauros work see Del Pesco 1984; Lavin 1993, 15760, 180.
21
On the circular, colonnaded Temple of Peace, see Ost 1971, 26979. There was, of
course, a long-standing tradition of centrally planned churches dedicated to the Virgin
(Krautheimer 1950, Wittkower 1975, 13740, Sinding-Larsen 1965, 2207).
22
See Rakob and Heilmeyer 1973, 14 f, and the bibliography cited there, esp. Cecchelli
193851, I, 12967.
19
880
peace, S. Maria della Pace (Figs. 22, 23).23 Even more striking is the anticipation of the arrangement Bernini envisaged at S. Maria Maggiore, with the
colonnaded apse between the domed Sistine and Pauline chapels. Two factors in particular made the reference singularly appropriate at Maria
Maggiore. The type of the image of the Madonna and Child in the Tiber
temple clearly reflected that of the Salus Populi Romani and its discovery
must have reflected and greatly reinforced the citys millenial popular devotion to the Virgin and that image (Fig. 24). The association of the Virgin
with peace came through the birth of her son; the Prince of Peace, and
Berninis architectural evocation of Peace and the Virgin in the apse corresponded on precisely these terms to the famous Egyptian obelisk that Sixtus
V had raised before the apse of the church (1587), where it would have
become the focal point of Berninis design (cf. Fig. 14). Sixtus had transferred the obelisk, rededicated to the victorious Christ, from the other great
circular, imperial tomb in Rome, the mausoleum of Augustus, under whose
peace, as one of the inscriptions on the pedestal proclaims, the Prince of
Peace was born.24 This grandiose conversion of antiquity expressed at the
western end of the church facing the city in turn had its correspondent
before the eastern entrance faade in the colossal column, reputedly the
largest in Rome, erected there in 1615 by Paul V (Fig. 18). Paul had
removed the column from another building, thought to have been the
ancient Temple of Peace, and dedicated it to the Immaculate Virgin on the
feast of the Assumption.25 Approaching the church from the city, the routes
to Christ and the Virgin, triumph and peace, thus converged at S. Maria
Maggiore, and would have culminated in Berninis apse.
It has long been known that, beside the Salus Populi Romani, one particular class of Madonna images was associated with the feast of the
Assumption; this is the type of intercessory Virgin who lifts both hands
upward in a gesture that suggests both an appeal and an offering to heaven.
The type was familiar from the classic Byzantine Crucifixion type in which
the Virgin standing beneath the cross gestures in this way (Fig. 25). The
motif had been isolated in an icon formula known as the Madonna
23
The analogy between Berninis apse and S. Maria della Pace has also been noted by
Marder 1990, 123. Gijsbers 1996, 31923, notes the relationship in this tradition between
Cortonas portico (16578) and that of Berninis S. Andrea al Quirinale (begun 1648).
24
On Sixtuss obelisk see DOnofrio 1965, 1549.
25
On the Basilica of Constantine/Temple of Peace and the Marian column, See Ost
1971, 26979; Wolf 19912, 3148.
881
Avvocata that was common in Rome, notably in an image at which the icon
of the Savior traditionally stopped along its way in the procession from the
Lateran to S. Maria Maggiore (Fig. 26).26 Perhaps for this reason it was followed toward the end of the thirteenth century by Jacopo Torriti for the figure of the Virgin in his mosaic of the coronation in the apse of S. Maria
Maggiore itself (Fig. 27). Adopting the same gesture for the kneeling,
cloud-borne Virgin in his Sangue di Cristo composition, Bernini recalled the
imagery of S. Maria Maggiore and the famous procession, and linked it to
the Ars moriendi tradition. The tertium quid in this relationship is Maria
Maddalena dei Pazzis invocation of the Blood of Christ offered by the
Virgin on behalf of mankind. It might well be relevant that the words
quoted on the engraving were spoken on the occasion of the saints vision
in which Christ took her as his spouse, as he had her namesake, his mother,
on the day of her assumption.27 This reference to Maria Maddalena dei
Pazzi might be said to complete the sense of the Sangue di Cristo engraving,
which was evidently a public appeal for clemency in tacit allusion to the
personal and public crisis of the S. Maria Maggiore tribune; Berninis design
invokes the saint, whom Clement IX had canonized only a few months
before, in April of 1669, who in turn invokes the universal charity of
Christs sacrifice and implores the intercession of the Virgin.28
The idea of reviving the procession of the Assumption with its conjunction of miraculous images, the canonization of Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi,
26
On the Madonna Avvocata-Deesis see Tronzo 1989, 173 f, 180 ff also Belting, in
Tronzo, ed., 1989, esp. 30 ff, and Wolf 1990, 161 ff.
27
The marriage vision is described by Puccini 1609, 238 f.
28
DOnofrio 1973, 48, also relates Berninis print to the canonization. Following a suggestion of Blunt 1978, Beltramme 1994 identifies the kneeling figure in the composition as
Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, rather than the Virgin. Apart from other considerations, Blunt
and Beltramme simply disregard the fact that all contemporary sources, including Bernini
himself, his own son, his nephew, and Baldinucci, refer to the figure as Mary (see the dispatch quoting Bernini cited in Lavin 1972, 164 n. 17, and the biographies and Marcheses
introduction quoted in Lavin 1972, 160, 167 n. 23). However, one point, not mentioned
by Beltramme or Blunt, leads me to suspect that Bernini may have intended to conflate the
two Marys: the figure is shown barefoot, repeating the motif of Berninis portrayal of St.
Teresa; both saints were Discalzed Carmelites. As Blunt noted, an allusion may also have
been intended to the biblical Mary Madgalene, who is often shown at the foot of the cross
gathering Christs blood. In any case, neither the identification of the figure nor the evident
indebtedness of the concept and Father Marcheses text to the writings of the saint, mitigates
the importance of intercession and the Ars moriendi tradition to the design, content, and
function of the image, including Berninis own use of it at his deathbed.
882
the tribulated project for rebuilding the apse of S. Maria Maggiore, the creation of the Sangue di Cristo composition, and the publication of Father
Marchesels book, are like interlocking pieces of a vast historical jigsaw puzzle of which Berninis incomparable virtue forms the centerpiece.
* * *
A few years ago, while preparing a catalogue of the collections of the
museum of the city of Rome, the Museo di Roma, a young curator found
in the basement repository two relief sculptures that she recognized as
closely related to Berninis bust of the Savior Figs. 28, 29).29 The reliefs were
clearly complementary and each bore the inscription Hospitii Apostolici
Pauperum Invalidorum (Of the Apostolic Hospice of the Invalid Poor). The
reliefs were recorded in an earlier inventory of the museum as having been
removed from the old land customs, as distinct from marine customs,
building in Rome. The old Dogana della Terra is a famous structure that
today houses the Rome stock exchange. Originally built in the second century A.D. as the temple of the Emperor Hadrian, it survived into modern
times and in the year 1695 the great reforming pope Innocent XII
(16911700), as one of his many benefactions for Rome, converted it into
the customs house for overland imports. The reliefs appear in early depictions of the building, and the places where they were attached to the walls
flanking the entrance are still visible (Figs. 30, 31). When the customs
building was converted into the stock exchange in the 1880s the reliefs were
removed, stored in the basement of the Museo di Roma, and forgotten. Two
similar reliefs were already known (Figs. 32, 33) and upon full investigation
a total of seven reliefs, all dependent on Berninis bust, were recovered from
buildings, some still extant, others demolished, in various parts of the city
(Figs. 34, 35, 36). Some bear the same inscription as the two from the customs house, and all can be identified with the Apostolic Hospice of the
Invalid Poor. The archives of the Hospice still exist and its documents
revealed that all the reliefs were executed by several different artists in one
campaign in 169495, fifteen years after Berninis death in 1680. The
newly discovered relationship between Berninis bust of the Savior and the
group of reliefs that pertained to the Apostolic Hospice for the Poor makes
29
The story is told in the splendid study and catalogue entries by Di Gioia in Contardi
et al., eds., 1988, 285344.
883
884
The seminal importance of the jubilee pilgrimages in the development of charities for
the poor in Italy, and especially Rome, has been recognized by Pullan 1978, 10015, and
Simoncelli 19734, 123. On the poorhouses of Genoa, Palermo and Naples, see Guerra, et
al. 1995. Marder 1980, 43 f., noted the importance of social programs in the architectural
projects of late seventeenth-century Rome, including the Lateran hospice.
31
On this point see Contardi in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 23.
30
885
Thirdly, the Roman program embraced all the poor, including the wives
and children of family men, who might be cared for at home if the move to
the hospice was impracticable. The hospice was also exclusively for the poor,
who were not combined with criminals and the insane.32 The program
might well be described as a universal Christian charity.
Fourthly, Rome was extraordinary by virtue of the building that was
given over to the hospice (Fig. 37). It was an enormous palace built by Pope
Sixtus V at the end of the sixteenth century adjoining the church of St.
Johns in the Lateran, which is the cathedral of the city and thus the
Episcopal seat of the successor to St. Peter as Bishop of the diocese of Rome.
Sixtus had built the Lateran palace as his summer residence, but it remained
vacant and abandoned after his successor built another, more convenient
retreat. Rome was thus confronted with the wondrous spectacle of the poorest of the poor occupying one of the greatest, noblest and most luxurious
palaces in the world (Fig. 38). In a sense, the measure was a prophetic piece
of urban renewal, like the re-use of old railway stations and industrial buildings for civic purposes in our time. But there was a deeper significance, as
well. The Catholic church is traditionally conceived as devoted to poverty,
and when Innocent was criticized for this extravagant folly, his reply was
that he was only giving to the poor, whom he called my true nephews,
what was properly theirs in this case, the palace of the popes, no less.33
The fifth great difference of the Roman program from its predecessors
was organizational, or rather administrative. It was meant to be permanent,
and toward this end it was supposed to be financially self-sustaining. The
funding was to come from several kinds of sources, beginning with a major
endowment from the papal treasury itself. In addition, gifts by individuals
to other welfare institutions were forbidden; private benefactions were
henceforth channeled to the Apostolic Hospice. All Christian charity was
thus devoted to this single, new, global enterprise. In addition, the employment of the inmates was conceived in a new way. In other cases the
sequestered poor were put to work for the state, or, in effect, leased to private entrepreneurs, who thus exploited the cheap labor. Here, instead, the
goods and labor were sold and the profits were used to support the hospice
itself. And finally, income from taxes and rents was assigned to the hospice
for example, a tax on playing cards; taxes on goods imported into the
city, levied at the land and sea customs houses; and rental income on a
32
33
886
number of buildings that were given to the hospice by the pope or other
donors. The sculptured reliefs were made as signs for one and all to see that
the buildings they adorned belonged to the hospice at the Lateran and were
dedicated to its mission of charity in imitation of Christ.34 And of course,
with the suppression of the other, private charities, it was unique as a public institution having its insignia, the descendants of Berninis bust of the
Savior, displayed throughout the city. It is important to observe that all the
derivatives from Berninis Savior follow the conception of the work
recorded in Berninis preparatory drawing (cf. Fig. 1), rather than the final
version, in two essential ways: Christ looks forward, not up, and the gesture
of the right hand is benedictory, not protective. The differences embody a
different expressive emphasis: not judgment and intercession, but charity,
pure and simple; and a different function: not the personal appeal of Ars
moriendi eschatology, but the social context of public welfare.35 At its height
the hospice housed some 1600 people and provided for some 250 families
in their homes.
I am convinced that the unique character of this institution could only
have been defined in Rome under the papacy, with its unique, cosmopolitan fusion of church and state, religious and civic consciousness, moral
ideals and practical necessities. Indeed, to think of Innocent XIIs project
simply as charity misses a crucial point. It seems to me that the Lateran hospice signals the development of a new social as well as political awareness in
Europe. It is often said that the modern notion of statehood as a coherent
political and, indeed, moral entity developed under the aegis of the absolute
34
Di Gioia (in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 326) notes that the reliefs were placed only
on the income-producing buildings, not where the poor were actually housed. The buildings
related to the hospice are discussed in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 103201. The idea of identifying the buildings in this way was surely based on the Confraternity of the Saviors use of
its emblem (see p.239 above).
35
Di Gioia (in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 325 ff ) comments perceptively on these differences and, following my suggestion concerning the bust at Ses (Lavin 1973), also concludes that the copies reflect the stage recorded in the Corsini drawing. If my hypothesis is
correct, that Bernini sent the drawing to Paris for his friend Cureau de la Chambre to have
copied in marble, then a comparable work must have been available in Rome, which the
artists there followed in preference to Berninis own sculpture, then in the collection of
Innocent XIs nephew, Livio Odescalchi. The obvious solution was offered by Di Giola, who
refers to the copy of the Savior painted by Berninis protege Baciccio (lost, but clearly
reflected in another work by him), which Bernini left to Innocent XI (as recorded by
Domenico Bernini, see Lavin 1973, 162), and which was also in the Odescalchi collection
when the reliefs were made.
887
monarchies of the seventeenth century; and the papacy, in its special way,
was certainly among them. Within this context, what we are witnessing
here is nothing less than the birth of a modern notion of the poor as a distinct class, and of welfare as an abstract, global concept. And this new level
of consciousness is, in turn, an essential component of the new conception
of the social body itself as an organic whole embracing all its members,
including even the undesirable. I use the word embrace advisedly
because the poor are not only recognized as a group, they are also the subject of universal concern, a challenge not only to the personal conscience of
the individual but to the collective conscience of government and the governed. It might be said that indigent people are no longer dependent on private Christian charity, and instead the poor become a collective social
responsibility.
The man who formulated the idea of the hospice adopted by Innocent
XII as the solution to the problem of the homeless in Rome, who helped
work out its organization and administration, and who was assigned an
important role in carrying it out, was none other than Berninis beloved
nephew, the Oratorian priest Francesco Marchese. After the artists death
Marchese became an increasingly important figure in the intellectual religious life of the city and deeply concerned with its social problems. He was
appointed Apostolic Preacher by Innocent XI (167689) in 1689.36 The
tract he wrote in 1691 describing his proposal which was only part of a
much wider program of reform is still preserved.37 It was obviously
Father Marchese who saw the appropriateness of Berninis portrait of the
Savior as the emblem of the hospice. He was not simply promoting the
fame of his uncles art there was certainly no need for that. He understood that Berninis image and the apostolic hospice were in fact profoundly
related: both were motivated by essentially the same, in the end quite
unprecedented ideal of a truly universal charity.
I suspect there was more to this relationship than meets the eye; more,
that is, than merely a happy inspiration on Father Marcheses part.
Marcheses project, in fact, was a development and elaboration into a coherent program of a scheme for the same kind of hospice that had been outlined by one of his older confreres at the Oratory, Father Mariano Sozzini,
Marchese was named Apostolic Preacher to succeed Bonaventura da Recanati; see
Bonadonna Russo 1979, 258 n. 14; Lippi 1889, 2734; for the date, See Dictionnaire
1912 ff, IX, cols. 8089.
37
On the date See Contardi in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 34 n. 6.
36
888
many years before. Sozzini had originally sketched out his ideas on the
deplorable conditions in Rome in 1670, the very year in which Berninis
visual meditation on the blood of Christ appeared, accompanied by
Marcheses explanatory booklet. Sozzini made a more developed proposal
for reform soon after Innocent XI became pope in September 1676, and
later that same year we hear that Bernini himself had been asked to refurbish the Lateran palace for a hospice for the poor.38 Proposals to use the
Lateran palace for this purpose had already been made twice before in
Berninis time, in the reign of Alexander VII, and again early in that of
Clement IX.39 None of these projects was carried out but the coincidences
can scarcely have been fortuitous and I cannot help thinking that Bernini
himself might have been the common denominator.
Certainly, the Oratorians and particularly Sozzini and Marchese were
the prime movers of the whole enterprise, and it has been suggested that
Marchese may have proposed his uncle for the restoration of the palace.40 I
wonder, however, whether the underlying notion of universal charity
expressed nowhere more succinctly than in the Sangue di Cristo composition and in the bust of the Savior might really have been Berninis, stemming ultimately from his own interpretation and application of the Art of
Dying. It is worth recalling in this connection that in his tract on the maladies of the church, composed in 1670, the year Marcheses treatise illustrated by Berninis Sangue di Cristo was published, Sozzini argued that
Rome had a special moral obligation to the poor: in the papal city luxury
was more pernicious than elsewhere because it was purchased with the
Blood of Christ (that is, the donations of the faithful) and the patrimony of
On the dating of Sozzinis project for Innocent XI see Bonadonna Russo 1979, 260,
265 n. 42, 273 f; Contardi in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 18.
The report of Innocents charge to Bernini to refurbish the Lateran palace is dated
November 21, 1676: Ha fatta Sua Santit chiamare il Cau.r Bernini, et impostoli di douere
ristaurare il Palazzo Lateranense uolendo porui lArti, uero farlo habitatione de poueri
(Fraschetti 1900, 398 n, 1). A written discussion of the restoration project is preserved:
Calcolo e riflessione sopra al palazzo apostolico in S. Giovanni in Laterano per il premeditato
hospedale (Bibl. Vall., G. 62, fols. 32533; cf. Bonadonna Russo 1979, 273 n. 58; Contardi
in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 34 n. 22).
39
In an interesting social critique of the city at that period, discussed by Krautheimer
1985, 126ff, 191 f.
40
Innocents close ties to the Oratorians were emphasized by Bonadonna Russo 1979,
258 f. The suggestion was made by Contardi in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 34 n. 24.
38
889
the poor (the goods of the Church).41 The possibility of Berninis conceptual contribution may be enhanced by another circumstance that can hardly
be fortuitous. The two most famous and popular of all bust-length images
of Christ were associated with the Lateran, whose original and primary dedication is to the Savior.42 In the center of the apse of the church (Fig. 39) is
a cloudborne bust of Christ that was reputed to have appeared in the sky,
reciting the blessing Pax vobis to the people, on November 9, 324 A.D., the
day the basilica was consecrated by Pope Sylvester I, at the behest of the
emperor Constantine the Great, as the cathedral of Rome. The second
image (Fig. 40) is housed next to the Lateran in the Scala Santa, a structure
containing the relic of the steps from the palace of Pilate where Christ was
judged. This portrait of Christ not made by hand was the icon that on the
feast of the Assumption was carried through the streets of Rome to S. Maria
Maggiore, where it was met by the Salus populi romani. The two Lateran
images were linked, so to speak, through the Venerable Company of the
Most Sacred Image of the Most Holy Savior at the Sancta Sanctorum. This
noble confraternity, one of the oldest in Rome, was charged with guarding
the Sanctum Sanctorum icon, and also with administering the great hospital for the poor and infirm that had been attached to the church of the
Lateran since the late middle ages. The emblem of that confraternity was a
bust of Christ that recalls the apse image, but appears above a parapet-like,
ornamented base, so as to suggest also the elaborately framed, full-length
icon Figs. 41, 42).43 The emblem was displayed on the confraternitys doc. . . il lusso in Roma pi pernicioso che nelle altre citt . . . perch si fa col sangue
di Cristo e col patrimonio de poveri, Dllinger 1882, 472; cited by Bonadonna Russo
1979, 261.
42
The Lateran icon of the Savior has been discussed recently by Wolf 1990, 605; on its
monumental mosaic counterpart in the apse of the Lateran, See Warland 1986, 3141, 212;
DOnofrio 1990, 2269. I am indebted at this point to William Tronzo, who reminded me
of the Lateran icon in connection with Berninis bust of the Savior.
43
On the hospital, the confraternity and its emblem and the Lateran images see De
Angelis 1958; Lumbroso and Martini 1963, 394 ff; Pavan 1978, 1984; DOnofrio 1990,
212 ff; Freiberg 1995, 1135. Freiberg 1988, 352 n. 168, aptly suggested that the two angels
shown below and flanking the Savior image in Fig. 42 (in the form of the confraternity
emblem) allude to the pair of angels that flank the ark of the covenant in Exodus 25:123;
Berninis angels might make the same point. Grisar 1908, 49, interpreted the Confraternitys
emblem illusionistically as reflecting the view of the icon protruding above the altar of the
Sancta Sanctorum. The silver frame of the icon covers all but the face, whereas in the apse
mosaic Christ is represented in the form of a bust. DOnofrio is therefore undoubtedly correct in relating the emblem to the Lateran apparition; the Confraternity, linked both to the
41
890
uments and, in the form of reliefs, on the buildings that served the hospital; these reliefs clearly inspired the use of Berninis image for the Hospice
of Innocent XII. Indeed, they may even have inspired Berninis image
itself.44
The revival of interest in the great procession, or rather the icons
involved in it, may have had another significance for Bernini, as well. At
several points along the way the cortege stopped, the Christ icon was introduced to other images of the Virgin and a particularly noteworthy part
of the ritual from our point of view the feet at the bottom of the image
were anointed.45 Although most of the figure was hidden by the reliquary
cover, the image was conceived as a spiritual whole, whose full, mystical significance was conveyed by the very partiality of the material presence
very much the effect of Berninis unamputated bust.
I have little doubt, though I certainly cannot prove it, that Bernini chose
to make a bust of the Savior in the first place in allusion to the Christ
images at the Lateran, including that of the venerable confraternity of the
Lateran hospital, because the project for the new hospice was in the offing,
and even because he thought his own image might be used in precisely the
way it was used twenty years later as a model of charity. This hypothesis, in turn, may shed light on a problem inherent in the biographers
account of the origin of the bust as having been executed in the last year of
the artists life, although he had begun preparing for death some time
before, and destined for Queen Christina of Sweden: mounted on its base
the grandiose scale of the work seems better suited for a public monument
than a private devotional image, even one intended for a queen. There is no
Sanctum Sanctorum and to the basilica, evidently fused the two images by adopting the bust
form from the apparition, but providing it with an ornamented base that recalls the elaborate frame of the icon.
44
Di Gioia in Contardi et al., eds., 1988, 324, 326 f, has also associated Berninis bust
and the Lateran hospice images to the emblem of the confraternity. An interesting appreciation of the special, mystical qualities of the Lateran icon, and especially its visage, is found
in Francisco de Hollandas mid-sixtenteeth-century dialogues with Michelangelo: Ora giacch Dio Padre voile, che fosse cosi ben guarnita e dipinta larca delle sue leggi, con quanto
pi studio e seriet vorr, che sia imitata la Sua faccia divina e quella di Suo figlio Signor
Nostro, e la purezza, la castit, la bellezza della gloriosa Vergine Maria, che fu solo dipinta
da S. Luca Evangelista, come il volto del Salvatore, che nel Santo Sanctorum a S. Giovanni
in Laterano . . . lImmagine con quella severa semplicit che ha lantica pittura e quei divini
e soprannaturali occhi, ispiranti tema, come conviene al Salvatore (Bessone Aurelj 1953,
137 f ).
45
On this ritual, see Wolf 1990, 54 f.
891
evidence that Bernini ever planned a funerary monument for himself. His
testament stipulates simply that he be interred in his family vault in S.
Maria Maggiore he grew up in a house across the street from the
Cappella Paolina, where he had worked as a boy alongside his father, the
leading sculptor in Rome of his generation.46 It is tempting to suppose that
Bernini thought of the bust in 1676, with a view to installing it in the proposed new hospice at the Lateran palace, to be refurbished according to his
design. This was the context for which the conception recorded in the
Corsini drawing and the subsequent copies was intended. Innocent XIs
failure to follow through with the project may have been among the motivations that lay behind Berninis devastating caricature of the crabbed and
austere hypochondriac, whose popular nick-name was the No-Pope (Fig.
43).47 And the disappointment may have contributed to the change in attitude that resulted in the final version of the work.
46
The relevant passage in Berninis testament reads as follows: Il mio corpo voglio che
sia seppellito nella sacrosanta basilica di S. Maria Maggiore, dove oltrhavere la sepoltura di
casa mia, servir a monsignor Pietro Filippo mio figlio canonico della mede.ma basilica per
una quotidiana memoria di raccordarsi dellanima mia. Li funerali rimetto ad arbitrio
dellinfrascritti miei heredi alli quali raccordo, chapoveri defunti sono pi necessarii li suffragi di messe et orationi che di apparenze dellesequie (Borsi et al., eds., 1981, 60). He was
buried in a lead casket, with an inscription giving his name and the date of his death. On
Berninis testament, burial and paternal house see Lavin 1972, 159, 162, 183; DOnofrio
1967, 144; Borsi et al., eds., 1981, 138, 35 f.
We might add, incidentally, that Berninis self-portraits are also distinctly modest and
unassuming compared to those of his illustrious contemporaries, Rubens, Rembrandt,
Velasquez.
It is interesting to note that, although Bernini referred to all of his works as his children,
one in particular evidently had special significance for him but personal and private, not
as a tomb or other public memorial. His biographers mention that only one work by his own
chisel was left in his house at his death, the figure of Truth discovered by Time, now in the
Galleria Borghese, which in his testament he enjoined his heirs from ever alienating, intending that it serve as a permanent reminder to his descendants that the most beautiful virtue
in the world consists in the truth, because in the end it is discovered by time (Borsi et al.,
eds., 1981, 71 f. See the discussion of this work in Lavin 1980, 704.
47
Innocent XI was from early on one of the skeptics as to the bureaucratic feasibility and
ethical propriety of such a project in Rome; he found especially repugnant the idea of reclusion of the poor, like prisoners in a jail. In his view, it was reported, if one were to establish
un ospizio chiuso allora, come accade in tutti glaltri, sarebbe necessario che il povero prima
di potervi entrare andasse con il memoriale tre o quattro giorni supplichevole alli deputati,
e cos finisse di morire di stento, oltre che sarebbe necessario che il povero restasse ivi come
prigioniero in una carcere, nella guisa che si costuma in Amsterdam, cosa che gli pareva che
diamentralmente si opponesse alla libert che devono avere li poveri cattolici, massime
892
If Bernini did indeed conceive the bust for the Lateran hospice, it was
not simply an act of private devotion, but was also intended from the beginning, like the Sangue di Cristo composition, as a public, indeed reproducible
appeal for redemption. I can offer one more partial, but reassuring bit of
comfort for the admittedly hazardous hypothesis that Berninis ideas
might have played a significant role in the formulation of this papal institution of universal public charity. Innocent XII issued a number of medals
commemorating various aspects of the enterprise, including one in
169293 to celebrate the opening of the Lateran palace to the poor, which
showed the building and the adjacent transept faade in the familiar diagonal view across the piazza (Fig. 44).48 Another medal, issued the following
year, illustrated the act of charity itself by an extraordinary variation on the
familiar allegory of Christs sacrifice, the pelican feeding its young its own
blood by piercing its own breast (Fig. 45). Ordinarily, the bird and its offspring are shown in isolation, but here the pelican stands on a huge box that
must allude to the papal coffer, while its young are shown below in a wide
landscape. From the huge birds breast a great cascade of blood gushes forth
in such abundance as to feed the young and inundate the earth to provide
sustenance for all its creatures. The accompanying legend, Sinum suum aperuit egenis puns ingeniously on the word sinus, which means both purse or
coffer and breast or heart the Church opens her purse and breast not
only to her own but to all the poor. The idea clearly reflects Berninis Sangue
di Cristo composition and thus closes the circle surrounding Berninis art of
dying and two of the major religious and social enterprises of his last years
at S. Maria Maggiore and the Lateran;49 had the projects been carried out
they would, together with his work at St. Peters have given Berninis stamp
to the three greatest centers of popular devotion in Rome.
The possibility that a mere artist might have influenced the development of such grand ideas may seem less farfetched if one recalls that Bernini
was a close friend of a whole series of popes and conversant with the most
pellegrini (Bonadonna Russo 1979, 264, 271, 272; Contardi in Contardi et al., eds, 1988,
19, 34f n. 24). On this point see p. 244 above.
On Berninis caricature of Innocent XI and his particular problems with that pope, see
Lavin 1990, 326.
48
The medals of Innocent XII are listed and discussed by M. Mercali in Contardi et al.,
eds.,1988, 4558.
49
The analogy between the medal and Berninis composition was noted in Witman
1983, 155.
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
38 The Lateran palace as hospice for the poor, engraved frontispiece by P. S. Bartoli
inscribed with Isaiah 58.7: egenos vagosque induc in domum tuam
(thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house) (after Piazza 1693).
904
905
906
43. Gianlorenzo
Bernini, caricature of
Innocent XI.
Museum der bildenden
Kunst, Leipzig.
44. Medal of
Innocent XII.
Biblioteca Vaticana,
Rome.
907
46. Gianlorenzo
Bernini.
Piazza S. Pietro,
Rome
(photo: Alinari
41228a).
908
47. Gianlorenzo
Bernini,
fountain of the
Four Rivers.
Piazza Navona,
Rome
(photo:
Alinari 6700).
909
910
conceived the colonnades that bounded the vast space in front of St. Peters
as a colossal pair of arms embracing all mankind (Fig. 46) to express, as
he said in the same document, the Churchs act of maternally receiving in
her open arms Catholics to be confirmed in faith, heretics to be reunited
with the Church, and unbelievers to be enlightened by the true faith.53 Nor
should such radical social ideas be surprising in an artist who, in the sphere
of public art, introduced into the urban center rustic, natural forms previously thought fit only for gardens, theatrical landscapes and portrayals of
the underworld (Fig. 47). Privately, while Bernini frequented the high and
mighty, he was far from obsequious in their regard. He lampooned them
mercilessly in his comedies; and he created the modern caricature, in which
the sublime is deliberately reduced to the ridiculous a stylistic and social
revolution he inaugurated precisely by raising socially popular and stylistically impoverished graphic traditions like graffiti and childrens drawings to
the level of high class satire.54
* * *
For better or worse, Innocent XIIs great social adventure was a dismal
and almost immediate failure. The foundation was established in 1692 and
only four years later, in 1696, recruitment was halted. The hospice itself
continued for some time in ever diminishing conditions, to be replaced
later in the century by an even more ambitious welfare institution in Rome;
and of course the idea of a universal charity for the poor as a public responsibility continued to evolve in one form or another ever after. The original
experiment ended with the abandonment of one key provision, which
totally transformed the basic concept, namely the forced internment of the
poor. Residence in the hospice was no longer obligatory, and the homeless
returned to their homelessness. Contemporary sources make it both
. . . essendo la Chiesa di S. Pietro quasi matrice di tutte le altre doveva haverun portico che per lappunto dimostrasse di ricevere braccia aperte maternamente i Cattolici per
confermarli nella credenza, glHeretici per riunirli alla Chiesa, e glInfedeli per illuminarli
alla vera fede. Brauer and Wittkower 1931, 70, n. 1; see Kitao 1974, 14, and index s.v. arms
of the church, image of.
54
1t is worth recalling in this connection that Bernini was notorious for lampooning in
his plays and caricatures people who ranked high in the social order, even the pope (Fig. 43),
whereas the subjects of the ritrattini carichi by his predecessors, the Carracci, were characteristically undistinguished. On Berninis satirical plays and caricatures, see Lavin 1980,
14657; 1990.
53
911
painfully and ironically clear that this sublime social edifice collapsed for
three main reasons. From the benefactors point of view it was too expensive. The income from all the sources of funding never even approached the
costs. The concept of self-sufficiency proved unrealistic and the state could
not cover the enormous deficit. On the other hand, the beneficiaries themselves were unhappy with their new found security; they did not wish to be
confined, however comfortably, and came to regard the popes palace as a
gilded cage from which they longed to escape. Some admitted that they
actually liked the vagabond life of a poor mendicant, for the very freedom
from constraints, including financial ones, it afforded. One of the
refuseniks is recorded as explaining, This way of living in freedom, a bit
here, a bit there, we like it too much. And someone who tastes the joys of
knavery cannot easily do without it.55
Finally, and perhaps most prophetically, there were those who objected
on principle. They defended the indigent by arguing that to incarcerate
people merely because they are poor is unjust; it made poverty into a kind
of crime, punishable by isolation from the rest of society. And this point had
a corollary in another, even more radical notion some critics espoused, that
to beg for a living is, after all, a God-given right. A man must be free to
make his own way, even by mooching, if he wants to.
Questo modo di vivere in libert, mo qua, mo l, a scrocco senza fare fatica, piace
troppo a noi altri, e . . . chi gusta una volta della furfanteria, non pu poi cos facilmente
ritirarsi (testimony of 1595; Simoncelli 19734, 148).
55
912
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to redesign the Louvre (Fig. 2); and the equestrian monument of Louis conceived in Paris but executed after Berninis return to Rome (Fig. 3). The
equestrian group was sent to Paris years after Berninis death, when it met
with very hostile response; finally, transformed into a portrayal of Marcus
Curtius hurling himself into a fiery abyss to save his people, it was installed
in the garden of Versailles.2 (There it remained until, in 1980, the tricentennial of Berninis death, it was brutally mutilated in an act of cultural terrorism. Cleaned and restored, it has now been installed in a new sculpture
museum in the Grandes Ecuries at Versailles.)
The context in which I believe these works should be understood is the
great tradition of early modern political theory and practice which since the
pioneering studies of Friedrich Meinecke and Rodolfo De Mattei has come
to be known as anti-Machiavellianism.3 The movement began towards the
middle of the sixteenth century in response to Machiavellis devastating critique of traditional Christian political theory. The intent was to counter
Machiavellis drastically amoral realpolitik with a kind of ideal realpolitik
retaining, often even reviving essential elements of Scholastic ideology, but
revised so as to make allowances for the sometimes unpleasant necessities of
practical political action on which Machiavelli had insisted. Among the
main proponents, particularly in Spain, were the Jesuits, who sought to provide an alternative to Machiavellis model of cynical unscrupulousness in
the worldly arena of statecraft. From the latter part of the sixteenth century
For summary accounts of the three works, see Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo
Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque (Oxford, 1981), pp. 224, 2467, 254 ff.
3
Friedrich Meinecke, Machiavellianism: The Doctrine of Raison dEtat and Its Place in
Modern History (1927; New York, 1957); Rodolfo De Mattei, Il pensiero politico italiano nellet della controriforma, 2 vols. (Milan and Naples, 19824); see also A. Dempf, Christliche
Staatsphilosophie in Spanien (Salzburg, 1937); H. Lutz, Ragione di stato und christliche
Staatsethik im 16. Jahrhundert (Mnster, 1961); M. Viroli, Dalla politica alla ragion di stato:
La scienza del governo tra XIII e XVII secolo (Rome, 1994), pp. 15584. The views of some
of the major writers of the school, including the Jesuits Giovanni Botero, Pedro de
Ribadeneira, Adam Contzen, and Carlo Scribani (also Justus Lipsius, who had close connections to the Jesuits), have recently been outlined by Robert Bireley, The CounterReformation Prince (Raleigh, N.C., 1990); although I deal with different authors and focus
on a different theme, I am greatly indebted to Bireleys work. Further to the theme, see J. L.
Colomer, Trait politique, exercise spirituel: Lart de la mditation chez Virgilio Malvezzi,
Rivista di letterature moderne e comparate 45 (1992): 24561, and Esplicar los grandes
hechos de vuestra magestad: Virgilio Malvezzi, historien di Philippe IV, in Repubblica e
virt: Pensiero politico e monarchia cattolica fra XVI e XVII secolo, ed. C. Continisio and C.
Mozzarelli (Rome, 1995), pp. 4575, and some of the other essays therein.
2
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mon by the mid-seventeenth century (Fig. 4).7 With respect to such predecessors, however, the proportions of the bust have been broadened to the
point that the width actually exceeds the height. The head is relatively small
so that the ample, tightly curled tresses of hair and the huge torso give an
impression of overwhelming mass and grandeur. The head is turned
markedly to the right while the body is turned in the opposite direction,
with the right shoulder forward and the left back. The sitters attention
seems to have been caught by some distant vision, towards which he turns
in a pervasive and spontaneous movement. Of special concern here is the
treatment of the drapery, which envelops the body and creates an uncanny
illusion, or rather series of illusions. No cut edges, only folds are visible
along the lower silhouette, and from the right shoulder down across the
chest, the drapery is pulled tight and knotted at the lower left; as a result,
the body does not appear cut off but wrapped, Christo-like, as a self-sufficient object. The folds are shaped in such a way, however, that one senses
beneath the drapery the familiar form of a bust portrait with arms amputated above the elbow and torso rounded at the bottom. Finally, at the left
arm and shoulder the drapery edge flares up as if caught by a rising draft of
air. We are confronted not by Francesco dEste but by a bust of Francesco,
wafted aloft in and by a protective mantle. An eighteenth-century French
visitor to Modena aptly described the bust as seeming to float in the air (il
semble flotter en lair).8
Bernini has, in fact, assimilated the traditionally draped torso to an
entirely different, specifically honorific tradition associated with Roman
bust portraiture. The figure is placed against a cloth of honour, the so-called
parapetasma, often held up by personifications of victory or winged putti
(Fig. 5).9 The device served in the ancient ancestor cult to suggest the heav-
7
Algardis bust of Lelio Frangipane, illustrated here by way of example, is dated to the
mid-1630s by J. Montagu, Alessandro Algardi, 2 vols. (New Haven and London, 1985), II
427.
8
J. J. L. F de Lalande, Voyage dun franois en Italie, fait dons les annes 1765 & 1766, 8
vols. (Yverdon, 176990), 1452.
9
On Berninis early use of the motifs of the parapetasma and the image held by winged
figures, see Irving Lavin, Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts (New York and London,
1980), pp. 52, 6970. His use of the latter device for a bust portrait culminated in his last
work, the bust of the Saviour, which rested on a pedestal consisting of two kneeling angels;
see Lavin, Berninis Death, pp. 171 ff; Irving Lavin, Afterthoughts on Berninis Death,
Art Bulletin 55 (1973): 42936; Lavin, On the Pedestal. Berninis memorials of this type
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enly sublimation of the soul of the deceased. Bernini had adapted this motif
in the 1630s and 1640s for a number of memorials, activating the hanging
cloth into a billowing emblem of transience (Fig. 6).
Bernini thus revived the classical imagery of apotheosis, but in the dEste
portrait he gave both the bust and the drapery a physical substance and
function they had never had before. Nor are the bust and drapery separate
and distinct elements; instead, they are bound together literally, it seems
as one coherent form that conveys in a single dramatic act the exalted
status of the sitter. The portrait of Francesco presents the ancient theme of
deification in a new guise; it ennobles the individual, raising him not only
to a higher level of significance but to a higher level of existence. It represents the idea of a hero, in the original, classical sense of the term. Explicitly
acknowledging that it is the simulacrum of a man, the bust proclaims that
the man portrayed partakes of the divine.
It is in this context that the anti-Machiavellian concept of the princehero becomes relevant to our subject. The concept arose, I believe, in
response to a dilemma posed by the two fundamental yet seemingly incompatible political tenets of Catholicism: the spiritual power of the absolute
monarch derived ultimately from God, but his effective power derived ultimately from the consent of his subjects. The key to the reconciliation of
these opposing claims lay in the practice of virtue, which had been central
to Machiavellis philosophy as well. The anti-Machiavellians, however,
transformed his interpretation from something approaching virtuosity, or
cleverness, into a politicized equivalent of the traditional Christian virtues,
especially the cardinal virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice, and temperance. By practising the virtues the ruler acquired the reputation that earned
for him popular support; and it was through his exercise of the virtues that
his contact with the divine was established and maintained. The paradoxical merger of the human and divine was embodied in the prince-hero. This
hybrid indeed, it was sometimes hyphenated concept was a specific
revival and adaptation of the classical demigod, half human, half divine,
whose superhuman virtues merited the noble name of hero. The development in the secular sphere had a close and surely related religious corollary
in the theological principle of heroic virtue, an essential factor in the process
have been studied more extensively by J. Bernstock, Berninis Memorial to Maria Raggi, Art
Bulletin 62 (1980): 24355, and Berninis Memorials to Ippolito Merenda and Alessandro
Valtrini, Art Bulletin 63 (1981): 21032.
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15. Bernini, study for the equestrian monument of Louis XIV, drawing.
Museo Civico, Bassano.
933
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937
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13
On dEste genealogy and portraiture, see Gli Estensi: Prima parte, ed. R. Iotti
(Modena, 1997), especially pp. 789. On the series of two hundred dEste portraits executed
in fresco during the 1570s in the couryard of the Castello at Ferrara, see D. Coffin, Pirro
Ligorio and Decorations of the Late Sixteenth Century at Ferrara, Art Bulletin 37 (1955):
16785, who also gives an account of the political issues, and L. Lodi, Immagini della
genealogia estense, in Limpresa di Alfonso II: Saggi e documenti sulla produzione artistica a
Ferrara nel secondo Cinquecento, ed. J. Bentini and L. Spezzaferro (Bologna. 1986).
pp. 15162; on the dispute over precedence, see especially V. Santi, La precedenza tra gli
Estensi e i Medici e listoria de principi dEste di G. Battista Pigna, Atti della deputazione
ferrarese di storia patria 9 (1897): 37122. and G. Mondaini, La questione di precedenza tra
il duca Cosimo I de Medici e Alfonso dEste (Florence. 1898).
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941
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cal controversy. Its meaning that the king, like the sun, is capable of illuminating more than one empire was explained by Louis XIV himself in
his memoirs and by one of the outstanding French Jesuits of the day,
Claude-Franois Menestrier. Menestrier wrote many works on numismatics, heraldry, emblematics, funeral ceremonies, and all sorts of public spectacles including fireworks. In 1679 he published a whole book on the kings
device, La devise du roy justifie, which is of fundamental importance for an
understanding of its true implications and, by extension, those of Berninis
portrait. The tract was intended to counter a statement by an earlier writer
that the device had been employed by Philip II of Spain in reference to the
Spanish conquest of the New World.33 Menestrier showed conclusively that
this prior use was a pure fabrication.
There can be no doubt, however, that the device invented for Louis XIV
was indeed a response to the long familiar Habsburg emblem of two
columns symbolic of the pillars Hercules erected at the end of the earth,
with the inscription NON PLUS ULTRA, not (or nothing) beyond. The
emblem might refer either to an unsurpassable achievement, physical or
spiritual, or to a limitation imposed by prudence; for the Habsburgs, the
device also connoted the geographical extent of the empire. Louis replaced
the Habsburg boast to rule to the limits of the known world by his claim
that his power radiated beyond his own domain. This implication, and
hence the motivation for Louiss device, can have originated in only one
context, that of the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659, by which the power of
Habsburg Spain was broken and peace between the two ancient enemies
was established. Spain ceded large territories to France; the boundary
between the two countries was drawn; Louiss marriage to Maria Teresa of
Austria, daughter of Philip IV, joining the two families, was arranged; and
Louis agreed not to pursue his expansionist design beyond the Pyrenees. In
countless eulogies, Louis was hailed as the harbinger of peace, and his success in this respect was specifically attributed to his having voluntarily
refrained from a war in which, had he pursued it, he would have conquered
33
The subject of Menestriers rebuttal was a statement by F. Picinelli, Mondo simbolico
(Venice, 1670), p. 17; Claude-Franois Menestrier, La devise du roy justifie (Paris. 1679),
preface and pp. 4, 32, reproduces an exemplar of the medal with the date 1662 and attributes the invention of the device, as well as the title Grand, to a certain M. Douvrier
Louis Douvrier, concerning whom see J. F. Michaud, Biographie universelle, 55 vols. (Paris,
181162), XI 626; Dictionnaire de biographie franaise (Paris, 1933). XI, col. 709:
lacadmie des inscriptions et belles-lettres: 16631963 ( Paris. 1963). exhib. cat., p. 4. no. 3.
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Claude Franois Menestrier, Lart des emblemes (Lyon, 1662), pp. 129 ff.
On all these points, see Wittkower, Berninis Bust, p. 18. It is worth noting in this context that Bernini was given as a model which he conspicuously did not follow a famous
suit of armour with elaborately embossed reliefs representing the history of Caesar and
Pompey, thought to have been designed by Giulio Romano for Francis I (Chantelou,
Journal, p. 49, 9 July; p. 151, 10 September; p. 258, 21 October). The harness, which is still
to be seen in the Louvre (Fig. 14), was actually made by Etienne Delaune for Henry II;
LEcole de Fontainebleau (Paris, 1972), exhib. cat. pp. 4201, no. 582, with bibliography. I
am greatly indebted to Stuart W. Pyhrr of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for
his expert knowledge and kind response to my inquiry concerning the harness. On Louiss
action, see n29 above.
34
35
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947
The full import of Berninis sculpture becomes apparent only when one
understands the context in which it was to be seen. It was to have been
placed not on a traditional architectural base, but atop a rocky peak, supported by a swirl of windblown flags symbolizing the conquest of the summit (Figs 15, 18, 20). Like the drapery of Louiss bust, the unfurling banners would seem to bear the portrait aloft. In fact, one realizes that the
equestrian monument was also in its way a living re-creation of the kings
personal emblem, the flags substituting for the clouds as mediators between
the earth below and the sun above. In addition, two monumental spiral
columns recalling both the pillars of Hercules and the triumphal Roman
columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius were to have flanked the sculpture,
which would have borne the inscription NON PLUS ULTRA (cf.
Fig. 16).36 Here the reference to the Habsburg device NON PLUS
ULTRA with paired columns is explicit and complete, and the message
is obvious. Having reached the summit of glory, Louis stops and goes no
further. In this case. we know Berninis specific source. In 1660 a lavish celebration was held at Lyon for the Peace of the Pyrenees and the marriage of
Louis to Maria Teresa of Austria, which joined the two monarchies. The
political implications of the event were epitomized in one of the temporary
structures erected at strategic points throughout the city. A personification
of war, Bellona, stood on a pile of military spoils that bore the inscription
NON ULTRA, between two columns to which her arms are bound by
chains (Fig. 17).37 One column was decorated with the emblem of France,
the other with those of Len and Castile, and the whole was placed atop a
craggy two-peaked mass referring to the Pyrenees. The Jesuit Menestrier,
who was a native of Lyon and published a lengthy description of the celebrations, may well have been responsible for the allegory. He provides an
The medal of Charles VI shown in Fig. 16 clearly reflects Berninis project except that
the flanking columns are not spiral but return to the form normally used for the Habsburg
device, and the base is the traditional oblong block.
37
First published in Claude Franois Menestrier, Les reioissances de la paix (Lyon, 1660),
pp. 545. After this essay was completed it came to my attention that the twin columns
motif has been studied in relation to Berninis projects and their subsequent influence by
Karl Msender, Aedificata poesis: Devisen in der franzsischen und sterreichischen
Barockarchitektur, Wiener Jahrbuch fr Kunstgeschichte 35 (1982): 158 ff (but following an
unfortunate error concerning the origin and date of Menestriers image; cf. Lavin,
PastPresent, p. 298 n90), and Friedrich Polleross, Architecture and Rhetoric in the Work of
Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, in Infinite Boundaries: Order Disorder and Reorder in
Early Modern German Culture, ed. Max Reinhart (Kirksville, Mo., 1998), pp. 130 ff.
36
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explanation which, along with the image itself, must have affected Bernini
deeply:
It is often desirable for the glory of heroes that they themselves voluntarily put limits on their designs before Time or Death does so of
necessity . . . The grand example [of Hercules, who raised the
columns, then stopped to rest after his victories,] makes all the world
admire the moderation of our monarch, who, having more ardour
and courage than any of the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome,
knew how to restrain his generous movements in the midst of success and victories and place voluntary limits on his fortune . . . The
trophy that will render him glorious in the history of all time will be
the knowledge that this young conqueror preferred the repose of his
people to the advantages of his glory and sacrificed his interests to the
tranquillity of his subjects.38
Menestriers emblem helps to explain several important points concerning Berninis conception of the equestrian portrait in particular and of the
nature of kingship generally. With regard to the first point, we have a
remarkable statement by the artist himself describing the meaning, quite
unprecedented in the history of equestrian portraiture, he intended the
work to convey. He said:
I have not represented King Louis in the act of commanding his
armies. This, after all, would be appropriate for any prince. But I
wanted to represent him in the state he alone has been able to attain
through his glorious enterprises. And since the poets imagine that
Glory resides on the top of a very high and steep mountain whose
summit only a few climb, reason demands that those who nevertheless happily arrive there after enduring privations [superati disaggi]
Menestrier, Lart des emblemes, pp. 12930: Il seroit souvent souhaiter pour la gloire
des Heros quils missent eux mesmes des bornes volontaires leur desseins avant que le
Temps ou la Mort leur en fissent de necessaires . . . Cest ce grand Example, qui doit faire
admirer tous les Peuples la moderation de nostre Monarque qui ayant plus dardeur & de
courage que nen eurent tous les Heros de Ia vieille Grece & de Rome, sceu retenir ces mouvements genereux au milieu du succez de ses victoires, & donner volontairement des bornes
sa fortune . . . Ce sera aussi ce Trophe qui le rendra glorieux dans lhistoire de tous les sicles, quand on saura que ce ieune conquerant prfer le repos de ses Peuples aux avantages
de sa gloire, & sacrifi ses interests la tranquillit de ses Sujets.
38
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joyfully breathe the air of sweetest Glory. which having cost terrible
labours [disastrosi travagli] is the more dear, the more lamentable the
strain [rincrescevole . . . stento] of the ascent has been. And as King
Louis with the long course of his many famous victories has already
conquered the steep rise of the mountain, I have shown him as a
rider on its summit, in full possession of that Glory, which, at the
cost of blood [costo di sangue], his name has acquired. Since a jovial
face and a gracious smile are proper to him who is contented. I have
represented the monarch in this way.39
Menestriers comment on the emblem at Lyon explains why Bernini did
not show Louis commanding his troops, for while the sculpture is a portrait
of a soldier it is ultimately an image of peace. in this way, too, may be
understood Berninis emphasis on the privations, the terrible labours, the
lamentable strain, and the cost of blood Louis suffered for his greatness.
Bernini, in effect, universalized Menestriers thought; the Pyrenees became
The translation, with some alterations, is from Rudolf Wittkower, The Vicissitudes of
a Dynastic Monument: Berninis Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV, in De artibus opuscula XL:
Essays in Honor of Erwin Panofsky, ed. Millard Meiss (New York, 1961), p. 503. I quote the
whole passage, which concerns an ingegnoso cavalier Francese. che assuefatto alla vista del
suo R in atto Maestoso, e da Condottiere di Eserciti, non lodava, che qu allora collarmatura purindosso, e sopra un Cavallo medesimamente guerriero, si dimostrasse nel volto
giulivo, e piacevole, che pi disposto pareva a dispensar grazie, che ad atterririnimici, e soggiogar Provincie. Poiche spieggli a lungo la sua intenzione, quale, benche espressa adeguatamente ancora nellOpera, tuttavia non arriv a comprendere il riguardante. Dissegli dunque.
Non haveregli figurato il R Luigi in atto di commandare a gli Eserciti, cosa, che finalmente
propria di ogni Principe, m haverlo voluto collocare in uno stato, al quale non altri, che esso era
potuto giungere, e ci per mezzo delle sue gloriose operazioni. E come che fingono i Poeti risieder
la gloria sopra unaltissimo, ed erto Monte, nella cui sommit rari son quelli, che facilmente vi
poggiano, ragion vuole, che quei, che pur felicemente vi arrivano doppo i superati disaggi, giocondamente respirino allaura di quella soavissma gloria, che per essergli costata disastrosi travagli,
gli tanto pi cara, quanta pi rincrescevole gli f lo stento della salita. E perche il R Luigi con
il lungo corso di tante illustri vittorie haveva gi superato lerto di quel Monte, egli sopra quel
Cavallo lo collocava nel colmo di esso, pieno possessore di quella gloria. che a costa di sangue
haveva acquistato il suo nome. Onde perche qualit propria di chi gode la giovialit del volta,
& unavvenente riso della bocca, quindi , che tale appunto haveva rappresentato quel Monarca.
Oltracche, benche questo suo pensiere si potesse ben ravvisare nel Tutto di quel gran Colosso, tuttavia molto pi manifesto apparirebbe, quando collocar si dovesse nel luogo destinato. Poiche col
doveasi scolpir in altro Marmo una Rupe proporzionata erta, e scoscese, sopra cui haverebbe in
bel modo a pasore il Cavolla con quel disegno, chei fatto ne haverebbe; Domenico Bernini, Vita
del cavalier Gio. Larenzo Bernino (Rome, 1713), pp. 14950.
39
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the mountain of virtue, and territorial containment became victory over the
self, the ultimate achievement of the true hero.40 He thus managed to incorporate both meanings of the non plus ultra / Pillars of Hercules tradition,
expressing Louiss attainment of the extreme limit of glory through victories
achieved at great self-sacrifice. The essence of Berninis conceit lies in the
poignant irony of the great hero reaching the heights of spiritual triumph
by limiting earthly ambition. The equestrian monument becomes thereby a
vision not only of military but of moral force, a vehicle not only of political but also of ethical precept. Berninis image, above all, is that of potentially overwhelming power held in firm and benign restraint.
I hope it will have become clear that Bernini was profoundly indebted
to the vital, predominantly Jesuit tradition of moral statesmanship represented by the anti-Machiavellian movement, to the idea of the prince-hero,
and to Menestriers explanations of the emblematic imagery of Louis XlV.
The extent, but also the limit, of Jesuit involvement in the development of
Berninis ideas on the subject, and the political significance the order itself
attached to the equestrian monument, may be gauged from a letter of great
subtlety and perspicuity written by Berninis good friend Gian Paolo Oliva,
superior general of the Jesuit order. Oliva had been instrumental in persuading Bernini to undertake the trip to Paris in the first place, and in 1673,
having recently seen the sculpture in Rome, he wrote to his Jesuit cohort in
Paris, Jean Ferrier, who had earlier assumed the critical post of confessor to
the king. Oliva encapsulates the self-sacrificial theory of rulership, and turns
it specifically to the struggle against heresy, notably the Jansenist movement
then much in vogue at the French court, and the Turkish menace.41 Oliva
was also preacher to the pope, and his remarks suggest that Berninis visit to
Paris may itself have been part of Alexander VIIs strategy to enlist the kings
support in the face of these threats to the church:
40
This self-sacrificial understanding of Berninis concept, developed by me in
PastPresent, pp. 17696, has recently been appropriated by K. Hermann Fiore in Bernini
scultore: La nascita del barocco in casa Borghese (Rome, 1998), exhib. cat., p. 326.
41
On the situation at this time, see Ludwig von Pastor, The History of the Popes from the
Close of the Middle Ages, 40 vols. (London, 192353), XXXI 482 ff. Others have suggested
the not incompatible theory that the pope gave his permission as part of the settlement of
the troubled relations with France in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia: Ludovici in F.
Baldinucci, Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino (Florence, 1683), ed. S. S. Ludovici
(Milan, 1948), p. 249, and R. Krautheimer, The Rome of Alexander VII (Princeton, 1984),
p. 141.
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I congratulate the city of Paris, which will soon admire in its most
famous place a monument of which none better may be seen or will
be seen in Europe, for the object it represents and for the art with
which it is portrayed. The acclaimed miracle lacks nothing except the
crown on the head of the Prince it represents. Of the two crowns we
venerate in commanders, that of glory was given to the king by the
birth that revealed him to the world as Prince of so many lands; the
other of laurel is offered to him by so many heretical places expunged
by his sword. There remains the last, of olive, most glorious of all and
desired by all, in which the king is ringed by the universal peace
among faithful princes; it alone remains to add to his praises, nor can
there be greater decoration for his splendour. Such a garland is not
worked by tools, hence the Cavalier has not placed it on the portraits
head, and only a King loaded with so many trophies may assume it
by overcoming himself after having overcome the enemies of the
faith . . . It is your responsibility to offer with the holiness of your
counsels to such a potent King the branches of a crown that with
God and the Good takes precedence over any diadem . . .42
In one important respect, however, I believe Bernini went beyond his
predecessors. It is a striking fact that Berninis works for Louis XIV the
designs for the Louvre as well as the portraits of the king are almost
devoid of any royal or dynastic references such as crowns, ancestor portraits,
42
Per mi congratulo con la Citt di Parigi che presto ammirer nella sua pi famosa
piazza una macchina di cui lEuropa non ne vede, n vedr miglior, e per loggetto che rappresenta e per larte con cui figurata. Non altro manca lacclamato miracolo fuorch la
corona sul capo del Principe rappresentato. Dalle due corone che veneriamo comandati,
quella di gloria al Re la diede il nascimento che lespose al mondo Principe di tanti Stati, laltra di lauro a lui la porgono tante piazze eretiche espugnate dalla sua spada. Resta lultima
dellolivo pi gloriosa di tutte e da tutti sospirata, ove in essa con la pace universale fra
Principi fedeli si cinga sua Maest, n a suoi preggi rimane che aggiungere, n pu accrescersi
freggio per cui risplende. Tale Ghirlanda non si lavora dal ferro, e per dal Cav.re non si
sovraposta alle tempie del simulacro e solo un R carico di tanti Trofei pu caricarsene col
superar se stesso soppo dhaver superati i nemici della fede mentre trionfa di natione tronfante con tanto danno della Religione fin nellultimo oriente. Appartiene a V. R. offerire con
la santit di suoi consigli a si potente R i rami duna corona che presso Dio, e presso i Buoni
precede qualunque diadema, e la prego di suoi santi sacrificij. For the full letter, see A.
Venturi, Lorenzo Bernini in Francia, Archivio storico dellarte 3 (1890): 143, and Fraschetti,
Bernini, p. 360 n2; and see Wittkower, Vicissitudes, pp. 5278, for a version among
Berninis papers at the Biblothque Nationale in Paris.
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sharpest challenge to princely rule, in the motto inscribed on the flags that
would have wafted the bounding equestrian heavenward: ET MAIOR TITULIS VIRTUS, Virtue is greater than titles astonishing on a monument to Louis XIV, the Sun King.
Underlying all these conceits one can discern a radical principle that the
true basis of just rule lay in individual virtue and self-control rather than in
inherited rank and unbridled power. While giving form to the concept of
the prince-hero Bernini defined it in a way that challenged the very foundations of traditional monarchist theory, including even that of the antiMachiavellians.50 In his works of political intent, he created a revolutionary
new means of visual expression to convey a revolutionary new social ideal.51
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virtues, but of the divine virtues of Charity and Justice.2 The virtues are
therefore not qualities of Urban VIII personally, but attributes of his office
as the Vicar of Christ on earth. Interestingly, Wilkinson overlooked what is
perhaps the most striking testimony to her interpretation: a painting by
Baglione in which Divine Wisdom, crowned by the dove of the Holy Spirit,
reaches down from heaven with golden chains to link to herself and to each
other her earthly representatives, Charity and Justice (Fig. 3).3 Bernini's
allegories therefore cannot be understood as mourners for the departed
pope. Among the least valuable implications of Wilkinson's work, for
example, is that it obviated the embarrassing need to construe Charity's
maternal benevolence as an expression of grief (Fig. 3)!4
The initial key to the significance of the allegories is that Bernini did not
accompany the pope by the cardinal moral virtues normally associated with
the earthly ruler, whose loss they properly mourn. Instead, he combined
one of the cardinal virtues, Justice, with the chief theological virtue,
Charity. This combination was common enough, but in the context of
papal portraiture it specifically denoted the role of the papacy in the execution of God's wish that man be justified, that is, made just, and so redeemed
from original sin. God achieves this result through the sacrifice of his only
son, and the exercise of the chief attributes of his perfection, the divine
virtues of Charity and Justice. The two virtues are equal and interdependent, the one operating through the other in the interest of mankind. The
allegories, therefore, far from lamenting the pope's demise, illustrate the
roles of Gods virtues in achieving the beneficent result implicit in the
pope's salvific gesture.5
In the case of Charity Bernini makes his point by creating a binary complementary moral and psychological contrast contrapposto, Bernini
Wilkinsons point of departure was an observation to this effect by Panofsky 1964, 94;
see n. 35 below.
3
Cited by Kauffmann 1970, 109 f. The inscriptions on the painting read as follows: Qui
manet in caritate in deo manet et deus in eo; Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatus terram. (He
who abides in charity abides in God, and God abides in him; let him who judges the earth
delight in justice.)
4
. . . the allegories, touched by the sense of bereavement at the death of so good a pope,
are moved to tears and Justitia, in a swoon of grief, barely manages to hold the sword that is
no longer guided by Urbans rule. Fehl 1986, 181.) Baldinucci (1948, 87) also interprets the
allegories as mourners, but recognizes Charitys compassionate expression: Pietoso sguardo,
mostri di compatire al suo pianto.
5
On the popes gesture see below.
2
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would have called it between the extremes of the soul's route to salvation.6 One child (Fig. 3), having absorbed the milk of God's forgiving goodness sleeps blissfully until the end of time. The other soul (Fig. 4) bawls at
the top of his lungs: he is the repentant sinner reaching desperately for
redemption, so utterly consumed by recrimination as to be unaware of
Charity's compassionate response to his excruciating Jeremiad. Wilkinson
cites a remarkably close precedent for Bernini's concept in a painting by
Lanfranco illustrating the action of the Virgin interceding with her son to
save a repentant soul (Fig. 6).7 To a degree, the composition, and perhaps
also the concept, seems to echo the figure of Charity Bernini's father, Pietro,
had carved years before in Naples (Fig. 7).8 The point of the subject, however, is explicitly represented in a painting by Guercino, famous in its day,
as evidenced by an engraving in which the accompanying inscription treats
the subject of Charity as a memento mori reminding the viewer that his own
redemption is in direct proportion to his participation in God's love
(Fig. 8).9
Charity is a vigorously dynamic and earthly figure who contacts the
papal tomb primarily by resting her sleeping charge against the sarcophagus
an image that insistently recalls the themes of the Piet and entombment
of Christ, whose sacrifice was the prototype of all acts of charity.10 In sharp
contrast, the passive figure of Justice stands, or more accurately leans against
the tomb, in a pose that is redolent of languor and passivity (Fig. 9).
Whereas Charity has fewer accouterments than usual (two babies rather
than three), Justice has more: the book, and fasces in addition to the canonical sword and balance. The attributes obviously relate to the quintessential
forms of justice: legal, commutative and distributive, derived ultimately
from Aristotle, developed by the scholastics, and formulated definitively at
the Council of Trent.11 Three points concern us here. The crossleg pose of
the figure and the inclusion of the fasces have a common theme with respect
to the sword and balance, which evoke the impartial and retributive nature
On Berninis notion of contrapposto, see Lavin 1980, 9 f, and compare his busts of the
Damned and Blessed Souls, Lavin 1993, 10138.
7
Bernini 1982, 37 f.
8
On Pietro Berninis Charity see Alisio, ed., 1987, 848.
9
Aspice, sum Charitas, Christi me dilige cultor,/ Quantus amor fuerit, proemia tanta
feres. On the painting, in the Dayton Art Institute, see Fifty Treasures, 1969, 92, 141.
10
Kauffmann 1970, 122, notes the analogy with the Piet.
11
Commutative, individual to individual the sword; distributive; society to the individual fasces; legal; individual to society book; the balance = equality of all Justice.
6
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form of damascening that decorates the two faces of the blade in mirror
images (Fig. 12). The design is evidently indecipherable as words, but I suspect it may allude to Islam and the conversion of the infidel.17 This ideal of
Christian justice, which included publication of the bible in Arabic, was a
guiding principle of the Propaganda Fide, the great missionary institution
that was one of the major preoccupations of Urban's reign.18
My third point concerns the most commonly misunderstood feature of
the allegory, that is, what might be called her mood, her head resting on her
hand, her head and eyes turned upward, her lips parted as if in response to
some message received from on high. In truth, there is nothing tearful or
morbid about her expression, which is rather one of dreamy absorption
tinged with a kind of melancholic lethargy. The very fact that her elbow
rests on the book of law Urban was first and foremost a jurist and his
rise within the church hierarchy rested on that basis indicates that her
action has to do with justice, not mourning.19 To be sure, all writers emphasize that divine chastisement is inflicted only reluctantly, and with dismay,20
and hints of fearsomeness and withdrawal are expressed by the putti, one of
whom hides anxiously with the scales, while the other turns away with the
fasces (Figs. 13, 14). The allegory herself, however, has a quite different attitude. The head-on-hand motif is one of the most consistent postures of the
thinker, the contemplator, the meditator, and the turn of her head and
glance makes it clear, not only that she is slow to act but that what she contemplates is the heavenly source of divine justice. Bernini seems to have
based this aspect of his figure on just such a prototype, Domenichino's
equally dilatory allegory of Prudence at San Carlo ai Catinari (Fig. 15).
Ripa emphasizes that the eyes of Divine Justice must regard the things of
is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. Augustine compares the two-edged sword to the Old and
New Testaments: And scripture says that the word of God is a two-edged sword because of
its double edge, the two testaments. De Civ. Dei XX, 21, 2; McCrackeen and Green
195772, 3845. See Frommhold 1925, 51.
17
Southern 1962. Daniel 1980. Kedar 1984.
18
Pastor 192353, XXIX, 2126.
19
On Urbans legal training and early career, see Pastor 192353, XXVIII, 2829.
20
Wilkinson 1971, 58 f, notes that Divine Justice grieves for the sinner and suffers the
same pain it inflicts.
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this world as beneath her, keeping her attention always fixed on the pure
and the true.21
The two groups together thus offer a veritable concert of psychological
and moral states, the allegories themselves acting in a counterpoint perhaps
deliberately analogous to the saintly figures in the crossing piers beneath the
dome, Veronica, Andrew, Longinus and Helen (Fig. 16ad); carried out
under Bernini's supervision during the same period as Urban's tomb, they
represent the principal passion relics possessed by the basilica. The two
female saints one active, one passive are earthbound and outward
directed, while the two men (one active, one passive) appear upward
directed and inspired from heaven.22
This theme, that is, the divine origin and earthward dispensation of
God's grace in the form of Charity and Justice, carries deep into the motivation and ultimate significance of the monument, which is in fact the first
papal tomb incorporating these two virtues together and in isolation.
Rarely, they appeared together independently, as in the painting by
Baglione. They were commonly included in cycles of the virtues, and in
Domenichino's series at San Carlo, the attributes of Justice include both the
sword and the fasces (Fig. 17).23 Most importantly, there was a certain tradition for pairing the allegories in relation to papal portraits, since from the
Middle Ages on these virtues played fundamental roles in the theoretical
discussions of the extent and limitations of papal rule the so-called plenitudo potestatis.24 This last context was clearly a factor in Bernini's conception. One direct source was the image of Pope Urban I flanked by Justice
and Charity in the series of grandiose papal portraits by Giulio Romano in
the Sala di Costantino, which document the awesome continuity of the
church of Rome since its establishment by the first Christian emperor
(Fig. 18).25 This onomastic reference may reflect three reasons contemporary sources report for Urban's choice of his name: because of his affection
for the city; because he wished to emulate the great achievements of his
21
For both these observations see Kauffmann 1970, 124 who also draws the analogy
with the upturned glance of Berninis Anima Beata and S. Bibiana.
22
On what might be called the psycho-theology of the crossing figures see Lavin 1968,
2439.
23
Following Ripa, Mle 1932, 391, identified Justices companion as Benignit; Spear
1982, 276.
24
This tradition was admirably outlined by Quednau 1979, 2514.
25
The relation to the Sala di Costantino Urban I was first noted by Kauffmann 1970,
110; Quednau 1979, 251 f, Scott 1991, 161, Schtze 1994, 266 n. 160.
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Egli dice haver preso il nome di Urbano per due cause, la prima per amar egli molto
questa citt, che sappella Urba per autonomasia, la seconda perch conoscendo egli la sua
natura tirar alquanto al rigidetto le fusse continuo raccordo di dover temperarla. (Pastor
192353, XXVIII, 25, n. 1) . . . dal qual nome ha voluto egli insignirsi, come ha detto, per
venerare la memoria degli antichi Urbani predecessori suoi, che pieni di santo zelo, ed alieni
agli interessi del monda, tentarono imprese gloriose. (Barazzi and Berchet 18778, I, 225.)
On the naming of the pope see also Hergemller 1980, 198 f. No doubt Barberini was also
aware that Urban I, who played a central role in the life of St. Cecilia, used the most familiar of all bee clichs to describe the Roman martyrs works in the service of Christ: . . . Lord
Jesus Christ, sower of chaste counsel, accept the fruit of the seeds that you sowed in Cecilia!
Lord Jesus Christ, good shepherd, Cecilia your handmaid has served you like a busy bee: the
spouse whom she received as a fierce lion, she has sent to you as a gentle lamb! Voragine
1995, II, 319. . . . Caecilia famula tua quasi apis tibi argumentosa deservit: nam sponsum,
quem quasi leonem ferocem acceptit, ad te quasi agnum mansuetissimum destinavit.
Voragine 1850, 772.
27
Curiously, Quednau 1979, 250, was able to offer no specific reason for the inclusion
of Urban I in the Sala di Costantino series or for his association with the virtues of Justice
and Charity.
28
Pastor 192353, XXVIII, 25, n. 1, citing Negri 1922, 174.
29
Cited by Kauffmann 1970, 110; see Buffa, ed., 1982, No. 96, 127 , III. The same
frame served for a series of portraits, including Gregory XI, Leo XI and Paul V, the latter two
signed by Alexander Mair (Zimmer 1988, 312, No. E52, Zijlma 1979, 142 f, Nos. 72, 72A).
26
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in new St. Peter's, those of Paul III (Fig. 20) and Gregory XIII (Fig. 21).30
The parallel and continuity between them is established by the use of corresponding materials, and by the echoing pyramidal composition of the
bronze figure of the pope seated on a pedestal, before and beside which are
placed white marble pairs of allegories. The levitating gesture of UrbanVIII,
moreover, which repeats that of St. Peter himself in the Sala di Costantino
(Fig. 22), seems deliberately to intermediate between the palm-down pacification of Paul III and the triumphal exclamation of Gregory XIII.31
Bernini's allegories leaning against the sarcophagus seem also to link the
reclining and isolated standing figures on the two earlier monuments, while
relating the tomb to its psychological and spatial environment in a new way.
These papal monuments have a close parallel in an engraved political allegory that is rooted in the Petrarchan tradition of allegorical triumphs, and
that in turn anticipates many of the features of Bernini's conception. The
composition was designed by Joseph Heintz, court painter to the emperor
Rudolph II, and engraved by Lucas Kilian in Venice in 1603, to celebrate
the appointment of Heintz's brother Daniel as architect of the city of Bern
(Fig. 23).32 Seated atop a two-stepped structure the triumphant figure of
Justice brandishes her sword and holds her scales aloft, looking heavenward.
She is flanked below by standing figures of Truth and Charity, who rest their
arms on the pedestal. Truth looks up to the sun (one of Urban VIII's
emblems) and Charity holds one child while looking down toward the
other who reaches up toward her; between them at their feet on the lower
level cringes the chained figure of Avarice. Apart from the theme of the allegory, its relevance for Bernini lay in the unity and coherence of the composition, and the psychological counterpoint enacted by the figures.
The earlier papal monuments had included four allegories each, alluding to the terrestrial and celestial virtues of the popes. Paul III Justice,
30
These were the only papal tombs erected in new St. Peters before Urban VIIIs
(Borgolte 1989, 305). For particulars on the tomb of Paul III see Gramberg 1984. On the
original tomb of Gregory XIII, which was replaced in the eighteenth century, Krger 1986.
The fundamental study of the decoration of new St. Peters before the addition of the nave
under Paul V is that by Siebenhner 1962. On the relations between the three tombs, see
Pope Hennessy 1970, 114 f; Kauffmann 1970, 110, 114, 119, 128; Schtze 1994, 257, 260,
264 f, 266.
31
The relationship to St. Peter in Sala di Costantino was noted by Kauffmann 1970,
132. On Paul III in atto di pacificatore see Thoenes 1990, 135.
32
The relationship of the Urban VIII tomb to the engraving was observed and discussed
by Larsson 1971; see also Prag 1988, 415 f, No. 302, Zimmer 1988, 146 f, No. A75.
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1. Bernini, Tomb of Urban VIII. Rome, St. Peters (photo: Anderson 215).
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968
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969
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970
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16. (a) Francesco Mochi, St. Veronica; (b) Franois Duquesnoy, St. Andrew;
(c) Bernini, St. Longinus; (d) Andrea Bolgi, St. Helen. Rome, St. Peters
(photos: Anderson 20590, 20598, 20588, 20591).
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20. Guglielmo della Porta, Tomb of Paul III. Rome, St. Peters
(photo: Anderson 210).
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988
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991
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992
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42. Bernini, Tomb of Urban VIII, detail. Rome, St. Peters (ARFSP).
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994
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995
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996
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997
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998
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49. Bernini,
Tomb of Urban VIII,
detail.
Rome, St. Peters
(photo: ARFSP B 3772).
999
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and contrast is evident in the treatment of what is, literally and figuratively,
the central theme of both tombs, that is, death itself. In both cases the
caducity of earthly existence is expressed by wing-borne inscriptions with
the names of the deceased (Fig. 24), except that Bernini assimilated this
motif, and the figure of Historia represented on the front of Paul III's cope
(Fig. 25), to the traditional winged personification of Death, which now
becomes also the fateful recorder of life.36
However, the choice of justice and Charity alone for the tomb of Urban
unprecedented, I repeat, in papal funerary iconography suggests that
this combination of virtues, in their divine nature, had special meaning in
the case of Urban VIII. (I want to emphasize here parenthetically, that the
tomb of Urban was an astonishing, even revolutionary departure from the
grandiose, self-expository monuments covered with great visual biographies, erected by his recent predecessors, Sixtus V and Paul V at Santa Maria
Maggiore.)37 The complementary and necessary attributes of Charity and
Justice were a constant feature in the ideology of the good magistrate from
antiquity on, discussed and eulogized in innumerable ways in innumerable
texts. One of the leitmotifs of this theme made it particularly relevant to
Urban VIII because it was based on the equally ancient tradition that the
social organization of the bee, three of which animals constituted the coat
of arms of Urban VIII, represented the ideal state: a hierarchical monarchy
where every individual had its assigned place which it never transgressed,
and where every individual made its contribution to the commonweal,
wholeheartedly, and in utter harmony with its fellows.38 Two specific characteristics of the bee were especially relevant to the ideology of the good
ruler, the fact that the bee could inflict pain with its stinger, and was thus
feared by its enemies, but also produced sweet honey and was thus loved by
36
Gramberg 1984, 323f, identifies the subject of Della Portas reliefs as Historia,
although the shield and helmet reflect the images of Victory on which it depends (Ettlinger
1950); Pope-Hennessy 1970, 400, calls it a Victory. The relation to Berninis figure of Death
was first noted by Kauffmann 1970, 119.
37
Wittkower 1981, 21, also emphasises Berninis break with the previous papal tombs,
and his return to the models of Paul III and Michelangelos Medici tombs.
38
A helpful survey of bee symbolism in Jesuit emblem literature is provided by Dimler
1992; on the bee colony as a model society see pp. 231 f, 234. One of the most important
bee topoi, directly relevant to the Barberni papacy, was the equivalence of the beehive to the
Unity of the Holy Church, developed in the seminal thirteenth century treatise on bees by
Thomas of Cantimpr (Misch 1974, 69103; Hassig 1995, 5271. esp. 56).
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its friends.39 The other important characteristic was that the ruling bee itself
often thought to be a king rather than a queen; larger, more important
and constantly surrounded and guarded by his subjects had no stinger.40
On both these counts, the ideal state of the bee was based on and derived
from the ideal admixture of charity and justice inherent in its nature. In
general terms, the bee became one of the important emblems of the ideal
ruler, as when Alciati depicted Princely Clemency as a hive to which bees
are attracted because the ruler treats his subjects with justice and clemency,
or as an enthroned seated ruler to whom the bees fly in good will (Figs. 26,
27).41 Pungat et ungat is the motto of another emblem of the Principe
Perfecto, illustrated by a swarm of bees following its leader (Fig. 28).42 In
another case, the swarm following the king illustrates the passage on the
stingless king bee from Seneca's discourse on Clemency to indicate that, in
Picinelli 1729, 501, quotes a text on psalm 50 by Urban himself, which I have been
unable to trace, on exactly this point.: Apes & si inferant punctionis dolorem, amantur
tamen, quia mellis dulcedinem administrant. Sic & persecutores meos Domine, amare volo,
& punctiones, quas mihi amaris conatibus inferunt, tribulatio spiritu tolerare, ut mellita
jucunditas subsequantur.
40
The missing stinger of the ruling bee is emphasized by the ancient writers as a mark
of the bee's ideal monarchy: the king bees greatest mark of distinction, however, lies in this:
bees are most easily provoked, and, for the size of their bodies, excellent fighters, and where
they wound they leave their stings; but the king himself has no sting. Nature did not want
him to be cruel or to seek a revenge that would be so costly. (Seneca, De Clementia I.xix.
3, Basore 195864, I, 140 f ) . . . there is no agreement among the authorities . . . whether
the king bee has no sting and is armed only with the grandeur of his office (maiestate tantum armatus). or whether nature has indeed bestowed one upon him but has merely denied
him the use of it.. It is a well established fact that the ruler does not use a sting. The commons surround him with a marvelous obedience. (Pliny, Hist. Nat. XI. xvii. 53, Rackham
et al. 193862, III, 465.)
41
Principis clementia/ Vesparum quod nulla unquam rex spicula figet./ quodq. alijs
duplo corpore maior erit;/ Arguet imperium clemens moderataq. regna./ Sanctaq. iudicibus
cretita iura bonis. Alciati 1621, CXLIX, p. 632 Clementia del Prencipe/ Che del le vespe il
R mai non ferisca,/ col pungiglione,alcuno, o, che non lhabbia;/ E, che, de laltre vespe, al
doppio, tenga/ maggiore il corpo; additer limpero costante,e fermo, e i moderati regni;/ E
le leggi santissime, commesse/ A giudicanti di sinera mente. (Alciati 1626, 220 f; Daly et
al. 1985, II, No. 149) Wasps and bees are interchangeable in this literature, and the commentaries in the editions cited specifically correct wasps to bees in this case.
42
Mendo 1661, 160; see Dimler 1992, 232 f, for Mendos sources.
39
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Pliny's words, majesty alone (maiestate tantum), not cruelty, suffices for the
ideal ruler (Fig. 29).43
Although it has not been properly understood heretofore, the same fundamental thought underlies the famous illustrations by Bernini and Rubens
for editions of Urban's poetry (Figs. 30, 31). Both portray the ideal of overwhelming strength united with the gentleness of poetry. Bernini showed
David as defender of his flock strangling the lion (I Samuel 17:345) but
with his harp nearby. Rubens showed Samson killing the lion, from whose
body bees issued forth (. . . and out of the strong came forth sweetness,
Judges 14:56, 8, 14); this biblical episode is mentioned in a poem
addressed to Urban's brother Antonio, a Capuchin monk, which alludes to
the spirit's rise to heaven from the corrupt body.44 Rubens here also identifies Urban's poetry with the mellifluousness of bees. The bees issuing specifically from the lion's mouth, including a formation of three, draw an obvious parallel between Urban, celebrated as a poet in the Greek style, and
Pindar, whose poetry was said to have been instilled by honey that bees had
dropped upon him as a child.45 But the basic image and the conceit derive
from a broader concept, that is, self-control, Dominio di se stesso, the most
noble form of Force, represented by Ripa as a man straddling and bridling
a lion (Fig. 32).46 Ripa's image had been taken up as a counterpart to
Strength by Domenichino (Fig. 33).47 This ideal of self-restraint was classiSee n. 4 above. Pietrasanta 1634,34 (see Dimler 1992, 234 f, Ferro 1623, 67), attributes the device to Ferdinand I of Florence, where it appears as a king bee surrounded by concentric circles of workers, on the base of Giambolognas equestrian monument of the Duke
(Watson 1983, 183 n.27; Torriti 1984, 18, ill. p. 21, 50). Scipione Bargogli was the inventor (Erben 1996, 338 f ). Maffeo Barberini came from Florence (see p. 1011 below), and it
is tempting to think he brought this Medicean politico-apian theme with him.
44
See the important observations in Judson and van de Velde 1978, 284 f, 359.
45
As pointed out by Julius Held 1982, 177 f, 182 f; see Davis 1989, 45 f, 47 n. 12. On
Berninis composition see Ficacci, ed., 1989,27983. The story concerning the infant Pindar
was related by Pausanius (Descr. IX, 23, 2) in connection with but not in reference to the
poets tomb.
46
Huomo a sedere sopra un leone, che habbia in freno in bocca, & regga con una mano
detto freno, & con laltra punga esso leone con una stimolo. Ripa 1603,113. Ripa refers to
Valeriano (1556, 14v.): Veluti etiam hominem insidentem iconi nunquam videas, quem is
stimulo regat, quod esse animi regem omnino videtur significare.
47
It seems clear, incidentally, that Bernini also understood and borrowed from
Domenicino the underlying principle of pairing contradictory notions
Prudence/Time,Justice/Charity, Force/Self-restraint. The only exception is the pendentive
with the complementary virtues of Temperence with Discernment and Virginity, where the
43
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cal in origin, associated above all with Alexander the Great, whose greatness
was augmented by his self-control, which proved his greatness as much as
any victory: . . . great-minded as he was and still greater owing to his control of himself, and of a greatness proved by this action as much as by any
other victory: because he conquered himself . . .48 The idea was clearly
taken as apposite for Urban, whose very name, as we have seen, incorporated the ideal of rigor tempered by charity. All these metaphors, the stingless king bee, the poetic victory over the ferocious lion, the rule by majesty
alone, the dominion of urbanity, were applied to the pope in the literary
celebrations of his election.49 Indeed, I suspect that the tradition of the bee
as the embodiment of the Godly coincidence of opposites, clemency and
justice, may have been the most important factor in the choice of those allegories for the tomb. In any case, these associations of the bee must have
made the election of Maffeo Barberini to the papacy seem like a heaven-sent
materialization of those same divine virtues that were the quintessential
attributes of the vicar of Christ on earth.
This point may be thought of, and certainly was thought of by contemporaries, as literally true. One more bee-fact is necessary to understand why.
Because of the attributes we have discussed, and for many other reasons, as
well for example, the perfect geometry of its hive and the perfect effiemblems allude specifically to Carlo Borromeo, the patron saint of the church (Mle 1932,
392 f ). Significantly, the saint is referred to in the inscription in the cupola as . . . qui . . .
in tempore iracundiae factus est reconcilio.
48
. . . magnus animo, maior imperio sui nec minor hoc facto quam victoria alia, quia
ipse se vicit . . . Pliny, Nat. Hist., XXXV, xxxvi, 867, Rackham et al. 193862, IX, 324 f.
The rulers sacrifice of his personal ambition to the welfare of his people, was directly linked
to the virtue of Charity by Fabrizi 1588, 156: Princeps, charitatis ardore exit de terra sua,
idest propriam voluntatem abnegat ad populorum regimen, & tranquillitatem assumptus.
This principal of dominion over the self later formed the basis of Berninis conception of the
ideal ruler, embodied in his portraits of Francesco I dEste and Louis XIV, concerning which
see Lavin 1993, 170 f, 1825, and my forthcoming Berninis Image of the Ideal Christian
Monarch.
49
Qual tra le fere rugge Vinte il leon;/ tal tu con dolce canto/ Le tue, e de tuoi narra vittorie, e l vanto,/ Ago non t'arme, n; la maestosa/ Fronte sola ai tuo impero alletta, e lega/
E i duci tuoi e l popolo men grande./ Se cotale armi/ hai pure; sempre ascosa/ Fra loro
tuo gli ochi altrui si nega;/ Spira dolce timore, sange non spande, (from the Canzone in
lode del re delle api in Bracci 1623. 48). Breve spatio pens, comegli intende/ Con dolce
Urbanit regger la terra,/ L'iraammorzar, che gli egri petti accende,/ E vincer con amor
l'odio, e la guerra./ E cos divisato il nome prende/ DUrbano, e l grido four sapre, e dissera./ E dallOccaso allIndico Oceano,/ Urbano il mondo e l ciel risuona Urbano.
(Bracciolini 1628, 483.)
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ciency of its anatomy the bee was regarded as endowed with a supernatural intelligence. Whence it became a symbol of Divine Wisdom, whose
primary aim was to make man perfect in his own image. The idea is both
classical and biblical: Led by such tokens and such instances, some have
taught that bees have received a share of the divine intelligence, and a
draught of heavenly ether; for God, they say, pervades all things . . .; yea,
unto him all beings thereafter return, and, when unmade, are restored; no
place is there for death, but, still quick, they fly unto the ranks of the stars,
and mount to the heavens aloft (Virgil, Georgics, IV. 21927);50 For my
spirit is sweet above honey: and my inheritance above honey and honeycomb (Ecclesiasticus 24:27).51
To be sure, all popes are elected by the action of Divine Providence,
operating through the ballots of the College of Cardinals. But at the election of Maffo Barberini, the action of Divine Providence the descent of
the Holy Spirit, one might well assert was made physically manifest by
the sudden appearance through an open window of the Conclave of nothing less than a swarm of bees! The event is alluded to in a tapestry illustrating Urban's election, where a conspicuously open window is shown conspicuously in the background (Fig. 34). The wonder is repeated in Pietro da
Cortona's frescoed vault in the great salon of the Palazzo Barberini
(Fig. 35), where the invading squadron is framed by a wreath of laurel (the
second major Barberini emblem, concerning which we will have more to
say presently) and surmounted by the papal arms.52 A contemporary
account of the decoration actually describes the scene as Divine Providence
commanding Immortality to crown with its starry diadem the arms of the
new pope, whose election had made him King of the Bees.53 The Story of
the election, and Cortona's reference to it had yet a deeper significance,
however, since Urban's victory was confirmed only after a recount was
Rushton Fairclough 1950, I, 2103.
Cited after Scott 1982, 300 f.
52
The subject of Urbans election has been admirably explored in these connections by Scott
1991, 1806, who scrupulously acknowledges (185 n. 28) my calling his attention to the miracle of the bees and its relevance to the Cortona fresco. On the tapestry, see Scott 1991, 189 f, who
also cites pp. 185, 216, the explanation of the ceiling allegory by Mattia Rosichino(1640): . . .
dimostra lImmortalit dessiguire i comandamenti, movendosi con la corona di stelle ad
incoronare linsegna di Urbano Ottavo Sommo Pontefice; questa circondata da due rami di
lauro, che insieme arrendendosi, fanno la simiglianza di uno scudo . . . On the significance of the
laurel as a Barberini emblem, see below, p. 1010 and n. 79.
53
On Urban as King of the Bees, see n. 48 above and Scott 1995, 219.
50
51
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taken, at his insistence, when it was discovered that a ballot was missing
from the scrutiny that had elected him.54 This is the primary scene represented in the election tapestry, where allegorical figures of Modesty and
Magnanimity fly into the conclave to celebrate the virtues Urban displayed
in his own election.55 His coronation and assurance of immortality, presaged
by the miracle of the bees, were thus occasioned by his exemplary demonstration of virtue in its most heroic form, self-restraint. The pope's biographer commented: It was a truly memorable deed that will render his name
forever most glorified because, seeing himself at one point pope and then
not pope, with great courage and with such a magnanimous heart he
decided to let the welfare of the universal Church prevail over his own desire
for the supreme principate. Wherefore amongst his other signal faculties
and spiritual qualities are the constancy, magnanimity, and generosity he
demonstrated in his heroic act, it will be sufficient to render his name
immortal and celebrate to the world the manner in which he assumed the
papacy.56 It might thus well be said that the age of the Baroque was ushered
in by a supreme act of ephemerality the sudden descent upon Rome, the
church and mankind, of an unmistakably heaven-sent swarm of bumbling
Barberini bees, conveying to the chosen one the divine virtues of Clemency
and Justice proper to his newly acquired office.
With that swarm began the veritable invasion (plague, as some would
have it by the time Urban's reign ended) of bees, the number of which populating Rome and the papal states one wag later estimated at more than ten
thousand.57 In my estimation, however, what distinguished the Barberini
bees was not their number many popes had been great builders and art
patrons, and many puns and other games had been played with their coats
of arms. But none had acquired the active, literally volatile presence of the
Barberini bees. Perhaps one should rather say transience, for to my mind
and in our context, at least, the Barberini bees embody the notion of
For the story of the recount of the scrutiny, see Scott 1991, 183.
Scott 1991, 190.
56
Attione in vero memorabile, che render per sempre gloriosissimo il suo nome, perch vistosi in un punto Papa, e non papa seppe con tanta intrepidezza, e con si magnanimo
cuore far prevalere il bene della Chiesa universale alla cupidit propria del supremo principato: onde fra laltre sue segnalate prerogative, e doti dellanimo, la costanza, la magnanimit
e la generosit che egli mostr in questatto eroici baster per rendere immortale la fama di
lui, e celebre al mondo la maniera, con la quale fu assunto al Pontificato. Scott 1991,
185 f.
57
Scott 1982, 300 n. 32.
54
55
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that are settled on his tomb.62 Archilochus was the founding father of Greek
lyric poetry, famous for having composed the song of victory used by the
victors at Olympia, and for inventing the epode and many other verse
forms; but he was also famous for his bitter satires, which wounded his enemies even unto death.63 It was thus a kind of poetic jusfice that at his own
death his barbs should return as a reminder of his malicious verses, in the
form of a swarm of wasps carved on his tomb. The idea was visualized in
Alciati's famous emblem book (Fig. 43), and given Urban's fame as a poet
himself he wrote a great deal in exactly the kind of epodic verse associated with Archilochus there can be no doubt of his, and Bernini's, familiarity with the tradition.64 The second instance of apiary sepulchral imagery
concerned the emperor Domitian, whose cruelty, especially toward
Christians, was celebrated and immortalized by the avenging attack on his
tomb of swarms of wasps and bees (Fig. 44):
Once Nero's name, the world did quake to heare,
And Rome did tremble, at Domitian's sight:
But now the Tyrant, cause of all this feare,
Is laid full low, upon whose toombe do light,
To take revenge, the Bee, and summer Flie,
Who not escap't sometime his crueltie.65
It is remarkable indeed, and must have seemed providential to the pope and
to Bernini. that these two associations between stinging insects and tombs
should both apply aptly to Urban, the first as poet, the second as pope;
providential also in that simply by reversing the sense of the malevolent tradition, the image of the bee-infested tomb could be transformed. Instead of
swarming to avenge ancient, pagan evil, the apian chorus (one can practically hear the buzzing of the busy bees) is attracted to its ruler, as in Alciati's
emblems of Princely Clemency (Figs. 26 and 27). The bees celebrate the triPaton 192543, II, 42 ff.
On Archilochus see Burnett 1983 part I.
64
Maledicentia, Archilochi tumolo insculpas de marmore vespas/ Esse ferunt, linguae
certa sigilla malae. (Slander. On the marble tomb of Archilochus wasps were carved,/ they
say, fixed signs of an evil tongue (Daly, et al. 1985, I, emblem 51). See Henkel and Schne
1967, col. 928.
65
Peacham 1612, 144. I am indebted to Alan R. Young for his help in tracking down
Peachams manuscript and printed emblems.
62
63
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Schiavo 1971, first noted that the reference was to Clement, rather than Gregory;
Schiavo recalled the disagreements with Gregory and Urbans debt to Clement, and also
noted that Clement had dedicated the new high altar at St. Peters, while Urban had consecrated the new basilica itself. For the correct identification, see also Fehl 1982, 354 (adding
a letter in each line, however) and 1987, 194.
73
Pastor192353, XXIII, passim; Fehl 1987, 194, who also calls attention to Urbans several poems honoring Clement.
74
Pastor 192353, XXIV, 447 f; see DOnofrio 1971, 202, 223, Figs. 1723, 178, 180;
Langelo 19878, I, 1715.
75
A CLEMENTEM VIII. DE TABVLARIO PONTIFICIO IN ARCE HADRIANA.
Hoc nos scripta loco/ dubios contemnere casus/ Possumus, o Clemens,/ munere septa tuo./
Pro quo, sancte pater,/ nostris tuo gloria chartis/ Viuet, dum nobis vita/ superstes erit./ Quid
loquimur, / si firmus obex nos protegit arcis,/ Et tua se propria fama/ tuetur ope? (Barberini
1642, 151; Pastor 192353, XXIV, 454).
76
Pastor 192353, XXIX, 453 f.
72
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ing in a book as a kind of allegory of History (Fig. 46).77 Here, however Death
has the specific task of record keeper archivist, one might well say displaying at once the ephemerality of earthly things, bees as well as popes, but also
the permanence of heavenly things, notably the church as embodied in the person of its temporary temporal and spiritual head. Therein lies the ultimate, and
supremely paradoxical, significance of Bernini's tomb of Urban VIII and, I
would say, of ephemerality in Baroque art generally. The very figure representing the triumph of transience, winged Death, is at the same time also the guarantor of permanence, indeed of immortality, through the achievements and
fame of Urban, and through the divine virtues vested by God in the institution
of the church and the papacy.
Bernini left two unmistakable clues to the supernaturally inspired truth
of this message. Four of the small, real bees appear on the legs of the sarcophagus, while a fifth has landed on a leaf of the laurel wreath that decorates the sarcophagus lid, near the tip of Death's wing (Fig. 42).78 Laurel
was, of course, the preeminent symbol of poetry and the victorious immortality it confers;79 and one of the best known and most consistent of the
ideas attached to bees based on Virgil's notion, quoted earlier, that the
bee did not die but flew to heaven to join the stars was that they symbolized immortality.80 The two Barberini emblems coincided in the principle Barberini family impresa, which depicted a flight of bees landing on the
branches of a laurel tree, with the legend Hic domus (Fig. 47).81 The meaning and history of this device are critical to an understanding of the message of the tomb. The conceit is based on a climactic passage in the Aeneid
when the hero, having at last reached Latium after his peregrinations from
Troy, realized that he had reached his final destination, there to establish the
See n. 36 above.
See n. 59 above.
79
On the manifold associations of laurel, see the rich collection of material provided by
Cox-Rearick 1984, concerning the emblems of the Medici family in Florence. The immortality of the laurel was based on the notion, also extolled by Virgil, that the evergreen plant
was immune to lightning and able to regenerate from a branch. On laurel as a symbol of victory see Tervarent 195864, II, col. 233.
80
On the immortality of the bee in reference to the tomb of Urban, see Kauffmann
1970, 127, and Schtze 1994, 252, who emphasizes their monarchic symbolism in this
context.
81
The device is discussed at length by Ferro 1623, II, 738, whose book is dedicated to
Maffeo Barberini as cardinal. The importance of the emblem for Barberini imagery was
emphasized by Scott 1991, 10710, 115, 185, and Schtze 1994, 24952.
77
78
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religion of his fathers and the hegemony of Rome, from the wondrous
descent of a large swarm of bees upon a laurel tree sacred to Apollo.
Heeding the signs, he declared Hic domus, haec patria est (here is our
home, here our country).82 Maffeo invented the impresa to celebrate the
transferral of the Barberini family from Florence to Rome, and his own call
to a higher destiny, before he became pope.
The bee-infested laurel was thus a truly uncanny forecast of the apian
intervention of Divine Providence in Urban's election. On the pope's tomb
the little bee, the very emblem of bumbling transience, almost invisible
perched on its botanical equivalent, by its humble immortality clips the
wings of death itself and triumphs over the very emblem of earthly caducity.
At the same time, the lyrical delicacy of the motif reinforces a hint of nostalgia implicit in another emblematic association of the laurel and bee, the
Virgilian Golden Age evoked rhapsodically by contemporaries in relation to
the Barberini papacy.83 That tree of knowledge, of triumph, of poetry, of
empire, of immortality, of chastity; and similarly the bee of eloquence,
poetry, continence, clemency, diligence, artifice, long and prosperous life,
eternal felicity, peace, and union.84
The primary witness to the meaning of the tomb is to be found where it
should be, in the coat of arms of the Barberini pope, attached to the face of the
arch at the apex of the niche (Fig. 49). Here an extraordinary indeed, as far
as I know unique operation is performed by two heaven-sent messengers.
The Barberini escutcheon, instead of arriving, as in the ceiling of the Palazzo
Barberini (Fig. 35), is detached from the papal tiara and keys and carried aloft.85
The image is a living demonstration of the fleeting earthly presence and spiritual sublimation of an individual mortal who briefly occupied the center of an
eternally abiding creation of the will of God.
In the end, however, perhaps the sharpest insight into the significance of
Bernini's bumbling Barberini bees and the spirit in which they were conAeneid VII, 122, Rushton Fairclough 1950, II, 10.
See the citation in Schtze 1994, 248 n. 100.
84
Quello albero di scienza, di trionfo, di poesia, dImperio, dimmortalit, di castit; &
parimente lApe deloquenza, poesia, continenza, clementia, diligenza, artificio, vita prospero, e lunga, felicita eterna, pace, & unione. Ferro 1623, II, 77.
85
What I would call the stemma riportato motif (for which see Campbell 1977, 124 f,
who uses the term stemma in arrivo, Scott 1991, 107) is a variant of the ancient emblem
of celestial apotheosis, the imago clipeata (for which see Lavin 1980, 69 f ). On the coat of
arms on the Urban tomb, see also Fehl 1987, 202. Berninis use of the motif is strikingly different from that of Algardi, discussed by Montagu 1985, 49, 244 n. 45.
82
83
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ceived was provided by Bernini himself. His words are quoted by his biographers in recounting an incident that took place at the unveiling of the
tomb of Urban, in the presence of the pope's ferociously inimical successor,
Innocent X, who had driven the Barberini family into exile: One cannot
refrain at this point from recalling a cutting reply the Cavaliere gave in
demonstration of his firm allegiance to Urban, to a person of high station
who was not sympathetic to the Barberini family. He had represented here
and there on the sarcophagus of the tomb a number of bees, for no other
purpose than to allude wittily to Urban's arms. The person noticed, and in
the presence of others said to the Cavaliere with a smile, Sir, you have wished
by placing the bees here and there to portray the dispersion of the Barberini family (the members had then withdrawn to France), to which without a
moment's hesitation Bernini replied, But you, Sir, may well know that dispersed bees at the sound of a bell return to congregate, referring to the great bell
on the Capitoline that sounds at the death of every pope. Bernini's reply
brought him great applause from those who reflected on the risk he took at
that time to remain constant to the memory of his benefactor.86
86
N tralasciar si deve in questo luogo di far ricordanza di unacutisima risposta, che in
testimonianza della sua inalterabile fede verso Urbano diede il Cavaliere ad un Personaggio
di alta condizione, per altro poco affezionata a Casa Barberini, Haveva egli figurate su lurna
del Sepolcro in qua, e in l alcune Api, che vagamente alludevano allArme di Urbano.
Oservllo il Personaggio accennato, e presenti altre persone rivoltosi al Cavaliere, sorridendo
disse, Signor Cavaliere, V. S. h voluto colla situazione di questi Api in qu, e in la mostrare
la dispersione di Casa Barberini (erano allora le persone di quella Casa disgustate col
Pontefice, e ritratte in Francia) al che senza frapazione di tempo rispose il Bernino, V, S. per
pu ben sapere, che le Api disperse ad un suon di Camponaccio si tornano a congregare,
intendendo della gran Campana di Campidoglio, che suona doppo la morte di ciascun Papa.
Per la qual risposta merit il Cavaliere l'applauso dovuto. da chi seppe riflettare, con quanto
suo pericolo in quelle congiuntare di tempi si mantenesse costante alla memoria del suo
Benefattore. (Bernini 1713, 73 f.) Fu questopera stupenda incominciata due anii avanti la
morte di Urbano e scoperta circa a 30 mesi dopo che egli fu andato al cielo e ci fu alla presenz del suo sucessore Innocenzio.N io voglio lasciare di portare in questo luogo un'acuta
risposta che diede il Bernino a personaggio di alta condizione, poco amico di casa Barberina,
che stava guardando, presenti altre persone. Aveva il Bernino per una certo bizzaria, e non
ad altro fine figurate in qua e in l sopra il deposito alcune api, alludenti all'arme di quel
papa; osservolle il personaggio e disse: Signor cavaliere, V. S., ha voluto con la situatione di
queste api in qua e in l mostrare la dispersione di casa Barberina (erano le persone di quella
casa ritrate in Francia), e cos rispose il Bernino: V. S. per pu ben sapere, che le api disperse ad un suono di campanaccio si tornano a congregore, intendendo della campana
grande di Campidoglio che suona dopo la morte depapi. (Baldinucci 1948, 88.)
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Alinari
ARFSP:
BH:
ICCD:
SAGN:
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* A draft of this paper was first presented in a symposium at Harvard University in April
1998, commemorating the quadricentennial of Bernini's birth. This extended version was
published in Hannah Baader, et al., eds., Ars et scriptura. Festschrift fr Rudolf Preimesberger
zum 65. Geburtstag, Berlin, 2001, 143156, and in Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Atti dei
convegni lincei 170. Convegno internazionale La cultura letteraria italiana e lidentit europea
[Roma, 68 aprile 2000], Rome, 2001, 24584.
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Traditionally the model has been regarded, with good reason, as the work
of Luc-Franois Breton (17311799), a native of Besanon and one of the
best-known sculptors of the Franche-Comt. Breton was an altogether
remarkable character, partly because he was in many respects typical of his
era.4 Born of a poor family, he was apprenticed early, with a kind of craftscholarship, to a local woodcarver, and later entered the sculpture atelier of
Claude Attiret at nearby Dle. In 1754 Breton set out, on foot, for Rome,
stopping first at Marseilles, where he worked as a woodcarver and studied
the works there of Pierre Puget. With free passage arranged by an influential sympathizer, he set sail for Rome where he arrived, penniless, in 1754.
After four years of hard work, in 1758 he entered the sculpture competition
of the prestigious Accademia di San Luca, and, mirabile dictu, he won first
prize with a terracotta model representing the assigned subject, Metellius rescuing the Palladium from the Temple of Vesta (Fig. 6).5 He was the first French
artist to win the first prize in sculpture. With this feather in his cap, Breton
in 1762 was taken in by the painter Natoire, director of the French
Academy in Rome, who gave him a room so that, although he lacked the
education and culture requisite for a Prix de Rome, he was able to attend
classes and study the great works, old and new, that surrounded him.
During his stay at the Academy he would have met Houdon, Clodion,
Boucher, and many others. He received commissions from French patrons,
as well as from Robert Adams, whom he had met in Rome. Adams ordered
from him plaster models and casts of classical sculpture and architectural
ornaments on Roman buildings.6 Adams also commissioned him to produce a terracotta model for a marble relief that decorates Adams's monument to Roger Townsend, hero of the battle of Ticonderoga, in Westminster
Abbey. Breton had one major commission in Rome, a colossal figure of St.
Andrew for the church of S. Claudio dei Borgognoni, a model which is preserved at Besanon (Figs. 7, 8).7 Breton remained in Rome for 17 years,
4
For virtually all of what follows concerning the career of Breton see Lucie Cornillot, Le
sculpteur bisontin Luc Breton (17311800), Besanon 1941?; list of works, including the
models discussed here pp. 11525.
5
Vincenzo Golzio, Le terrecotte della R. Accademia di S. Luca, Rome 1933, pp. 18 f.
6
See the important contribution by John Fleming, Robert Adam, Luc-Franois Breton
and the Townshend Monument in Westminster Abbey, in: Connoisseur, CL, 1962,
pp. 16371.
7
The faade sculpture was noted recently among French works in Rome at the time of
Clodion, by Olivier Michel, La Rome de Clodion. Sculpture et tradition, in: Guilhem Scherf,
ed., Clodion et la sculpture franaise de la fin du XVIIIe sicle, Paris 1993, pp. 5983, see p. 69.
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
1021
except for a brief, but for our purposes extremely important, return to his
native town in 1765. He passed this time via Florence and Genoa, where he
made a copy of Puget's Saint Sebastian (Fig. 9). In Besanon he received the
commission to carve two kneeling angels for a new high altar of the parish
church, Saint-Maurice. The following year he went back to Rome to procure the marble and execute the figures, which were complete in 1768 and
installed on the altar in 1769. In 1771 Breton returned definitively to
Besanon, where apart from his activity as a sculptor he devoted himself
above all to the establishment and directorship of the first free school of fine
arts in the Franche-Comt.
The eighteenth century was of course the great age for public education
and such schools were mushrooming all over France at the time. For political reasons, the Franche-Comt being fiercely jealous of its independence
from the central administration, Breton's school was never accorded the
official status of an Academy. In fact, it was the only provincial institution
of its kind not associated with the Paris Academy, which meant that it could
not send its students to Rome. With a modest subvention from the municipality, however, the school thrived. It opened in 1774 and by 1778 fortyfive pupils were enrolled. The rules and program were equivalent to those
of the other Academies and very demanding. Each professor upon his
appointment, and in alternation each year thereafter, had to donate to the
school a piece of his own composition. Lessons took place in the evening in
winter, mornings in summer. Students twelve and older from Besanon and
the Franche-Comt were admitted free, and others came from Germany,
Switzerland, and Alsace. The sessions were open to the public. The aspiring
sculptors studied copies after antiquities and the works of their teacher.
From 1775 prizes were awarded in several categories: subjects from the
imagination; subjects after nature; copies in drawing; and copies in three
dimensions. It all came to an end with the Revolution, and was only revived
in 1807 by one of Breton's pupils. The Municipality was prescient, however, and when Breton died in 1800 a portion of his material was purchased
to serve as models in the courses of design.
We have two early inventories, 1815 and 1820, of the models owned by
the cole, which list many works by Breton.8 Several of these are related to
Bernini, more than to any other modern artist. Four can be identified
unequivocally: une femme mourante; un ange adorateur, ronde-bosse;
8
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1022
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
1023
3. Bernini,
angel of the sacrament,
terracotta.
Muse des Beaux-Arts,
Besanon.
4. Bernini,
angel of the sacrament.
St. Peters, Rome.
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1024
5. Bernini,
angel of the sacrament,
terracotta.
Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, MA.
6. Luc Breton,
Metellius rescuing the
Palladium from the
Temple of Vesta,
terracotta.
Accademia di S. Luca,
Rome.
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
1025
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1026
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
11. Bernini, Habakkuk and the Angel. S. Maria del Popolo, Rome.
1027
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1028
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
1029
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1030
15. Bernini,
study for St. Jerome,
drawing.
Museum der bildenden
Knste, Leipzig.
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
17. Anonymous,
copy after Beninis
Ludovica Albertoni,
terracotta.
Muse du Louvre, Paris.
1031
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1032
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1033
BERNINI-BOZZETTI
21. Anonymous,
standing angel,
terracotta.
Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, MA.
22. Anonymous,
standing angel,
terracotta.
Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, MA.
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1034
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
24. Bernini,
angel with the Superscription,
terracotta.
Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, MA.
25. Bernini,
angel with the Crown of Thorns,
terracotta.
Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, MA.
1035
11/12/08
1036
27. Anonymous,
standing angel,
gilt bronze.
Pinacoteca Comunale,
Spoleto.
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1037
BERNINI-BOZZETTI
28. Anonymous,
standing angel.
Pinacoteca Comunale,
Spoleto.
29. Anonymous,
ostensorium.
Pinacoteca Comunale,
Spoleto.
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1038
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BERNINI-BOZZETTI
1039
shows that he responded equally well to the English neoclassical and the
nascent French Rococo.
The case of the little kneeling angel is not so simple, however, because it
has all the qualities of a preparatory sketch and is much closer in facture and
spirit than the other models to the bozzetti in the Fogg. Having been placed
on their intended altar in Saint-Maurice, Breton's marble angels were saved
from desecration during the Revolution because they served as emblems of
Love on the chariot of the Goddess of Reason in a procession to the
Cathedral of Besanon, where they were installed in their present position
on the high altar (Figs. 18, 19). It is obvious that Breton upon returning to
Rome took as the point of departure for his figures Bernini's kneeling sacrament angels, one in prayerful adoration, the other in ecstatic devotion
(Fig. 20). Breton varied the prototypes in significant ways, however, none
of which correspond to the model. This fact alone, I think, rules out the
Besanon terracotta as a preparatory study for Breton's figures. Two possibilities remain. One is that Breton is here copying not Bernini's final figure,
but one of the master's bozzetti perhaps even the very one now in the
Fogg. The Besanon model, which is directly and uniquely associated with
a single known artist, raises the tantalizing, and devastating, prospect of
Breton's having copied not simply Bernini's executed work but his preparatory style, his sketchmanship, as it were. This would be a striking and precisely documentable instance of what I believe was an important factor in
the transformation of the grand and often grandiloquent dynamism of the
seventeenth into the lithe and delicate rhythms of the eighteenth century
and the development of a special sensitivity to the small, spontaneous and
informal qualities of the preparatory sketch.
In the case, however, I prefer the other possibility: the Besanon angel is
not a copy at all, but what it seems to be at first glance, an original bozzetto
by Bernini for the angel in devotion at the right side of the Sacrament altar
in St. Peter's which Breton acquired while he was in Rome. Apart from
the sheer quality of the work, this hypothesis has one point in particular in
its favor, chronology. We know that Breton received the commission and
went to Rome in 1766 and that the angels were finished by 1768. He can
scarcely have avoided contact with Rome's greatest impresario of restoring,
collecting, and purveying sculpture, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (171799),
from whom he may have then acquired his Bernini bozzetto.12 A decade
Following the pioneering work of Seymour Howard, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi.
Eighteenth-Century Restorer, New York and London 1982; the splendid investigative task of
12
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later, in fact, faced with financial problems, Cavaceppi offered part of his
vast collection of casts, copies and models for sale to the pope. For this purpose, he drew up a selected list of 100 pieces, in which some of the sculptures now in the Fogg are recorded.
One Less
Although clearly related in conception as well as execution to the angels
of the Ponte S. Angelo, one of the models in the Fogg stands apart from
the others, and I have long been suspicious of the attribution to Bernini
(Figs. 2123).13 The tiny head with mincing features and the pirouetting
movement seem incompatible with the powerful action and forthright
emotion expressed by Bernini's figures (Figs. 24, 25). Anyone who considers even briefly the array of materials drawings as well as models connected with the various angels for the bridge knows that they constitute an
immensely intricate visual counterpoint of many motives arm, leg and
head positions, swirls of fluttering drapery, and psychological states.14
Analyzing these interrelated variables in an effort to define a reasonable
sequence is like trying to disentangle the melodic lines of a Bach fugue. The
combination of notes being sounded at any one measure is probably unique
for the entire composition. Right leg forward, left leg back, right shoulder
back, left forward, right arm raised, left arm down, face turned toward left,
drapery flowing around the right leg behind the left. Of all the material
related to the bridge angels that has come down to us only one tiny sketch
corresponds to these details, and it corresponds so closely that the relationship can hardly be coincidental. I refer to a drawing in Dsseldorf attributed to one of Bernini's closest followers, Antonio Raggi, who executed the
recovering Cavaceppi's operations and their legacy, was accomplished by Carlo Gasparri and
Olivia Ghiandoni, Lo Studio Cavaceppi a Le Collezioni Torlonia, in: Rivista dell'istituto
nazionale d'archeologia a storia dell'arte, XVI, 1993. The correlation between the Cavaceppi
inventory and known bozzetti, including those in the Fogg, will also be found in Maria
Giulia Barberini and Carlo Gasparri, eds., Bartolomeo Cavaceppi scultore romano
(17171799), exhib. cat., Rome 1994.
13
Published by Richard Norton, Bernini and other studies, New York 1914, p. 45, No.
25, Pl. XXVII, a; Leonard Opdycke, A Group of Models for Berninesque Sculpture, in: The
Bulletin of the Fogg Museum of Art, 19378, pp. 2630, see p. 29, identified as for the
Cathedra Petri.
14
See the full discussion of the bridge by Mark Weil, The History and Decoration of the
Ponte S. Angelo, University Park and London 1974.
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angel with the Column of the Flagellation for the bridge, where some of the
details came to fruition (Fig. 26).15
The terracotta has an almost identical counterpart, however, in a quite
unexpected place and context, a beautiful small bronze gilt angel now in the
Pinacoteca Comunale at Spoleto (Figs. 2729).16 The provenance of the piece
is not certain. It was rediscovered in 1981 in a storeroom in the Palazzo
Comunale, adapted to serve as an ostensorium for the display of the sacramental host. The base, the stem and the custodia were thought to be later
additions, although the logic of the figures in the Dsseldorf drawings makes
me wonder; if they are later, they must have replaced something quite similar. The heights of the model and the bronze are virtually identical at one
Roman palmo (22.5 cm.).17 The only significant difference is that in the terracotta the right arm is not extended in support, but folded against the angel's
breast, and this I believe suggests an interesting and important hypothesis. It
would seem that a figure developed from the sketch but never realized on the
bridge, came to serve two purposes. In one context, the model was given a
practical function as the bronze caryatid at Spoleto, which may have held a
candelabrum, as in the Dsseldorf drawing, or, more probably an ostensorium, part of which may (or may not) have been replaced. On the other hand,
in the non-supportive, devotional form of the Fogg terracotta, the figure also
served as an independent object. In fact, the terracotta was originally colored
to resemble bronze. The point I want to make here is that the figure, which
evidently had its origin in a project for monumental sculpture, also had a life
of its own on a small scale, both as a useful instrument, and as an objet d'art.
To be sure, this process of miniaturization had a long history; one need only
recall the small bronzes of Giovanni Bologna. Indeed, this was only one of
many aspects of Giambologna's art the rough and ready handling of the
clay bozzetto was another taken up by Bernini and his school, that ultimately played a seminal role in the creation of the Rococo.18
Weil 1974 (see n. 14), p. 86.
See Bruno Toscano, in: Arte in Valnerina a nello Spoletino. Emergenza e tutela permanente, exhib. cat., Rome 1983, p . 1547. Giampiero Ceccarelli, et al., Urbano VIII
vescovo di Spoleto: nel IV centenario della nascita di Gian Lorenzo Bernini, exhib. cat., Spoleto
1998, pp. 46 f.
17
Published heights: Fogg No. 1937.60: 22.5 cm.; Spoleto: 21.5 cm.
18
On the relationship of Bernini's to Giambologna's clay sketches, see Irving Lavin,
Bozzetti and Modelli. Notes on Sculptural Procedure from the Early Renaissance through
Bernini, in: Stil and berlieferung in der Kunst des Abendlandes. Akten des 21. internationalen
Kongresses fur Kunstgeschichte in Bonn 1964, Berlin 1967, III, pp. 93104, see p. 102.
15
16
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It happens that we can make an educated guess how the piece came to,
or was created for Spoleto. Cardinal Jacopo Nini who was the
Maggiordomo of Alexander VII and Clement IX, and who countersigned
with Bernini the payments for the work on the Ponte S. Angelo, and of
whom Bernini made one of his famous caricatures, had a twin brother
named Carlo (164092). Carlo was buried in Spoleto in San Domenico
(originally San Salvatore, where the ostensorium would have been especially
appropriate), in a tomb whose inscription proudly records his relationship
to Jacopo.19 Our angel is evidently not among those included in Cavaceppi's
early sales catalogue; but it could well have been among those listed summarily in the Cavaceppi inventories taken after his death, and there is no
reason to doubt that its provenance is the same as for the others.
The possibility that both models discussed here may have passed
through the same collection in the mid-eighteenth century is in itself not
remarkable, but the character and function of that collection suggests a final
observation I should like to make in this context. It is important to realize
that the acquisition of the major holdings of Roman Baroque bozzetti by
the museums that house them was a relatively late development in their history.20 The Farsetti collection was purchased for the czar of Russia in 1799
and installed in the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, where it
remained until it was transferred to the Hermitage in 1919; the Brandegee
family purchased the Fogg bozzetti from Giovanni Piancastelli, Director of
the Borghese Gallery in Rome, in 1909 and gave them to Harvard in 1937;
those in the Palazzo Venezia were acquired in 1949 from the opera singer
and omnivorous collector Evangelista Gorga.
The recent research that has revealed the early history of the models has
tended to confirm the conviction I have long had that the Bernini bozzetti
in the Fogg are not a collection in the sense of having been assembled by an
art lover from a variety of sources, but are descended as a group ultimately
from Bernini's own studio.21 Cavaceppi must have acquired them, directly
or indirectly, from someone who had actually worked with Bernini. A likely
source, for example, was one of Bernini's favorite pupils, Giulio Cartari,
who executed for display on the Ponte S. Angelo the very sensitive variant
Toscano 1983 (see n. 16), p. 157.
For an excellent survey of the history of model-collecting, see Dean Walker in
Wardropper et al. 1998 (see n. 2), pp. 1429.
21
Irving Lavin, Calculated Spontaneity. Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch, in: Apollo,
CVII, 197 8, pp. 398405, see p. 399.
19
20
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museum and an academy for the training of aspiring artists and the education of the public. Early in 1753 Natoire, Director of the French Academy
in Rome, made an arrangement with Farsetti that included acquiring a cast
of la plus belle figure du Bernini, the S. Bibiana. One of Natoire's letters
to Paris provides a lively picture of Farsetti's feverish activity, which filled
the churches and palaces of Rome with cast-makers and copyists. Farsetti
had obtained the permission of Benedict XIV agreeing to provide copies for
the Accademia Clementina of Bologna (the pope's native city) of everything
he acquired for himself.26 It may not be coincidental that Farsetti appointed
as curator of his collection a Bolognese sculptor, Bonaventura Furlani, who
specialized in that city's ancient tradition of modeling in stucco and clay,
26
The passage is worth quoting in extenso: January 17, 1753. M. l'abb Farcetti, noble
Vnitien, homme riche, beaucoup de got pour les arts et que vous aurs veu Rome,
Monsieur, fait une belle collection de modelle en sculpture (cet la partie o il s'attache le
plus); son dessain et de former Venise une gallerie o l'Ecole vnisiene puisses tudier la
bonne manire du dessain. Ceux qui sont attachs Rome luy voyent enlever ses curiosits
avec peine, mais l'argent fait ordinairement remuer les choses les plus inaccessibles. Le Pape
luy a permis de faire mouler les antiques les plus distingus et d'autres morceaux modernes
des plus renoms, avec une condition: Sa Saintet voulant enrichir l'Acadmie de Boulogne
nome l'Instituto, accorde M. l'abb Farcetti 6,000 cus pour entrer dans la depance ncessaire pour cette operation, au moyen de laquelle il sera aublig de fournir une figure jette
en pltre de tous les moules qu'il aura fait faire pour aitre transporte dans laditte Accadmie
de Boulogne, tous frs fait; cela yra environ a une sinquantaine de morceaux; on ne voit
prsentement que des mouleurs rependus dans tous les endrois de Rome, tant dans les glises
que dans les palais. Je n'ay l'honneur de vous faire ce detail, Monsieur, que pour vous dire
que je vien de faire aussy une petite convention avec ce zell amateur et qui et pour le bien
de lAcadmie: il ma demand la permission de fair mouler la figure de Germanicus, dont le
marbre ait dans la gallerie de Versailles. Je luy ay fait sentir combien le devois aitre jaloux que
rien ne se fit dans l'Acadmie qui pt tendre aucun domage, bien au contraire tendre l'ogmentation de son intrest. Tout tant bien considr qu'il n'y auriot aucun danger en accordent ce service, cela vous vaudra la permission aussy d'avoir un pltre de la belle figure du
Bernin de le tems pressoit pour ce dterminer, ce qui m'a empch de vous prvenir pour en
attendre votre permission. Nous avons deux pltres de cette statue; on ne touchera
pas celle qui decore l'appartement; le tout s'excutera avec beaucoup d'attention . . .
Anatole de Montaiglon, ed., Correspondance des directeurs de l'Acadmie de France a Rome
avec les surintendants des batiments, 18 vols., Paris 18881908, X, pp. 434 f. The correspondence of the directors of the French Academy contains many references to casts and copies
of works by Bernini, including an attempt in 1740 by the artist's descendants to sell the
statue of Truth, left to them in perpetuity, to the King (IX, 419, 422). On Farsetti,
Benedict, and Bologna, see also Francis Haskell, and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique.
The Lure of Classical Sculpture 15001900, New Haven and London 1982, p. 85.
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27
Eugenio Riccmini, Vaghezza e furore. La scultura del Settecento in Emilia, Bologna
1977, p. 136.
28
Barberini and Gasparri, eds., 1994 (see n. 12), p. 116.
29
A full appreciation of this culture of casts and copies after the antique is provided by
Haskell and Penny 1982 (see n. 26).
30
Anne L. Poulet, and Guilhem Scherf, Clodion 1738-1814, exhib. cat., Paris 1992,
pp. 1258; for Canova see Walker in Wardropper et al. 1998 (see n. 2), p. 27.
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page2
XXVI
* Details concerning many of the topics mentioned here will be found in the original essays on Berninis death, Lavin 1972, 1973, 1978, and subsequent related publications, 1998,
2000a, 2000b.
1
Bernini 1713, 170 f.:
Ed era s viva in lui questa fiducia, che chiamava la Santissima Humanit di Christo,
Veste dePeccatori, e perci tanto maggiormente confidava, non dover esso esser fulminato
dalla Divina vendetta, quale dovendo prima di ferir lui, passar la veste, per non lacerare linnocenza, laverebbe perdonato al suo peccato. (This trust was so alive in him that he called
the Most Holy Humanity of Christ Sinners Clothing, whence he was the more confident
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page3
1047
not to be struck by divine retribution which, having first to penetrate the garment before
wounding him, would have pardoned his sin rather than tear its innocence.)
2
At least five copies of the painted composition are known. The various versions, their
histories and attributions have been discussed by Tedaldi 1996; Gaia Bindi in Bernardini and
Fagiolo dellArco, eds., 1999, 4436, and in Pittura 1999, 76 f.; Petrucci 2001, 814. See
also n. 11 below.
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page4
1048
the Father. He also had this pious concept painted on a great canvas
which he wanted to have always facing his bed in life and in death.3
Domenico Bernini:
and he explained his thought by adding that the goodness of God being
infinite, and infinite the merit of the precious Blood of his Son, it was
an offense to these attributes to doubt Forgiveness. To this effect he had
copied for his devotion, in engraving and in paint, a marvelous design
which shows Jesus Christ on the Cross with a Sea of Blood beneath,
spilling torrents of it from his Most Holy Wounds; and here one sees the
Most Blessed Virgin in the act of offering it to the Eternal Father, who
appears above with open arms all softened by so piteous a spectacle. And
he said, in this Sea his sins are drowned, which cannot be found by
Divine justice except amongst the Blood of Jesus Christ, in the tints of
which they will either have changed color or by its merits obtained
mercy. This trust was so alive in him that he called the Most Holy
Humanity of Christ Sinners Clothing, whence he was the more confident not to be struck by divine retribution which, having first to
penetrate the garment before wounding him, would have pardoned his
sin rather than tear its innocence.4
The engraved version, also relatively large, was clearly intended to give
the composition a wider dissemination, in two forms: as an independent
3
Baldinucci 1948, 135 (transl. adapted from Baldinucci 1966, 68 f.):
Teneva egli sempre fisso un vivo pensiero della morte, intorno alla quale faceva. bene
spesso lunghi colloqui col padre Marchesi suo nipote sacerdote della Congregazione
dellOratorio nella chiesa Nuova, uomo della bont e dottrina, che nota; e con tal desiderio aspir sempre mai alla felicit di quellestremo passo, che per questo solo fine di
conseguirla dur quarantanni continovi a frequentar la divozione, che a tale effetto fanno i
padri della Compagnia di Ges in Roma; dove pure due volte la settimana si cibava del sacramento eucaristico. Accresceva le limosine, esercizio stato suo familiarissinto fino dalla prima
et. Si profondava talora nel pensiero e nel discorso dunaltissima stima e concetto che egli
ebbe sempre dellefficacia del Sangue di Cristo Redentore, nel quale (come era solito dire)
sperava di affogare i suoi peccati. A tale oggetto diseng di sua mano e poi fecesi stampare
unimmagine di Cristo Crocifisso, dalle cui mani e piedi sgorgano rivi di sangue, che formano quasi un mare e la gran Regina del Cielo, che lo sta offerendo allEterno Padre. Questa
pia meditazione fecesi anche dipingere in una gran tela, la quale volle sempre tenere in faccia al suo letto in vita e in morte.
4
Bernini 1713, 170 f.:
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page5
1049
spiegava il suo sentimento con soggiungere, che La bont di Dio essendo infinita, &
infinto il merito del prezioso Sangue del suo Figliuolo, era unoffendere quest attributi il dubitare della Misericordia. A tale effetto egli fece per sua divozione ritrarre in Stampa, & in
Pittura un maraviglioso disegno, in cui rappresentasi Gies Christo in Croce con un Mare
di Sangue sotto di esso, che ne versa a torrenti dalle sue Santissime Piaghe, e qu si vede la
Beatissima Vergine in atto di offerirlo al Padre Eterno, che comparisce di sopra colle braccia
spase, tutto intenerito a s compassionevole spettacolo: Et In questo Mare, egli diceva,
ritrovarsi affogati i suoi peccati, che non altrimente dalla Divina Giustitia rinvenir si potevano, che fr il Sangue di Gies Christo, di cui tinti haverebbono mutato colore, per
merito di esso ottenuta mercede. Ed era s viva in lui questa fiducia, che chiamava la
Santissima Humanit di Christo, Veste dePeccatori,e perci tanto maggiormente confidava,
non dover esso esser fulminato dalla Divina vendetta, quale dovendo prima di ferir lui, passar la veste, per non lacerare linnocenza, haverebbe perdonato al suo peccato.
5
Marchese 1670. In the introduction, the Precious Blood speaks to the reader:
Sangue di Gies Crocefisso al Cuore di chi legge . . . Ah che lhuomo carnale non penetra le cose superne, e che da Dio prouengono: perci farle meglio capire, linfinita carit
del Signor Iddio h ora con particolar prouedimento disposto, che da mano di divoto artefice
sia delineata lImagine del Salvatore Crocefisso, grondante Sangue n tanta copia, che se ne
formi un ampio mare, e che per mani della Beatissima Vergine Maria conforme al pio sentimento di S. Maddalene de Pazzi io sia del continuo offerto alleterno Padre favore de
peccatori, (per la cui esplicatione si composto il presente libro) affinche con tali mezzi agli
occhi dellhuomo carnale rappresentati, il tuo cuore sia pi facilmente disposto udire, e ad
ubidire suoi celesti ammaestramenti. Apri adunque lorecchio del cuore, mentre fissi locchio alla diuota imagine, leggi questi fogli.
6
Heb. 9:14:
quanto magis sanguis Christi qui per Spiritum Sanctum semet ipsum obtulit inmaculatum Deo emundabit conscientiam vestram ab operibus mortuis ad serviendum Deo viventi;
(Douay: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself
unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?)
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page6
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For the passage from Part II, Chapter 6, of the biography by Vincenzo Puccini, see n. 26
below.
7
On the stained glass window at Wettingen, dated 1590, see Anderes and Hoegger
1989, 258 f.
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soldier who, after Christ had given up the ghost, pierced the saviors side,
whereupon blood and water suddenly poured forth.11 Since Christ was already dead, the body should not have bled at all. John recognized the
double wonder the body did bleed, and not only blood but water, as well
and he took pains to record that he was himself eye witness to the miracle:
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
...
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and
he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
...
But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately
there came out blood and water.
And he that saw it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is true. And
he knoweth that he saith true; that you also may believe.
For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled. (John
19:28, 30, 3436).12
The lance wound was thus quite distinct from those inflicted by the cruWithout considering the significance of the motif, Francesco Petrucci has made the
important observation (in Petrucci 2001, 814, and in Tapi, 2003, cat. no 25) that the
painted version of the Sangue di Cristo in a private collection in Genoa actually shows the
spouts as blood and water separately, unlike other painted replicas in which they are both red
(Bernardini and Fagiolo dellArco, eds., 1999, Figs. 223, 226). Petrucci argues cogently that
this detail favors the Genoa picture, which measures 99 70 cm., as the large original
Bernini kept beside his bed, while the others are copies after the engraving. In the Eucharist
itself, of course, the wine and water are mixed, and interesting in this context is a passage in
Domenicos description of the composition, quoting the artist: . . . (Bernini) said, in this
Sea are drowned his sins, which cannot be found by Divine justice except amongst the Blood
of Jesus Christ, in the tints of which they will either have changed color or by its merits obtained mercy. (Et In questo Mare, egli diceva, ritrovarsi affogati i suoi peccati, che non
altrimente dalla Divina Giustitia rinvenir si potevano, che fr il Sangue di Gies Christo, di cui
tinti haverebbono mutato colore, per merito di esso ottenuta mercede (Bernini 1713, 170).
12
28 postea sciens Iesus quia iam omnia consummata sunt ut consummaretur scriptura
dicit sitio
...
30 cum ergo accepisset Iesus acetum dixit consummatum est et inclinato capite tradidit spiritum
...
11
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page9
1053
cifixion itself: it revealed Jesuss true nature and gave proof that his death assured the realization of the divine plan that the scripture should be
fulfilled. From the earliest Christian times the lance wound became the prototype for the mixture of water and wine in the Eucharist. The dual
constituents were also taken to signify the beginning and the end of the
sacraments, the water identified with baptism and the Church, the blood
with the Eucharist and Christ. St. Cyril and Chrysostom say, that the water
signifies baptism, which is the first beginning of the Church and the other
sacraments, and the blood represents the Eucharist, which is the end and
completion of the sacraments, to which they all refer as to their beginning
and their end. Particularly important was the idea that with the lance
wound the Old Law was succeeded by the New and Gods entire plan for
salvation was actuated. And for the Fathers of the Church the effusion of
blood and water signified that from the death and side of Christ as a second Adam sleeping on the cross, the Church was formed as Eve the spouse
of Christ.13
The chest wound is thus the source of the Eucharist par excellence, and
this explains why the ocean is formed by blood falling from only three of
Christs wounds, those of the hands and feet. The combination of blood
and water was an important factor in the association of the Eucharist with
salvific liquids generally, a notable instance in our context being Rupert of
Deutzs punning reference to the Red Sea, in his comment on the Good
Friday liturgy in his treatise on the Divine Office. Explaining why neither
blood nor water alone but both came from the side wound, and why the
34 sed unus militum lancea latus eius aperuit et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua
35 et qui vidit testimonium perhibuit et verum est eius testimonium et ille scit quia vera
dicit ut et vos credatis
36 facta sunt enim haec ut scriptura impleatur os non comminuetis ex eo.
13
. . . ut significaretur ex morte et latere Chrisiti, quasi secondi Adae dormientis in cruce,
Ecclesiam quasi Evam Christi sponsam formatam esse . . . ut ait Cyrillus e Chrysostomus,
acqua significet baptismum, qui est principium Ecclesiae et Sacramentorum caeterorum;
sanguis vero repraesentet Eucharistiam, quae omnium Sacramentorum finis est et complementim, ad quae duo quasi ad principium et finem, caetera Sacramenta omnia deducuntur.
(Lapide 18668, XVI, 621; Lapide 18761908, VI, 249, 248).
The early interpretations are conveniently summarized by Malatesta 1977, and Meehan
1985. On the earliest crucifixions depicting the theme, see Kartsonis 1994, esp. 166 f. See
also the important work by Heer 1966, who relates the Johannine tradition to the devotion
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, followed by ODonnell, 1992. The first part of John 19:34, is
quoted in the banderole in the upper part of the crossing pier niche with Berniniss sculpture of St. Longinus, in connection with which the text was discussed in a paper by
Preimesberger, 1989.
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tional nature of the sacrament is emphasized, as when Ecclesia, on the dexter side of the cross, is contrasted with Synagoga on the sinister side.20 In
some cases, the Virgin and Ecclesia might appear together, thus identifying
Mary as compassionate intercessor with the Church as the administrator of
the sacraments (Fig. 6). In one notable instance Ecclesia gathers the blood
and water in her chalice, while a personification of Charity inflicts the lance
wound (Fig. 7). The third manifestation of the Virgin associates her with
the actual function of the Church in the administration of the sacraments,
that is, Maria Sacerdos, the Virgin as Priest.21 The concept of Mary-Ecclesia
as equivalent to the consecrated male, priest, received its first, explicit formulation by the eighth century from the Pseudo-Epiphanius: equivalent to
the priest and indeed the altar, she gives Christ our celestial bread in remission of our sins.22 The principle is illustrated as a dramatic vision in a
Flemish engraving of the early seventeenth century that Bernini must have
known. Mary appears in this sacerdotal capacity, cloud-borne, kneeling before an altar and offering the chalice and wafer to God the Father and the
Holy Spirit above (Fig. 8).23 The subtle relationship between the intercessory Virgin and the priesthood with respect to the Eucharist is formulated in
the inscription that accompanies the print: Mary as intermediary offers to
God the Father what has been consecrated by the priests, that is, the virgin
445, refer to the Ecclesia type but not its relevance to the Joannine theme.) Blood and water
issue from the side wound in the Crucifixion in Duccios triptych at Hampton Court
(Shearman 1983, 96); the ecclesiological reference is here expressed through the extraordinary combination of the Crucifixion with Mariological scenes in the wings. The blood and
water motif also refers to the institutional sacrament in Bellinis Blood of the Redeemer,
National Gallery, London; the double stream from the chest wound, to which Christ gestures, is captured in a chalice by a kneeling angel (Goffen 1989, ill. 57).
20
See the examples illustrated in Seiferth 1970.
21
On this delicate and vexed subject see Marienlexikon 198894, V, 3148. In 1916 the
Holy Office forbade the use of images of Mary portraying her as a priest, and in 1927 they
forbade the devotion to Mary Virgin Priest altogether.
22
sacerdos pariter et altar quidem ferens, dedit nobis coelestem panem Christum in remissionem peccatorem (cited after Marracci 1710, 607).
23
Missaglia, et al., 1954, Fig. 102, p. 111. I have been unable to trace this MadonnaPriestess image. The inscription below (faintly legible in the bad reproduction from an
unspecified source used for Missaglias book, preserved in an album in Ss. Andrea e Claudio
dei Borgognoni in Rome) specifies that Mary offers to God her sons flesh and blood, consecrated by the priests: MARIA TANQUAM MEDIATRIX OFFERT DEO PATRI QUOD
CONSECRATUM EST A SACERDOTIB SCILICET [C]ARNEM VIRGINEAM ET
SANGUINEM PRETIOSUM FILI EIUS DOMINI NOSTRI IESU CHRISTI.
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3. The Death of Moriens and the Intercession with the Trinity of Christ and the Virgin,
stained-glass votive window. Wettingen, Switzerland.
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6. Crucifixion, showing the Virgin as advocate and Ecclesia with the Chalice
receiving the Water and Blood of the Sacrament,
reliquary plaque, Muse de Cluny, Paris (Huchard, et al., 1996, 28, 43).
8. Mary as Priest offering the Chalice of the Sacrament to the Trinity, engraving.
Brussels, Jumpers Collection (after Missaglia, et al., 1954, 102, p. 111).
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7. Christ Crucified by the Virtues, Ecclesia with the Chalice receiving Water and Blood,
Psalter, MS 54, fol. 15v. Muse Municipal, Besanon (Haussherr, ed., 19779, II, 514).
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13. Giovanni Battista Gaulli, il Baciccio, Christ and the Samaritan Woman.
Galleria Spada, Rome.
1067
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14. Bernini, bust of the Savior. San Sebastiano fuori le mura, Rome.
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flesh and blood of her son, our Lord Jesus Christ. In this context it is significant that the closest antecedent I have found for the Virgins gesture is
that of the priest, St. Dominic, in Caravaggios Madonna of the Rosary,
where it carries essentially the same meaning: Dominic receives the Rosary
from the Virgin, and offers her the devotion of the faithful (Fig. 9).
Berninis Virgin fuses all these characters in a single persona and the
symbolic chalice is replaced by Mary-Ecclesias own hands, bathed in the
humble and charitable sacrifice she shares as compassionate co-redemptress.
Berninis portrayal of the Madonna in this role was a direct visualization of
the most famous of all accounts of the Virgins role as Eucharistic conduit
in the process of salvation, Bernard of Clairvauxs sermon on the Nativity
of the Virgin, called De aquaeductu. The title itself makes the point, which
is defined explicitly in the final paragraph, to which Marchese himself
(p. 82) alludes:
But, my brother, whatsoever thou hast a mind to offer to the Lord be
sure to entrust it to Mary, so that thy gift shall return to the Giver of all
grace through the same channel by which thou didst obtain it. God of
course had the power, if He so pleased, to communicate His grace without the interposition of this Aqueduct. But he wanted to provide us with
a needful intermediary. For perhaps thy hands are full of blood (Is.
1:15) or dirtied with bribes: perhaps thou hast not like the Prophet
shaken them free from all gifts (Is. 33:15). Consequently, unless thou
wouldst have thy gift rejected, be careful to commit to Mary the little
thou desirest to offer, that the Lord may receive it through her hands, so
dear to Him and most worthy of all acceptation (1 Tim. 1:15). For
Marys hands are the very whitest of lilies; and assuredly the Divine
Lover of lilies will never complain of anything presented by His
Mothers hands that is not found among the lilies. Amen.24
24
Bernard of Clairvaux 1950, III, 305.
Caeterum quidquid illud est, quod offerre paras, Mariae commendare memento, ut
eodem alveo ad largitorem gratiae gratia redeat quo influxit.Neque enim impotens erat
Deus, et sine hoc aquaeductu infundere gratiam, prout vellet; sed tibi vehiculum voluit
providere. Forte enim manus tuae, aut sanguine plenae, aut infectae muneribus, quod non
eas ab omni munere excussisti. Ideoque [alias, itaque] modicum istud quod offerre desideras,
gratissimis illis et omni acceptione dignissimis Mariae manibus offerendum tradere cura, si
non vis sustinere repulsam. Nimirum candidissima quaedam lilia sunt: nec causabitur ille liliorum amator inter lilia non inventum, quidquid illud sit quod inter Mariae manus
invenerit. Amen. (Migne 184447, CLXXXIII, col. 448.)
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Vi offerisco, Padre eterno, il Sangue dellumanit del vostro Verbo; lofferisco voi
stesso, Diuin Verbo; lofferisco anco voi, Spirito Santo; e se manca me cosa alcuna,
lofferisco voi, Maria; accioche, lo presentiate alla Santissima Trinit. (Marchese 1670,
83)
Berninis Sangue di Cristo composition was by no means unprecedented in his respect.
The Holy Spirit as such is not represented in Filippino Lippis Intercession of Christ and the
Virgin in Munich (Lavin 1972, 165, Fig. 4), but is present by implication between the angel
and Virgin of the Annunciation flanking the central presiding figure of God the Father; the
Eucharist is alluded to in the body of Christ displayed in the predella below. Bernini also
omitted the Holy spirit in his drawing of Christ and the Virgin appealing to God the Father,
in Leipzig (Lavin 1972, 165, Fig. 3).
27
Three basic, recent works on Mellan: Praud 1988 ; Praud and Brejon de Lavergne
1988; Ficacci 1989. Mellan was also an ambitious, if elusive painter, concerning which see
Praud and Brejon de Lavergne 1988, 1720, and Ficacci 1989, 35371. On Mellans Saint
Face, his famous pice de resistance, I have contributed Lavin 2001b.
28
On Mellans beautiful renderings of Berninis designs, see the fine discussions by
Ficacci 1989, 2825, with excellent reproductions.
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form and luminosity that was Mellans great achievement, and which
Bernini appreciated in full.29
On our way back he remarked to me that a certain engraver who had
been to see him when he first arrived had never called again. I remembered that his name was Mellan. I said that he was not doing much at
present; there were others better at his profession than he; I had never
thought much of his work, for he was too preoccupied with a good line.
He replied that he had seen some wonderful engraving by him, notably
some of Signor Poussins works, of which he mentioned one of Eternal
Wisdom.30 I told the Cavaliere that M. Poussin, like myself, considered
his drawings poorly engraved, as he only tried to give a good line and
never attempted to render light and shade nor the half-tones; this was all
the easier as M. Poussins works were extraordinarily finished, considering how shaky his hand was; M. Mellan only produced a sort of shell
with no half-tones or shadows for fear of hiding the outline. The
Cavaliere said that he thought it fine and well engraved. I said there were
many in France who engraved better. I said I admired the engravings of
Marcantonio, who had copied painting with such skill; the paintings of
Rubens were being well engraved at the moment. He asked me whether
Chantelou 1985, 280 f.
Nous en revenant, il ma dit dans ton carrosse, quil navait point revu un certain graveur
qui 1etait venu voir ds le commencement. Je me suis souvenu que ce graveur est Melan. Je
lui ai dit que prsentement il travaille peu, y en ayant dautres plus habiles dans cette profession, que sa gravure moi ne mavait jamais plu, quil ne songeait qu faire de beaux traits.
Il ma reparti que nanmoins il avait grav merveilleusement bien, quil avait vu, entre autres
de lui, deux ou trois pices du signor Poussin qui lui semblaient admirables, principalement
une Sapience ternelle. Je lui ai dit que M. Poussin, aussi bien que moi, avait trouv ses dessins
faiblement gravs, nayant song qu ne faire quun trait sa gravure, au lieu de penser
imiter les ombres et les lumires, et les demi-teintes, ce qui tait fort ais, pour ce que les
dessins de M. Poussin taient extraordinairement achevs, vu sa mauvaise main, quil navait
donn a ces estampes que 1corce sans demi-teintes et sans ombres au degr quil et fallu,
et cela peur de corrompre ses beaux traits. Le Cavalier a reparti que cela lui avait sembl bien
grav et beau. Jai reparti que nous avions prsent ici des gens qui gravaient beaucoup
mieux; que jestimais la gravure qui tait celle de Marc-Antoine, lequel avait si bien imit la
peinture; que de ce temps-ci les estampes daprs Rubens avaient t bien graves. Il ma demand sil y avait quelquun ici qui gravait bien leau-forte. Je lui ai dit que ctait une
gravure rserve aux grands matres, qui quelquefois gravaient eux-mmes leurs dessins;
quAnnibal Carrache en avait grav quelques-uns, comme une Samaritaine et quelques
Vierges. Il ma dit quil en doutait fort. (Chantelou 1885, 221)
30
See Preaud and Brejon de Lavergne 1988, 146f. no. 189, ill. p. 149.
29
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furcated beard; wearing a tunic, with drapery thrown like a carapace over
the left shoulder; gesturing with the right hand to bless the bread on the
table before him, thus initiating the institution of the Eucharist, but also
turning the palm against the Judas who recoils on the opposite side of the
table at his left.
However he may have become aware of it, Mellan seems to have appropriated Berninis concept for a work of his own, an engraved bust of Christ
inscribed with the artists name, the date, 1652, and with a phrase from the
Psalms adjuring the Lords saints to adore him: ADORATE DOMINVM
OMNES SANCTI EIVS (O worship the LORD, all ye his saints) (Fig.
11).35 The inscription and both texts to which it alludes, enjoin to the observer to adore Christ as do his saints, giving the image a specific
eschatological implication that impels the observer from this world toward
the next. The head and shoulders are turned diagonal to the picture plane
to create a powerful movement directed outward and upward toward the
right, culminating in the gesture of the blessing hand. Berninis appreciation
of Mellan takes on particular significance when it is realized that the engravers version of the blessing Christ transforms the purely ritual nature of
the Last Supper relief into a passionate expression of compassionate suffering, and an invocation of divine intervention on behalf of those who risk
perdition on the sinister side of the Saviour.
Berninis understanding of this meaning in Mellans image explains in
part his adaptation of its action for the figure of Christ in his portrayal of
the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes engraved by Spierre for Olivas
commentaries on selected books of the bible, published in 1677 (Fig. 12).36
The key to the meaning of the scene is given in the words from John 6:12
inscribed on the stone (the Cathedra Petri of the Prince of the apostles) on
which Christ sits. Having fully nourished the multitude, Jesus instructs his
disciples: COLLIGITE [quae superaverunt] FRAGMENTA NE PEREANT (Gather up the fragments [that remain], that nothing be lost.). The
subject is therefore not strictly the miracle of the multiplication, but Christ
35
Praud 1988, 44, No. 17, ill. The text is an amalgam of verses from two psalms: Psalm
95:9 : ADORATE DOMINUM in decore sanctuarii paveat a facie eius omnis terra (O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.) and Psalm 30:24:
diligite Dominum OMNES SANCTI EIUS fideles servat Dominus et retribuet his qui satis
operantur superbiam. (O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the
faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.)
36
Oliva 167779.
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directing the apostles to their mission to save the souls of those who have
not eaten of the precious food, lest they perish. Olivas commentaries explaining the meaning of the selected biblical texts were exemplary
fulfillments of that mission, as if in accord with Augustines comment on
Johns account:
Wherefore nothing is without meaning; everything is significant, but requires one that understands: for even this number of the people fed,
signified the people that were under the law . . . And what were those
fragments, but things which the people were not able to eat? We understand them to be certain matters of more hidden meaning, which the
multitude are not able to take in. What remains then, but that those
matters of more hidden meaning, which the multitude cannot take in,
be entrusted to men who are fit to teach others also, just as were the
apostles?37
It was no accident that Berninis favorite painter in his late years,
Giovanni Battista Gaulli, il Baciccio, in turn adopted the Christ figure from
the engraving for his rendering of Christs conversation with the Samaritan
woman at the well (Fig. 13). Offering the woman the life-giving waters
from his well that quench thirst forever, Christ points to the city of Samaria,
where she takes his message and many if its people were converted. From
the earliest Christian times the episode had been understood as referring to
the Eucharist, and hence the meaning is essentially the same as that of the
Feeding of the Five Thousand.38
John 4: 1314, 16, 2830, 3942:
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water
37
The relationship of the frontispiece to Olivas text was noted by Tedaldi in Pittura
1999, 141f. Augustine, On the Gospel of St. John, Treatise 24, 6 (Augustine 1888, 159).
Nihil igitur vacat, omnia innuunt, sed intellectorem requirunt: nam et iste numerus
pasti populi, populum significabat sub Lege constitutum. . . . Quae sunt autem illa fragmenta, nisi quae populus non potuit manducare? Intelliguntur ergo quaedam secretiora
intelligentiae, quae multitudo non potest capere. Quid ergo restat, nisi ut secretiora intelligentiae, quae non potest capere multitudo, illis credantur qui idonei sunt et alios docere,
sicut erant Apostoli? (Migne 184477, Vol. 35, col. 1595).
38
It is noteworthy that this commanding Christ-type appears again in Baciccios depiction of Christ in the House of Simon at Burghley House (as noted by Silvia Bruno in
Bernardini and Fagiolo dellArco, eds., 1999, 440 f.). The Eucharistic implication is the
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shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life . . . 16 Jesus saith
unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither . . . 28 The woman
then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the
men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is
not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out . . . 39 And many of the
Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman,
which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the
Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry
with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed
because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe,
not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know
that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
During these years Baciccio was hard at work on the massive fresco decoration of the Ges, largely under the tutelage of Bernini and the patronage
of Oliva.
Everything we know about Bernini in general and about his preparations for death in particular suggest that he saw himself in exactly the same
kind of missionary role as an artist that Oliva had as Jesuit preacher and
scriptural exegete. Oliva himself said as much concerning Berninis theological concern and acumen: discourse with the Cavaliere on spiritual
matters was a professional challenge, like going to a thesis defense. 39
It seems clear that the image of the other-directed Christ focused on the
Eucharist became emblematic of Berninis sense of his mission, both private
same. Christ gestures protectively to the Magdalene who anoints his foot, in explicit anticipation of her act of devotion at the Lamentation:
And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.
. . . She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. (Mark 14:6,8).
This picture is in fact a pendant to Baciccios Three Maries at the Sepulcher in the
Fitzwilliam Museum. See Brigstocke and Somerville 1995, 72 f.; Weston-Lewis, ed., 1998,
260 f. (where the Burghley House painting is reproduced in reverse).
39
E come che ei f solito, molti, e molti anni prima di sua morte trattenersi spessissimo
in continui discorsi con dotti, e singolari Religiosi, tanto sinfiammava in questi sentimenti,
e tanto alto ascendeva la sottigliezza del suo ingegno, che ne stupivano quegli, come unhuomo, per altro dedito alle lettere, potesse molte volte non solo giungere alla penetrazione pi
intima di altissimi Misterii, m motivarne dubbii, e renderne ragioni, come se sua vita con
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and public. And as such, it played an important role in the genesis of the
third work, his very last, that Bernini created in pursuit of a good death in
the tradition of the Ars moriendi: a marble bust of the Savior, begun the year
before his death in 1680 (Fig. 14). The original of this famous, quasi-iconic image, known from preparatory studies and many replicas and variants,
was long lost. The biographers report that Bernini left the sculpture to his
friend Queen Christina of Sweden, as a token of their mutual esteem. It
was noted in Queen Christinas palace by Nicodemus Tessin, Jr. on his visit
to Rome in 168788. When Christina died in 1689 she left the bust to
Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi (167689), and it is last recorded in a 1713
inventory of the Palazzo Odescalchi. The sculpture, including the Sicilian
jasper base recorded in the inventory, recently came to light in the sacristy
of the chapel of Pope Clement XI Albani (170021), in San Sebastiano
fuori le mura.40
An astonishingly innovative work, the Savior is portrayed in the heroic
manner of ancient, deific portrait busts, rounded at the bottom, hollowed
at the back, and raised on a base. The body is shown waist length with both
arms included, but with the drapery so arranged as to dissimulate the amputation of the torso and hide the left hand.41 Christs body seems to
continue beyond and within its physical limits. The massive figure was up-
dotta havesse nelle Scuole. Diceva il P. Gio. Paolo Oliva Generale della Compagnia di Gies,
che Nel discorrere col Cavaliere di cose spirituali gli faceva di mestiere di unattenzione tale, come
se andar dovesse ad una Conclusione. (Bernini 1713, 171.)
(He was wont for many, many years before his death often to discourse at length with
learned and singular priests; he became so inflamed with these ideas and the subtlety of his
thought ascended so high, they were amazed how a man who was not even a scholar could
often not only penetrate the loftiest mysteries, but also propose questions and provide answers concerning them, as if he had spent his life in the Schools. Father Giovanni Paolo
Oliva, General of the Company of Jesus, said that discourse with the Cavaliere on spiritual
matters was a professional challenge, like going to a thesis defense.)
40
Cucco 2001, 119, where the connection with Bernini was overlooked; Fagiolo
dellArco 2002, 71, where it is described as attributed to Bernini.
41
Berninis two-armed Christ may have a precedent in a bust of the Savior by Agnolo
Poli, dated 1498, in the Museo Civico in Pistoia, which includes the arms in comparable gestures; but both arms are later restorations. (Morello and Gerhard Wolf, eds., 2000, 242 f.)
Bernini had employed such dissimulating drapery before, in the busts of Francesco I
dEste and Louis XIV; there, however, fluttering swaths had served as flying carpets to carry
aloft the cuirassed busts of the monarchs, whereas here the magical drapery is also Christs
own garment.
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lifted at the base on the extended hands of two angels of gilt wood, kneeling on a high podium, also of gilt wood. Overall, the monument stood
some three meters high, a miraculous, superhuman vision presented to the
viewer by a pair of divine messengers.
Although profoundly indebted to Mellans image, Berninis Savior is
more sublime than pathetic in conception. The torso is frontal and the
right hand blesses, in the manner traditional with bust-length images of the
Salvator Mundi, and the figure is comparatively exalted, even austere. On
the other hand, there is no overt reference to the theme of world dominion,
such as the globe surmounted by a cross frequently carried by the Salvator
Mundi. Instead of Mellans uni-directional, diagonal thrust, Christs head
is turned to the right and slightly upward, while the right arm reaches across
the chest in a gesture that echoes Christs action in the narrative reference
to the Eucharist in the Oliva engraving. The result is a powerful contrapposto that is, to my knowledge, unprecedented in an isolated image of the
Savior.
The thick, voluminous, enveloping drapery seems almost literally to materialize Berninis luminous metaphor of Christs humanity as the shielding
garment that would assure the sinners pardon. Christs visage is a distant reflection of the inscrutable justice decreed by his father from on high. The
beneficent, shielding gesture of the Saviors right hand abhors the sinister
threat from his lower left. At the center, half-hidden under the drapery,
Christs left hand presses to his chest in allusion to the wound of Longinus,
the wound of the Eucharist the gesture he makes when he is shown appealing to his Father in depictions of intercession, and when he acts as
executant of the divine will at the Last Judgment.42 It is clear that Berninis
chiastic image is a deliberate conflation of the three traditionally distinct aspects of Christs nature, savior, intercessor, and judge.
The ultimate principle of this triune salvific process is alluded to in the
central gesture of the partially hidden left hand. Precisely analogous to the
mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit, the central person in the Trinity, in
the Sangue di Cristo, it refers to the quintessential paradox of the Deus
For an instance of the former see Filippino Lippis Intercession of Christ and the Virgin
mentioned in n. 26 above; for the latter, Michelangelos Christ in the Last Judgment.
42
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absconditus whom those who have eyes to see may recognize in the sacrament to which every altar is devoted.
Aftermath
Although there is no trace of Berninis bust of the Savior after 1713 until
it reappeared two years ago, it had a considerable legacy following his
death.43 Beginning a decade later it became the model for the next generation of sculptors who in the 1690s were charged with executing a series of
reliefs based on Berninis bust, which had been adopted as the insignium of
a vast charitable enterprise instituted by the great reforming pope Innocent
XII (Fig. 15). The Apostolic Hospice of the Invalid Poor was an extraordinary invention, intended to concentrate all the manifold philanthropies of
Rome in one universal institution intended to gather together and provide
for the physical and spiritual needs of all the citys homeless poor. The reliefs of the Saviour were placed on the facades of various buildings
throughout the city to indicate to one and all that income from those properties was ascribed to the hospital by the donors, among them the pope
himself. Inaugurated in 1692, the project was supposed to become self-supporting over time, but despite much effort and large investments it proved
financially unsustainable. There were also objections in principle to the idea
of depriving the indigent of his freedom, depriving the mendicant of his
God-given right to invoke charity, and depriving the donor of his opportunity to disperse his charity as he wished. The Hospice failed within a few
years. It was, however, the direct forerunner and inspiration for still larger
poorhouses and social welfare programs that have continued, often struggling with the same problems, to the present day.
Bernini was linked in two ways to the Hospice enterprise, which had
been promoted for decades by leading social reformers from the Oratorian
order. The man who formulated the final project and became its administrator was none other than the artists beloved nephew, Father Francesco
Marchese. Marchese had had a distinguished intellectual and ecclesiastical
career since the time of the Sangue di Cristo, becoming Apostolic Preacher
to Innocent XI in 1676. Profoundly aware of its significance and pertinence
to the institutions mission, Marchese was no doubt instrumental in the
adoption of Berninis image as the Hospices emblem. The later institutions
43
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inspired by the Hospice were still larger and more ambitious, but they were
certainly not grander: Innocent XII designated to house the homeless no
less than his own, then unoccupied, official residence as the bishop of
Rome, the palace at the cathedral church of San Giovanni in Laterano. The
choice was not only a demonstration of the popes social concerns, it was
also providential, iconographically speaking. Images of Christ preserved at
the Lateran, reputed to be authentic, miraculous records of the Saviors features, were among the most renowned and venerated in all Christendom
so venerable that Bernini may have intended to evoke them in any case. But
he was also linked to the hospice project directly at its very inception, having been charged as early as 1676 by Innocent XI to restore the Lateran
palace to that purpose. For all these reasons, and considering the grandiose
scale and triumphal presentation of the bust-monument, I suspect that
Bernini from the outset had the Hospice in mind and the prospect of an
eventual permanent installation in the Lateran palace as the artists own
ultimate act of charity, in imitation of Christ.
Domenico Bernini reports that his father left to Innocent XI a painting
by Baciccio representing Berninis sculpture of the Savior.44 A splendid, recently rediscovered painting by Baciccio is closely related to Berninis last
work, although it is certainly not a copy of the sculpture (Fig. 16).45 The
composition amply displays Baciccios remarkable talent and inventiveness
within the framework established by his mentor,46 and is remarkable in our
context for two reasons. With the head and the benedictional gesture of the
right hand turned toward the right, Baciccio clearly reprises, in reverse, the
uni-directional action and emotional intensity of the image by Mellan that
had inspired Bernini. At the same time, Baciccio adopts and transposes the
essential meaning of Berninis contrapposto. Christ looks up in an ecstatic
appeal to his Father, as he often does expiring on the cross; with his left
hand he becomes the Salvator Mundi displaying the cross as he mounts it
44
Bernini 1713,176:
In Testamento lasci al Papa un bellissimo Quadro di mano di Gio: Battista Gaulli rappresentante il Salvadore, sua ultima opera in Marmo.
45
On Baciccios Salvator Mundi, see the entry by Ceclia Grilli in Fagiolo dellArco, et al.,
eds., 1999, 208 f., no. 49 (last years of the seventeenth century).
46
This is also the attitude of Tedaldi 1996, who goes so far as to reverse the relationship,
and Petrucci in Fagiolo dellArco, et al., eds., 1999, 5968.
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page38
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atop the globe. In adapting Berninis creation, Baciccio has, in effect created a new theme, in which Christ appears as both intercessor pleading with
his Father on behalf of humanity, and as savior of the world by virtue of his
sacrifice.
LavinXXVI.Revised:CHAPTER227/1/0913:35Page39
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_____ The Life of Bernini, transl. Catherine Enggass, University Park, PA, 1966
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XXVII
FEEL I must first forewarn you that I will not today be speaking directly to the general theme of court art, at least not in the sense in which the
notion of court art is generally conceived in the period called, in stylistic
terms, the Age of the Baroque, in political terms the Age of Absolute
Monarchy. That is, court art as quintessentially elite, magnificent, magniloquent, and extravagant in terms of form as well as cost. Instead, I want to
talk about the other side of the medal, a phrase I have borrowed from the
title of one of the chapters in Richard Krautheimers magisterial book, The
Rome of Alexander VII 16551667, published in 1985. The phrase alludes,
ironically, as we shall see, to the splendid series of portrait medals the pope
regularly issued to advertise and commemorate on their reverses his many
projects for embellishment of the city (Fig. 1). My referent derives from
what might be called the inverse of the main point of Krautheimer s book,
which was to demonstrate how Alexander made the city of Rome itself into
a grandiose work of international court art, masking the reality of life in the
city on the other side of the medal. By reconsidering two important texts
one long well-known, the other newly discovered and published by
Krautheimer himself I want to suggest that the reverse actually had another aspect, intimately related to the obverse but positive in effect, and
with a no less important legacy for the future of Europe.
* Except for a few references given in the notes, the material on which this essay is based
will be found in the following works: Krautheimer 1985, Brauer and Wittkower 1931, Lavin
1997, Lavin 2000, Lavin 2005.
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in his own hand, publishing the many passages that deal specifically with
art and artists. Alexander surely took as a model the personal but much
more formal memoires, Commentaries on the Memorable Things that affected his Times (Commentarii rerum memorabilium que temporibus suis
contigerunt), of his Sienese compatriot, Pius II. The private quality of
Alexanders chronicle is truly extraordinary and, as far as I am aware, contains a record of intimate thoughts, feelings and activities expressed by no
previous pope. Especially significant in our context are the astonishingly
numerous entries that concern Gian Lorenzo Bernini as his constant companion, consulting and planning together in weekly, sometimes even more
frequent meetings. This degree of personal relationship between pope and
artist was also without precedent.
Krautheimer emphasised that not only was the pontiff mad for architecture, but also that his madness involved the whole city. His plans for
improvement were not only directed at the most obvious places and monuments of Rome, but also extended to the suburbs, the so-called
disabitato, to use Krautheimers term, even if they were often populated by
the poor, the homeless, and vagabond Gypsies. The purpose was not only
to rationalise and embellish the chaotic web of medieval streets, but also to
resolve the growing problems of traffic created by that ultramodern vehicle
of transport, the horse-drawn carriage. The global aspect of this conception
showed itself in many subtle ways, including the maps of Roma alessandrina, characterised by accuracy and unprecedented completeness, or the lists
of commissions that were compiled and then reproduced in collections of
illustrated engravings. These lists include the projects that were not carried
out, giving an idea of what Alexander would have done if he had lived
longer and been able to disperse more money, and testifying at the same
time to the colossal amount of work that he did realise. There is perhaps no
better indication of both the dedication and comprehensiveness of
Alexanders vision than the fact that he kept for study in his private chambers a model of the city. It is interesting to speculate where his miniature
Rome fits in the history of city models; it was, I suppose, as complete and
accurate as the maps of Alexanders Rome, and it is the first model I can recall that was made for the purpose of urban planning. Evidently, the pope
not only thought about the city in a modern, comprehensive way; he also
had a modern, comprehensive way of representing it a new kind of
three-dimensional urban consciousness, one might say.
Krautheimer also considered Alexanders non-permanent architecture,
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that is, his planning of civic piazzas and public spaces of all types: markets,
theatrical stages, ephemeral spectacles, gardens, streets and tree lined avenues, every element pertinent to the so-called built environment, to use
the modem term for this comprehensive vision. In describing the popes attitude toward antique ruins, Krautheimer shows that, even if sometimes the
classical works were treated cavalierly, the principle objective was to integrate them into the modern city to the point that even these could
contribute ad maiorem gloriam Dei, in a manner that was deliberately theatricalthat is, on the model of contemporary scenography with a view
to impressing the distinguished visitor who arrived at the main entry to
Rome, coming from the north, and progressed through the city to the
Vatican. In the next to last chapter Krautheimer turns to the other side of
the medal, describing the decrepit and unkempt aspects of Rome, the aspects that illustrious visitors were not supposed to see. Alexandrian Rome
was beautiful for those who could appreciate it, but for many it was not a
very nice place to live.
If all this sounds rather Baroque, this was the intention of Krautheimers
work. The objective appears dramatically in the last chapter when he presents the guiding principle and what he conceived to be the political
motivation underlying Alexanders urban ambitions. The victories of the
Protestants and the rise in the industrial and mercantile power of the North,
coupled with the establishment and hegemony over European affairs of the
great national states, especially France, Spain and the Hapsburgs, dramatically reduced the effective power of the Catholic church. Faced with this
situation, the pope adopted a policy of over-compensation, aggrandising
and embellishing the physical power of the Holy City to make up for its loss
of political power. He sought to convince the world that the papacy remained a factor to be reckoned with by transforming Rome into a great
modern city, or at least a semblance of one. Implicit in Krautheimers view
is the fundamental paradox that the modern city was born, not from a fundamental transformation of mentality, but rather from a sort of deception.
In art-historical terms, the effect is to instrumentalise the Baroque, turning the style into an artifice of propaganda and representation, rather than
the authentic expression of a new world vision. As the idea of modernity
might suggest (note that I do not use the term modernity in an ironic sense
here), this concept of the Baroque as an artificial, bombastic and excessive
reaction to the challenge thrown down by the Protestants the Baroque
as art of rhetoric, exhibitionism, and theatrics coincides with the equal-
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ly traditional concept of seventeenth-century politics as the arrogant selfrepresentation of absolutism. Alexanders plan of urban renewal was conceived of the lite, by the lite, and for the lite.
Lorenzo Pizzatis Critique
I submit that there is another way of understanding Alexanders great
new urban development program, an ulterior motive not alternative but
complementary and I would say almost subversive to the traditional view
which might explain why, although clearly defined and publicly announced, it has been virtually ignored in this context. After all, the popolo
minuto of Rome represented a huge moral, economic and political force,
and in this sense Rome was no different from all the other cities in Europe,
where awareness of and attention to existing social problems had long been
on the increase. In a measure, Krautheimer grasped these developments, at least to the extent that his chapter on the reverse of the medal was
based on a document to which he was the first to call attention and whose
revelatory value he fully appreciated. The document in question was what
we would call a white paper, written between 1656 and 1659 by a certain
Lorenzo Pizzati from Pontremoli, a minor administrative functionary
otherwise quite without historical significance. Pizzati describes the execrable conditions under which day-to-day life in the city was lived,
outlining the piteous state of the less privileged strata of the population, and
proposing drastic and utopian measures for alleviating their misery. His call
to reform is the first text I would like to submit as testimony in my appeal
for reconsideration of the significance of modem Baroque Alexandrine
Rome. Here are a few of Pizzati s often awkward and ungrammatical complaints and recommendations:
they should avoid evicting from small rooms, garrets and holes carved
into walls, without due notice . . . cultivated and correctly behaved people (like the undersigned). No one should be obliged to sleep in damp
or malodorous lodgings, in unsuitable company, on a butchers counter
or nude on the floor of a church or shop. And no decent man, particularly if he has been presented at Court [aulicus], should be given a damp
ground floor room, right next to the road, or in an absurd hole under
exposed roof beams, full of cracks and overrun by spiders, mice, scorpions and lizards . . . All of this happens because buildings that have been
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begun are not finished, while there are houses, palaces and pious institutions that are left empty.1 In order to help those who cannot find
lodgings, Pizzati suggests that . . . poor bishops and priests and other
. . . educated men should be housed in the uninhabited rooms of the
Oratorio and the Sapienza (Romes oratory and university). Even the
Lateran palace where your Holiness does not reside, could be turned
into a sort of residential hostel with a communal kitchen and pantry for
bishops and other needy and deserving people; the uninhabited parts
of the Quirinale and the Vatican buildings could be used in the same
way. Consequently, these huge factories [istae machinae] would be better preserved, instead of gradually falling into ruin through disuse, and
above all your Benevolence would procure better air and better living
conditions for us. Poor widows and abandoned wives could also be sheltered in disused palaces and church buildings, where they may find
refuge from corruption; formally, hospices and hospitals for beggars and
lodgings for penitent prostitutes should be set up and provided.
For Krautheimer, this document simply revealed a substratum of the reality which Alexander VIIs urban renewal program addressed as a sort of
cosmetic panacea for the benefit of visiting dignitaries. The improvements,
however, were far more than merely decorative, they were conceived also to
have equally important practical and beneficial effects, no less for the lowly
inhabitants than for the exalted visitors to the city.
Berninis Piazza and Porticoes (Fig. 4)
A primary testimonial to this fact, the second of the texts I would like to
submit, is, by contrast, one of the most important documents in all of art history, well-known to anyone interested in Baroque Rome, but still not well
enough appreciated in my view. I refer to the famous memorial concerning
Alexanders nascent project for the vast piazza in front of St. Peters, written by
Bernini in 165759 at the same time that Pizzati composed his diatribe.
Here the artist defines his concept or rather philosophy, or theology, or soAronberg Lavin 1994. Merz thinks that the report of the Genoese ambassador in
Rome, 166369, Il papa ha tutta Roma di legname in Camera distintissima e curiosissima,
come quello che non ha maggior sfera che di abbilire la Citt, otherwise undocumented, is
a metaphor rather than a real model (very unlikely, given the wording): Jrg Martin Merz,
review of Habel, in Kunstchronik, March 2004, 13941, esp. 141, col. b.
1
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ciology of the form and substance of the largest, most difficult and most
conspicuous of all Alexander VIIs undertakings. It was a crucial juncture in the
process that brought to completion the new centrepiece of Rome and the
church, begun a century and a half before. Bernini presented this brief in response to the many criticisms of his project for reasons of function, form and
finances. I quote some passages relevant to my theme.
In the year 1655, when Cardinal Fabio Chigi was preoccupied with the succession to the Throne of Peter, the incessant prayers of the Church and his
applause of the people gave birth to an Alexander. From this exalted position,
the pious prince did not lose sight of the needs of the creatures subject to his
greatness, nor was he attracted by that majesty, which being near to heaven
and to the angels, distances him from the earth and men. Indeed, with a
benevolent eye, he saw and contemplated the general miseries of the poor and
determined to alleviate them, remembering that as Fabio Chigi he had illustrated by example, now, as Alexander he must kindle with actions, the prince
being in this similar to the sun whose rays not only illuminate but also give
warmth.2 He immediately applied to the ills opportune remedies, and com2
Bibl. Vat., Cod. Chig. H II 22, fols. 1059v. The text was first published by Brauer and
Wittkower 1931, 70 n. 1, who date the statement 165960, whereas Krautheimer 1985,
174, gives 16578. It is indicative of the attitude the present essay is intended to counterbalance Brauer and Wittkowers omission of Berninis opening passage to this point, which
articulates the underlying motive for the project. The opening sentences were included in a
transcription published by Del Pesco 1988, 635, but without including other passages
omitted by Brauer and Wittkower. What follows here is the complete text, with passages
omitted by Brauer and Wittkower indicated by italics.
Preoccupava con il merito il Cardinal Fabio Chigi il Trono di Pietro, quando nellanno
1655 le Orationi incessanti della Chiesa, e glapplausi del Popolo partorirono un Alessandro.
Dall Altezza di questo posta non perd di uista il pietosissimo Prencipe le Creature soggette alla
sua grandezza, ne sinvagh di quella Maest, che per essere uicina al Cielo, et agli Angeli, lo rende
lontano dalla Terra e dagli huomini,. m con una occhiata benefica nell istesso tempo e vidde e
contempl le Communi miserie e saccinse sollevarle, riccordevole che se come Fabio Chigi
haueua illustrato collesempio, hora come Alessandro doueua riscaldare con le operationi, essendo
il Prencipe per questo assimigliato ai sole che con i raggi non solamente illumina, m riscalda.
Applic subito ai mali glopportuni remedii, e compassionando la povert, che non solo
priva dimpiego errava vagabonda per la Citta, ma languiva oppressa da una carestia, che
quanta pi affligeva il Popolo, tanto maggiormente doveva far spiccare la sua piet, si volse
a distribuire grandma quantit doro, benche la scarsezz dell erario fosse un argine opposto al
torrente di questa devota munificenza. Portato il nostro liberalissimo Prencipe dalla piena
Carit ben previdde, che laprire semplicemente a beneficia commune i Tesori era un fomentare lotio, et un nudrire i vitii. Onde quellistesso antidoto che sapplicava per la salute
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passionate with the poor who, not only wandered unemployed about the city
like vagabonds, but languished in oppression by a famine which the more it
afflicted the people the more it brought forth his pity, he turned to distributing large amounts of gold, although the scarcity of groin placed a levee against
this torrent of pious munificence.
poteva essere un tossico pi potente per avvelenarla. Cos dunque represse quella fiamma
di Carit, non per estinguerla, ma acci maggiormente pro de suoi sudditi si dilatasse,
quindi pens dar principia ad una gran fabrica, mediante la quale seccitasse limpiego nei
vagabondi, e si sovvenisse con il giro di grossa somma di denaro aIle correnti necessit.
Aggionse stimoli al pio desiderio di S. Santita linclinatione al fabricare, e lintelligenza, che
al pari di qualsivoglia Architetto teneva in questa professione, perch sin da fanciullo era solita quelle hore, nelle quali per lo piu si nausea ogni fatica, impiegarle in questi, et in altri
virtuosi trattenimenti, quasi sin dallora Iddio che lo destinava all Imperio supremo landasse
habilitando in tutte quelle attioni, che possono rendere un Prencipe glorioso.
Determinata dunque per sollievo commune la fabrica, lanimo di N. Signore imbeuuto
sin dalle fascie di piet e totalmente disinteressato verso se stesso, non seppe rivolgersi ad
innalzare s le mine di molte habitationi magnifici Palazzi, ne restringere in un Giardino
solo le delitie hereditarie di pi famiglie, ma risolse di principiare una mole, che ridondasse
ad honore di Dio, e de suoi Santi, et benefitio commune.
Fr la fertilissima miniera di machine heroiche che Alessandro racchiudeva nella mente,
la Piet, e la magnificenza quasi che irresolute non sapevano scieglerne la pi grande al fine
giudicarono, che il fare un Portico alla Chiesa di S. Pietro fosse un opera conveniente alla
Piet dun Pontefice, e propria alla grandezza dun Alessandro. Queste gara gli suggerivano
limpresa esser stata stimata cos degna, che molti suoi Antecessori serano impegnati sino
fame i disegni, m che atteriti dalla sua grandezza, e disperando di sopravivere all opera,
che poteva assorbire pi Pontificati ne trascurarono leffettuatione, e con permissione particolare dIddio che haveva eletto un animo maggiore di quest opera per pi gloriosamente
terminarla.
E perche i due fini principali delle fabriche sono lutilit, e lornamento, nello stabilito
disegno queste unitamente concorrevano. Imperci che si vedeva situata la Chiesi di S. Pietro
in una Piazza cos grande esposta continuamente i raggi del sole, e senza alcun riparo
dallimpeto delle pioggie, siche quel Tempio dove per adorare il Sepolcro de SS. Apostoli concorrono schiere numerose de devoti era poco menD che abbandonato per esseme
impratricabile laccesso, oltre che le continue funtioni Pontificie si rendevano agl assistenti
scommodissime per non haver le Carrozze, et i pedoni il necessario ricovero.
Secondariamente pareva essere inconveniente, che stasse quasi che sepolto in una Piazza fuor
dogni regola dArchitettura il Tempio di S. Pietro, che per la sua mole, e bellezza stimato
un prodigio dell arte, per la cui perfettione hanno stimato tanti poppoli vera ricchezza limpouerire per adornarlo, non inuidiando all piet della primitiua Chiesa in offerire al suo Sepolcro
gi che non gl era permisso i suoi piedi inuolontario tributo i patrimonij.
S aggiungeua che il formare un Portico, non solo apportava maggior bellezza e decoro
al Tempio ma veniva a coprire molte imperfettioni di quello, essendo che la facciata che per
se stessa di forma quatta haverebbe spiccata, et in certo modo si sarebbe sollevata sopra se
stessa.
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Our most liberal Prince, inclined to complete charity, saw clearly that
simply to open the treasuries for the common good was a fomentation
to idleness and a nourishment of vice. He was thus limited in his charity but also realised that by giving money to the needy, he was
inadvertently encouraging them in idleness and vice. Whence the very
antidote that was applied for health, could be a more powerful toxin to
poison it. He thus suppressed the flame of charity, not to extinguish it,
but to insure that it be spent to the greater benefit of his subjects,
whence he thought to begin a great structure, through which the home-
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other factor that stands out is the projects practical value in another sense,
not as a source for financial benefit nor for the administrative use of the
clergy, but rather as a work of charity aimed at benefiting poor and unemployed Roman citizens. The Piazza San Pietro project served as a
cornerstone in the construction campaign that aimed at solving the same
problems mentioned by Pizzati; the response, in an entirely modern spirit
of social welfare, was to provide work for the poor as the most efficient use
of public charity funds at the service of the public welfare.
I believe that this last consideration, which we can call the social responsibility of the project, could have directly affected the design of the
colonnades. Besides the oval plan, perhaps the most conspicuous and frequently noted aspect falls completely within the stylistic paradox implicit in
the subtitle of this series of lectures, Baroque art and the classical ideal. I
refer to the exceptional simplicity and sobriety of the colonnade that has
impressed many observers who expected from Bernini, indeed above all
from Bernini, a more elaborate style, i.e., a more Baroque style. In fact, the
most renowned and perspicacious of Bernini scholars, Rudolph Wittkower,
said of the Piazza San Pietro: No other Italian structure of the postRenaissance era shows an equally deep affinity with Greece. The
observation was more apt than Wittkower may have thought. In a very careful study, Daniela Del Pesco revealed the painstaking scholarly research
carried out for the project in order to recreate the fabled porticos with three
corridors, described in the sources, built by the ancient Greeks to organise
and embellish their cities (Fig. 11). The Greek colonnades, however,
flanked public thoroughfares and the central passage was open to the sky,
while Bernini closed it with a long, curving barrel vault reminiscent of the
corridors of the Colosseum (Figs. 12, 13). In fact, it can be said that in this
sense Bernini seems to be more Greek than the Greeks, because his order,
based on the Doric the quintessentially Greek architectural mode is
missing its most distinctive features, the decorative frieze of metopes and
triglyphs. Here too, Augusto Roca de Amiciis has noted the relationship
with the lower order of the Colosseum (Fig. 14).3 Reference to the ancient
amphitheatre was amply justified on formal grounds, given the oval shape
of the Piazza. But the Colosseum was appropriate also from the ideological
point of view, as a place sanctified by the martyrdom of a great many saints.
These Christian gladiators were, so to speak, brought to life again at
3
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St. Peters by the legion of saintly statues placed on top of the portico, making up the triumphal guard of the piazza itself. It is obvious that the
relatively low single storey and the simplicity of the porticos served by contrast (Bernini preferred the word contrapposto to describe these visual
subtleties), to augment the imposing stature and opulence of the Maderno
faade (Fig. 15). The juxtaposition also reiterates the traditional increase in
elaboration with the superimposition of the orders, most famously exemplified by the Colosseum. But finally, the visual severity and austerity of the
porticos design also matches the solemnity of the Corpus Domini procession, an event that, from the beginning of his reign, Alexander had made
far more solemn and rigorous than in earlier times: rejecting the Popes traditional sedan chair, he insisted on appearing on his knees and absolutely
immobile for the entire, hours-long, exhausting devotion.(Fig. 16). Finally,
the Doric order corresponded to the request also on the part of Pizzati
for keeping the work simple in the interests of the public utility. Bernini
used a sort of visual-architectural rhetoric of moral austerity, equivalent to
and perhaps even inspired by the unadorned modus orandi the ancient
rhetors called Attic.4
What was true of the Piazza San Pietro was true of Pope Alexanders entire urban project which, it was rightly said, had almost emptied the papal
coffers. The pope was not motivated simply by extravagant and spendthrift
vanity on the popes part. The enterprises arose in part from a nascent form
of what we would call today a program of public works for social welfare
and rehabilitation (the cost of which then, as frequently today
climbed far beyond what the economic system upon which it was based
could bear). Consonant with this attitude is the fact that Alexander strongly opposed direct donations to the poor, not only because the practice
encouraged dependence on charity but also because it was humiliating. He
preferred instead to help those in need by offering them work, for which
they would be paid and thus maintain their Christian dignity. In
Alexanders eyes, this concept of charity as an ennobling means to improvement, instead of simple handouts, was a genuine policy of
4
Indicative of Berninis attitude toward the Colosseum is his insistence that it be preserved intact, in a project to construct within it a temple honoring the martyrs, for the
jubilee of 1675 (Di Macco 1971, 824, Hager 1973, 3235). I suspect that this project may
have been related to the one for the Lateran hospice, discussed below. The Colosseum was
closely related to the Lateran, even to the extent of serving as a hospital under the confraternity of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
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government, thus defined by his friend and biographer, the Jesuit Sforza
Pallavicino, who repeated almost word-for-word what Bernini said on the
relationship between beauty and utility: workers must be paid for their industry, so that by their labours the subsidies can contribute to civil life they
can join in civil life . . . and not be used for the arrogant delight of capricious luxury and sterility. . . Indeed, the works ordered by the prince be like
those of nature, the government of which is the idea of all governments, and
which in clothing the hills and fields with trees and fruit unites ornament
with usefulness.5
I do not want to exaggerate. Alexander was the product of his time, not
of ours. He had his defects, many of his projects were left unfinished, while
many of those he did carry out failed to achieve their purposes. But just as
the splendid projects of papal aggrandisement represent the obverse of the
medal, bearing fruit in the future of architecture and city planning, so the
social ideas pertaining to the reverse left their imprint on the succeeding
period. In fact, Alexander was the first pope of the modern era to work seriously to end the long-standing tradition of nepotism; and toward the end
of the century his effort inspired the great reformer Innocent XII
(16911700), who completely abolished the practice.
The Lateran Hospice
Two decades later, the kinds of socio-ethical policy that motivated
Alexander VII came to fruition in another great project of urban unification
and consolidation in a different sphere, where Bernini was again deeply involved. This development, which created the basis for a new principle upon
which a state-sponsored social welfare system would be built, began with
the huomo piccolo himself, Lorenzo Pizzati. It is not known whether
Alexander ever received or read Pizzatis first appeal, but if nothing else, he
was persistent. He submitted the project again at the beginning of the reign
of Clement IX (16701676). The outcome of this attempt is unknown, but
coincidentally, in 1670, the cause was taken up in an almost official capacity by the Order of the Oratorio, founded by St. Filippo Neri with the
. . . dovendosi stipendiar lindustria degli operarj, affinch cosuoi lavori saggiunga alla
vita civile quesussidj . . . e non perch simpieghi per superba delizia della ricchezza capricciosa
a sterilit . . .: anzi le opere ordinate dal principe conv[iene]enir, che siena come quelle della
natura, il cui governo e lidea di tutti i governi, la quale in vestire i colli ed i campi dalberi e di
frutti congiunge lornamento col giovamento. Sforza Pallavicino 183940, II, 177 f.
5
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hopes in this experiment ended sadly, the Lateran project nevertheless had
an important and lasting effect, setting in train a series of similarly intended government measures, beginning with the hospices immediate successor,
the huge Albergo dei Poveri San Michele along the bank of the Tiber
(Fig. 18).6
Along with these institutional survivors, there was also an important
residue for the history of art. This legacy comes in the form of a series of
sculptures, seven monumental reliefs with the bust of the Saviour, that once
served as emblems of this welfare movement (Fig. 19). The reliefs were
gathered together, probably for the first time since their creation, in an extraordinary exhibition (1988) organised by my sorely missed colleague and
friend, Bruno Contardi, together with Elena di Gioia (then at the Rome
Museum, now curator at the Musei Capitolini) at the Castel SantAngelo in
Rome. The important studies carried out by Contardi and Di Gioia not
only brought these statues to light and demonstrated their consanguinity
but also revealed their common provenance from various buildings around
the city, some of considerable importance. All the buildings and their sculptures were connected, either through documentation or inscriptions, to the
Lateran hospice enterprise. Contardi and Di Gioia also clarified how this
extraordinary gallery of divine simulacra (or better, icons) created by a team
of more or less well-known sculptors in late-Baroque Rome, was created
during a single campaign from 1694 to 1695. The reliefs were mounted on
exterior facades, as ensigns to declare that the income from the buildings to
which they were affixed served to support the hospice, along with major
contributions from the papal treasury and private donations all other
charities were prohibited. In effect, the reliefs dedicated the buildings to the
mission of Charity, in imitation of Christ.
The recuperation of the group of sculptures and the identification of its
relationship to the Apostolic Hospice for the poor made it possible to reconstruct one of the most remarkable episodes in the modem artistic and
social history of Rome, and, I venture to say, of Europe generally. For it became immediately apparent that all these works were intended to recall one
model in particular, Berninis last work, the famous Bust of the Saviour, an
over-life size white marble sculpture with a base of Sicilian jasper, originally supported by a wooden pedestal consisting of two kneeling angels. This
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huge, quasi-iconic image, long known from preparatory studies and replicas, was thought to be lost (Fig. 20). Berninis biographers report that he left
the sculpture as a token of their mutual esteem to his friend Queen
Christina of Sweden, in whose palace it was noted by Nicodemus Tessin, Jr.,
on his visit to Rome in 168788. When Christina died in 1689 she in turn
left the work to Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi (167689), and it is last
recorded in a 1713 inventory of the Palazzo Odescalchi. The sculpture, including the jasper base recorded in the inventory but not the pedestal, came
to light recently in the sacristy of the chapel of Pope Clement XI Albani
(170021), in San Sebastiano fuori le mura (Fig. 21).7
The man who formulated the concept of the Hospice adopted by
Innocent XII, the person who contributed to the organisation and administration of the Hospice and was charged with its management, was none
other than Berninis well-loved nephew, the priest Francesco Marchese, a
leading member of the Oratorians. After the death of the artist (1680),
Marchese became an increasingly influential figure in the intellectual and
religious life of the city, with a marked interest in its social problems. He
was appointed Predicatore Apostolico (preacher to the pope) in 1689, and in
1691 wrote a treatise to describe his proposal, which comprised only part
of a much broader programme of reform. It was obviously Padre Marchese
who suggested that Berninis Bust of the Christ should serve as the Hospices
emblem. His purpose was not simply to promote his uncles work, which
was hardly necessary. He had understood that Berninis image and the
Apostolic Hospice were profoundly linked, both having been motivated by
the same new ideal of genuinely universal charity.
I am not, however, totally convinced that the idea originally came from
Marchese. Perceived as a superhuman vision, a miraculous apparition offered to the spectator by a pair of divine messengers, it cannot be
coincidental that the concetto is most closely comparable to Berninis own
design for the display of the Sacred Eucharist in St. Peters (Fig. 22).
Moreover, Berninis bust is related to two representations of Christ, among
the most important in Rome, both closely connected to San Giovanni in
Laterano. The church was originally dedicated to the Saviour in memory of
the bust-length image in the centre of the apse, which was reputed to have
appeared in heaven reciting the Pax Vobis benediction to the people on
November 9, 324, the day Pope Sylvester I consecrated the basilica on the
7
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3. Plan of Rome under Sixtus V in the form of a star (after Bordini 1588, 44).
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4. St. Peters
and Piazza.
Rome.
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5a. Canaletto, view of Piazza San Marco. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge MA.
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1113
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20ab a. Gianlorenzo Bernini, study for the bust of the Savior, drawing. Gabinetto
nazionale dell stampe, Rome.
b. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Study for the upper part of the pedestal of the bust of the Savior,
drawing. Museum der bildenden Knste, Leipzig.
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authority of the Emperor Constantine the Great (Fig. 23). The second
image was linked to the Venerabile Compagnia dell Imagine pi Sacra del
Santissimo Salvatore nel Sancta Sanctorum. This noble confraternity, one of
the oldest in Rome, was given the task of protecting the icon of Christ
housed in the Sancta Sanctorum. It was also responsible for overseeing the
administration of the great hospital for the poor and sick that was annexed
to the Lateran church in the late Middle Ages. The emblem of this confraternity was a bust of Christ, reminiscent of the mosaic image in the apse,
with the addition of a base decorated as a parapet (Fig. 24). The emblem
was printed on the confraternitys documents and, in the form of sculptured
reliefs, were affixed to the buildings serving the hospital. These likenesses
and their associations surely inspired Innocent XII to use Berninis image
for the Hospice.
I suspect, however, that Bernini himself had been inspired to make his
bust of the Saviour in allusion first and foremost to the images of Christ at
the Lateran, as the project for the new Hospice was being discussed; and
that he conceived of his own image being used exactly as it was used twenty years later, the model for the other ensigns representing the Hospices
Charity. This hypothesis, in turn, throws light on a problem connected to
the biographers account of the history of Berninis sculpture. They report
that he executed the bust when he was 80 years old (1678), and that he left
it in a legacy to Queen Christina. Considering the heroic scale of the work,
standing overall some ten feet (300 cm) high, it was better suited to a public monument than to a private devotional image, even for the use of a
Queen. It is tempting to suppose that Bernini had already thought of the
bust in 1676, with the idea of placing it in the new Hospice to be set up in
the Lateran Palace, according to Sozzinis restructuring project. The inability, or rather the refusal of Innocent XI Odescalchi to bring the project to a
conclusion could have been one of the reasons why Bernini made the devastating caricature of Innocent as a shrewish hypochondriac, the No-Pope,
Papa-Minga in his popular Lombard dialect nickname (Fig. 25).
It is astonishing in retrospect to grasp a common thread running
through this almost fifty-year period of Roman social reform. One figure
may be traced through the long history of the idea of housing in the Lateran
palace of the popes a hospice for the poor, from its inception under
Alexander VII to its realisation by Francesco Marchese, that of Gianlorenzo
Bernini himself. Perhaps it is far-fetched to suggest that a mere artist might
have contributed to the invention as well as the definition and realisation of
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this great venture in the development of the modern city. In any case, in the
Piazza San Pietro Bernini certainly approached the burgeoning problems of
unemployment with a new vision, and in the bust of the Saviour created a
new image of the model of charity that inspired it.
Bibliography
Aronberg Lavin, Marylin, Representations of Urban Models in the
Renaissance, in Henry Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani. The
Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo. The Representation of
Architecture, exhib. cat., Milan, 1994, 6478.
Bevilacqua Melasecchi, Olga, Il complesso monumentale del San Michele.
Dalle origini agli interventi di Clemente XI, in Giuseppe Cucco, Papa
Albani e le arti a Urbino e Roma. 17001722, Venice, 2001, 1213.
Bordini, Giovanni Francesco, De rebus praeclare gestis a Sixto V Pon. Max.,
Rome, 1588.
Brauer, Heinrich, and Rudolf Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo
Bernini, Berlin, 1931 (Rmische Forschungen der Bibliotheca
Hertziana, Band IX).
Browning, Iain, Palmyra, London, 1979.
Del Pesco, Daniela, Colonnato di San Pietro. Dei Portici antichi e la loro diversit. Con un'ipotesi di cronologia, Rome, 1988
Di Macco, Michela, Il Colosseo. Funzione simbolica, storica, urbana, Rome,
1971.
Hager, Helmut, Carlo Fontana's Project for a Church in Honour of the
Ecclesia Triumphns in the Colosseum, Rome, Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, XXXVI, 1973, 31937.
Krautheimer, Richard, The Rome of Alexander VII (16551667), Princeton,
1985.
Lavin, Irving, The Roma Alessandrina of Richard Krautheimer, in In
Memoriam Richard Krautheimer, Rome, 1997, 10717.
____ Bernini's Bust of the Savior and the Problem of the Homeless in
Seventeenth-Century Rome, Italian Quarterly, XXXVII, 2000, 20951.
____ La mort de Bernin: visions de rdemption, in Alain Tapie, ed.,
Baroque vision jesuite. De Tintoret a Rubens, exhib. cat., Paris, 2003,
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10519.
____ Bernini at Saint Peters: SINGULARIS IN SINGULIS, IN OMNIBUS UNICUS, in W. Tronzo, ed., St. Peters in the Vatican,
Cambridge and New York, 2005, 111243.
Luciani, Roberto, Il Colosseo, Milan, 2000.
Piazza, Carlo Bartolomeo, La mendicit proveduta nella citt di Roma,
collospizio publico fondata dalla piet e beneficenza di Nostro Signore
Innocenzo XII pontefice massimo con le riposte allobiezioni contro simili
fondazioni, Rome, 1693.
Roca de Amicis, Augusto, La piazza e il colonnato, in Antonio Pinelli, ed.,
La basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, 4 Vols., Modena, 2000, Saggi,
283301.
Sforza Pallavicino, Della vita di Alessandro VII, 2 Vols., Prato, 183940.
Sisinni, Francesco, ed., Il San Michele a Ripa Grande, Rome, 1990.
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XXVII
FEEL I must first forewarn you that I will not today be speaking directly to the general theme of court art, at least not in the sense in which the
notion of court art is generally conceived in the period called, in stylistic
terms, the Age of the Baroque, in political terms the Age of Absolute
Monarchy. That is, court art as quintessentially elite, magnificent, magniloquent, and extravagant in terms of form as well as cost. Instead, I want to
talk about the other side of the medal, a phrase I have borrowed from the
title of one of the chapters in Richard Krautheimers magisterial book, The
Rome of Alexander VII 16551667, published in 1985. The phrase alludes,
ironically, as we shall see, to the splendid series of portrait medals the pope
regularly issued to advertise and commemorate on their reverses his many
projects for embellishment of the city (Fig. 1). My referent derives from
what might be called the inverse of the main point of Krautheimer s book,
which was to demonstrate how Alexander made the city of Rome itself into
a grandiose work of international court art, masking the reality of life in the
city on the other side of the medal. By reconsidering two important texts
one long well-known, the other newly discovered and published by
Krautheimer himself I want to suggest that the reverse actually had another aspect, intimately related to the obverse but positive in effect, and
with a no less important legacy for the future of Europe.
* Except for a few references given in the notes, the material on which this essay is based
will be found in the following works: Krautheimer 1985, Brauer and Wittkower 1931, Lavin
1997, Lavin 2000, Lavin 2005.
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in his own hand, publishing the many passages that deal specifically with
art and artists. Alexander surely took as a model the personal but much
more formal memoires, Commentaries on the Memorable Things that affected his Times (Commentarii rerum memorabilium que temporibus suis
contigerunt), of his Sienese compatriot, Pius II. The private quality of
Alexanders chronicle is truly extraordinary and, as far as I am aware, contains a record of intimate thoughts, feelings and activities expressed by no
previous pope. Especially significant in our context are the astonishingly
numerous entries that concern Gian Lorenzo Bernini as his constant companion, consulting and planning together in weekly, sometimes even more
frequent meetings. This degree of personal relationship between pope and
artist was also without precedent.
Krautheimer emphasised that not only was the pontiff mad for architecture, but also that his madness involved the whole city. His plans for
improvement were not only directed at the most obvious places and monuments of Rome, but also extended to the suburbs, the so-called
disabitato, to use Krautheimers term, even if they were often populated by
the poor, the homeless, and vagabond Gypsies. The purpose was not only
to rationalise and embellish the chaotic web of medieval streets, but also to
resolve the growing problems of traffic created by that ultramodern vehicle
of transport, the horse-drawn carriage. The global aspect of this conception
showed itself in many subtle ways, including the maps of Roma alessandrina, characterised by accuracy and unprecedented completeness, or the lists
of commissions that were compiled and then reproduced in collections of
illustrated engravings. These lists include the projects that were not carried
out, giving an idea of what Alexander would have done if he had lived
longer and been able to disperse more money, and testifying at the same
time to the colossal amount of work that he did realise. There is perhaps no
better indication of both the dedication and comprehensiveness of
Alexanders vision than the fact that he kept for study in his private chambers a model of the city. It is interesting to speculate where his miniature
Rome fits in the history of city models; it was, I suppose, as complete and
accurate as the maps of Alexanders Rome, and it is the first model I can recall that was made for the purpose of urban planning. Evidently, the pope
not only thought about the city in a modern, comprehensive way; he also
had a modern, comprehensive way of representing it a new kind of
three-dimensional urban consciousness, one might say.
Krautheimer also considered Alexanders non-permanent architecture,
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that is, his planning of civic piazzas and public spaces of all types: markets,
theatrical stages, ephemeral spectacles, gardens, streets and tree lined avenues, every element pertinent to the so-called built environment, to use
the modem term for this comprehensive vision. In describing the popes attitude toward antique ruins, Krautheimer shows that, even if sometimes the
classical works were treated cavalierly, the principle objective was to integrate them into the modern city to the point that even these could
contribute ad maiorem gloriam Dei, in a manner that was deliberately theatricalthat is, on the model of contemporary scenography with a view
to impressing the distinguished visitor who arrived at the main entry to
Rome, coming from the north, and progressed through the city to the
Vatican. In the next to last chapter Krautheimer turns to the other side of
the medal, describing the decrepit and unkempt aspects of Rome, the aspects that illustrious visitors were not supposed to see. Alexandrian Rome
was beautiful for those who could appreciate it, but for many it was not a
very nice place to live.
If all this sounds rather Baroque, this was the intention of Krautheimers
work. The objective appears dramatically in the last chapter when he presents the guiding principle and what he conceived to be the political
motivation underlying Alexanders urban ambitions. The victories of the
Protestants and the rise in the industrial and mercantile power of the North,
coupled with the establishment and hegemony over European affairs of the
great national states, especially France, Spain and the Hapsburgs, dramatically reduced the effective power of the Catholic church. Faced with this
situation, the pope adopted a policy of over-compensation, aggrandising
and embellishing the physical power of the Holy City to make up for its loss
of political power. He sought to convince the world that the papacy remained a factor to be reckoned with by transforming Rome into a great
modern city, or at least a semblance of one. Implicit in Krautheimers view
is the fundamental paradox that the modern city was born, not from a fundamental transformation of mentality, but rather from a sort of deception.
In art-historical terms, the effect is to instrumentalise the Baroque, turning the style into an artifice of propaganda and representation, rather than
the authentic expression of a new world vision. As the idea of modernity
might suggest (note that I do not use the term modernity in an ironic sense
here), this concept of the Baroque as an artificial, bombastic and excessive
reaction to the challenge thrown down by the Protestants the Baroque
as art of rhetoric, exhibitionism, and theatrics coincides with the equal-
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ly traditional concept of seventeenth-century politics as the arrogant selfrepresentation of absolutism. Alexanders plan of urban renewal was conceived of the lite, by the lite, and for the lite.
Lorenzo Pizzatis Critique
I submit that there is another way of understanding Alexanders great
new urban development program, an ulterior motive not alternative but
complementary and I would say almost subversive to the traditional view
which might explain why, although clearly defined and publicly announced, it has been virtually ignored in this context. After all, the popolo
minuto of Rome represented a huge moral, economic and political force,
and in this sense Rome was no different from all the other cities in Europe,
where awareness of and attention to existing social problems had long been
on the increase. In a measure, Krautheimer grasped these developments, at least to the extent that his chapter on the reverse of the medal was
based on a document to which he was the first to call attention and whose
revelatory value he fully appreciated. The document in question was what
we would call a white paper, written between 1656 and 1659 by a certain
Lorenzo Pizzati from Pontremoli, a minor administrative functionary
otherwise quite without historical significance. Pizzati describes the execrable conditions under which day-to-day life in the city was lived,
outlining the piteous state of the less privileged strata of the population, and
proposing drastic and utopian measures for alleviating their misery. His call
to reform is the first text I would like to submit as testimony in my appeal
for reconsideration of the significance of modem Baroque Alexandrine
Rome. Here are a few of Pizzati s often awkward and ungrammatical complaints and recommendations:
they should avoid evicting from small rooms, garrets and holes carved
into walls, without due notice . . . cultivated and correctly behaved people (like the undersigned). No one should be obliged to sleep in damp
or malodorous lodgings, in unsuitable company, on a butchers counter
or nude on the floor of a church or shop. And no decent man, particularly if he has been presented at Court [aulicus], should be given a damp
ground floor room, right next to the road, or in an absurd hole under
exposed roof beams, full of cracks and overrun by spiders, mice, scorpions and lizards . . . All of this happens because buildings that have been
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begun are not finished, while there are houses, palaces and pious institutions that are left empty.1 In order to help those who cannot find
lodgings, Pizzati suggests that . . . poor bishops and priests and other
. . . educated men should be housed in the uninhabited rooms of the
Oratorio and the Sapienza (Romes oratory and university). Even the
Lateran palace where your Holiness does not reside, could be turned
into a sort of residential hostel with a communal kitchen and pantry for
bishops and other needy and deserving people; the uninhabited parts
of the Quirinale and the Vatican buildings could be used in the same
way. Consequently, these huge factories [istae machinae] would be better preserved, instead of gradually falling into ruin through disuse, and
above all your Benevolence would procure better air and better living
conditions for us. Poor widows and abandoned wives could also be sheltered in disused palaces and church buildings, where they may find
refuge from corruption; formally, hospices and hospitals for beggars and
lodgings for penitent prostitutes should be set up and provided.
For Krautheimer, this document simply revealed a substratum of the reality which Alexander VIIs urban renewal program addressed as a sort of
cosmetic panacea for the benefit of visiting dignitaries. The improvements,
however, were far more than merely decorative, they were conceived also to
have equally important practical and beneficial effects, no less for the lowly
inhabitants than for the exalted visitors to the city.
Berninis Piazza and Porticoes (Fig. 4)
A primary testimonial to this fact, the second of the texts I would like to
submit, is, by contrast, one of the most important documents in all of art history, well-known to anyone interested in Baroque Rome, but still not well
enough appreciated in my view. I refer to the famous memorial concerning
Alexanders nascent project for the vast piazza in front of St. Peters, written by
Bernini in 165759 at the same time that Pizzati composed his diatribe.
Here the artist defines his concept or rather philosophy, or theology, or soAronberg Lavin 1994. Merz thinks that the report of the Genoese ambassador in
Rome, 166369, Il papa ha tutta Roma di legname in Camera distintissima e curiosissima,
come quello che non ha maggior sfera che di abbilire la Citt, otherwise undocumented, is
a metaphor rather than a real model (very unlikely, given the wording): Jrg Martin Merz,
review of Habel, in Kunstchronik, March 2004, 13941, esp. 141, col. b.
1
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ciology of the form and substance of the largest, most difficult and most
conspicuous of all Alexander VIIs undertakings. It was a crucial juncture in the
process that brought to completion the new centrepiece of Rome and the
church, begun a century and a half before. Bernini presented this brief in response to the many criticisms of his project for reasons of function, form and
finances. I quote some passages relevant to my theme.
In the year 1655, when Cardinal Fabio Chigi was preoccupied with the succession to the Throne of Peter, the incessant prayers of the Church and his
applause of the people gave birth to an Alexander. From this exalted position,
the pious prince did not lose sight of the needs of the creatures subject to his
greatness, nor was he attracted by that majesty, which being near to heaven
and to the angels, distances him from the earth and men. Indeed, with a
benevolent eye, he saw and contemplated the general miseries of the poor and
determined to alleviate them, remembering that as Fabio Chigi he had illustrated by example, now, as Alexander he must kindle with actions, the prince
being in this similar to the sun whose rays not only illuminate but also give
warmth.2 He immediately applied to the ills opportune remedies, and com2
Bibl. Vat., Cod. Chig. H II 22, fols. 1059v. The text was first published by Brauer and
Wittkower 1931, 70 n. 1, who date the statement 165960, whereas Krautheimer 1985,
174, gives 16578. It is indicative of the attitude the present essay is intended to counterbalance Brauer and Wittkowers omission of Berninis opening passage to this point, which
articulates the underlying motive for the project. The opening sentences were included in a
transcription published by Del Pesco 1988, 635, but without including other passages
omitted by Brauer and Wittkower. What follows here is the complete text, with passages
omitted by Brauer and Wittkower indicated by italics.
Preoccupava con il merito il Cardinal Fabio Chigi il Trono di Pietro, quando nellanno
1655 le Orationi incessanti della Chiesa, e glapplausi del Popolo partorirono un Alessandro.
Dall Altezza di questo posta non perd di uista il pietosissimo Prencipe le Creature soggette alla
sua grandezza, ne sinvagh di quella Maest, che per essere uicina al Cielo, et agli Angeli, lo rende
lontano dalla Terra e dagli huomini,. m con una occhiata benefica nell istesso tempo e vidde e
contempl le Communi miserie e saccinse sollevarle, riccordevole che se come Fabio Chigi
haueua illustrato collesempio, hora come Alessandro doueua riscaldare con le operationi, essendo
il Prencipe per questo assimigliato ai sole che con i raggi non solamente illumina, m riscalda.
Applic subito ai mali glopportuni remedii, e compassionando la povert, che non solo
priva dimpiego errava vagabonda per la Citta, ma languiva oppressa da una carestia, che
quanta pi affligeva il Popolo, tanto maggiormente doveva far spiccare la sua piet, si volse
a distribuire grandma quantit doro, benche la scarsezz dell erario fosse un argine opposto al
torrente di questa devota munificenza. Portato il nostro liberalissimo Prencipe dalla piena
Carit ben previdde, che laprire semplicemente a beneficia commune i Tesori era un fomentare lotio, et un nudrire i vitii. Onde quellistesso antidoto che sapplicava per la salute
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passionate with the poor who, not only wandered unemployed about the city
like vagabonds, but languished in oppression by a famine which the more it
afflicted the people the more it brought forth his pity, he turned to distributing large amounts of gold, although the scarcity of groin placed a levee against
this torrent of pious munificence.
poteva essere un tossico pi potente per avvelenarla. Cos dunque represse quella fiamma
di Carit, non per estinguerla, ma acci maggiormente pro de suoi sudditi si dilatasse,
quindi pens dar principia ad una gran fabrica, mediante la quale seccitasse limpiego nei
vagabondi, e si sovvenisse con il giro di grossa somma di denaro aIle correnti necessit.
Aggionse stimoli al pio desiderio di S. Santita linclinatione al fabricare, e lintelligenza, che
al pari di qualsivoglia Architetto teneva in questa professione, perch sin da fanciullo era solita quelle hore, nelle quali per lo piu si nausea ogni fatica, impiegarle in questi, et in altri
virtuosi trattenimenti, quasi sin dallora Iddio che lo destinava all Imperio supremo landasse
habilitando in tutte quelle attioni, che possono rendere un Prencipe glorioso.
Determinata dunque per sollievo commune la fabrica, lanimo di N. Signore imbeuuto
sin dalle fascie di piet e totalmente disinteressato verso se stesso, non seppe rivolgersi ad
innalzare s le mine di molte habitationi magnifici Palazzi, ne restringere in un Giardino
solo le delitie hereditarie di pi famiglie, ma risolse di principiare una mole, che ridondasse
ad honore di Dio, e de suoi Santi, et benefitio commune.
Fr la fertilissima miniera di machine heroiche che Alessandro racchiudeva nella mente,
la Piet, e la magnificenza quasi che irresolute non sapevano scieglerne la pi grande al fine
giudicarono, che il fare un Portico alla Chiesa di S. Pietro fosse un opera conveniente alla
Piet dun Pontefice, e propria alla grandezza dun Alessandro. Queste gara gli suggerivano
limpresa esser stata stimata cos degna, che molti suoi Antecessori serano impegnati sino
fame i disegni, m che atteriti dalla sua grandezza, e disperando di sopravivere all opera,
che poteva assorbire pi Pontificati ne trascurarono leffettuatione, e con permissione particolare dIddio che haveva eletto un animo maggiore di quest opera per pi gloriosamente
terminarla.
E perche i due fini principali delle fabriche sono lutilit, e lornamento, nello stabilito
disegno queste unitamente concorrevano. Imperci che si vedeva situata la Chiesi di S. Pietro
in una Piazza cos grande esposta continuamente i raggi del sole, e senza alcun riparo
dallimpeto delle pioggie, siche quel Tempio dove per adorare il Sepolcro de SS. Apostoli concorrono schiere numerose de devoti era poco menD che abbandonato per esseme
impratricabile laccesso, oltre che le continue funtioni Pontificie si rendevano agl assistenti
scommodissime per non haver le Carrozze, et i pedoni il necessario ricovero.
Secondariamente pareva essere inconveniente, che stasse quasi che sepolto in una Piazza fuor
dogni regola dArchitettura il Tempio di S. Pietro, che per la sua mole, e bellezza stimato
un prodigio dell arte, per la cui perfettione hanno stimato tanti poppoli vera ricchezza limpouerire per adornarlo, non inuidiando all piet della primitiua Chiesa in offerire al suo Sepolcro
gi che non gl era permisso i suoi piedi inuolontario tributo i patrimonij.
S aggiungeua che il formare un Portico, non solo apportava maggior bellezza e decoro
al Tempio ma veniva a coprire molte imperfettioni di quello, essendo che la facciata che per
se stessa di forma quatta haverebbe spiccata, et in certo modo si sarebbe sollevata sopra se
stessa.
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Our most liberal Prince, inclined to complete charity, saw clearly that
simply to open the treasuries for the common good was a fomentation
to idleness and a nourishment of vice. He was thus limited in his charity but also realised that by giving money to the needy, he was
inadvertently encouraging them in idleness and vice. Whence the very
antidote that was applied for health, could be a more powerful toxin to
poison it. He thus suppressed the flame of charity, not to extinguish it,
but to insure that it be spent to the greater benefit of his subjects,
whence he thought to begin a great structure, through which the home-
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other factor that stands out is the projects practical value in another sense,
not as a source for financial benefit nor for the administrative use of the
clergy, but rather as a work of charity aimed at benefiting poor and unemployed Roman citizens. The Piazza San Pietro project served as a
cornerstone in the construction campaign that aimed at solving the same
problems mentioned by Pizzati; the response, in an entirely modern spirit
of social welfare, was to provide work for the poor as the most efficient use
of public charity funds at the service of the public welfare.
I believe that this last consideration, which we can call the social responsibility of the project, could have directly affected the design of the
colonnades. Besides the oval plan, perhaps the most conspicuous and frequently noted aspect falls completely within the stylistic paradox implicit in
the subtitle of this series of lectures, Baroque art and the classical ideal. I
refer to the exceptional simplicity and sobriety of the colonnade that has
impressed many observers who expected from Bernini, indeed above all
from Bernini, a more elaborate style, i.e., a more Baroque style. In fact, the
most renowned and perspicacious of Bernini scholars, Rudolph Wittkower,
said of the Piazza San Pietro: No other Italian structure of the postRenaissance era shows an equally deep affinity with Greece. The
observation was more apt than Wittkower may have thought. In a very careful study, Daniela Del Pesco revealed the painstaking scholarly research
carried out for the project in order to recreate the fabled porticos with three
corridors, described in the sources, built by the ancient Greeks to organise
and embellish their cities (Fig. 11). The Greek colonnades, however,
flanked public thoroughfares and the central passage was open to the sky,
while Bernini closed it with a long, curving barrel vault reminiscent of the
corridors of the Colosseum (Figs. 12, 13). In fact, it can be said that in this
sense Bernini seems to be more Greek than the Greeks, because his order,
based on the Doric the quintessentially Greek architectural mode is
missing its most distinctive features, the decorative frieze of metopes and
triglyphs. Here too, Augusto Roca de Amiciis has noted the relationship
with the lower order of the Colosseum (Fig. 14).3 Reference to the ancient
amphitheatre was amply justified on formal grounds, given the oval shape
of the Piazza. But the Colosseum was appropriate also from the ideological
point of view, as a place sanctified by the martyrdom of a great many saints.
These Christian gladiators were, so to speak, brought to life again at
3
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St. Peters by the legion of saintly statues placed on top of the portico, making up the triumphal guard of the piazza itself. It is obvious that the
relatively low single storey and the simplicity of the porticos served by contrast (Bernini preferred the word contrapposto to describe these visual
subtleties), to augment the imposing stature and opulence of the Maderno
faade (Fig. 15). The juxtaposition also reiterates the traditional increase in
elaboration with the superimposition of the orders, most famously exemplified by the Colosseum. But finally, the visual severity and austerity of the
porticos design also matches the solemnity of the Corpus Domini procession, an event that, from the beginning of his reign, Alexander had made
far more solemn and rigorous than in earlier times: rejecting the Popes traditional sedan chair, he insisted on appearing on his knees and absolutely
immobile for the entire, hours-long, exhausting devotion.(Fig. 16). Finally,
the Doric order corresponded to the request also on the part of Pizzati
for keeping the work simple in the interests of the public utility. Bernini
used a sort of visual-architectural rhetoric of moral austerity, equivalent to
and perhaps even inspired by the unadorned modus orandi the ancient
rhetors called Attic.4
What was true of the Piazza San Pietro was true of Pope Alexanders entire urban project which, it was rightly said, had almost emptied the papal
coffers. The pope was not motivated simply by extravagant and spendthrift
vanity on the popes part. The enterprises arose in part from a nascent form
of what we would call today a program of public works for social welfare
and rehabilitation (the cost of which then, as frequently today
climbed far beyond what the economic system upon which it was based
could bear). Consonant with this attitude is the fact that Alexander strongly opposed direct donations to the poor, not only because the practice
encouraged dependence on charity but also because it was humiliating. He
preferred instead to help those in need by offering them work, for which
they would be paid and thus maintain their Christian dignity. In
Alexanders eyes, this concept of charity as an ennobling means to improvement, instead of simple handouts, was a genuine policy of
4
Indicative of Berninis attitude toward the Colosseum is his insistence that it be preserved intact, in a project to construct within it a temple honoring the martyrs, for the
jubilee of 1675 (Di Macco 1971, 824, Hager 1973, 3235). I suspect that this project may
have been related to the one for the Lateran hospice, discussed below. The Colosseum was
closely related to the Lateran, even to the extent of serving as a hospital under the confraternity of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
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government, thus defined by his friend and biographer, the Jesuit Sforza
Pallavicino, who repeated almost word-for-word what Bernini said on the
relationship between beauty and utility: workers must be paid for their industry, so that by their labours the subsidies can contribute to civil life they
can join in civil life . . . and not be used for the arrogant delight of capricious luxury and sterility. . . Indeed, the works ordered by the prince be like
those of nature, the government of which is the idea of all governments, and
which in clothing the hills and fields with trees and fruit unites ornament
with usefulness.5
I do not want to exaggerate. Alexander was the product of his time, not
of ours. He had his defects, many of his projects were left unfinished, while
many of those he did carry out failed to achieve their purposes. But just as
the splendid projects of papal aggrandisement represent the obverse of the
medal, bearing fruit in the future of architecture and city planning, so the
social ideas pertaining to the reverse left their imprint on the succeeding
period. In fact, Alexander was the first pope of the modern era to work seriously to end the long-standing tradition of nepotism; and toward the end
of the century his effort inspired the great reformer Innocent XII
(16911700), who completely abolished the practice.
The Lateran Hospice
Two decades later, the kinds of socio-ethical policy that motivated
Alexander VII came to fruition in another great project of urban unification
and consolidation in a different sphere, where Bernini was again deeply involved. This development, which created the basis for a new principle upon
which a state-sponsored social welfare system would be built, began with
the huomo piccolo himself, Lorenzo Pizzati. It is not known whether
Alexander ever received or read Pizzatis first appeal, but if nothing else, he
was persistent. He submitted the project again at the beginning of the reign
of Clement IX (16701676). The outcome of this attempt is unknown, but
coincidentally, in 1670, the cause was taken up in an almost official capacity by the Order of the Oratorio, founded by St. Filippo Neri with the
. . . dovendosi stipendiar lindustria degli operarj, affinch cosuoi lavori saggiunga alla
vita civile quesussidj . . . e non perch simpieghi per superba delizia della ricchezza capricciosa
a sterilit . . .: anzi le opere ordinate dal principe conv[iene]enir, che siena come quelle della
natura, il cui governo e lidea di tutti i governi, la quale in vestire i colli ed i campi dalberi e di
frutti congiunge lornamento col giovamento. Sforza Pallavicino 183940, II, 177 f.
5
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hopes in this experiment ended sadly, the Lateran project nevertheless had
an important and lasting effect, setting in train a series of similarly intended government measures, beginning with the hospices immediate successor,
the huge Albergo dei Poveri San Michele along the bank of the Tiber
(Fig. 18).6
Along with these institutional survivors, there was also an important
residue for the history of art. This legacy comes in the form of a series of
sculptures, seven monumental reliefs with the bust of the Saviour, that once
served as emblems of this welfare movement (Fig. 19). The reliefs were
gathered together, probably for the first time since their creation, in an extraordinary exhibition (1988) organised by my sorely missed colleague and
friend, Bruno Contardi, together with Elena di Gioia (then at the Rome
Museum, now curator at the Musei Capitolini) at the Castel SantAngelo in
Rome. The important studies carried out by Contardi and Di Gioia not
only brought these statues to light and demonstrated their consanguinity
but also revealed their common provenance from various buildings around
the city, some of considerable importance. All the buildings and their sculptures were connected, either through documentation or inscriptions, to the
Lateran hospice enterprise. Contardi and Di Gioia also clarified how this
extraordinary gallery of divine simulacra (or better, icons) created by a team
of more or less well-known sculptors in late-Baroque Rome, was created
during a single campaign from 1694 to 1695. The reliefs were mounted on
exterior facades, as ensigns to declare that the income from the buildings to
which they were affixed served to support the hospice, along with major
contributions from the papal treasury and private donations all other
charities were prohibited. In effect, the reliefs dedicated the buildings to the
mission of Charity, in imitation of Christ.
The recuperation of the group of sculptures and the identification of its
relationship to the Apostolic Hospice for the poor made it possible to reconstruct one of the most remarkable episodes in the modem artistic and
social history of Rome, and, I venture to say, of Europe generally. For it became immediately apparent that all these works were intended to recall one
model in particular, Berninis last work, the famous Bust of the Saviour, an
over-life size white marble sculpture with a base of Sicilian jasper, originally supported by a wooden pedestal consisting of two kneeling angels. This
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huge, quasi-iconic image, long known from preparatory studies and replicas, was thought to be lost (Fig. 20). Berninis biographers report that he left
the sculpture as a token of their mutual esteem to his friend Queen
Christina of Sweden, in whose palace it was noted by Nicodemus Tessin, Jr.,
on his visit to Rome in 168788. When Christina died in 1689 she in turn
left the work to Pope Innocent XI Odescalchi (167689), and it is last
recorded in a 1713 inventory of the Palazzo Odescalchi. The sculpture, including the jasper base recorded in the inventory but not the pedestal, came
to light recently in the sacristy of the chapel of Pope Clement XI Albani
(170021), in San Sebastiano fuori le mura (Fig. 21).7
The man who formulated the concept of the Hospice adopted by
Innocent XII, the person who contributed to the organisation and administration of the Hospice and was charged with its management, was none
other than Berninis well-loved nephew, the priest Francesco Marchese, a
leading member of the Oratorians. After the death of the artist (1680),
Marchese became an increasingly influential figure in the intellectual and
religious life of the city, with a marked interest in its social problems. He
was appointed Predicatore Apostolico (preacher to the pope) in 1689, and in
1691 wrote a treatise to describe his proposal, which comprised only part
of a much broader programme of reform. It was obviously Padre Marchese
who suggested that Berninis Bust of the Christ should serve as the Hospices
emblem. His purpose was not simply to promote his uncles work, which
was hardly necessary. He had understood that Berninis image and the
Apostolic Hospice were profoundly linked, both having been motivated by
the same new ideal of genuinely universal charity.
I am not, however, totally convinced that the idea originally came from
Marchese. Perceived as a superhuman vision, a miraculous apparition offered to the spectator by a pair of divine messengers, it cannot be
coincidental that the concetto is most closely comparable to Berninis own
design for the display of the Sacred Eucharist in St. Peters (Fig. 22).
Moreover, Berninis bust is related to two representations of Christ, among
the most important in Rome, both closely connected to San Giovanni in
Laterano. The church was originally dedicated to the Saviour in memory of
the bust-length image in the centre of the apse, which was reputed to have
appeared in heaven reciting the Pax Vobis benediction to the people on
November 9, 324, the day Pope Sylvester I consecrated the basilica on the
7
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3. Plan of Rome under Sixtus V in the form of a star (after Bordini 1588, 44).
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4. St. Peters
and Piazza.
Rome.
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5a. Canaletto, view of Piazza San Marco. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge MA.
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20ab a. Gianlorenzo Bernini, study for the bust of the Savior, drawing. Gabinetto
nazionale dell stampe, Rome.
b. Gianlorenzo Bernini, Study for the upper part of the pedestal of the bust of the Savior,
drawing. Museum der bildenden Knste, Leipzig.
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authority of the Emperor Constantine the Great (Fig. 23). The second
image was linked to the Venerabile Compagnia dell Imagine pi Sacra del
Santissimo Salvatore nel Sancta Sanctorum. This noble confraternity, one of
the oldest in Rome, was given the task of protecting the icon of Christ
housed in the Sancta Sanctorum. It was also responsible for overseeing the
administration of the great hospital for the poor and sick that was annexed
to the Lateran church in the late Middle Ages. The emblem of this confraternity was a bust of Christ, reminiscent of the mosaic image in the apse,
with the addition of a base decorated as a parapet (Fig. 24). The emblem
was printed on the confraternitys documents and, in the form of sculptured
reliefs, were affixed to the buildings serving the hospital. These likenesses
and their associations surely inspired Innocent XII to use Berninis image
for the Hospice.
I suspect, however, that Bernini himself had been inspired to make his
bust of the Saviour in allusion first and foremost to the images of Christ at
the Lateran, as the project for the new Hospice was being discussed; and
that he conceived of his own image being used exactly as it was used twenty years later, the model for the other ensigns representing the Hospices
Charity. This hypothesis, in turn, throws light on a problem connected to
the biographers account of the history of Berninis sculpture. They report
that he executed the bust when he was 80 years old (1678), and that he left
it in a legacy to Queen Christina. Considering the heroic scale of the work,
standing overall some ten feet (300 cm) high, it was better suited to a public monument than to a private devotional image, even for the use of a
Queen. It is tempting to suppose that Bernini had already thought of the
bust in 1676, with the idea of placing it in the new Hospice to be set up in
the Lateran Palace, according to Sozzinis restructuring project. The inability, or rather the refusal of Innocent XI Odescalchi to bring the project to a
conclusion could have been one of the reasons why Bernini made the devastating caricature of Innocent as a shrewish hypochondriac, the No-Pope,
Papa-Minga in his popular Lombard dialect nickname (Fig. 25).
It is astonishing in retrospect to grasp a common thread running
through this almost fifty-year period of Roman social reform. One figure
may be traced through the long history of the idea of housing in the Lateran
palace of the popes a hospice for the poor, from its inception under
Alexander VII to its realisation by Francesco Marchese, that of Gianlorenzo
Bernini himself. Perhaps it is far-fetched to suggest that a mere artist might
have contributed to the invention as well as the definition and realisation of
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this great venture in the development of the modern city. In any case, in the
Piazza San Pietro Bernini certainly approached the burgeoning problems of
unemployment with a new vision, and in the bust of the Saviour created a
new image of the model of charity that inspired it.
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Aronberg Lavin, Marylin, Representations of Urban Models in the
Renaissance, in Henry Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani. The
Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo. The Representation of
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Bevilacqua Melasecchi, Olga, Il complesso monumentale del San Michele.
Dalle origini agli interventi di Clemente XI, in Giuseppe Cucco, Papa
Albani e le arti a Urbino e Roma. 17001722, Venice, 2001, 1213.
Bordini, Giovanni Francesco, De rebus praeclare gestis a Sixto V Pon. Max.,
Rome, 1588.
Brauer, Heinrich, and Rudolf Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen des Gianlorenzo
Bernini, Berlin, 1931 (Rmische Forschungen der Bibliotheca
Hertziana, Band IX).
Browning, Iain, Palmyra, London, 1979.
Del Pesco, Daniela, Colonnato di San Pietro. Dei Portici antichi e la loro diversit. Con un'ipotesi di cronologia, Rome, 1988
Di Macco, Michela, Il Colosseo. Funzione simbolica, storica, urbana, Rome,
1971.
Hager, Helmut, Carlo Fontana's Project for a Church in Honour of the
Ecclesia Triumphns in the Colosseum, Rome, Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, XXXVI, 1973, 31937.
Krautheimer, Richard, The Rome of Alexander VII (16551667), Princeton,
1985.
Lavin, Irving, The Roma Alessandrina of Richard Krautheimer, in In
Memoriam Richard Krautheimer, Rome, 1997, 10717.
____ Bernini's Bust of the Savior and the Problem of the Homeless in
Seventeenth-Century Rome, Italian Quarterly, XXXVII, 2000, 20951.
____ La mort de Bernin: visions de rdemption, in Alain Tapie, ed.,
Baroque vision jesuite. De Tintoret a Rubens, exhib. cat., Paris, 2003,
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10519.
____ Bernini at Saint Peters: SINGULARIS IN SINGULIS, IN OMNIBUS UNICUS, in W. Tronzo, ed., St. Peters in the Vatican,
Cambridge and New York, 2005, 111243.
Luciani, Roberto, Il Colosseo, Milan, 2000.
Piazza, Carlo Bartolomeo, La mendicit proveduta nella citt di Roma,
collospizio publico fondata dalla piet e beneficenza di Nostro Signore
Innocenzo XII pontefice massimo con le riposte allobiezioni contro simili
fondazioni, Rome, 1693.
Roca de Amicis, Augusto, La piazza e il colonnato, in Antonio Pinelli, ed.,
La basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano, 4 Vols., Modena, 2000, Saggi,
283301.
Sforza Pallavicino, Della vita di Alessandro VII, 2 Vols., Prato, 183940.
Sisinni, Francesco, ed., Il San Michele a Ripa Grande, Rome, 1990.
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Domenico:
The pope, who by nature had a venerable aspect, wanted to test the
courage of the youngster by frightening him further, and, turning to
him with a grave voice commanded him there in his presence to draw a
head. Gianlorenzo, boldly taking pen in hand and spreading the paper
on the Popes own table, hesitated at tracing the first line; modestly
inclining his head toward the Pope he asked, What head he desired, a
man, a woman, young, old, and in any case what expression, sad, happy,
disdainful or pleasant? If this is so, the pope observed, then you can do
them all, and he ordered him to do that of St. Paul. In a few strokes of
the pen and with an admirable boldness of hand he finished it quickly
with such mastery that the Pope was impressed and remarked to some
cardinals who happened to be present, This boy will be the
Michelangelo of his time.3
Domenico:
This first, honorable entrance into the Apostolic Palace, the welcome
accorded him by the Cardinal, and the praise received from the Pope,
made him celebrated in Rome, universally acclaimed and pointed to by
all as a young man of not ordinary promise. He had already begun to
work at sculpture, and his first work was a head of marble situated in the
church of S. Pudenziana, and such other small statues as his young age
permitted, and they all appeared so masterfully executed that the celebrated Annibale Carracci, having seen some of them, said, He had
3
Il Pontefice, Venerabile per natura di aspetto, volle provar lintrepidezza del Giovane,
con affettargli ancora il terrore, & a lui rivolto con suono grave di voce gli command, che
quivi in sua presenza disegnasse una Testa. Gio: Lorenzo presa con franchezza n mano le
penna, e spianata sopra il Tavolino medesimo del Papa la Carta, nel dar principio alla prima
linea, si fermalquanto sospeso, e poi chinando il capo modestamente verso il Pontefice,
richieselo, Che Testa voleva, se di Huomo, d Donna, di Giouane, di Vecchio, e se pur
qualche una di esse, in quale atto la desiderava, se mesta, allegra, se sdegrosa, piaceuole?
Se cos, soggiunse allhora il Papa, le s far tuttee, & ordinatogli, che facesse quella di S.
Paolo, in pochi tratti di penna, e con una franchezza ammirabile di mano la tir subbito a
fine con maestria tale, che ne rest ammirato il Papa, e quanto sol disse ad alcuni Cardinali,
che quivi allhora presenti a caso si ritrovarono, Questo Fanciullo sar il Michel Angelo del
suo tempo . . . (Bernini [Domenico], Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernini, Rome, 1713,
pp. 89).
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arrived in art at that young age, where others might vaunt to reach in
old age.4
Chantelou:
The Cavaliere (said that) at the age of eight (he) had done a head of St.
John which was presented to Paul V by his chamberlain. His Holiness
could not believe that he had done it and asked if he would draw a head
in his presence. He agreed and pen and paper were sent for. When he
was ready to begin he asked His Holiness what head he wished him to
draw. At that the Pope realized that it was really the boy who had done
the St. John, for he had believed that he would draw some conventional
head. He asked him to draw 5
Chantelou:
He said that at six years, he had done a head in a bas-relief by his
father, and at seven another, which Paul V could hardly believe was by
him; to satisfy his own mind, he asked him if he would draw a head for
him. When the paper had been brought he asked His Holiness boldly
what head he should do, so that he should not think he was going to
Questa prima entratura tanto honorevole, che egli hebbe nel Palazzo Pontoficio, le
accoglienze a lui fatte dal Cardinale, e la lode ricevuta dal Papa, lo resero cos celebre per
Roma, che da tutti universalmente era acclamato, e mostrato a dito, come Giovane di non
ordinaria espettazione. Haveva gia egli dato principio a lavorare di Scultura, e la fua prima
opera f una Testa di marmo situata nella Chiesa di S. Potenziana, & altre picciole Statue,
quali gli permetteva let in cui era di dieci anni, e tutte apparivano cos maestrevolmente
lavorate, che havendone qualcheduna veduta il celebre Annibale Caracci, disse, Esser egli
arrivato nell arte in quella icciola et, dove altri potevano gloriarsi di giungere nella
uecchiezza. (Bernini, Vita . . ., ibidem, pp. 910.)
5
Chantelou (Paul Frart de), Diary of the Cavaliere Berninis Visit to France, ed. Anthony
Blunt and George C. Bauer, Princeton, 1985, p. 102, August 5. Le Cavalier a dit . . . qu
huit ans mme il avait fait un chef de Saint-Jean qui fut prsent Paul V par son mitre de
chambre: que Sa Saintet ne voulait pas croire quil let fait, et lui demanda sil pourrait dessiner
une tte en sa prsence: quayanat rpondu quoui, Sa Saintet lui avaiat fair apporter une plume
et du papier et que, prt commencer, il lui demanda quelle tte Sa Saintet voulait quil
dessint; qu cela elle avait connue que ctait lui qui avait fait un chef de Saint-Jean, pensant
auparavant quil allait dessiner quelque tte de manire; que le Pape lui demanda une tte de
Sant-Paul quil dessina en sa prsence. (Chantelou [Paul Frart de], Journal du Cavalier Bernin
en France, ed. Ludovic Lalanne, Paris, 1885, p. 84.)
4
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work from memory; then the Pope realized that is was indeed he who
had done it and asked him to do St. Paul.6
All the documents concerning the Coppola bust were in the name of
Pietro Bernini, who was indeed a marvelous sculptor, literally marvelous
according to Bagliones account of his astonishing ability to carve complex
statues directly in the marble, without a model:
Pietro handled marble with such assurance that he had few rivals in this
respect. One day in Naples I myself saw him make a few marks with
charcoal on a piece of marble and immediately set to work with his
chisel; without any further design, he carved three figures from nature,
creating a capricious fountain. It was amazing to behold the facility with
which he worked. Had he been better at design, his technical facility
would have brought him much further.7
In fact, this fabled technical facility of Berninis father, which was surely
what first brought him to the attention of Paul V, is in itself one of the
strongest reasons to lend credence to the reports of the sons prodigious virtuosity. But, quite apart from the character and quality of the Coppola bust,
there is ample historical evidence to indicate that the person who actually
carved it was Gianlorenzo. In 1612 Pietro was 50 years old with a long
record of accomplishments in Florence, Naples, and Rome, which continued until his death in 1629 and earned him Bagliones admiring, if quali6
Blunt-Bauer, Diary . . ., cited in note 5, p. 260, 6 October. Il a dit qu six ans il fit une
tte dans un bas-relief di son pre, sept ans une autre, ce que Paul V ne voulait pas croire quand
il la vit: que pour sen claircir il demanda sil dessinerait bien une tte, quil rpondit Sa
Saintet quoui, et que lui ayant t apport du papier, il demanda hardiment au pape quelle tte
il voulait quil fit, afin quil ne crt pas quil en fit une de mmoire, qualors Sa Saintet dit quil
voyait bien quil lavait faite, et lui dit de fair un saint Paul. (Chantelou, Journal . . ., cited in
note 5, p. 247.)
7
Pietro con ogni franchezza maneggiaua il marmo s, che in ci pochi pari egli hebbe. Et vn
giorno in Napoli, io stesso il vidi, che prendendo vn carbone, e con esso sopra vn marmo facendo
alcuni segni, subito vi messe dentro i ferri, e senzaltro disegno vi cau tre figure dal naturale, per
formare vn capriccio da fontana, e con tanta facilit il trattaua, che era stupore il vederlo. E se
questhuomo hauesse hauuto maggior disegno, per la facilit delloperare si sarebbe assai auanzato.
(Baglione [Giovanni] Le vite de pittori scultori et architetti dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII. del
1572. In fino atempi di Papa Urbino Ottovo nel 1642, Rome, 1642; ed. Valerio Mariani,
Rome, 1935, p. 305.)
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April 1610 he had indeed scarcely completed his tenth year, exactly as
Baldinucci and Domenico report.8 The dates are incontrovertible and the
only alternative to concluding that Bernini deserved his reputation as an
astonishingly gifted prodigy, is to assume that the portraits of Coppola and
Santoni were the work of the father, as some have done, despite the fact that
one cannot point to another portrait bust by Pietro, either before or after,
and despite the fact that the son began his career as a prodigious portraitist
and went on to become one of the greatest portrait sculptors in the history
of art.
In the final analysis, however, what makes the Coppola bust an unforgettable image is its extraordinary effect of somber, almost spectral antiquity. The quality has sometimes been explained by the fact that, as we
know from the documents, it was made from a death mask, as if the model
made the task of portraiture in marble somehow easier, more mechanical,
more realistic than the living sitter. In fact, the work is a deliberate existential pun: it represents exactly what it is, a posthumous portrait of frail
but heroic old age. Psychologically, the bust is a profound, one might well
say mythic evocation of the dead past in the living present; typologically, it
is an unprecedented evocation of classical antiquity in its revival of a pose
and drapery arrangement familiar from Roman funerary portraiture (Fig.
7). The form and content together bespeak a new era, in statu nascendi.
Coronation of Clement VIII
Ironically, the first of the failings in which je me suis tromp is a lamentable oversight concerning one of Berninis most egregious exaggerations,
precisely in the domain of portraiture. I must say at the outset, however, that
in the end the oversight turns out to be another confirmation of the essential truth of Berninis claim to youthful prowess. Discussing Gianlorenzos
early portraiture I considered the one and only work by Pietro that does contain a portrait, his depiction of the coronation of Clement VIII on that
popes tomb in S. Maria Maggiore (Figs. 8, 9). I pointed out that the sharply
individualized head of the pope is completely unlike those of the other fig8
My dating based on the inscription, which I offered in my original lecture (January,
1966), was followed by Cesare dOnofrio, who was present in the audience! (DOnofrio
[Cesare], Roma vista da Roma, Rome, 1967 [finito di stampare December 1967, cf. p. 455],
p. 116. A report was published in Life, LXII, no. 2, January 20, 1967, pp. 6674.
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ures in the relief, which instead bear a marked similarity to each other and
to Pietros generic repertory of male types. I tentatively suggested that the
popes head might actually be the work of the son. Much to my chagrin I
failed to recall then the crucial passage concerning this very work recorded
in the account, quoted above, that Bernini gave to Chantelou of his early
encounter with Paul V: He said that at six years, he had done a head in a
bas-relief by his father, and at seven another.
Much more important than the age reported here, is the fact that the
passage must indeed refer to the S. Maria Maggiore relief, and not just
because this is Pietro Berninis only relief containing a portrait. When
Bernini speaks of executing two portraits in consecutive years, he was telling
a truth that only he could have recalled, because the documents record the
extraordinary fact that two reliefs were indeed actually carried out and
installed, one after the other. On November 2, 1612, Pietro was paid 249
scudi:
per rifare di novo da Pietro Eernino scultore la Historia
della lncoronazione della bo: me: di Papa Clemente Ottavo per servitio del
Deposito suo nella Capella che S. S.ta ha fato fare in S.ta Maria Maggiore
And on January 19, 1614, he received 600 scudi:
per resto et intiero pagamento delle due Historie di marmo
della Incoronatione della felice memoria di papa Clemente
da lui fatte una di quali posta nel Deposito di esso papa
Clemente in la capella che S. S. ha facto fare in S.ta
Marie Maggiore . . .9
We have no idea why the first version was replaced, but it was certainly
completed by November 1612, and the second by January 1614. While
Bernini after 50 years may well have misremembered and, consciously or
not, exaggerated his youth at the time, it would be unthinkably cynical to
suppose that he would claim for his own the work of his father, and equally
unthinkable that he could have imagined his listeners in Paris or posterity
would realize that the work in question was the relief in S. Maria Maggiore,
9
The documents are cited after Muoz (Antonio), Il padre del Bernini. Pietro Bernini
scultore (15621629), in Vita darte, IV, 1909, pp. 469470.
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much less that it was executed in two versions in the years 16121614. The
portrait of Clement is thus certainly not tentatively by Gianlorenzo,
and follows by a few months the bust of Antonio Coppola, for which Pietro
received payments from March 8 through August 10, 1612. Gianlorenzo
was then not six or seven, as he claimed, but between thirteen and fifteen
still young enough to be proud of, I would say! A similar and synchronous case is that of a now lost portrait of Alessandro Ludovisi (later Gregory
XV) which Domenico Bernini (p. 20) reports his father made before
Ludovisi left Rome to take up his new post as archbishop of Bologna.
Writing a century later, Domenico cannot have expected his readers to
recall that Ludovisi was elected archbishop in March 1612.
St. Sebastian and St. Lawrence
The discovery of the Coppola bust and the early date for that of Santoni
led me to reconsider the dates traditionally assigned to other juvenile works
by Gianlorenzo. For example, Italo Faldi had discovered the payment in
1615 for a pedestal for the Capra Amaltea, which established a terminus ante
quem for that work (Fig. 10). But the same payment also includes a pedestal
for a very similar, anonymous sculpture that was paid for much earlier, in
1609 (Fig. 11). If that was also the case with the Capra Amaltea, then
Bernini was 10 years old when he made it. And why not? especially since
many scholars have suggested that it must have been among the picciole
statue, much admired by the celebrated painter Annibale Carracci, which
Domenico Bernini says his father carved immediately after the Santoni
bust.
What neither Bernini himself nor Domenico Bernini can have anticipated was that his readers would know that Annibale Carracci died in July
1609, when Bernini was ten. In my opinion, such a perfect coordination of
independently determined dates, reported by the biographers and deducible
from the facts the date of the Santoni bust, that of the likely acquisition
of the Capra amaltea, and the terminus ante quem established by the
encounter with Carracci cannot be simply fortuitous. Much more reasonable simply to assume that Bernini was indeed able to do certain kinds
of things earlier, much earlier, than most people thought and still think
credible!
On the other hand, the wonderful discovery by Patrizia Cavazzini of the
payments to Pietro Bernini for two works by his son the Boy defeating a
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10
The discovery is reported by Sebastian Schtze in Bernini scultore. La nascita del
Barocco in Casa Borghese (exhib. cat. Rome), Rome, 1998, p. 83. The documents were discovered by Patrizia Cavazzini, who also published them in Effigies & Ecstasies. Roman
Baroque Sculpture and Design in the Age of Bernini, exhib. cat., Edinburgh, 1998, p. 90. The
closely associated payments in themselves testify that the sculptures are by Gianlorenzo.
Moreover, both Schtze and Cavazzini conveniently suppress the explicit attribution of the
Boy with the Marine Dragon to Gianlorenzo by Niccol Menghini in a 1632 inventory of the
Barberini collection: Un putto qual tiene un drago alto palmi 21/2 fatto dal Cavalier Bernini.
(Lavin, Five Youthful Sculptures, cited in note 1, p. 230). Menghini was himself a sculptor
closely associated with Bernini, for whom he worked extensively at St. Peter's. He certainly
knew whereof he wrote, and his attribution stayed with the sculpture when it became a
diplomatic gift in 1702 from Cardinal Carlo Barberini to Philip V of Spain.
11
una Statuetta di Marmo bianco di un putto sopra un drago Marino 114.20; una Statua
di Marmo bianco di un San Sebastiano 114.50.
12
Baldinucci, The Life . . ., cited in note 2, p. 12. Correva egli intanto il quindicesmo di
sua et quando e fece vedere scolpita di sua mano la figura di S. Lorenzo sopra la graticola per
Leone Strozzi, che fu posta nella lor villa. (Baldinucci, Vita . . ., cited in note 2, pp. 77 f.)
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sons who convened, the most noble Leone Strozzi was so taken with it
that he acquired it, and today it is to be seen in his delightful villa on
the Viminal.13
These statements also confirm the priority of the St. Lawrence. The
sculpture was owned by Leone Strozzi, whose uncle, Cardinal Lorenzo (d.
1571), was buried in the Strozzi family chapel, across the nave in
SantAndrea della Valle from the Barberini chapel, which covered the site
where Saint Sebastian was supposed to have been thrown into the Cloaca
Maxima, and which replaced an earlier church called San Sebastianello.
According to Baldinucci Gianlorenzo made the St. Lawrence for Leone
Strozzi, while Domenico suggests that Strozzi acquired it only after seeing
it. In the latter case, Bernini may have begun the work as a play on his own
name, or with the intention of selling it to Strozzi as an avuncular commemoration for his family chapel; the two motivations are by no means
incompatible. The altar wall of the Strozzi chapel displays bronze statues
copied after Michelangelo, bearing the date 1616 (Fig. 14). If the St.
Lawrence was intended for the Strozzi chapel, 1616 would then be a terminus ante quem and the sources dating of 1614 may not be too far off. It can
scarcely be coincidental that the two closely connected families should have
closely similar and virtually contemporaneous works by the same artist at
the same time that both families were creating family chapels across the
nave from each other in the same church, one containing a commemoration of St. Sebastian, the other including the tomb of an important member of the family named Lorenzo. We know in fact that Maffeo Barberini
withheld for himself a painting by Ludovico Carracci he had commissioned
for the chapel, and that he actually removed two of the four cherubs (Fig.
15) as well as the busts of his mother and father, all made by Bernini and
mounted in the chapel, to display them at home in the family palace; the
Strozzi may have done the same. The most likely hypothesis is that the two
saintly images were similarly intended for the patrons respective chapels,
but never actually installed.
13
. . . in eta di quindici anni . . . ritrasse in se il tormento di un S. Lorenzo vero per iscolpirne
un finto . . . e fr quegli innumerabili Personaggi, che vi concorsero, Leone Strozzi Nobilissimo
Romano se ne invagh in modo, che lo volle per se, e presentemente si vede nella sua deliziosa Villa
del Viminale. (Bernini, Vita . . ., cited in note 2, pp. 15 f.).
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Payments
The relationship between father and son is extraordinary, indeed unique,
to my knowledge, in another way. We now have a whole series of instances
in which payments for works by the young Bernini were received by his
father. This had been known to be the case with the bust of Coppola and
the Angels in the Barberini chapel, and now we have the Boy Defeating a
Marine Dragon and the St. Sebastian. In fact, no payments to Gianlorenzo
are recorded from this early period and I do not believe it was simply a
matter of greed or parental arrogance on Pietros part. I suspect, rather, that
it was a legal matter: Gianlorenzo could not sign contracts or receive payment for work as a professional sculptor until he had reached the age of
maturity and entered the sculptors guild as a master. Bernini is recorded
as saying that he had become a master at an early age, at the time he was
assiduously studying Michelangelos Florentine Piet, which was then in
Rome. As I pointed out long ago, the effects of this study are clearly visible in the figure of St. Sebastian, for which Pietro received payment in
December of 1617. At the Barberini chapel Pietro signed all the documents, including the contract in which he guarantees his sons participation in the execution, until Gianlorenzo began to receive payments in his
own name, after which Pietro is never again mentioned. The hypothesis
that Gianlorenzo came of age professionally in 1618 is consistent with his
own report that he had become a maestro early, since admission to the
sculptors guild normally took place between the ages of 20 and 25, and
Bernini would have celebrated his twentieth birthday on December 7,
1618. (Bernini was in fact a member of the sculptors guild, to which he
made generous contributions during his lifetime.) The date is supported in
the precedent chronology by the fact that Pietro took payment in 1617 for
the Boy defeating a Marine Dragon and the St. Sebastian and continued to
do so for the work at SantAndrea delta Valle until July 1618; the next payment, in April 1619, was to Gianlorenzo and included all the works that
he may have made . . . together with his father up to the present day.
Heretofore unpublished documents dated December 5, 1618, and January
6, 1619, seem to be the first recorded payments to Gianlorenzo Bernini as
an independent artist. On those dates he received a total of 250 scudi for
another statue of St. Sebastian, commissioned by Pietro Aldobrandini, presumably for a niche above the entrance to the chapel dedicated to that
saint in the left wing of the famous nymphaeum in the Villa Aldobrandini
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at Frascati (Fig. 16).14 This St. Sebastian was instead kept in the
Aldobrandini palace at Magnanapoli in Rome, where it is described in an
inventory of 1682 and included in Baldinuccis list of Berninis works.15
N.B.: These documents were first presented in my paper Bernini giovane at the Villa
Medici conference in February 1999; in the meanwhile, a series of parallel documents concerning the Aldobrandini St. Sebastian has been published, with similar observations and
phraseology, by Laura Testa, Documenti inediti sullo scomparso San Sebastiano
Aldobrandini del giovane Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in Bollettino darte, LXXXVI, 2001, pp.
131135. Testa found important additional documentation that the following year Ippolito
Buzio made another figure of St. Sebastian, which was in fact installed at Frascati (payment
for transportation cited below), whereas that by Bernini remained in Rome. It seems likely
that Bernini's figure was first intended for the niche at Frascati, but upon seeing it the patron
decided to keep it at home, commissioning a substitute for the original location. The situation would thus astonishingly duplicate what happened at virtually the same moment with
two of the four putti Gianlorenzo made for the Barberini chapel in Sant Andrea della Valle:
Maffeo removed them to his own house and commissioned substitutes for the chapel, evidently from Francesco Mochi. The coincidence also extends to Berninis two St. Sebastians,
not only in subject matter but in the fact that the Barberini figure must likewise have originated in relation to the Saint Sebastian commemoration adjoining the family chapel but was
kept as part of the private art collection. (See above, and Lavin, Five Youthful Sculptures,
cited in note 1, pp. 232237.) One suspects a deliberate collusion and/or competition
among the patrons (Barberini, Strozzi, Aldobrandini) for the work of the young prodigy!
Rome, Archivio Doria Pamfili; Fondo Aldobrandini (see Vignodelli Rubrichi [Renato],
Il Fondo Aldobrandini nellarchivio Doria Landi Pamphili, in Archivio della societ
romana di storia patria, no. XCI, 1969)
Busta 19, Reg. de Mandati, Card. Pietro Aldobrandini H 16181620
fol. 39 recto: a di detto [5 xbre 1618] paga.ti a Gio: Lorenzo Bernini scultore sc. 100 m.a
et sono a buon c.to duno S.to Bast.o di Marmo che ha fatto p. s.vitio di Casa nrasc 100
fol. 42 verso:
a di detto [8 di Genn.o 1619] pag.ti a Gio: Lorenzo Bernini scultore sc 150 m.a et sono a
complim.to di sc 250 p.to [per resto] et intero pagam.to duno S.to Bast.o di marmo fattoci p.
s.vitio di casa nra che rest.o sc 100 seli sono fatti pag.re sotto di 5 di xbre pass.to che con sua ric.ta
vi si fan.o bonisc 150
restino di
fol. 60 verso:
a di detti [x di Giug.no 1619] pag.a a Bern.do Carrettiere sc 18 m.a et sono p. la vett.ra di
12 cavalli che anno portato alla nra Villa di belv.re 2 statue di marmo che p.a S. bast.o e laltra
Venere a g.l [giuli] 15 p. cavallosc 18
fol. 63 verso:
et adi detti [p.o di luglio 1619] pag.ti a Bern.do Carrettiere sc 18 m.a et sono p la vett.ra di
12 cavalli che anno p.tato a la nra Villa di belv.re dua statue di marmo che una di S.to Bast.no
e la altra una Venere a g.li 15 p. cavallosc 18
in margin: non ha hauto effetto che ha pag.to il monte
15
Busta 30.a.15311682, Inventario di beni di Olimpia Aldobrandini Pamphilj, a. 1682
fol. 535 recto (Villa Belvedere, Frascati):
14
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Putto Morsicato
Je me suis tromp also in another sense. By a remarkable coincidence there
came to light at the same time as the Getty sculpture a closely related work,
a sort of miserable alter ego of the graceful and smiling Boy defeating a
Marine Dragon commissioned by Maffeo Barberini (Fig. 17), showing a
Boy struggling in agony with a different kind of marine monster that takes
a ferocious bite out of his leg (Figs. 18, 19).16 Taken together, as in some
sense they must be, the sculptures seem to have been born together as contrasting offspring of the putti in the Bacchic group in the Metropolitan
Museum, to be considered presently. They display Berninis astonishing
psychological precocity emphasized in Domenico Berninis description
of the episode with Paul V and evident already in the Capra Amaltea.
Absolutely without parallel in the work of Pietro Bernini, they foreshadow
the high psycho moral drama of the Anima Beata and Anima Dannata that
Gianlorenzo carved for a tomb monument in 1619, at age 21. I suggested
that the sculpture now in Berlin was identical with one recorded in several
inventories of the Ludovisi family collection, and described by Bellori. I
cited three Ludovisi inventories:17
1623: Un Puttino di marmo bianco, qual piange che una vipera la morsicato alto p.i 21/2 in circa
Al Teatro.
Nellentrare nella Cappella di S. Sebastiano.
Una statua di Marmo di S. Sebastiano dentro la Nicchia, alto a proportione della medema
nicchia, attacato ad un tronco frezzato, descritta nellInventario sudetto del S.re Cardinale
foglio 651.
fol. 366 recto (palazzo a Magnanapoli):
Camera sopra la strada
Un S. Sebastiano di marmo legato ad un tronco, con armatura alto palmi otto, incirca, con
piedestallo di legno bianco, e cornice dorata, come a detto Inventario a N.o 109).
Baldinucci, Vita . . ., cited in note 2, p. 178: S. SebastianoPrincipessa di Rossano
(Olimpia Aldobrandini, Jr., deceased owner of the palace).
The sculpture was last mentioned in an inventory of 17091710 (Testa, cited in n. 14,
p. 135, n. 38).
16
On this work see most recently Bernini scultore . . ., cited in note 10, pp. 96101. The
original complementarity of the sculptures may have been reflected in the fact that in the
1960s both were sold under temporary import licenses by the same Florentine dealer,
Francesco Romano.
17
Lavin, Five Youthful Sculptures, cited in note 1, p. 232, note 67.
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Apart from the attribution to Gianlorenzo, the importance of the identification of the Ludovisi sculpture lies in the explanation Bellori gives of its
iconography, which he calls a representation of Fraud, or insidia, in contrast
to which Algardi made one of his earliest sculptures, now lost, showing a
boy riding on a tortoise:
Algardi made [for the Villa Ludovisi] a putto of marble seated on a tortoise, sounding a reed pipe, understood as Security, of which the tortoise
is the symbol, and the innocence of the boy, who plays and sits securely.
This was commissioned by the Cardinal to accompany another putto
[characteristically for Bellori, no mention of Bernini!] who cries bitten
by a serpent hidden in the weeds, understood as fraud and insidiousness.
It is described here as one of the first things that Alessandro worked in
marble, although it is wanting in excellence.21
This interpretation was doubtless inspired by the carnivorous action of
the animal, and the conspicuous presence of the plant, described in two of
the inventories as flowers, in the others and by Bellori as erba, or weeds,
suggesting the idea of a treacherous snake hidden in the vegetation, and
hence the identification of the animal as a serpent or viper. In fact, the
thick-leaved plant, part flower, part weed, is a botanical fantasy. And the
appendages of the serpentine creature also suggest a marine animal, something like a dolphin, which is how modern scholars have identified it. But
who ever heard of a dolphin biting people? Dolphins are, on the contrary,
mans best marine friends. And who ever heard of a dolphin swimming on
land, among flowers, weeds, or any other plants? Strange dolphin indeed,
since the sculpture clearly refers with puckish irony to the famous story of
the boy Arion, who was saved from the sea by a dolphin that transported
him to shore on its back. An ancient sculptural group at the Borghese,
restored in the sixteenth century and surely known to Bernini, recalls Arion
21
Fecevi [Algardi for the Villa Ludovisi] dinventione un putto sedente di marmo, appoggiato ad una testundine, e si pone li calami alla bocca, per suonare, inteso per la sicurezza; di cui
il simbolo la testundine, e linnocenza del fanciullo, che suona, e riposa sicuro. Questo gli f
fatto fare dal Cardinale, per accompagnamento di unaltro putto che duolsi morsicato da un
Serpente ascoso fr lherba, inteso per la fraude, e per linsidia; e si qui descritto per essere delle
prime cose, che Alessandro lavorasse in marmo, bench fuori delleccellenza. (Bellori [Giovanni
Pietro], Le vite de pittori, scultori et architetti moderni, Rome, 1672, ed. Evelina Borea, Turin,
1976, pp. 401 f.)
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(the figure has satyrs ears) as a smiling cavalier confidently leading his swift
and obedient marine steed across the waves, dominating it by grasping its
tail and mouth (Fig. 20). The classical work was aptly cited in relation to
the motif of the Berlin Putto morsicato by Ursula Schlegel,22 but I believe it
was the touchstone that inspired all three modern sculptures in a veritable
paragone of Ovidian physical and psychological metamorphosis. At the
Getty the animal is transformed into an ugly aero-amphibian beast (water
at the front of the base, rocks behind), winged and with a fishs tail, and the
happy boy hero, instead of grasping, tears apart the mouth of the squawking dragon. At Berlin the classical fish is transformed into an insidious and
sinuous terrestrial (all rocks) aquatic beast, and the mouth becomes a terrible instrument of revenge against the temerarious would be dominator. The
snake was indeed a traditional symbol of insidious deception and fraud, but
to show a quasi dolphin in this role made the animal doubly insidious. One
perceives the ingredients of a very sophisticated allegory, and it is impossible to resist the temptation to consider these three closely connected sculptures, made for closely interconnected, in this case often competing patrons,
in relation to one another. Perhaps the sculptures were witty barbs in some
political emblematic intrigue: Maffeo Barberinis happy boy victorious over
the harmless little dragon (a Borghese symbol); the Ludovisi child betrayed
by the swift but treacherous serpentine dolphin (a Barberini symbol); and,
ten years later, the second Ludovisi putto, by Algardi, riding triumphantly
upon a slow but dependable tortoise.
Sesto Fiorentino
Our knowledge of the relationship between the young Bernini and his
father has been greatly increased in recent years by the discovery, or recovery, of an amazing series of sculptures all belonging to the period when
Bernini was still officially an apprentice of his father. In the cases where the
documents are preserved, Pietro received the payments regardless of who
actually executed the work. Outstanding among these is the magnificent
Faun and Putti now in the Metropolitan Museum, which was in Berninis
house when he died (Fig. 21).23 The group is recorded in several successive
22
Schlegel (Ursula), Zum Oeuvre des jungen G. L. Bernini, in Jahrbuch der Berliner
Museen, IX, 1967, pp. 274294.
23
First published by Olga Raggio (A New Bacchic Group by Bernini, in Apollo, no.
CVIII, 1978, pp. 406417); see Bernini scultore . . ., cited in note 10, pp. 5261.
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24
I said so in a letter to the Director of the Metropolitan when the museum was considering the sculpture for purchase.
25
All these works are discussed in Bernini scultore . . ., cited in note 10, pp. 1837,
5261.
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opinion, did Gianlorenzos mind and hand intervene, and not in the basic
conception, but in two secondary, yet interrelated and highly significant
ways: in the delicate, pellucid rendering of different tones and textures in
the treatment of the marble surfaces, and in the extraordinary psychological counterpoint played out between the smiling, impudent and terrified
putti the kind textural and tonal subtlety and intellectual and emotional
psychodrama that have no counterparts in the work of Pietro but became
defining characteristics of Gianlorenzos art.
The whole issue of authorship and chronology is thrown into crisis by
new evidence concerning the fountain in Berlin, which I offer here for the
first time, as I offered the five new early works by Bernini in my lecture in
Rome long ago. The Berlin sculpture was purchased in Florence in 1884 by
the then Director of the Berlin Museum, Wilhelm Bode from the well
known dealer Bardini. Frida Schottmller in 1933 catalogued the fountain
as the work of an unknown Tuscan sculptor of the early seventeenth century.26 The matter rested there until Olga Raggio, in publishing the
Metropolitan piece, related it to the Berlin fountain, which she also labeled
as Tuscan, early seventeenth century.27 Since then there has been an increasing tendency to attribute all these works, including the Berlin fountain, to
Gianlorenzo.28 They certainly are all inspired by the same guiding spirit.
The fact is, however, that the Berlin fountain it is not a Roman work at all,
but Florentine, that is to say precisely, it came from the Villa Corsi Salviati
at Sesto Fiorentino, a once famous property of the Corsi bankers and still
fairly well preserved. Quite by accident, on a visit to the villa some years
ago, I discovered an exact copy of the Berlin fountain in an open loggia
in the east wing of the garden faade (Figs. 2730).29 I have uncovered
26
Schottmller (Frieda), Kaiser-Friedrich Museum. Die italienischen und spanischen
Bildwerke der Renaissance und des Barock, Berlin, 1933, p. 209.
27
Raggio, A new Bacchic Group . . ., cited in note 23, p. 413.
28
A notable exception is Maurizio Fagiolo dellArco, who attended my presentation of
this paper at the Villa Medici (February 19, 1999) and adopted my attribution to Pietro
Bernini of the Sesto fountain and the related sculptures in the exhibition he subsequently
organized with Maria Grazia Bernardini: Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del barocco (exhib. cat.
Rome), Rome, 1999, p. 18, ill., 33, n. 19.
29
Our Fig. 27 is part large album, preserved at the villa, consisting of Alinari photographs of the family and the villa, with an affectionate manuscript dedication by Bardo to
his daughter Francesca, dated 11 November 1888; Alinari dates the photo 1885. I am greatly
indebted to the veteran custodian of the villa, Bruno Bruscagli, for his generous help with
this and other matters. On our Figs. 28, 29, 30, a drawing by Giuseppe Zocchi for the
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1146
21:36
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1147
21:36
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1148
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7. Roman portrait.
Rome, Museo delle Terme.
1149
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1150
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Page 25
1151
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1152
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Page 27
13. Gianlorenzo
Bernini,
St. Lawrence.
Florence,
Contini-Bonacossi
Collection
(photo: ICCD).
1153
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Page 28
1154
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1155
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1156
16. Giovanni Battista Falda, Veduta e prospetto del granteatero dellacque della Villa
Aldobrandini di Belvedere Frascati, engraving, detail, entrance to the chapel of St.
Sebastian of the nymphaeum (Falda [Giovanni Battista], Le fontane nelle ville di Frascati nel
Tuscolano, Rome, 1684, pl. 6).
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1157
21:36
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1158
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1159
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1160
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1161
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1162
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25. Bacchic Group from the Palazzo Altemps, Rome, drawing. Eton (Berkshire), Eton
College Library.
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1164
21:36
28. Copy after Fig. 26. Sesto Fiorentino, Villa Corsi Salviati
(photo: Marilyn Lavin July 2005).
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1165
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21:36
29. Giusppe Zocchi, Villa di Sesto delli SS:ri Marchesi Corsi, drawing. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library.
1166
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1167
30. Detail of
Fig. 29.
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1168
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1169
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no record of the substitution as such, but we know that the Marchese Bardo
Corsi sold some of his art (including a bronze Mercury by Zanobi Lastricati
and Ciani Campagni in 1879) to finance a major renovation of the villa,
most especially the garden, which was his passionate interest, before the
turn of the century. This was the circumstance under which Bode acquired
the piece for the Berlin Museum in 1884, and the replacement with a very
accurate copy must have been part of the arrangement. Thanks to a recent
publication of the fountain by Michael Knuth attributing the work to
Gianlorenzo, we now know that that it was first mentioned in the records
of the Berlin Museum on March 19, 1883, as actually belonging to
Marchese Corsi.30
Since Pietro Bernini was himself a native of Sesto Fiorentino, the provenance of the work in itself proves beyond any reasonable doubt that he was
the sculptor. However, neither in the biographical record nor in the documents concerning his career in Naples, South Italy and Rome, where he settled definitively with his family in 16051606, is there any indication of his
having received a commission from his native town. Much of the Corsi
archive is preserved, and a very substantial monograph on the villa, built in
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, was published in 1937 by
the Marchese Giulio Guicciardini Corsi Salviati.31 But there are many lacunae and no record of our fountain has come to light. We know, however,
that Pietro spent a brief interlude in Florence during 15941595 working
with Giovanni Battista Caccini. In fact, the problem of the origin of the
sculpture is resolved, happily or unhappily depending on your point of
view, by a single, seemingly quite innocent document published by
Pasquale Rotondi in 1933, and almost completely overlooked since then.
The solution, in my opinion, radically alters the history of early Baroque
view of the villa in his Vedute delle ville, e daltri luoghi della Toscana, Florence, 1757, see Dee
(Elaine Evans), Views of Florence and Tuscany by Giuseppe Zocchi. 17111767. Seventy-seven
Drawings from the Collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York (exhib. cat.), New
York, 1968, no. 47. The sculpture in Sesto is exactly the same size as that in Berlin, 138 cm.
high, and must have been copied from the original by the mechanical technique of pointing
off.
30
Knuth (Michael), Eine Brunnen-Skulptur von Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Bildende
Kunst, IV, 1989, p. 58; his attribution was followed by Schtze, Bernini scultore . . ., cited in
note 10, p. 58, with further references.
31
Guicciardini Corsi Salviati, (Giulio), La villa Corsi a Sesto, Florence, 1937; on the decorations of the villa, Manini, (Maria Pia), Comune di Sesto Fiorentino. La decorazione in villa
tra Sesto e Castello nel XVI e XVII secolo (grottesche, allegorie, emblemi), Sesto Fioretno, 1979.
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1171
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ably took prato to mean the quarter of Florence inside the city walls toward
the Porta al Prato and he sought in vain to relate the document to the
Palazzo Corsini located there. But the term in this case clearly refers to the
vast area northwest of Florence from which the city of Prato takes its name.
Sesto Fiorentino lies in the virtual center of this plain, and the villa Corsi is
located on the Prato road just before Sesto (Fig. 31).33 It is important to
note that the fountain for Villa Corsi must have had a precursor in a similar sculpture, now lost, for which Pietro was paid in May 1589, while he
was in Naples:
una statua di marmo attacata con un albero con un puttino sopra nome del
bacco che fa il moto di spremere luva.34
So began a long series that continued through the works he made subsequently in Rome.
Apart from their common subject matter, two distinctive formal characteristics define these impassioned and awe inspiring sculptures: their intertwining, upward spiraling action, and their brilliant display of perforated,
cantilevered forms. They are technically and psychologically mannered,
formulaic and repetitive in a way inconceivable for Gianlorenzo Bernini at
any age, in my opinion. On the other hand, their qualities constitute a new
departure in the history of Italian sculpture. The likes had not been seen
since antiquity, and indeed they clearly depend upon the rediscovery of a
particular phase of Roman art known to modern scholars as the Antonine
Baroque (Figs. 32, 33).35 Works of this period provide the only real prece33
Rotondi even speculated, but then rejected the thought that the reference could be to
a work at Sesto: Infrutuose sono riuscite le nostre ricerche dei lavori che Pietro pot eseguire
in quella parte di Firenze, che, per essere un giorno poco abitata, aveva appunto il nome di
Prato; ma dubitiamo che si tratti di opera di decorazione o di restauro, che lancor giovine
scultore poteva fornire allerigenda villa dei Principi Corsini, che si andava compiendo in
quel tempo sotta la direzione dello stesso architetto della facciata di Santa Trinita: il
Buontalenti. Rotondi, ibidem, pp. 397 f., 392398.
34
Ceci (Giuseppe), Per la biografia degli artisti des XVI e XVII secolo. Nuovi documenti. II. Scultori, Napoli nobilissima, no. XV, 1906, p. 117, cited by Raggio, A new
Bacchic Group . . ., cited in note 17, p. 417, n. 28.
35
On the works illustrated here, see Strong (Eugenie Sellers), Antiques in the Collection
of Sir Frederick Cook, Bart., at Doughty House, Richmond, in The Journal of Hellenic
Studies, XXVIII, 1908, pp. 32 f., Muthmann (Fritz), Statuensttzen und dekoratives Beiwerk
an griechischen und rmischen Bildwerken. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der rmischen
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dents for Pietro Berninis dramatic innovations, and it is important to realize that the fathers appropriation of ancient models paved the way for his
sons very different reprise of classical tradition. The Sesto fountain proves
that Pietro Bernini, then 32 years old, was perfectly capable of designing
and executing such works before his son was born. Gianlorenzo would
retain his fathers lessons, but from the beginning he would temper their
excesses and subject them to a rigorous formal structure and emotional
rationality. The relationship between Bernini father and son was curiously
repeated in that between Mozart father and son, who composed creditable,
and recognizable, music at age six. For both cases, Pietro Bernini gave the
appropriate comment when, as Gianlorenzo later recalled, the future Pope
Urban VIII warned the proud father that his prodigious child would surpass him: Your Excellency, in that game he who loses wins!36
Kopistenttigkeit, Heidelberg, 1951, pp. 86 f., Bol (Peter), ed., Forschungen zur Villa Albani.
Katalog der antiken Bildwerke III, Berlin, 1992, pp. 363366, with excellent details.
36
Sappi V. E. che in quel gioco chi perde vince (Blunt-Bauer, Diary . . ., cited in note 5,
p. 15, June 6, 102, August 5; Chantelou, Journal . . ., cited in note 5, pp. 18, 84).
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XXIX
Bozzetto Style
The Renaissance Sculptors Handiwork*
* This contribution is a much revised and expanded version of my original, brief sketch
of the history of sculptors models, Irving Lavin, Bozzetti and Modelli. Notes on Sculptural
Procedure from the Early Renaissance through Bernini, in Stil und berlieferung in der
Kunst des Abendlandes, Akten des 21. internationalen Kongresses fr Kunstgeschichte in
Bonn 1964 (Berlin, 1967), vol. 3, 93104. In abbreviated form this version was presented
at a symposium titled Creativity: The Sketch in the Arts and Sciences, organized by myself and
Henry A. Millon at the Institute for Advanced Study and the National Gallery of Art in May
2001.
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BOZZETTO STYLE
1175
Didron, made a discovery that can be described, almost literally, as monumental. In the introduction to his publication the first Greek-Byzantine
treatise on painting, which he dedicated to his friend and enthusiastic fellow-medievalist, Victor Hugo Didron gave a dramatic account of a
moment of intellectual illumination that occurred during a pioneering
exploratory visit to Greece in August and September 1839 for the purpose
of studying the medieval fresco and mosaic decorations of the Byzantine
churches.1 He had, he says, wondered at the uniformity and continuity of
the Greek pictorial tradition, and upon reaching Mount Athos, with its
innumerable monastic churches covered with decorations, he was stunned
by a creative spectacle he witnessed, quite by chance, at the very outset of
his visit to the Holy Mountain.
The first convent we entered at Mount Athos was that of the
Esphigmnou. The great church, recently constructed, was at that
very moment scaffolded; a painter from Caria, aided by his brother,
by two students, and by two young apprentices, covered with narrative frescos the entire interior porch preceding the nave. The first of
the students, who was a deacon and the eldest, was to take over the
shop at the death of the master.
My joy was great at this happy chance that seemed to reveal to me
the secret of these paintings and painters, and that thus responded to
the useless questions I had asked at Salamis and in the city of Athens.
I climbed up on the scaffold and I saw the artist, surrounded by his
pupils, decorating the narthex of the church with frescos. The young
brother spread the mortar on the wall; the master sketched the picture; the first student filled the contours traced by the master in the
scene, which he had not had time to complete; a young student
gilded the nimbuses, painted the inscriptions, made the ornaments;
the two others, younger, ground and mixed the colors. Yet the master painter sketched his pictures as from memory or inspiration. In
1
Adolphe Napolon Didron, Manuel diconographie chrtienne, grecque et latine, avec une
introduction et des notes par M. Didron. Traduit du manuscrit byzantin, le guide de la peinture
par Paul Durand (Paris, 1845). A valuable edition of the text in English translation was published by Paul Hetherington, The Painters Manual of Dionysius of Fourna. An English translation of cod. gr. 708 in the Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library (Leningrad and London
1974). On Didron see the apt remarks of Hans Belting, Likeness and Presence. A History of
the Image before the Era of Art (Chicago and London,1994), 1719.
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1177
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1178
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1180
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BOZZETTO STYLE
1181
9. Benedetto da
Maiano,
Confirmation of
the Order of St.
Francis, terracotta. Victoria
and Albert
Museum,
London.
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BOZZETTO STYLE
1183
and kind of preparation that lay behind the great mural decorations of the
trecento. In the West, too, the fresco was executed directly on the wall, overlaying a rough sketch that served merely as a guide, not as a preliminary
study, like the design first laid down by the master painter at Mount Athos.
Oertel, however, took a very different view of the process that lay behind
the execution of the wall painting. He questioned the fundamental role traditionally ascribed to the western artists model book, the visual equivalent
of the Byzantine painters handbook that explained for Didron the wondrous, unpremeditated process he had witnessed on the Holy Mountain.
Oertels intuition was confirmed with the discovery in the aftermath of
World War II of great numbers of sinopias, the monumental and often
astonishingly sketchy drawings executed directly on the wall beneath the
fresco, not as a study but as a guide to the artist who covered it as he painted
the fresco on top (Fig. 1).4 Oertel demonstrated, as well, that a new order
was introduced by Masaccio who first used a grid and a full-size cartoon
traced on the wall (Fig. 2).5 The old view that the medieval painter in the
West worked by a more or less mechanical method of copying from prescribed models and patterns can no longer be maintained. Indeed, the chief
controversy has been reduced at present to the question whether even small
scale compositional sketches were used before the Renaissance. There has
taken place what amounts to a fundamental reversal in our understanding
of how works of art were conceived. The medieval artist, formerly thought
of as being bound by an ironclad system of servile copying, now emerges as
the paragon of direct and unpremeditated creation. It was the Renaissance
that sought to objectify and rationalize the artistic process into a fixed
method and body of rules.
A corollary of this development is that the rules that emerged in the
Renaissance and flourished in a great body of theoretical as well as practical
art-literature were of an entirely different nature than those prescribed in
the medieval handbooks. The latter were essentially of two kinds, often
4
On the fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, see Millard Meiss, The Great Age of Fresco. Discoveries,
Recoveries, and Survivals (New York,1970), 5657; Andrew Ladis, Taddeo Gaddi. Critical
Reappraisal and Catalogue Raisonn (Columbia, MO, 1982), 1567, No. 17
5
Eve Borsook interprets the grid, which occurs only in the figure of the Madonna, as a
scheme for calculating the foreshortening of the head (The Mural Painters of Tuscany from
Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto [Oxford, 1980], 6970). This explanation, however, does not
preclude the use of the grid in conjunction with a cartoon, and in any case does not affect
Oertels demonstration of Masaccios innovative approach to mural painting.
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combined in a single treatise. One format was technical, consisting essentially of recipes and other directions, including geometric prescriptions, for
actually constructing and executing the work of art; the second type was
essentially iconographical, providing by way of description or illustration
details of how a given subject was to be represented. What the Renaissance
created were guides to the creative process itself, conceived as a progressive
articulation and refinement of a preliminary thought to a finished prototype, of which the final work was, insofar as possible, a permanent duplicate. The Renaissance evolution was rooted in a fundamental paradox. On
the one hand, there emerged for the first time in the history of art what can
properly be called an articulate theory of creation that would lead the practitioner step by step from the set task to the final execution, in a reasoned
and orderly fashion. On the other hand, by the same token, the process
elicited and led to the conscious preservation of a more or less complete
repertory of preliminary studies that record what might be called the artists
inner dialogue with the problems presented by the task at hand. What
became visible, as never before, and part and parcel with the elaborate theoretical structure, was the artists premeditation, the process of planning,
whether spontaneous or self-conscious, that led from an initial idea to the
final work.
These phenomena have their counterparts in sculpture, though they
have received far less attention in this domain. A useful point of departure
is provided by the pioneering study by Carl Bluemel of Greek sculptural
technique, first published in 1927.6 On certain unfinished pieces of ancient
statuary there is preserved a number of small protuberances or knobs, with
tiny holes in the center (Fig. 3, especially on the head and above the knees;
Fig. 4, on the chest and knee). By analogy with modern sculptural practice,
it is evident that these knobs are what are called points, fixed reference
marks by means of which measurements are made in copying from a model
or another sculpture. Such examples prove beyond question that a system
6
Carl Bluemel, Griechische Bildhauerarbeit, Jahrbuch des deutschen archologischen
Instituts, Ergnzungsheft XI (Berlin, 1927): 178, published independently thereafter (third
edition, Berlin 1940) though omitting valuable documentation; English edition, Greek
Sculptors at Work (London 1955). Further observations by Bluemel appear in Modelle zu
griechischen Giebelskulpturen, Archologischer Anzeiger 54 (1939): 30213. For a general
survey of sculpural procedure from antiquity to modern times, see Rudolf Wittkower,
Sculpture. Processes and Principles (New York, 1977).
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of mechanical pointing off was known and used in antiquity.7 On this basis,
Bluemel made an observation that is of fundamental significance. It concerns an inherent difference in procedure between sculpture that is executed
free and directly in the stone, and sculpture produced by pointing off from
a model. In the former case, characteristic of archaic and classical Greece,
the artist tends to carve the statue uniformly in the round (Fig. 5). He
removes, as it were, a series of skins from the figure, and at any given stage
in the execution it will show a more or less uniform degree of finish. With
the technique of pointing off, particularly by the Romans for copying Greek
statuary, the tendency is to work the figure from one side at a time, and to
bring some parts to a state of relative completion before others.
What little evidence there is for the practice of medieval sculptors comes
mainly from the Gothic period.8 But the limited evidence is of great value
because it speaks with a single and unequivocal voice. Bluemel himself cited
several unfinished sculptures, such as the small female figure, probably an
allegory of Fortitude, from the late fourteenth century in Orvieto (Fig. 6).
The technique is basically similar to that of archaic Greek sculpture; indeed,
all the medieval examples show the characteristics of direct carving, without
pointing from a model.9 Even more striking is the consistency of the docu-
7
Recent bibliography and examples: Peter E. Corbett, Attic Pottery of the Late Fifth
Century from the Athenian Agora, Hesperia 181 (1949): 305306, 341; Gisela M. A.
Richter, Ancient Italy (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1955), 105111; Evelyn B. Harrison, New
Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, 1959, Hesperia 29 (1960): 370, 382; Gisela M. A.
Richter, How were the Roman Copies of Greek Portraits Made?, Rmische Mitteilungen 69
(1962): 5258.
8
An important extension of Bluemels analysis to the development of Egyptian sculpture
was made by Rudolf Anthes, Werkverfahren gyptischer Bildhauer, Mitteilungen des
deutschen Instituts fr gyptische Altertumskunde in Kairo 10 (1941): 79125.
9
After Bluemel see Theodor Mller in Reallexikon zur deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 9 vols.
(Stuttgart 1937 ), vol. 2, 608614, s.v. Bildhauer; also Fritz V. Arens in the same volume,
10621066, s.v. Bosse, Bossenkapitell. On medieval sculptural procedure generally, see
Pierre du Colombier, Les chantiers des cathedrales (Paris, 1973), 11334, with bibliography,
though much more study is necessary. Needless to say, considerable variation in
degree of surface finish on a given work is possible within the general principle of uniform,
in the round carving in medieval sculpture. Yet, there are real exceptions. On certain incomplete Romanesque capitals, parts were brought to a final finish before the rest of the carving
was even roughed out (suggesting the use of a repeated pattern?); Jean Trouvelot, Remarques
sur la technique des sculpteurs du moyen Age, Bulletin monumental 95 (1936): 103108.
John White, in his exemplary study of the Orvieto facade reliefs, showed that a uniform
working technique was used only in the initial stages of blocking out; execution of
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mentary evidence, which for the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, particularly in Italy, is rather extensive. We have the abundant
records of both Florence and Milan cathedrals. And they show by repeated
instances, and without exceptions, that the monumental sculptures of these
buildings were executed at this period not from models but from drawings.
The drawings were not provided by the executing sculptors themselves but
by other artists; and these other artists were usually not sculptors at all, but
painters.10 The evidence concords perfectly with what the preserved examples suggested, for sculpture executed exclusively from drawings is of necessity carved directly.
This then was the situation in the period immediately preceding the
emergence of the great masters of the early Renaissance, and it was the system under which they grew up. It is astonishing how rapidly and completely things changed. We cannot even remotely conceive of Ghiberti or
Donatello or Luca della Robbia executing sculpture as a general practice
after someone elses drawings, especially a painters. And as the sculptor
began to provide his own designs, the documents show with equal consistency that these designs now normally took the form of models.11 Drawings
the subsequent stages progressed at varying rates (The Reliefs on the Facade of the Duomo
at Orvieto, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 20 [1959]: 254302). In this case
however, we are not dealing with an artists creative procedure, but, as White concludes,
with a workshop system in which specific kinds of secondary tasks were assigned to specialists once the main forms had been established by the leading masters.
10
On sculptors drawings generally Harald Keller, in Reallexikon (as in n. 9), vol. 2,
625639, s. v. Bildhauerzeichnung. On the painters drawings for sculpture in Milan and
Florence, Oertel (as in n. 3), 267270. (also, for Milan, Ugo Nebbia, La scultura del Duomo
di Milano [Milan,1910], 457, 5966). This suggests a link between the Milanese and
Florentine series of giganti as regards working procedure, as well as program (Raghna and
Nicolay Stang, Donatello e il Giosue per il Campanile di S. Maria del Fiore alla luce dei documenti, Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia. Institutum Romanum Norvegiae
1 [Rome 1962] 119). Needless to say, drawings by sculptors are documented in the trecento:
Nino Pisano, Scherlatti tomb, Pisa, 1362, Igino B. Supino, Arte Pisana (Florence, 1904):
230231; wooden choir stall, Siena cathedral, 1377ff., Gaetano Milanesi, Documenti per la storia dellarte senese, vol.1 (Siena, 1854 56), 332, 356, etc., Richard Krautheimer, A drawing for
the Fonte Gaia in Siena, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 10 (1952): 272. It must
be emphasized that, regardless of who made them, the question whether there were true
preparatory studies, as distinct from commission or working drawings, remains open.
11
On models and bozzetti generally, see Harald Keller and Anton Ress, in Reallexikon (as
in n. 9), vol. 2, 10811098, s. v. Bozzetto, and Theodor Mller, Reallexikon (as in n. 9),
vol. 2, 600607 This writer must report that so far he has encountered no certain example,
either preserved or documented, of a model in whatever scale for monumental stone figural
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continue to be used, of course, but they are no longer the distinctive basis
upon which works were commissioned or appraised.12
The first evidence we have of what must be regarded as a methodological and conceptual sea-change comparable to that inaugurated by Masaccio
the painter, is a documentary notice referring to one of the famous series of
colossal statues, or giganti, commissioned for the cathedral of Florence, the
series that resulted ultimately in the David of Michelangelo. A partial payment was made in 1415 jointly to Donatello and Brunelleschi for a small
figure of stone, draped with gilt lead (una figuretta di pietra, vestita di
piombo dorato); they were to execute the figure for a test and illustration of
the large figures that are to be made upon the buttresses (per pruova e mostra
sculpture before the fifteenth century. It should be emphasized, however, that there was an
important trecento practice of making models for architectural elements which may or may
not have included sculptured decorative details (documented at Prague, Xanten, Bremen,
Milan, Florence, and Bologna; see Keller (as above) and Ludwig H. Heydenreich, in
Reallexikon (as in n. 9) , vol. 1, 918940, s. v. Architekturmodell); to this tradition presumably belongs the plaster model made by Claus Sluter for the maconerie et facon of the
fountain at Dijon (Henri David, Claus Sluter, [Paris 1951], 86). Terracotta sculpture, including models, was the subject of a recent exhibition, Bruce Boucher, ed., Earth and Fire. Italian
Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, exh. cat. (New Haven and London, 2001). On
wax models in particular, see Charles Avery, La cera sempre aspetta: Wax Sketch Models
for Sculpture, Apollo 119 (1984): 16676.
12
Jeno Lanyi was apparently the first to draw attention to this fact, and stressed the
marked contrast between the Florentine masters on the one hand and on the other Jacopo
della Quercia, in whose work drawings play a leading role (Quercia Studien, Jahrbuch fr
Kunstwissenschaft 23 [1930]: 2563). But in this effort to establish Quercias originality,
Lanyi overlooked the fact that, in this respect at least, Quercia was carrying on a medieval
tradition that was no less firmly rooted in trecento Siena than it had been in Florence and
Milan (Oertel, as in n. 3, 263). Lanyi was right, however, in emphasizing Quercias departure, along with the Florentines, from the late trecento tradition of monumental sculpture
executed on the basis of drawings supplied by painters. Lanyi ( as in n. 12, 5354) also misinterpreted the passage in which Vasari discusses Quercias equestrian monument for the
catafalque of Giovanni dAzzo Ubaldini (Rosanna Bettarini and Paola Barocchi, eds., Le vite
de pi eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori : nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568 [Florence,
196697], Testo, III , 2122) to mean that Vasari attributed to Quercia the invention of the
full scale sculptors model. Vasari in fact is referring specifically to the material construction
of the piece, which in the sixteenth century was used for large models. Quercias monument,
however, was not a model in the sense of being preparatory to execution in more permanent
form, but belongs to the category of large scale decorations executed in temporary materials
for special occasions such as funerals and festivals. The subject of early Renaissance sculptors
use of drawings and models has been surveyed recently by Gary M. Radke, Benedetto da
Maiano and the Use of Full Scale Preparatory Models in the Quattrocento, in Verrocchio
and Late Quattrocento Italian Sculpture, ed. Stephen Bule, et al. (Florence 1992), 21724.
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delle figure grandi che sanno a fare in su gli sproni)13. As far as I can discover
this is the first reference to a model made in preparation for a piece of freestanding monumental sculpture since classical antiquity. The chief reason
for making the model was probably of a technical nature. We know that
considerable difficulties were experienced with the giant that Donatello had
made a few years earlier out of terracotta; it had to be repaired on several
occasions within a few years after it was completed.14 Chances are that
Donatello and Brunelleschi were trying out what would indeed have been
a novel combination of stone with a protective cover of metal in the form
of drapery. But even if it was primarily a technical rather than an aesthetic
experiment it represents a radical new departure in the way of conceiving a
work of sculpture.15
From the foregoing it should be clear that in order to grasp fully the
nature and significance of the creative process as it evolved in the
Renaissance, it is important to understand that sculpture of the highest
order can be created without first making a model of any kind, indeed without any externally manifested premeditation at all. The model is an invention and has a history of its own, and a corollary of this fact is that it
embodies a history of style in its own right, related to, but also independent of that of the finished work for which it was made. One strand of this
history is the development of what might be called the prototypical style,
in which the model is conceived as a fully developed preconception of the
final work. Here it is important to note that the preliminary designs,
whether drawings or models, mentioned in the documents were made as
the basis for commissions and were often intended to be kept as a standard
against which the completed work would be judged, and hence it seems
probable that they were highly finished.16 This assumption receives some
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support from examples from the second half of the century that have a (by
no means certain) claim to be regarded as authentic models. Whatever the
terracotta Forzori altar attributed to Donatello may be, it coincided perfectly with the rough and sketchy character of Donatellos version of the
rilievo stiacciato (Figs. 7, 8);17 at the opposite end of the scale, but equally
undistinguishable from the version as executed, are the highly finished
models of Benedetto da Maiano related to the reliefs on his pulpit in S.
Croce of around 1475; the executed sculptures show only slight variations
from the models (Figs. 9, 10).18 In the end, it seems likely that the models
of the early Renaissance were presentation pieces, illustrations or try-outs,
rather than preliminary studies.
One begins to get the sense of a distinctive sketch style with Verrocchio
who, in addition to modeling the forms smoothly, used a sharp tool to trace
certain shapes in the soft clay with the same vigor and impetuosity that permeates all his work (Fig. 11). His terracotta model in the Victoria and
Albert Museum for the Forteguerri monument in Pistoia (c.1475), though
hardly a sketch, is very different from such highly finished models as those
of Benedetto da Majano.19 And if the London relief was actually a presentation piece, submitted for the patrons approval, it marks the appearance of
a new attitude in this domain. I think it not coincidental, however, that the
first true bozzetto-style, that is, a preliminary manner of execution in a
preliminary study, should have been developed by Michelangelo, the first
sculptor who made the preliminary model a deliberate, integral, and consistent part of his creative process. Michelangelos small figures in wax and
clay have the quality of directness that prompts us to speak for the first time
of real sculptured sketches, or bozzetti (Figs. 12, 20).20 In the terracotta
torso in the British Museum, the creative act is everywhere evident in the
very personal striated surface treatment that was, in a manner of speaking,
See Boucher (as in n. 11), 108111.
Radke 1992; Boucher (as in n. 11), 136138.
19
On the model for the Forteguerri monument see Boucher (as in n. 11), 12629.
20
This usage is, however, anachronistic. Following such root forms as boza and abbozzare, which focus on the preliminary or unfinished state of a work, the diminutive
bozzetto, referring to a small, rapidly executed sketch, in contradistinction to a modello,
became current only in the eighteenth century. See Oreste Ferrari, La fortuna (e sfortuna)
critica del bozzetto nel Settecento, in Studi in onore di Giulio Carlo Argan (Florence, 1994),
253258. For a succinct discussion of earlier terminology for preparatory works in sculpture,
see Dario Covi, Reinterpreting a Verrocchio Document, Source. Notes in the History of Art,
12, No. 4 (1993): 512.
17
18
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23
Silvia Danesi Squarzina, ed., Caravaggio e i Giustiniani. Toccar con mano una collezione
del seicento, exh. cat. (Milan, 2001), 246251. On the attribution of the famous and muchdiscussed drawing of hands, see Charles de Tolnay, in Le Cabinet dun grand amateur, P.-J.
Mariette, 16941774, dessins du XVe sicle au XVIIIe sicle. exh. cat. (Paris, 1967), 245.
24
For the Ricordi, see Lucilla Bardeschi Ciulich and Paola Barocchi, eds., I ricordi di
Michelangelo (Florence, 1970). The frequency with which he used large models for sculpture
is not so evident as with the bozzetti; Cellini (cited in n. 25 below) says that Michelangelo
had worked both with and without full scale models, and that after a point he used them
regularly. On the other hand, in a letter of 1547 Bandinelli reports Pope Clement as having
said that Michelangelo could never be persuaded to make such models (Giovanni Bottari,
Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura scritte da pi celebri personaggi dei secoli XV, XVI, e XVII, ed. Stefano Ticozzi, 8 vols. [Milan, 182225], vol. 1, 71). But that
Michelangelo himself thought of them as a means of facilitating the work is apparent from
his letter of April 1523 concerning full scale models for the Medici tombs: Paola Barocchi
and Renzo Ristori, Il carteggio di Michelangelo. Edizione postuma di Giovanni Poggi (Florence,
196573), vol. 2, 366367.
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fact, Giambologna played a key role in our history by creating what I would
called an iconographic bozzetto-style. Both his studies for the colossal figures of the Nile (unexecuted) and the Appenines in the Medici garden at
Pratolino, offer brilliant displays of inchoate freedom and spontaneity, subtly differentiated so as to evoke, respectively, the liquid and craggy wildness
of untamed nature itself; in this sense the rough sketches are actually quite
finished (Figs. 2426).
To my mind, Berninis terracotta sketches are inconceivable without the
precedence of Giambologna, whose studies he must have studied in detail,
possibly in the Medici collection in Florence, while in turn greatly expanding the stylistic, technical and thematic reach of the bozzetto-style.31
Moreover, Bernini continues and even surpasses the late sixteenth century
in working out his conception fully in advance. Sandrart reports he saw in
Berninis studio no less than twenty two bozzetti for the St. Longinus
alone.32 Sandrart was himself astonished, and observes that the number of
studies was far greater than the one or two models other sculptors were
wont to produce. Eleven bozzetti for the angels of the Ponte Sant Angelo
are preserved still today, and in them we follow the development of
Berninis ideas with a degree of intimacy that can only be described as star31
Berninis acquaintance with the Medici collections seems evident from a comparison
of his Rape of Proserpine with the bronze by Pietro da Barga in the Bargello (Giacomo de
Nicola, A Series of Small Bronzes by Pietro da Barga, Burlington Magazine 29 [1916]; Pl.
III, Q), a relationship I hope to enlarge upon in another context. (The Proserpine-Barga relationship, first noted by me, has recently been explored by Matthias Winner, in Bernini scultore: la nascita del barocco in casa Borghese, eds. Anna Coliva and Sebastian Schtze, exh. cat.,
[Rome, 1998], 192193.) On Berninis many Florentine connections see further Lavin Five
Youthful Sculptures by Gianlorenzo Bernini and a Revised Chronology of his Early Works,
The Art Bulletin 50 (1968): 242 n.125; Lavin (as in n. 30), 172175; Ex Uno Lapide: The
Renaissance Sculptors Tour de Force, in Il cortile delle statue. Der Statuenhof des Belvedere im
Vatikan, ed. Matthias. Winner (Mainz, 1998), 191210.
Our knowledge of Berninis sculptural studies has been greatly increased, but also somewhat confused (see n. 53 below), by several recent exhibitions and technical studies:
Androssov, Sergej O., ed., Alle origini di Canova. Le terrecotte della collezione Farsetti, exh. cat.
(Venice, 1991); Ian Wardropper, ed., From the Sculptors Hand, Italian Baroque Terracottas
from the State Hermitage Museum, exh. cat. (Chicago, 1998); Gaskell, Ivan, and Henry Lie,
eds., Sketches in Clay for Projects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Harvard University Art Museums
Bulletin, 6, No. 3 (Cambridge MA, 1999).
32
Arthur Rudolf Peltzer, Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau-, Bild- und MahlereyKnst von 1675. Leben der berhmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister (Mnchen 1925),
286. Sandrart notes the studies were all three spans high (c. 68cm) and made of wax; the
material seems doubtful, since this would be the unique instance of Bernini studying in wax.
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tling. Even in the famous case where we know Bernini worked the marble
directly, the bust of Louis XIV, he did so only after the most painstaking
study, which included besides drawings, many clay models.33
No less clear is the evidence for Berninis commitment to the full scale
model. In every case where the documents for his larger commissions are
preserved they show that he used full scale models; it was through them that
he was able to control and give his personal stamp to vast undertakings executed largely with the help of assistants. Symptomatic of this development
is that by far the most elaborate and practical description to date of techniques of model making, measurement and proportional enlargement
comes in a treatise on sculpture written around 1660 by one Orfeo Boselli.
Boselli, though a pupil and follower of Duquesnoy, worked under Bernini
on the decoration of St. Peters, and his account may well reflect the practice in Berninis studio. But the treatise is mainly concerned with the
restoration and copying of antique statuary, and it is significant that one of
his methods seems to have entailed the use of fixed raised points on the
marble comparable to those found on unfinished Roman sculptures34.
Symptomatic, too, is the fact that with Bernini and his school we begin, as
we shall see, to get bozzetti that show ample evidence of measurement and
33
The best account of the making of the bust remains that of Rudolf Wittkower,
Berninis Bust of Louis XIV, Charlton Lectures on Art, 33 (Oxford 1951): esp. 8. See further
Cecil Gould, Bernini in France. An Episode in Seventeenth-Century History (Princeton,1982),
35, 4145, 807; Helga Tratz, Werkstatt und Arbeitsweise Berninis, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr
Kunstgeschichte 2324 (1988): 466478.
34
Osservationi della scoltura antica, Rome, Bibl. Corsini, ms. 36 F 27, fol. 60 verso: salvarai sempre le doi cime del sasso, grosse tre dita, ben riquadrate, tanto nel di sopra, quanto
nel fianco, perche perse quelle, sarebbe vano il tutto; ne le levarai mai sin tanto, che non
habbi posto a loco certo tutte le parti principali (fol. 60 verso). The methods described by
Boselli were studied in an unpublished paper by a former student of mine, Martin Weyl, A
History of Pointing Techniques from the Early Renaissance Through Modern Times, unpublished
Qualifying Paper, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Fall 1968, 1113. On the
treatise, see Michelangelo Piacentini, Le Osservationi della scoltura antica di Orfeo
Boselli, Bollettino del R. Istituto di Archeologia e Storia dellArte 9 (1939): 535. Following
my suggestion the text was published by Phoebe Dent Weil, ed., Orfeo Boselli. Osservazioni
della scoltura antica : dai manoscritti Corsini e Doria e altri scritti (Florence, 1978). Based on
additonal mansucripts, the text has been edited anew by Antonio O. Torresi, ed., Orfeo
Boselli. Osservazioni sulla scultura antica. I manoscritti di Firenze e di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1994).
On the dating, see the important observations by Donatella Livia Sparti, Tecnica e teoria
del restauro scultoreo a Roma nel Seicento, con una verifica sulla collezione di Flavio Chigi,
Storia dellarte, No. 92 (1998): 6566.
On the recognition of Roman pointing method see n. 50 below.
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On the attribution of this figure, Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini: The Sculptor of the
Roman Baroque (London, 1966), 249. On the Hermitage model and the importance of its
enlargement scale, see Lavin (as in preliminary n. * above), 103.
39
Lavin (as in preliminary n. * above), 1034; one of a pair of bozzetti for the angels, first
illustrated and discussed in my dissertation, The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini, Harvard
Univ. (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1955), 184185, now in the Kimbell Art Museum at Fort
Worth, Texas. The newly restored bridge angels and the prepratory studies have been discussed most recently by Angela Negro and Marina Minozzi, in Claudio Strinati and Maria
Grazia Bernardini, eds., Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del Barocco. I restauri (Rome, 1999),
6775, 7784.
40
Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology (New York and Evanston 1962), 178 and n.16.
41
Paul Freart de Chantelou, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed. L.
Lalanne (Paris 1885), 174.
38
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cisely that one of his greatest achievements was to have succeeded in rendering the marble pieghevole come la cera.42
This enhanced and intensified style-meaning, as I would call it, reaches
a climax in two interrelated and immediately successive commissions
Bernini received in the 1670s, toward the end of his long life: the unprecedented series of heroic angels for the Ponte SantAngelo and the Sacrament
altar in St. Peters (Figs. 2730; Figs. 3134). Nothing like them, so free and
spontaneous, had been created before. The point want to emphasize here
is that the manner in which they were conceived and executed was intimately related to the fact that they are angels, specifically intended to evoke
the immaterial essence of those ethereal creatures, who by their very nature
fulfill a two-fold role, to move fleetingly and effortlessly on divine errands,
and to adore in perpetual ardor the divinity whose glory they reflect and
manifest.
The figures all display the kind of voluminously folded and agitated
draperies for which Bernini was, and sometimes still is, roundly criticized,
in a spectacularly demonstrative and meaningful array, for in this case the
clay has been metamorphosed into the very stuff of angels. But the two sets
of creatures are also quite different from one another, and quite naturally so,
if one can speak of nature in relation to angels, if one follows the inspired
perorations of the greatest of all Christian angelologists, the PseudoDionysius the Areopagite. In his Celestial Hierarchies Pseudo-Dionysius
defined the essence of these purely spiritual beings in terms of three fundamental metaphors: as the wind, for the angels who waft at instant speed
through space and time they operate everywhere, coming and going
from above to below and again from below to above; as clouds, to show that
the holy and intelligent beings are filled in a transcendent way with hidden
light; and as fire, for the shining and enflamed garments that cover the
nudity of these intelligent beings of heaven, symbolizing the divine form.
For Bernini these references were much more than metaphors. His figures
complement each other not only in form but also in their very essence
they are wind, they are clouds, they are light.
The ten marble angels, placed high on the balustrades of the bridge leading across the Tiber to St. Peters and the Vatican, are perceived as luminous
42
Domenico Bernini, Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino (Rome 1713), 149; Filippo
Baldinucci, Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Florence, 1682, ed. Sergio Samik
Ludovici (Milan, 1948), 141.
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the shining and enflamed garments that cover the nudity of the intelligent
beings of heaven, as symbolizing the divine form.44
These distinctive qualities of form and meaning inhabit the preparatory
studies so profoundly and so consistently that one can speak in Berninis
case almost literally of a vocabulary of bozzetto styles. The undulating and
serpentine crevasses and striated surfaces of the terracottas of the bridge
angels match the billowing and tightly wrapped folds of their wind-swept
drapery, and it is no accident that in the one preserved drawing for a clothed
bridge angel the same effects are achieved with a fine-tipped pen and ink
(Fig. 35). The many autograph preliminary studies for the Sacrament
angels, drawn as well as sculpted, also testify to the painstaking labor that
lay behind the chiaroscuro effects that serve also to dematerialize the
Sacrament figures.45 Here, however, the continuous, predominantly linear
definition of form in the bridge angels is replaced by a flickering pattern
that arises from the juxtaposition of discrete patches of light and dark. The
sculptures are full of jibes and jabs and excavations with scoops and fingers,
while in the latest of the preserved drawings for the figures the lines are
replaced by patches of light and dark (tinted brown, as in bronze) achieved
almost exclusively with brush and wash (Fig. 36). In both cases, for different reasons and in different ways, the materials become as transcendent as
the images they represent.
I want also to consider briefly the seemingly different but fundamentally
related question of how Berninis preliminary models were used and what
functions they served. Here I want to acknowledge the extraordinary
achievement of Anthony Sigel in his study of the technique of Berninis
bozzetti. Particularly dramatic is Sigels recovery of the system of measurements for transferal or enlargement, using compasses, from many tiny
punctures and incisions made in the wet clay (Fig. 37).46 The number of
marks varies greatly, but it is clear that the process was quite painstaking and
15, 4: Pseudo-Dionysius (as in n. 43), 186.
On the paradox of Berninis calculated spontaneity, see Irving Lavin, Calculated
Spontaneity. Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch, Apollo 107 (1978), 398405. On the
bozzetto illustrated in Fig. 31, see Irving Lavin Bernini-Bozzetti: One More, One Less. A
Berninesque Sculptor in Mid-Eighteenth Century France, in Ars et scriptura, Festschrift fr
Rudolf Preimesberger zum 65. Geburtstag, eds. Hannah Baader, et al. (Berlin, 2001),
143156 (reprinted in Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Atti dei convegni lincei 170.
Convegno internazionale La cultura letteraria italiana e lidentit europea Roma, 68 aprile
2000, [Rome, 2001], 245284).
46
See Sigels contributions in Gaskell and Lie, (as in n. 31), 48118.
44
45
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1201
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1205
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1207
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1208
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1209
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1210
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1211
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19. Michelangelo, Model of a River God, clay, 180cm. long, c. 1525. Casa Buonarroti, Florence.
1213
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1214
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1215
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23. Giambologna, Cast model for the Bologna Neptune fountain, bronze.
Museo Civico, Bologna.
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24. Giambologna, River God, terracotta. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
25. Giambologna, The Appenine, terracotta.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.
1217
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1218
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1219
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34. Bernini, Angel adoring the Sacrament. Altar of the Sacrament, St. Peters, Rome.
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35. Bernini, Angel with the Crown of Thorns,
drawing, pen and ink. Museum der
Bildenden Knste, Leipzig.
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1225
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1226
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1227
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1228
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43. Rodin, Cast of Rodins Hand with Torso #3, bronze. Coll. B. Gerald Cantor.
1229
1230
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In a metaphorical sense, at least, the ultimate act was played at the turn
of the century by Rodin, the anti-classicist, anti-academic par excellence.
Rodin made sketch models whose unprecedented ephemerality extended
even to the fragmentary and inherently unstable, hence not conceivable as
independent, free-standing sculpture; yet they were cast in bronze and
exhibited (Figs. 42, 43).58 And the models for his monumental works were
copied and enlarged by a pointing assistant who was a great expert, using
elaborate devices whose accuracy was equally unprecedented (Fig. 44).59
More precisely and more vividly than anyone before, but surely with
Canova in mind, Rodin articulated the nature of the sculptors personal
intervention in the creative process with his portrayal, in marble, of the
hand of God manipulating a block of stone as if it were a bozzetto for
Adam and Eve (Fig. 45).60
Albert E. Elsen, Rodin (New York, 1963), 173190; and his The Partial Figure in
Modern Sculpture from Rodin to 1969, exh. cat. (Baltimore, 1969).
59
Albert E. Elsen, Rodins Perfect Collaborator, Henri Leboss, in Albert E. Elsen, ed.,
Rodin Rediscovered, exh. cat. (Washington and Boston, 1981), 24959.
60
On the genesis (including the cast hands of other artists), the many variants, and the
significance Rodin attached to the sculpture, see Jacques de Caso and Patricia B. Sanders,
Rodins Sculpture. A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection, California Palace of the Legion of
Honor (Rutland, VT. and Tokyo, 1977), 6971; John L. Tancock, The Sculptures of August
Rodin. The Collection of the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1976), 6223; Rodin,
les mains, les chirurgiens. exh. cat. ( Paris, 1983), 723. On the concept of the artists hand
as an instrument of divine creation, see my essay The Story of O from Giotto to Einstein,
forthcoming in my Mellon Lecture series for 2003 at the National Gallery, Washington.
58
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XXX
HIS paper is intended to define a singular episode in the long and wellstudied history of the role played by that singular personage we call
artist in the social, economic and cultural development of Europe. The
development consists in the emergence of the work of art and the artist,
*This essay is a revised version of a paper presented at a Corso di Alta Cultura titled
Forme e Valori del Gratuito held at the fondazione Cini in Venice in September 2002,
under the direction of Carlo Ossola; it is offered here as a token of admiration and affection
for him, as well as for Vittore Branca.
1
Era Lorenzo e per natura e per consuetudine in modo disposto al beneficare, che quel
solo reputava bene che negli amici e ne parenti spendesse. Quindi, essendo pur giovanetto,
merit non solo il cognome di Magnifico ma di Magnanimo ancora; ed in ci fu danimo pi
presto regio che civile. Accadde che, desiderando un cavallo molto nominato, de quali da giovane fu vago ed in maneggiarli esperto, gli fu di Sicilia dal padrone mandato a donare; a cui
esso rimand doni di maggior valore che non sarebbe suto il prezo del cavallo. E dicendoli il
maestro che laveva in custodia: pi utile ti era il comperarlo; gli rispose, sorridendo: Io certo
ho saputo accettare uno dono regio, ed appresso ho voluto mostrare esser cosa pi degna di
re non si lassare vincere di liberalit. (Valori 1992, 27 f., cited by Walter 2003, 239.)
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terms, was not an end in itself, but served a new purpose. It was equally
remarkable that three powerful heads of state should enter into a veritable
competition to have themselves portrayed, sight unseen, by an artist far
away. The phenomenon constitutes an important development in European
cultural history since it signaled the emergence of the artist as the modern,
international culture hero who surpassed all his predecessors in virtuosistic
conception and technical bravura, equivalent in both form and substance to
the emergence of the absolute monarch, the modern international political hero whose personal image Bernini created in these very works.
To a degree, at least, this epochal conjunction of politics and art must
have been evident to all concerned: to Bernini, since, as we shall see, he had
a very clear vision of the ideal Christian monarch his portraits were
intended to convey; to his biographers, Filippo Baldinucci and Domenico
Bernini, the artists son, considering the terms in which they introduced
their accounts of these works: Divulgavasi in tanto sempre pi la fama di
questo artefice, ed il nome di lui ogni d pi chiaro ne diveniva: onde non
fu gran fatto che i maggiori potentati dEuropa incominciassero a gareggiare, per cos dire, fra di loro per chi sue opere aver potesse,7 Ma volando
sempre pi grande per lItalia la fama del Bernino, e divenendo ogni d pi
chiaro il suo nome per il Mondo, trasse ancora a se i Maggiori Potentati
dellEuropa, quali parve, che insieme allora gareggiassero per ch sue Opere
haver potesse;8 and to the noble patrons themselves, considering the
assiduity with which they cultivated the artist, the enormous sums they
paid, and the ecstatic receptions that greeted the results. Never before and
never again, as far as I know, was there such a conjunction of great heads of
state vying to have themselves represented by a great artist of the age. As an
inevitable consequence, since Berninis primary service and overwhelming
occupation was with the popes in Rome, the artist was faced with a great
challenge which he somewhat ruefully described as quasi impossibile
that of creating portraits of people whom he had never seen.
Bernini encapsulated the nature of this challenge in an elegant note he
wrote to Duke Francesco as he was preparing to ship the finished sculpture.
177235; on the bust of Louis XIV, Wittkower 1951, Gould 1982, 35, 415, 807, and
Tratz 1988, 46678; on the equestrian, Wittkower 1961, supplemented by Berger 1985,
5063.
7
Baldinucci 1948, 88.
8
Bernini 1713, 64.
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Far che un marmo bianco pigli la somiglianza di una persona, che sia
colore, spirito, e vita, ancorche sia l presente, che si possa imitare in
tutte le sue parti, e proportioni, cosa difficiliss.ma Creder poi di
poter farlo somigliare con haver sol davanti una Pittura, senza vedere,
ne haver mai visto il Naturale, quasi impossibile, e chi a tale
impresa si mette pi temerario che valente si potrebbe chiamare.
Hanno potuto tanto per verso di me i comandamenti
dellAltezza del sig.r Card.l suo fratello, che mi hanno fatto scordar
di queste verit; per se io non ho saputo far quello, che quasi
impossibile, spero V.ra Alt.za mi scusar, e gradir almeno
quellAmore, che forse lOpera medesima le rappresentar . . . (20
October 1651).9
Seemingly a casual flourish of self-indulgence and flattery, the letter is in
fact a veritable three-sentence treatise lament might be a better word
on portraiture in marble as Bernini conceived that art. The challenge for
him lay in infusing the likeness of the subject with three essential qualities,
color, spirit and life, to each of which he attached particular meaning and
importance. Difficult in any case, the task was virtually impossible when
the subject was before the sculptor only in the form of paintings. The full
meaning of Berninis conceit becomes evident when one considers the
implications of his three critical points of reference.
Where Bernini most acutely felt the challenge of these paintings was in
the domain of color the first of the three desiderata Bernini defined. The
confrontation with Van Dycks image evidently gave rise to Berninis famous
disclaimer that the whiteness of marble made it virtually impossible to
achieve a convincing likeness in that medium. The earliest record of the dictum is the anecdote in the diary of Nicholas Stone, a British sculptor who
visited Berninis studio in Rome, for October 22, 1638: How can itt than
possible be that a marble picture can resemble the nature when itt is all one
coulour, where to the contrary a man has on coulour in his face, another in
his haire, a third in his lips;, and his eyes yett different from all the rest?
Tharefore sayed (the Caualier Bernine) I conclude that itt is the inpossible
thinge in the world to make a picture in stone naturally to resemble any person. In the succeeding passage Stone reports Berninis oath not to make
Doc. 43.
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material as in extrapolating a likeness from only painted models, never having seen the natural, as Bernini says. After the experience of Charles I he
had sworn never again to hazard such a task.12 In the case of Francesco
dEste the problem was compounded by the fact that Bernini actually had
before him in working the portrait only two profile views; delivery of the
frontal view he urgently requested was delayed, and in the end he had to
make do with the side views and simple measurements of the Dukes height
and shoulder width.13 Of course, he was obviously proud of what he did
accomplish, and his protestations of difficulty were certainly intended to
augment the appreciation of the result. Yet the sense of inadequacy, even
failure, evident in Berninis complaint is certainly also genuine indeed,
pathetic, considering that portraiture was, after all, a specialty of his, to say
the least. His aptitude for creating likenesses was the basis of his phenomenal reputation as a child prodigy, and contributed largely to the international renown he enjoyed throughout his career.14 The source of Berninis
ruefulness about an artistic genre for which he himself was responsible lay
rather in the other qualities mentioned in his letter to Francesco: spirit and
life. And his frustration in these respects was a fatal by-product of the way
he understood the art of portraiture.
Remarkable insights respecting this last point arise almost incidentally
from the Dukes original indecision whether to commission the work from
Bernini or his great rival, especially in the domain of portraiture, Alessandro
Algardi (Fig. 9). The documents recording the negotiations also provide an
extraordinary opportunity to compare and contrast the modi operandi of
these two giants of Italian Baroque sculpture. The Dukes brother, Cardinal
Rinaldo, writing from Rome on July 16, 1650, reported: Il Cav.re Algardi
scultore si f pagare i ritratti di marmo intendendo di busto, mezza figura
Berninis oath was reported by Stone (n. 10 above) and is also mentioned in the correspondence concerning the bust of Francesco, Docs. 10, 38.
In the end, Bernini was reluctant to do portraits at all, and cited Michelangelo as precedent: Il a rept le difficult quil y a faire un portrait de marbre . . . Il a dit que MichelAnge nen avait jamais voulu faire. . . . Il a dit ensuite ces Messieurs la peine o il tait
toutes les fois quil tait oblig de faire un portrait; quil y avait dj du temps quil avait resolu dans son esprit de nen plus faire, mais que le Roi lui ayant fait lhonneur de lui demander le sien, il navait pas pu refuser un si grand prince . . . Chantelou 1885, 94 (August 12);
cf. Chantelou 1885, 111 (August 21).
13
The frontal view is mentioned in Docs. 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 69, 73; the shoulder measurments in Docs. 20, 21.
14
On the early portraiture of Bernini, see Lavin 1968.
12
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monarch, the last in the concatenated series of Berninis secular ruler portraits to whom he did have ready and frequent access, Louis XIV (Fig. 10).19
Chantelou records that the king sat for the artist on no less than seventeen
occasions, five for drawing the subject and twelve for working the marble.20
From this wealth of direct testimony concerning the artists working methods which is itself unprecedented in the history of art it is clear, first
of all, that the notion of likeness had for Bernini a very singular meaning.21
Bernini did not conceive of the sitter as a sitter at all. He insisted on sopping up the character and personality of the subject by sketching him endlessly in action moving, working, playing tennis, conversing22 because
19
Berninis earlier portraits of royal heroes (for which concept, see Lavin 1999)
were specifically recalled in one of the poems on the bust of Louis (Chantelou 1885, 100,
August 16).
20
See Chantelou 1985, 38 n. 116.
21
For what follows, Wittkowers splendid study (1951) remains an inspiration.
22
See the descriptions cited in the next note. Bernini himself described the purpose of
the sketches: Le Cavalier . . . a besoin prsent de voir le Roi pour le particulier du visage
de Sa Majest, nayant jusques ici travaill quau gnral; durant quoi il na mme presque
pas regard ses dessins, quaussi ne les avait-il faits que pour simprimer plus particulirement
limage du Roi dans lesprit et faire quelle y demeurt insuppata et rinvenuta, pour se servir
de ses propres termes; quautrement, sil avait travaill daprs ses dessins, au lieu dun original il ne ferait quune copie; que mme, sil lui fallait copier le buste lorsquil laura achev,
il ne lui serait pas possible de le faire tout semblable; que la noblesse de lide ny serait plus
cause de la servitude de limitation . . . (Chantelou 1885, 75, July 30). The point Bernini
makes here about not repeating himself even in deliberate copies of the same bust was based
on no less than three instances in which replacements were required by imperfections in the
marble: Scipione Borghese, Urban VIII, Innocent X (see Johnston et al. 1986, 76;
Wittkower 1981, 221 f.). In each case, the second versions show subtle but significant
changes. No doubt because of the time limitations, to provide for just such an eventuality,
as Domenico Bernini reports, Bernini at the outset ordered two blocks to be prepared for the
bust of Louis. The time factor is mentioned in a letter of June 5 by Matteo deRossi (Mirot
1904, 207) and on June 11 by Chantelou (1885, 30). On the two blocks of marble, see
Chantelou 1885, 40 f., June 30, and Bernini 1713, 135.
Given Berninis repeated emphasis on the limitations of marble portraiture, especially
with respect to color, it will be seen that more than flattery lay behind Berninis remarks in
the famous exchange between the artist and the King on one such occasion, reported by
Chantelou: . . . il a dessin daprs le Roi, sans que S. M. ait t assujettie de demeurer en
une place. Le Cavalier prenait son temps au mieux quil pouvait; aussi disait-il de temps
autre, quand le Roi le regardait: Sto rubando. Une foi le Roi lui repartit, et en italien mme:
Si, ma per restituire. Il rpliqua lors Sa Majest: Per per restituire meno del rubato. (1885,
40, June 28.)
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one is never more like oneself than at those moments;23 he preferred to represent the subject as he started or finished speaking (the exquisitely subtle
psychological discrimination is paradoxical, since it focuses not on the
rhetorical act par excellence, speaking, but on its two inevitable, ineffable,
and inherently unselfconscious phases).24 Algardi felt able to satisfy his
patron (and himself ) by preparing the sculpture from the painted models,
and finishing it in the presence and to the satisfaction of whoever was
responsible for the work. Such a procedure could never have satisfied
Bernini, since only from the living model could he could observe and reproduce, not only the subjects features but also, and especially, his characteristic expression and movement in a word, his spirit and life. A corollary of
this definition and mode of creating a likeness was the equally unorthodox
way Bernini put the final touches on the bust of Louis. To the amazement
Diceva egli che nel ritrarre alcuno al naturale consisteva il tutto in saper conoscere
quella qualit, che ciascheduno ha di proprio, e che non ha la natura dato ad altri che a lui,
ma che bisognava pigliare qualche particolarit non brutta, ma bella. A questeffetto tenne
un costume dal comune modo assai diverso, e fu: che nel ritrarre alcuno non voleva chegli
stesse fermo, ma che si si movesse, e che parlasse, perch, in tal lmodo, diceva egli, che
vedeva tutto il suo bello e lo contrafaceva comegli era: asserendo, che nello starsi al naturale
immobilmente fermo, egli non mai tanto simile a se stesso, quanto egli nel moto, in cui
quelle qualit consistono, che sono tutte sue e non daltri e che danno la somiglanza al
ritratto; ma lintero conoscer ci (dico io) non giuoco da fanciulli. (Baldinucci 1948, 144.)
Tenne un costume il Cavaliere, ben dal commune modo assai diverso, nel ritrarre altrui nel
Marmo, nel disegno: Non voleva che il figurato stasse fermo, m chei colla sua solita naturalezza si movesse, e parlasse, perche in tal modo, diceva, chei vedeva tutto il suo bello, el
contrafaceva, comegli era, asserendo, che nello starsi al naturale immobilmente fermo, egli
non mai tanto simile a s stesso, quanto nel moto, in cui consistono tutte quelle qualit,
che sono sue, e non di altri, e che danno la somiglianza al Ritratto. (Bernini 1713, 133 f.)
24
Le Cavalier, continuant de travailler la bouche, a dit que, pour russir dans un portrait, il faut prendre un acte et tcher le bien reprsenter; que la plus beau temps quon
puisse choisir pour la bouche est quand on vient de parler ou quon va prendre la parole; quil
cherche attraper ce moment. (Chantelou 1885, 133, September 4.) On the notion of the
speaking likeness, see important paper by Harris 1992. There are, however, some difficulties with Harriss argument, which is based on the open-mouthed expression of certain selfportraits of Simon Vouet. The portraits are not reliably dated, and the question has been
raised whether Vouet might have manifested one of the common symptoms of diseased adenoids (Ficacci 1998, 94); it may be relevant that certain of the portraits also show a scarred
and swollen right cheek (most are collected in Thuillier et al., 1990, but see also Picart 1990,
22 and 25). In any case, all the instances Harris cites by Vouet and others are informal portraits of middle-class individuals. It remains a fact that the first formal portrait of a person
of first rank shown with open lips, is Berninis bust of Gregory XV in Ottawa, 1621 (Lavin
1988, 91, 1989, 37; Johnston et al., eds., 1986, 74).
23
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of those who witnessed the process, he deliberately discarded the preparatory studies and models he had so laboriously produced, and completed the
work not from memory but directly from the living model, in the presence
of the king in person otherwise, he said, he would be copying himself,
not Louis XIV.25
The central point, however, central also in Berninis list of the three
essential qualities he sought in his portraits, lay beyond even the creation of
a living likeness. The point is already evident in another, complementary
peculiarity of Berninis portrait-working procedure: at the very outset, even
before working on the likeness, he sketched in clay the action he intended
to give the bust;26 he began, that is, with a concept, which he continued to
develop in the model, while studying the details of the kings features in life
drawings. And this idea of the subject is what preoccupied him when he
See the passages in Chantelou cited in n.22 above and nn. 26, 27 below. The procedure is described by the biographers: Per fare il ritratto della maest del re di Francia, egli
ne fece prima alquanti modelli; nel metter poi mano allopera, alla presenza del re tutti se gli
tolse dattorno e a quel monarca che ammirando quel fatto, gli domand la cagione del non
volersi valere delle sue fatiche, rispose che i modelli gli erano serviti per introdurre nella fantasia le fattezze di chi egli dovea ritrarre, ma quando gi le aveva concepite e dovea dar fuori
il parto, non gli erano pi necessari, anzi dannosi al suo fine, che era di darlo fuori non simile a modelli, ma al vero. (Baldinucci 1948, 144); In oltre f suo costantissimo proposito
in somiglianti materie, far prima molti disegni, e molti della figura, chegli dovea rappresentare, m quando poi nel Marmo metteva mano allopera, tutti se li toglieva dattorno,
come se a nulla gli servissero: E richiesto dal R, che prese maraviglia di questo fatto con
domandargliene la cagione, del non volersi valere delle sue istesse fatiche, rispose, che i
Modelli gli erano serviti per introdurre nella fantasia le fattezze di ch egli doveva ritrarre, m
quando gi le haveva concepite, e doveva dar fuori il parto, non gli erano pi necessarii, anzi
dannosi al suo fine, che era di darlo fuori, non simile alli Modelli, m al Vero. (Bernini
1713, 134)
See also the report of Berninis enemy in Paris, Charles Perrault: Il travailla dabord sur
le marbre, et ne fit point de modle de terre, comme les autres sculpteurs ont accoutum de
faire, il se contenta de dessiner en pastel deux ou trois profils du visage du Roi, non point,
ce quil disoit, pour les copier dans son buste, mais seulement pour rafrachir son ide de
temps en temps, ajoutant quil navoit garde de copier son pastel, parce qualors son buste
nauroit t quune copie, qui de sa nature est toujours moindre que son original. (Perrault
1909, 61 f.)
26
. . . il a demand de la terre afin de faire des bauches de laction quil pourrait donner au buste, en attendant quil travaillt la ressemblance. Chantelou 1885, 30, June 11.
On the point see Wittkower 1951, 6. Giulio Mancini in the early seventeenth century made
the fundamental distinction between the ritratto semplice, that of pure imitation, and the
ritratto dellattion et affetto (Mancini 19567, I, 115 f.; see the perspicacious note by Bauer
in Chantelou 1985, 85 f., n. 154).
25
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put aside the drawings to work on the marble. Bernini himself defined the
point in the explanation he gave of the relationship between his way of
working on a portrait and the meaning he wanted it to convey. The statement occurs in a passage where Bernini explains to Colbert the rapid
progress he was presently making in carving the bust of Louis XIV: until
now he had worked entirely from his imagination, looking only rarely at his
drawings; he had searched chiefly within, he said, tapping his forehead,
where there existed the idea of His Majesty; had he done otherwise his work
would have been a copy instead of an original. This method of his was
extremely difficult, and the King, in ordering a portrait, could not have
asked anything harder; he was striving to make it less bad than the others
that he had done; in this kind of head one must bring out the qualities of a
hero as well as make a good likeness.27 Here it is clear that the ultimate difficulty lay in Berninis ultimate goal, to realize his own idea of the monarch
his spirit by capturing the Kings heroic qualities while recording
Louiss likeness, as Bernini understood that notion. For Bernini a portrait
was a preternatural thing, a composite counterfeit of an idea and of vitality
itself. For this reason, above all, to carve a marble portrait of a living subject without seeing him in action was for Bernini not only difficult, but a
challenge in extremis; and, after the bust of Francesco, he kept his vow never
to do so again.
The second, sociological point I want to consider concerns Berninis
attitude toward the DEste commission. It is very clear that Bernini was not
anxious to undertake the portrait, and there may have been other reasons
than the difficulty of the task. Francesco I was, after all, not as important as
Charles I or Richelieu. There may also have been a political factor.
Francesco I was closely tied to France, most conspicuously in his capacity as
commander of the French troops in Italy. Bernini had been intimately associated with Urban VIII Barberini, who had also been a partisan of France.
27
M. Colbert Lui a tmoign tre tonne combien louvrage tit avanc, et quil le
trouvait si ressemblant quil ne jugeait pas quil ft besoin quil travaillt Saint-Germain.
Le Cavalier a reparti quil y avait toujours faire qui voulait faire bien; que jusquici il avait
presque toujours travaill dimagination, et quil navait regard que rarement les dessins quil
a; quil ne regardait principalement que l dedans, montrant son front, o il a dit qutait
lide de Sa Majest; que autrement il naurait fait quune copie au lieu dun original, mais
que cela lui donnait une peine extrme et que le roi, lui demandant son portrait, ne pouvait
pas lui commander rien de plus pnible: quil tcherait que ce ft le moins mauvais de tous
ceux quil aura faits; que, dans ces sortes de portraits, il faut, outre la ressemblance, y mettre
ce qui doit tre dans des ttes de hros. (Chantelou 1885, 72 f., July 29.)
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Docs. 9, 25.
Doc. 23.
30
Doc. 4.
31
Docs. 32, 40, 41, 68, 69.
32
Doc. 20 and n. 35 below. Other sources put the value at 4000 scudi (Lightbown 1981,
447 ff., who also compares the costs of other works by Bernini, e.g., 1000 scudi for the portrait of Scipione Borghese).
33
questo opera da s, et vi vuole destrezza nel sollecitarlo (Doc. 23).
28
29
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fee.34 The distinction is clear from the fact that for all three princely busts
(Charles I, Richelieu, Francesco I) Bernini received, or was offered in the
case of Francesco, gifts, whereas the messengers who delivered the sculptures were given tips.35 The phraseology was significant when Francescos
agent in Rome reported that Mazarin had regalato nobilissimamente.36
Francesco resorted to a delicate subterfuge in deference to this principle of
social distinction, instructing his emissary to tell Bernini that the Duke had
sent 3000 scudi in order to purchase a suitable gift, but that the artist might
take the money, if he preferred.37 Bernini opted for the cash, because he was
See the documents cited in n. 31 above; also Doc. 37. On the significance of the gift
as remuneration, see the section on Old and New Ways of Evaluating Works of Art in
Wittkower, R. and M., 1963, 225, and recently Warwick 1997, 632 f. The Wittkowers
tended to see the gift in relation to the earlier, craft tradition of barter and payment in kind,
rather than in the tradition of noble courtesy. The main difference is that in the former case
the goods were generally of a practical nature, whereas in the latter they were conspicuously
luxury items. The market for art in early seventeeth-century Rome, including barter and
payment in kind has been admirably studied by Spear 1993 and 1997, 21024. On the
nobility of the artists profession and related factors, see the Wittkowers chapter Between
Famine and Fame, 25380.
35
The gifts for the portraits are mentioned in a list of some of Berninis notable remunerations, among the Bernini papers in the Bibliothque National in Paris:
Alcune remunerazioni haute dal Cav.re Bernino
Per il ritratto del R Carlo 1.o dInghilterra undiamante che portava in dito, di valore di
sei mila scudi
Per il ritratto del Card.le Richelie una gioia di quattro mila scudi
Per il ritratto del Duca Fran.co di Modena tre mila scudi in tanti Argenti B.N. ms ital
2084, fol. 126 r.
Domenico Bernini mentions the generous mancia given to the assistants who accompanied to their destinations the busts of Charles I, . . . si cav dal dito un Diamante di sei
mila scudi di valore, e consegnatelo a Bonifazio disse, . . .; in oltre mand al Cavaliere copiosi
regali di preziosissimi panni, & a Bonifazio f donare per mancia mille scudi, and Richelieu
Grad quel Principe in modo tale il Ritratto che ne dimostr il gradimento col dono di un
Giojelo, che mand al Cavaliere di trentatr Diamanti, fra quali ve nerano sette di quattordici grani luno di peso. Al Balsimelli f dare per mancia otto cento scudi. (Bernini 1713,
65 f., 68.)
36
Letter of February 22, 1642, in Fraschetti 1900, 112 n. 2: Per la Citt si saputo che
il Cardinale di Richeli ha donato un gioiello superbissimo al Cavalier Bernino, et che il
Cardinal Mazarino lha regalato nobilissimamente per la statua che di sua mano ha fatto al
primo: onde mille sono gli Encomij che si fanno sopra la Generosit di ambidue.
37
The Duke conceived the plot when he discovered that the German silver credenza he
had thought to acquire was exorbitant and not worth the price: Doc. 30. The 3000 scudi for
Bernini are mentioned in Docs. 66, 77, 79. Cf. also Docs. 86, 87, 88.
34
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8. Philippe de
Champaigne, triple
portrait of Richelieu.
National Gallery
of Art, London.
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cious jewels.44 It is significant that the gifts always took this luxurious symbolic form, never in kind, like the foodstuffs and other practical goods with
which artisans had often been paid in earlier times. The gifts were truly
regali in the sense that they were equivalent in nature and in value to the
favors the nobility commonly exchanged among themselves.
The phenomenon I have been describing had a long pre-history, stretching back to antiquity, when Apelles was given the exclusive privilege of portraying Alexander the Great, whose image, incidentally, was in fact an
important influence on Berninis conception of the ruler portrait; and when
Parrhasius proudly proclaimed himself the prince of painters. These classical precedents lay the foundation for the tradition that was formalized in
the Renaissance, when the artist was elevated to the status of a true courtier
notably with Titian, who portrayed himself nobly wearing a golden
chain emblematic of the knighthood bestowed upon him by the Emperor
Charles V. (Fig. 11). Rubens received many such honors, and also portrayed
himself with a chain in a portrait painted for Charles I (Fig. 12), as did Van
Dyck when he received the award from Charles I (Fig. 13). In many cases
a portrait medal of the patron is suspended from the chain, which thus signifies a bond of reciprocal admiration and mutual allegiance between the
donor and the recipient. The symbolic value of this insignia was so important that Rembrandt, who never received the honor, nevertheless often
depicted himself sporting a golden chain (Fig. 14); and he gave the tradition a profoundly intellectual turn in his picture of Aristotle Contemplating
the Bust of Homer, in which the philosopher wears a golden chain with a
medal that may represent either or both the helmeted Alexander the Great,
Aristotles devoted pupil, or Athena, the goddess of Wisdom (Figs. 15, 16).45
The chain and medal play separate parts in Rembrandts grimacing, late
self-portrait with a mahlstick and wearing a medal (Fig. 17): in an ironic
and macabre self-mockery of the painter of the crass reality of old age, he
gleefully assumes the role of Zeuxis, who was said to have died laughing
while painting a wrinkled, droll old woman, who in turn is portrayed at the
left in the role of Zeuxis himself, grinning and wearing a golden chain.
Berninis inventory lists a golden chain with a royal portrait medal of the
King of Spain, as well as a famous jewel with a portrait of Louis XIV surBorsi et al., 1981.
The tradition of the golden chain in art has been discussed particularly with respect to
Rembrandt by Held 1969, 3241, Deutsch-Carroll 1984, Perry Chapman 1990, esp. 504.
44
45
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but in relatively small, unpretentious images which, were it not for the intimate feeling and direct address to the spectator, would be difficult to recognize as self-portraits at all. He never signed his self-portraits; in fact, he
never signed any of his work. No artist of comparable stature was more
modest and reserved with respect to his own view of himself. Here we have
the crux of the paradox that I believe places Bernini at the climax of one era
and the initiation of another: the most exalted artist of his time presents
himself simply as a man like any other, only charged with volcanic power
and a penetrating, portentous gaze bespeaking a profound human awareness.
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Bibliography
Avery, C., Bernini. Genius of the Baroque, Boston, etc., 1997
Baldinucci, F., Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Florence, 1682; ed. S.S.
Ludovici, Milan, 1948
Berger, R. W., In the Garden of the Sun King. Studies on the Park of Versailles under
Louis XIV, Washington, DC, 1985
Bernardini, M. G., and Fagiolo dellArco, M., eds., Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista
del Barocco, exhibit. cat., Rome, 1999
Bernini, D., Vita del cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, Rome, 1713
Borsi, Franco, et al., Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Il testamento, la casa, la raccolta dei beni,
Florence, 1981
Chantelou, P. Frart de, Journal du voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France, ed.,
Ludovic Lalanne, Paris, 1885
_____ Diary of the Cavaliere Berninis Visit to France, edited and with an introduction by A. Blunt, annotated by G. C. Bauer, translated by M. Corbett,
Princeton, 1985
Coliva, A., and S. Schtze, eds., Bernini Scultore. La nascita del Barocco in Casa
Borghese, exhib. cat., Rome, 1998
Deutsch Carroll, Margaret, Rembrandts Aristotle: Exemplary Beholder, artibus et
historiae, No. 10, 1984, 3556
Ficacci, L., Lespressione dellaffetto indefinito, in S. De Blaauw, et al., eds., Docere
delectare movere. Affetti, devozione e retorica nel linguaggio artistico del primo
barocco romano, Rome, 1998, 89104
Fraschetti, S., Il Bernini. La sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo, Milano, 1900
Gould, Cecil, Bernini in France. An Episode in Seventeenth-Century History,
Princeton, 1982
Harris, A. S., Vouet, le Bernin, et la ressemblance parlante, Rencontres de lcole
du Louvre, 1992, 192206
Hibbard, H., Guido Renis Corsini Magdalen: Its Date and Influence, in Larissa
Bonfante et al., eds., In memoriam Otto J. Brendel. Essays in Archaeology and the
Humanities, Mainz, 1976, 22731
Jarrard, A., Architecture as Performance in Seventeenth-century Europe. Court Ritual
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Patrons in Modena and Ferrara, Cambridge, 1988
Spear, R. E., The Divine Guido: Religion, Sex, Money, and Art in the World of Guido
Reni, New Haven, 1997
_____ Scrambling for Scudi: Notes on Painters Earnings in Early Baroque Rome,
The Art Bulletin, LXXXV, 2003, 31020
Stone, N., The Note-Book and Account Book of Nicholas Stone, (c. 1640), transcribed and annotated by Walter L. Spiers, Walpole Society, VII, 1919
Summers, D., Michelangelo and the Language of Art, Princeton, 1981
Thuillier, J., et al., Vouet. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 6 novembre
1990-11 fvrier 1991, exhib. cat., Paris, 1990
Tratz, H., Werkstatt und Arbeitsweise Berninis, Rmisches Jahrbuch fr
Kunstgeschichte, XXIII/XXIV, 1988, 397485
Vertue, G., Note Books (c. 1713): Vol. I, Walpole Society, XVIII, 192930
Valori, N., Vita di Lorenzo il Magnifico, Palermo, 1992
Walter, I., Lorenzo il Magnifico e il suo tempo, Rome, 2003
Warwick, G., Gift Exchange and Art Collecting: Padre Sebastiano Restas Drawing
Albums, The Art Bulletin, LXXIX, 1997, 63046
Weston-Lewis, A., ed., Effigies & Ecstasies. Roman Baroque Sculpture and Design in
the Age of Bernini, exhib. cat., Edinburgh, 1998
Wittkower, R., Berninis Bust of Louis XIV, London, etc., 1951
______ The Vicissitudes of a Dynastic Monument. Berninis Equestrian Statue of
Louis XIV, in M. Meiss, ed., De Artibus Opuscula XL. Essays in Honor of Erwin
Panofsky, New York, 1961, 497531 (reprinted in his Studies in the Italian
Baroque, London, 1975, 83102)
Wittkower, R. and M., Born Under Saturn. The Character and Conduct of Artists:
A Documented History from Antiquity to the French Revolution, New York, 1963
_______ Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, Oxford, 1981
XXXI
URBANITAS URBANA
OPES are elected by action of the Holy Spirit: Divine Wisdom inspires
them to resolve their differences and make the right choice. The election
of Urban VIII was, however, exceptional in this tradition, because the
choice was accompanied by an extraordinary event that seemed to confirm
the principle of divine intervention in concrete, visible, and unmistakably
personal terms. It so happened that a swarm of bees passed through the open
window of the conclave; it so happened that the bee, because of its perfectly
organized modus vivendi and its deliciously beneficial product, had from time
immemorial been taken as the earthly incarnation of the Divine Wisdom
(Fig. 1); and it so happened that the bee was the emblem of Cardinal Maffeo
Barberini three bees, as it so happened, easily understood in terms of the
Trinity from whom the Holy Spirit descends (Fig. 2).1
The first action of the new Pope following his acceptance of the outcome
of the election is to choose his new name. When Barberini was asked
whether he accepted the election, he went down on his knees to pray for a
while; he then declared that he accepted and that he would take the name
of Urban VIII. There was no hesitation about the name: evidently Maffeo
Barberini had himself foreseen, perhaps even long before, the action of
Divine Wisdom in the choice of the cardinals, and perhaps even the action
of Divine Wisdom in his own choice of his new name! The contemporary
1268
sources give essentially three reasons why Maffeo Barberini chose to call
himself Urban: 1. because of his special affection for Rome, the Urbs par
excellence. 2. because he wished his name to be a perpetual reminder that he
must curb his own natural inclination toward sternness. 3. in memory of his
early predecessors, full of holy zeal and far from worldly interests.2
The purpose of this essay is to try to comprehend the nature and
relationship between these three prime themes of Maffeo Barberinis
papacy, as I have come to believe he understood it, that is: his affection for
Rome, his personal character, and his self-identification as Pope Urbanus.
I shall discuss these ingredients in sequence, but my whole point is that
they were conceived together, merging Urbs and Urbanus into one coherent
Persona as the embracing lovers merged into a single persona in Ingmar
Bergmans great film of that name. The sense of urbanity to be considered
here was surely rooted in the cultivated humanistic ambience of the villa
of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Paul V (160621), which the
learned and literate Maffeo Barberini had frequented, and for which Bernini
had made his most important early works.3 Maffeo Barberini himself, who
commissioned one of the most famous of these works, was undoubtedly an
inspiring participant. The concept was expressed explicitly in the famous
inscription at the entrance to the villas garden, which invited the people of
Rome to enjoy its pleasures in accordance with the golden laws of urbanity.4
2
Egli dice haver preso il nome di Urbano per due cause, la prima per amar egli molto
questa citt, che sappella Urbs per autonomasia, la seconda perch conoscendo egli la sua
natura tirar alquanto al rigidetto le fusse continuo raccordo di dover temperarla. (Pastor
192353, XXVIII, 25, n. 1) ...dal qual nome ha voluto egli insignirsi, come ha detto, per
venerare la memoria degli antichi Urbani predecessori suoi, che pieni di santo zelo, ed alieni
agli interessi del mondo, tentarono imprese gloriose. (Barozzi and Berchet 18778, I, 225).
On the Urban predecessors in particular, see p. 1301f. and n. 53 below.
3
See the fine essay by Mller Hofstede 1998, and the references, especially to studies
cited there, p. 122 n. 1, by Rudolf Preimesberger. Neither Preimesberger nor Mller
Hofstede relates the concept of urbanity to Urban himself.
4
Whoever thou art, so long as thou art a free man, fear not here the bonds of the
laws! Go where thou wilt, ask whatever thou desirest, go away whenever thou wishest.
More is here provided for the stranger than for the owner. In this golden age, which holds
the promise of universal security, the master of the house wishes to lay no iron laws upon
the well-bred. Let seemly enjoyment be the guests only law. But let him who with malice
aforethought offends against the golden law of urbanity fear lest the irate custodian burn
for him the sacred emblems of hospitality. Pastor 192353, XXVI, 453f. Heilmann 1973,
115ff., gives the inscription but notes that other Roman villas of the period were also open
to the public.
urbanitas urbana
1269
1270
thought to be the king bee, which has no stinger), but only once and at great
self-sacrifice, for the bee, which then dies, suffers even more than its enemy.
Bees are also normally solitary creatures bumbling about haphazardly from
flower to flower gathering their precious nectar hither and yon; they are
marvelously of one mind, however, when they are at home in the hive,
and when they swarm en masse, which they do only in self-defense for the
common good when they are threatened, or when they decide to migrate
to another territory and establish a new colony. The Barberini armorial
metamorphosis is usually explained as a simple and obvious elevation or
evolution of the lowly and pestiferous horsefly to the noble and useful bee.
In 1636 Cardinal Francesco Barberini commissioned a Florentine client
merchant to go to Barberino and revise the coats of arms by canceling the
scissors and changing the horseflies to bees.7 But there is surely more to the
story if one considers what might be called the poetic mystique of the bee,
which Maffeo must have had in mind from the outset.
This property of the bee to migrate en famille, as it were, and to have
done so during the conclave was a God-send not only because the bee was
the family symbol, but because shortly before he was elected pope Cardinal
Maffeo had invented an impresa with an astonishing clairvoyance that was
itself one of the many otherwise inexplicable coincidences testifying to the
divine providentiality that became the overriding leitmotif of his reign
(Fig. 5).8 The famous phrase Hic Domus with which Virgil announces the
arrival of Aeneas in Latium, the foundation of Rome and the Golden Ages
of Augustus, is illustrated by a swarm of the armorial bees alighting upon a
laurel tree, symbol of eternity.
Salve, fatis mihi debita tellus,
vosque, ait, o fidi Troiae, salvete, Penates!
Hic domus, haec patria est.
Hail, O land, he cries, destined as is my due! and hail to you, ye
faithful gods of Troy! Here is our home, here our country!9
urbanitas urbana
1271
1272
urbanitas urbana
1273
1274
urbanitas urbana
1275
1276
urbanitas urbana
10. St. Michael crowning Urban VIII, Annual Medal, 1640, Royal Library .
1277
1278
urbanitas urbana
1279
1280
urbanitas urbana
1281
1282
urbanitas urbana
1283
1284
and the papal states was facetiously estimated at more than ten thousand.
One of the ten thousand must have been the beautifully poetic depiction of
a bee sipping nectar from a flower in the garden of Paradise depicted in the
apse mosaic of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, restored by Cardinal Francesco
(Fig. 6).
Following the choice of his name the popes affection for the city was
expressed publicly by his devotion to the Archangel Michael, the weigher
of souls. The Archangel was the patron of Castel SantAngelo and favorite
and protector of the city of Rome since he had appeared above the Castello
in a famous vision of Gregory the Great to alleviate a devastating attack
of the plague (Fig. 7); and had liberated the city from the scourge from
the north at the Sack of Rome in 1522.11 Following the Council of Trent
Michael was invoked by Pius V as defender of the Faith, in the engraved
title page of the new Missal published in 1570, where the archangel is shown
appearing with scales and sword defeating the devil of heresy, before the
kneeling pope, both figures looking up toward the radiant dove of the Holy
Spirit (Fig. 8).12 Urban established a distinctly new, personal relationship
with the Archangel by choosing the saints feast day (September 29) for
his coronation, making Michael the patron of his pontificate. This was a
fundamental shift in meaning, which he signified early in his reign in a
medal (1626) commemorating his coronation; Piuss threatening image is
transformed into one of benign protection, with Michael appearing cloudborne to lead the kneeling pope who looks up to the Archangel for guidance,
in fulfillment of the motto Te Mane, Te Vespere (you day, you night) (Fig.
9). The text was based on a hymn that introduced the liturgy for the Feast
of the Trinity, which invoked the sun, one of Urbans primary emblems, as
the ever-luminous Christ to replace the transient sun of fire. The personal
reference became more explicit in a commemorative medal issued in 1640
with the same motto, in which St. Michael as ever vigilant protector again
descends from heaven in a radically new guise, without the sword and scales
but as Divine messenger bearing the tiara to crown the pope, and so confirm
the divinely ordained election (Fig. 10). The altar in the apse of St. Peters,
the chief altar after the high altar itself, was dedicated to the Archangel and
11
The importance of the Archangel Michael for Urban VIII and the early plans for
decorating St. Peters has been recuperated by Rice 1997; cf. Index, s.v. Saints. See also
Lavin 2003 and Lavin 2005, 18294.
12
Sodi and Maria Triacca 1998.
urbanitas urbana
1285
Bernini was commissioned to design the altarpiece in 1626. The work was
never carried out, and there is no record of what he may have planned at
this stage. But the project clearly inspired the bold combination of themes
St.Michael, papal succession, Petrine relic envisaged in an astonishing
design that evidently served in the preparations for the Cathedra Petri carried
out in the same location later in the century under Alexander VII (Fig. 11):
over the reliquary throne of St. Peter shouldered by the fathers of the church,
the Archangel appears bearing the keys of St. Peter (one of which opens,
the other closes the gateway to heaven) and the papal tiara, symbols of the
popes God-given, sovereign jurisdiction over Christs legacy on earth.13
The full import of the concept can only be grasped from the liturgical
context of the text, which is derived from a famous Ambrosian hymn revised
by Urban VIII himself. Recited at evening prayer, on the Feast of the Holy
Trinity, the hymn invokes the Trinity to replace the setting sun.
O Trinity of blessed light,
O Unity of princely might,
The fiery sun now goes his way,
Shed thou within our hearts thy ray.
To thee our morning song of praise,
To thee our evening prayer we raise;
Thy glory suppliant we adore,
For ever and for evermore. 14
On the medal and Berninis drawing see Rice 1992; 1997, 89f., 267. I suspect that
the Trinitarian origin of Urbans motto also motivated the triangluar vision that appears
in the apse of St. Peters in a burst of clouds and light above the Cathedra Petri, sketched
in what seems to be its later form, in a problematic drawing in the Morgan library; the
drawing depicts a papal ceremony in the choir and crossing, with Berninis first project for
the baldachin. Damian Dombrowski has dated both the Windsor and Morgan drawings
early in Urbans reign (Dal trionfo allamore. Il mutevole pensiero artistico di Gianlorenzo
Bernini nella decorazione del nuovo San Pietro, Rome, 2003, 3944).
14
Hours of the Divine Office, II, 1420f.
Jam sol recedit igneus;
Tu, lux perennis, Unitas,
Nostris, beta Trinitas,
Infunde lumen crdibus.
13
1286
The hymn follows immediately upon the Little Chapter, from Romans
11: 13
11:33 Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the
knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and
how unsearchable his ways!15
In other words, the entire conceit falls under the heading of Divine
Wisdom. Michael is in effect the sun Urbans emblem bestowing
Divine Wisdoms dominion (tiara) and judgment (keys) on the pope-papacy.
Hence the aureole of rays surrounding Michael in the second coronation
medal, succeeded by the brilliant burst of light behind the Archangel in the
Cathedra Petri drawing, where also the Holy Spirit, evoked in the hymn,
appears on the back of the throne; the light and the dove were fused in the
famous window of the Holy Spirit of the final work.
In these papal images Michael is shown in an entirely unprecedented
role, not as weigher of souls or avenging angel, but as Divine messenger,
conveying the authority and power of Christ on earth. In this way, Urbans
personal invocation of St. Michael, enforcer of Gods will, served also to
extend the Archangels special surveillance of Rome to the church at
large. (Fig. 12) Finally, it becomes especially significant of Urbans selfidentification with Rome, that the coronation imagery has its counterpart,
and may have originated in Pietro da Cortonas vault fresco in the salone
of the Palazzo Barberini (16339): 16 the glorious flight of bees swooping
up through the empyrean at the command of Divine Providence below, is
crowned at the apex with the papal tiara borne by a personification of Rome
(Fig. 13). Rome enacts in the secular domain the role of Michael in the
Church .
urbanitas urbana
1287
18
1288
I have borrowed the translation of the distich from Hibbard and Irma Jaffe 1964,
164.
Bernini 1713, 579:
Hor se il Bernino in quel, che non era professione sua, si dimostrava tanto valente,
quanto dobbiam credere, che fosse in ci, in cui consisteva il suo proprio talento raffinato
dallo studio, e dallarte? E come che soleva dire, che Il buon Artefice era quello , cbe sapeva
inventar maniere, per servirsi del poco, e del cattivo, per far cose belle, egli veramente f mara
/ viglioso a comprovarlo con gli effetti . Sotto il Pincio in Piazza detta di Spagna era stato
21
urbanitas urbana
1289
From antiquity on there had been naval fountains in Rome, but never
in post-classical times in so conspicuous a site, and always in the form of an
imposing warship, whether an archeological relic, or a detailed replica of a
modern galleon (Fig. 17).22 To be sure, Berninis workaday craft is clearly
equipped fore and aft with canon; but yet, at first glance, at least, the poor,
awkward tub seems obviously and emphatically to be sinking beneath the
waves, the guns squirting gentle streams of water, which also gushes from
apertures within to spill over the gunwales. At the same time, the morbid
shape of the gunwales suggests the lips and gaping mouth of some great sea
monster swallowing in one voracious gulp a diminutive version of the thing
raised on a sort of mast inside, from which an ultimate gasp of water spouts
heavenward. Berninis gently militant, humble work-boat seems to founder
condotto un capo di Acqua Vergine per doverne formare una Fontana in abbellimento di
quel luogo: M la pochissima alzata, chella aveva dal suolo non dava commodo di poter
condurre un lavoro, che recasse ricchezza e maest a quel deliziosissimo sito. Urbano
richiese lui, acci al suo solito facesse spiccare in questoccasione la vivacit del suo ingegno,
e trovasse modo con qualche artificiosa pendenza, che quellacqua venisse maggiormente
a solevarsi: Rispose acutamente il Cavaliere, che in quel caso dovevasi pi tosto pensare, che
lOpera, e la Fonte si confacesse allAcqua, che lacqua alla Fonte; E per ci concep unIdea
di Machina vaga, e nobile per cui bisognarebbe, se non fusse, restringer allacqua laltezza.
E gli espose, che haverebbe scavato tanto di terra, quanto in essa si venisse a formare una
gran Vasca, che empiendosi dellacqua di quella Fontana rappresentasse al piano del suolo
un Mare, nel cui mezzo voleva, che natasse nobile, e confacevole barca di sasso, che da pi
parti quasi da tanti Cannoni di Artiglieria gittasse acqua in abbondanza. Piacque il pensiere
incredibilmente al Papa, e senza pi di ordine, che si dasse esecuzione al disegno, quale egli
medesimo non isdegn di nobilitar con questi versi:
Bellica Pontificum non fundit Machina flammas,
Sed dulcern, belli qua perit ignis, aquam.
F lodata da tutti lingegnosa invenzione di questa Fontana, e li due sopra citati versi
con tanto applauso furono ricevuti da Letterati, che un dessi persuaso ve / ramente dalla
vivacita del concetto, che gli paresse impossibile farlo nascere tanto confacevole al proposito,
pur disposto a pensare il peggio, e pensandolo crederlo, e credendolo publicarlo, rispose
ingegnosamente m arditamente col seguente Distico.
Carminibus Fontem, non Fonti Carmina fecit
Vrbanus Vates : sic sibi quisque placet.
See also the equivalent account in Baldinucci-Ludovici 1948, 83f.
The antecedents from antiquity on were studied by Hibbard and Irma Jaffe 1964,
DOnofrio 1967, and 1986 (as in n. 18).
22
1290
urbanitas urbana
1291
1292
theme was so central to the ideology of the church that one proposal offered
at the outset of Urbans reign for furnishing the newly completed basilica of
St. Peters actually enclosed the high altar and the choir for the cardinals in
a ship under a sail blown by the crucifixion (Fig. 21). There were essentially
three New Testament contexts that lay behind this maritime metaphor, that
is, the gospel episodes involving Christs institution and dissemination of
the Faith through his disciples: the vessel from which Christ called Peter,
the first and foremost among the disciples, as he was fishing with Andrew on
the Sea of Galilee, to succeed him as the Prince of the Apostles, his earthly
vicar, saying to them I will make you become fishers of men (Mt. 4::1820;
Mark 1:1617); the vessel in which the apostles were caught during a storm,
from which Christ saved them, proving his divinity by walking on the water,
and Peters faith by urging him to do the same (Mt. 1422343; and the
vessel in which Christ saved the apostles, as it was sinking from the weight
of a draft of innumerable fishes he had miraculously provided, saying that
henceforth they would catch men (Luke 5:310). Behind these episodes
there lay two main Old Testament prognostications: Noah and his ark, in
which all the worlds creatures were saved from the universal flood of mans
sins; and Jonah who, guilty for having fled from the Lords command, asked
to be cast into the sea as a sacrifice, was swallowed by a sea monster, and
prayed to the Lord from the belly of hell, whereupon the beast vomited him
out upon the dry land (Jonah Chs. 12).
If the note of serious humor (serio ludere in Renaissance terms) struck
by the Barcaccia seems startlingly bizarre, the explanation lies in two
interrelated works of learned and imaginative antiquarianism that were its
inspiration and justification. Vincenzo Cartari in his great compilation of
ancient religious imagery, deals at length with the belief of the Egyptians,
paragons of pre-Christian arcane knowledge and wisdom, that the gods
were identified with animals. On the authority the church father Eusebius
of Caesarea, significantly in his compendious treatise on the forerunners of
Christianity, Preparation for the Gospel, Cartari reported that the Egyptians
associated the Sun with a ship and a crocodile, the former shown riding on
the latter immersed in sweet water (Fig. 22).25 The Ship of the Sun, shown
enflamed and spouting fire from its forward gun-ports in Cartaris image,
Vincenzo Cartari, Le imagini de gli dei de gli antichi, Venice, 1625, 45. The Nave
del Sole, which is metioned by Hibbard and Irma Jaffe in a footnote (1964, 164 n. 19),
appears in all the many editions of Cartari.
25
urbanitas urbana
1293
represented the creative effect of the suns motion through liquid, and the
crocodile signified the water which the sun purges of its impurities: lacqua
dolce, dalla quale il Sole leua ogni trista qualit, & la purga con i suoi
temperati raggi.26 The relevance of the temperate sun as a ship conducted
through the pure water by an acqueus beast whose humid generative power
was second only to Gods, was a congeries of associations astonishingly
proleptic of the themes Urban would adopt for himself. In particular, the
sun was a primary emblem of Urban VIII and the quenching waters spewing
from the solar visages inside and the gunports outside at either end of the
Barcaccia clearly reflect Cartaris description of the water-tempering rays of
the Egyptian sun-boat. The same themes, more fully developed, underlay
and may have inspired a chalcedony gem, now lost, that was assumed to be
an important relic of Early Christian, specifically early Petrine art (Figs. 23,
24).27 Mounted as an anulus piscatoris (formally a papal ring), the carving
depicted a ship at sea mounted on the back of a huge open-mouthed sea
monster; from the ships deck rose a mast that supported another, smaller
vessel surmounted by a dove evocative of the salvific message a bird brought
to Noah in the ark, while another bird rode to safety on the poop. To the
right, as if retrieved from the jaws of the sea-monster, Christ calls Peter
to walk upon the waters and follow him. (The visitor who approaches the
gun-spouts on the narrow, bi-lingual platforms from the shore, does
indeed seem to walk, precariously, upon the water.) Above the figures the
abbreviated names of Jesus and Peter were inscribed in Greek. The gem was
26
The caption of the illustration reads: Naue del Sole portata de un Crocodilo, che
significa la prima causa che gouerna luniuerso dop Iddio esser la forza del Sole congionta
nella generatione delle cose con lumidit; & lui purgare le triste qualit di quella. The
reference to Eusebius (p. 44) is as follows: Et perci, come riferisce Eusebio, i Theologi
dello Egitto metteuano limagine del Sole in vna naue, la quale faceuano portare da vn
Crocodilo, volendo per la naue mostrare il moto, che si fa nello humido alla generazione
delle cose, e per lo Crocodilo lacqua dolce, dalla quale il Sole leua ogni trista qualit, &
la purga con i suoi temperati raggi. The passage in Eusebius is as follows: The sun they
indicate by a man embarked on a ship, the ship set on a crocodile. And the ship indicates
the suns motion in a liquid element: the crocodile potable water in which the sun travels.
The figure thus signified that his revolution takes place through air that is liquid and sweet.
(Eusebius 2002, I, 126).
27 The gem is discussed briefly by Hibbard and Irma Jaffe 1964, 164. The circumstances
of Aleandros composition and the engraving by Mellan have been studied by David Jaff
1990, 16875. The most extensive modern discussion of the gems content, and the question
of its authenticiy, is that by Dlger 1943, 28691.
1294
Aleandro 1626.
Trium exstimo rerum sacrarum potissimum symbola (nam & alsia quaedam
consideranda se nobis offerent) hac gemma contineri. Ac primum quidem illud signifiari
tem Arcam No, quam Petri nauiculam Ecclesiae fuisse typum. Deinde, quoniam
coniunctae inuicam arca ipsa & naus cernunut, Cathlicam Christi Ecclesiam iam inde aq
muni primordio fuisse. Tertio loco, cum arca malo nauis imposita ab ipsa naui fuleiri ac
sustentari videatur, quicumque siue ex Iudaismo, siue ex Gentibus salutem vnquam sunt
adepti, id per fidem in Iesum Christum, quae fides Ecclesiae firmamentum est, ijs contigisse
(Aleandro 1626, 15f.)
30
Nec eius opinio improbanda videretur, qui extimauerit, piscem in gemma insculptum
fuisse ad inuenti illius stateris memoriam refricandam exhibendumque mysterium, de quo
loquuti sumus, ac profeco os huiusce nostri piscis apertum verba Domini respicere videtur,
& aperto ore eius inunies staterem (Aleandro 1626, 127f.); cf. Dlger 1943, 286.
31
For examples of didrachmae bearing twin fishes see Noe 1935.
28
29
urbanitas urbana
1295
1296
the Roman Senate in 1634 on the inner facade of S. Maria in Aracoeli, where
two winged figures of fame unfurl a long scroll that seems to billow out and
envelop the space of the nave. The popes numerous urban benefactions
are inscribed, ending, significantly in our context, with an acclamation of
his just, tempered and truly paternal rule, and his vigilant care for the
benefits of the people.36 Immediately above, as if to confirm the divine
intervention, a pre-existent window was replaced by a stained glass version
of the papal escutcheon (Figs. 27, 28).37 Here, the conceit made a special
reference to the popes self-conflation love affair, one is tempted to
say with his adopted city. The virginal church on the Capitoline hill
recalls the Emperor Augustus who, disturbed by rumors that the Senate
was about to honor him as a God, consulted the Tiburtine Sibyl, prophetess
par excellence of the Tiber and Rome, who foretold the descent from the
skies of the King of the Ages. As the prophetess spoke, Augustus beheld
a marvelous vision of the Virgin standing on an altar in a dazzling light
holding the baby Jesus in her arms, and heard a voice that said, This is the
altar of the Son of God, following which the Emperor dedicated the Altar
of Heaven. Passing through the window, Urbans emblematic sun recreates
the miraculous apian invasion of the conclave that elected him. The device
became universal transferred from urbi to orbi, as it were in Berninis
cooptation for the Cathedra Petri of Michelangelos window in the apse of
St. Peters (Fig. 29).38
36
iusta ac temperata vereque paterna dominatioine (sic) populorum commodis vigili
cura prospexerit. For the full text see Forcella 186984, I, 232, No. 902.
37
The present window is a modern replacement (Fraschetti 1900,100).
38
Baldinucci reports Berninis precept and its application in the windows:
Nellarchitettura dava bellissimi precetti: primieramente diceva non essere il sommo pregio
dellartefice il far bellissimi e comodi edifici, ma il sapere inventar maniere per servirsi del
poco, del cattivo e male adattato al bisogno per far cose belle e far si, che sia utile quel che
fu difetto e che, se non fusse, bisognerebbe farlo. Che poi il valor suo giugnesse a questo
segno, conobbesi in molte sue opere, particolarmente / nellarme dUrbano in Araceli che,
per mancanza del luogo, ove situarla, che veniva occupato da una gran finestra, egli colori
di azzurro il finestrone invetriato e in esso figur le tre api, quasi volando per aria, e sopra
colloc il regno. Similmente nel sepolcro di Alessandro; nella situazione della Cattedra,
ove fece che il finestrone, che pure Ira dimpedimento le tornasse in aiuto, perch intorno
a esso rappresent la gloria del paradiso e nel bel mezzo del vetro, quasi in luogo di luce
inaccessibile fece vedere lo Spirito Santo in sembianza di colomba, che d compimento a
tutta lopera. (Baldinucci-Ludovici 1948, 146f.)
urbanitas urbana
1297
PERSONAL URBANITY
Urbans choice of his name as a reminder to himself to mitigate a certain
natural tendency to austerity has a personal psychological resonance that
evokes the way urbanus as opposed to rusticus was used by the
ancient writers on style, like Cicero and Horace, for whom it conveyed,
a relaxed, congenial, and open-minded modus agendi, associated especially
with sophisticated city life. In a bust of Urban VIII from the beginning
of his reign, about 1624, Bernini departed radically from the formulae for
papal portraits laid down in the 16th century (Fig. 30).39 To begin with, the
ends of the shoulders are cut off and the torso is amputated at the breast.
To show so little of the figure was extraordinary in a life-size papal bust.40
Secondly, Bernini defied the normal convention in such works that Popes
be shown wearing the pontifical robe, or pluvial, and either bareheaded or
wearing the papal tiara; instead, he shows Urban wearing only the mozzetta,
a short cape, and the papal cap, or camauro. The mozzetta and camauro
are specifically nonliturgical garments, so that the pope is shown as he
would appear on ordinary occasions. Finally, the gentle smile that graces
Urbans face, retained soon thereafter even in Berninis first monumental
sculpture of him with pluvial (Fig. 31), was quite unprecedented in papal
bust portraiture. In sum, Bernini in these works presents us with a new kind
of human being: an unimposing, ordinary, cheerful pope.
Later, as Urban ages and clouds begin to form over his reign, the
psychology becomes more complex but not less human and humane (Figs.
32, 33). This is how Lelio Guidiccioni, one of the leading letterati of the
day, described the bust Bernini executed in the summer of 1632:
For ten years you have attentively observed the face of this most
urbane Prince (principe urbanissimo), who opens to you not only
39
Zitzlsperger 2002 has published a fine study of Berninis papal and ruler portraits,
but his effort (879) to date this bust a decade later and attribute it to another artist is
misguided; everything about the form, psychology, and provenance of the work in the
Barberini family, speaks to the contrary.
40
68 cm high with base. The chief precedent was Berninis own miniature bust of Paul
V wearing the pluvial, in the Borghese Gallery, 16167, 44 cm high with base.
1298
the joy of his countenance, but also the intimacy of his feelings.41
And with your bold imagination you have seen only the living
inward harmony (il vivo consenso interno). You have succeeded in
expressing those airs and attitudes which in ten years of observation
you found to be most noble in that face, whose name [i.e. Urban]
we see expressed in an open book. Thus one sees the portrait pensive
with lightheartedness, gentle with majesty, spirited with gravity; it is
benign and it is venerable. This image of His Holiness has no arms;
yet by a faint movement of the right shoulder and a lifting of the
mozzetta, together with a turn of the head (which serves a variety
of purposes) and also an inclination of the brow, it clearly shows the
action of gesturing with the arm to someone to rise to his feet.42
Apart from the subtlety of Berninis (and Guidiccionis) psychological
analysis, the bust is revolutionary in two particular respects: Bernini
introduced here a motif unprecedented in the history of papal bust
portraiture: the third button of the camaura is only half buttoned. Bernini
had introduced the motif in his portrait of the Cardinal Agostino Valier
(ca. 16245), where one button is missing or undone, a second only half
done; Valier was Venetian and therefore perhaps somewhat independent
from the more rigid ecclesiastical traditions of Rome (Fig. 34). In the case
of Urban the device suggests only a minor, scarcely noticeable inadvertency,
but in traditional terms the pope is practically undressed; in modern terms
41
The expressive relationship between Urbans name and character and Berninis
portrait of the pope, is explicit in the theme of a punning epigram, titled Since Urbanity
cannot turn to Stone, the Stone must put on Urbanity, that Guidiccioni appended to his
epic poem on the baldachin of St. Peters, published in 1633 (Guidiccioni 1633; Newman
and Newman 1992, 174f.).
42
Ha ella osservato in dieci anni attentamente il volto di un Principe Urbanissimo, che
apre a lei non solo la giocondit del suo volto, ma la soavit degli affetti. Hora comella di
gagliardissima fantasia, nel fare il ritratto, ha solo veduto il vivo consenso interno, et non
altrimente con gli occhi. Ha potuto esprimere et quelle arie, et posture, che in dieci anni
venuta osservando pi nobili in quella faccia; il cui nome [i.e. Urbano] in libbro aperto, si
veggono espressi... Cos si vede quel ritratto pensoso con allegria, dolce con maest, spiritoso
con gravita; ride et venerando.
Parve il sudetto ritratto di Nostro Signore che non ha braccia, con un poco di motivo di
spalla destra et alzato di mozzetta, aggiunto alla pendentia della testa, che serve a pil cose,
come anco il chinar della fronte, dimostra chiara lattione di accennar col braccio ad alcuno
che si levi in piedi. (DOnofrio 1967, 382)
urbanitas urbana
1299
43
Patricia Waddy has emphasized the importance of the palaces orientation toward
the heart of the city and St. Peters (1990, 176, 212, 218f., 223f., 231). Waddy aptly refers to
the type of the Paris htel, which Urban certainly knew well from his early years there, and
which may have contributed to the reprise of the Roman model.
44
Fabrizi 1588, 308. On this emblem and its significance, see Lavin 1993, 167f., and
Courtright 2003,178f.
45
Courtright 2003, 79, 260 n. 1.
1300
urbanitas urbana
1301
49
1996.
50
1302
only a Moral but the chief Cardinal virtue.51 The inspiration and aspiration
implicit here were illustrated in a spectacular pair of paintings by the Muti
brothers, which the Barberinis acquired 1627, 1630, the Apotheosis of Urban
I and the Allegory of Peace (Figs. 53, 54).52 There are striking analogies
between Berninis sculptured portrait and Mutis painted apotheosis, and
between the composition of the Mutis allegorical picture and the portrayal
of Urban I with flanking allegories in the Sala di Costantino. There is
also surely a recollection of another great and zealous predecessor, Urban
II, Roman born, who was portrayed with the same virtues. Urban II was
famous as the promoter of the first crusade, and may have inspired Urban
VIIIs adoption of the same cause, as well as his support for foreign missions
and the Propaganda Fide. Urban II was equally famous for having accepted
the office only reluctantly, as was Barberini when he insisted that a recount
of the votes be taken to confirm his election, after an error had been
discovered in the first scrutiny.53 The same allegories reappear in the frame
of an engraved portrait of Urban VII, by Cherubino Alberti (Fig. 55).
The expansive and inclusive embrace suggested by the Campidoglio
figure was embodied in an important but neglected enterprise in what might
be called spiritual-demographics. I refer to Urban massive effort to ensure
adequate care for the spiritual needs of the populace through the system of
apostolic visits, initiated soon after his election and continued throughout
51
No doubt Barberini was also aware that, according to the Golden Legend Urban
I, who played a central role in the life of St. Cecilia, used the most familiar of all bee
clichs to describe the Roman martyrs works in the service of Christ: ....Lord Jesus Christ,
sower of chaste counsel, accept the fruit of the seeds that you sowed in Cecilia! Lord Jesus
Christ, good shepherd, Cecilia your handmaid has served you like a busy bee (apis tibi
argumentosa): the spouse whom she received as a fierce lion, she has sent to you as a gentle
lamb! (Voragine 1948, 691; ...Caecilia famula tua quasi apis tibi argumentosa deservit;
nam sponsum, quem quasi leonem ferocem accepit, ad te quasi agnum mansuetissimum
destinavit. Voragine 1850, 772)
52
On these paintings see Schleier 1976, followed by Thuillier 1990, 303. Only Urban
I is saint. Urban II and V are beatified.
53
According to Negri 1922, 174, Narrano taluni penegiristi e biografi che Maffeo
Barberini, allassunzione sua al pontificato, assumesse il nome di Urbano per ricordare
quellUrbano II che primo aveva suscitato le turbe cristiane alla liberazione del Santo
Sepolcro. In fact, I suspect Negri was extrapolating from the zealous and otherwordly
antichi predecessori who nevertheless undertook glorious imprese (see 2 above). Urban
II described himself in a letter, as renitente(Moroni 184061, LXXXVI, 4 col. b). On
Urban VIIIs ballot recount, see Scott 1991, 183.
urbanitas urbana
21. Papirio Bartoli, Proposal for the High Altar of St. Peters,
engraving by Matthias Greuter.
1303
1304
urbanitas urbana
1305
1306
urbanitas urbana
27. Bernini, Memorial inscription for Urban VIII. Rome, S. Maria in Aracoeli.
1307
1308
urbanitas urbana
1309
1310
urbanitas urbana
1311
33. Detail of
Fig. 32.
1312
35. Guidobaldo Abbatini, Urban VIII. Rome, Galleria nazionale darte antica,
Palazzo Corsini.
urbanitas urbana
1313
1314
urbanitas urbana
1315
1316
urbanitas urbana
43. Bernini, project for the Louvre, drawing. Paris, Muse du Louvre.
1317
1318
45. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, plan of the Pleasure Garden Building,
drawing. Vienna, Albertina.
urbanitas urbana
1319
1320
urbanitas urbana
1321
1322
urbanitas urbana
1323
1324
urbanitas urbana
1325
1326
urbanitas urbana
1327
1328
urbanitas urbana
1329
his reign.54 The visitations required detailed reports on the current status
of all the churches and dioceses of Rome, as regarded both their physical
condition and the pastoral care they provided. Such surveys were a longstanding tradition, but nothing before compared with the scope, depth and
systematic coverage envisioned by Urban. It is important to emphasize,
moreover, that the purview of the visitations was by no means confined
to matters pertaining to religion. Much attention was also paid to the
often execrable physical and moral conditions in which many people lived,
conditions that instigated far-reaching reforms in the churchs mode of
ministering to the poor and unfortunate. This concrete measure of Urbans
religio-social urbanity thereafter became the fundamental utility for public
policy and social planning both in Rome itself, and as a model for others to
follow in the future.
URBANITY IN EXTREMIS
The ideology expressed in the secular context of the Campidoglio, had its
counterpart in the popes ecclesiastical domain at St. Peters, where Bernini
executed Urbans tomb 162747 (Fig. 56). 55 I want to make just three brief
comments that seem particularly relevant in the present context. The first is
that it can be shown in a variety of ways that the allegories of Charity and
Justice (the reversal of the arrangement in the Sala di Costantino is significant
Charity is now on the dexter side, Justice on the sinister) do not refer, as
is commonly assumed, to the personal, moral virtues of Maffeo Barberini;
rather, they follow a long tradition of righteous governance according to
which these are Divine Virtues that descend from Divine Providence upon
all the successors of Peter as vicars of Christ and magistrates of the churchs
material and spiritual domains. The attributes were those attributed to God
in the Second Book of Machabees, 1:24:
And the prayer of Nehemias was after this manner: O Lord
54
See the extraordinarily rich and perspicacious study by Fiorani 1980, esp. 11227.
Urbans visitations in turn inspired the even more ambitious efforts of Alexander VII
(Fiorani 1980, 127ff.; also Lavin 2004).
55
For what follows here see Lavin 1999, and 2005, 1317.
1330
God, Creator of all things, dreadful and strong, just and merciful,
who alone art the good king.56
The allegories do not flatter Urban VIII to my mind notions of
flattery and sycophantism are grossly overworked in the historiography of
the Baroque but represent his conception of the role he sought to fulfill
in the long tradition of Christs ministers on earth. Maffeo Barberinis
phenomenal rise in the church hierarchy was due to two fundamental and
complementary aspects of his exemplary service, as diplomat on behalf of
his predecessors, and in his administration of justice as Prefect of the papal
Segnatura (Ministry) di Giustizia.
The animated figure of Charity has two infants rather than the usual
three, one of whom sleeps blissfully at her bosom, while the other, repentant
sinner, bawls miserably reaching up for the salvation that her radiant smile
promises. The figure of Justice is not mourning but leans in calm repose
against the sarcophagus, feet crossed to emphasize her immobility as she
looks heavenward in calm contemplation (Fig. 57). She clearly reflects the
tradition expressed by Vincenzo Cartari that Divine Goodness does not
run quickly or noisily to castigate error, but belatedly and slowly, so that the
sinner is unaware before he feels the pain. Under the heading precisely of
Divine Justice Cesare Ripa describes the fasces with the ax, carried by the
lictors before the consuls and the Tribune of the People, as signifying that
in the execution of justice overzealous castigation is unwarranted, and that
justice should never be precipitous but have time to mature judgment while
unbinding the rods that cover the ax. The crossed-leg pose and the fasces
occur together in a painting of Justice attributed to Battista Dossi (Fig.
58).
The Divine Virtues of salvific mercy and reluctant retribution have a
long tradition in the history of Christian jurisprudence [until recently the
judicial authority in Italy was still called the Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia],
but never had they been portrayed so explicitly and so movingly. What are
indeed personal references in the monument, apart from the portrait of the
pope, are the bees. They swarm to and alight all over the sarcophagus as
did the bees that flocked to the tomb of the great Greek poet, Archilochus,
Et Neemiae erat oratio hunc habens modum Domine Deus omnium creator terribilis
et fortis iustus et misericors qui solus es rex bonus.
56
urbanitas urbana
1331
who invented the epode, one of Urbans favorite verse forms (Fig. 59) .57
Considered in this light the seemingly casual, bumbling placement of the
three big Barberini bees becomes charged with meaning. They all face upward
and seem to rise in an ascending march past the skeletal figure of death, as
if in response to the resurrecting command of the pope appropriated, as
Kauffmann first noticed, from the gesture of St. Peter himself in the Sala
di Costantino series enthroned on his seat of wisdom, itself ornamented
with bees. The upper two worker bees, as if resurrected, proceed in their rise
to the very border between death, commemoration, and life (Fig. 60). The
lowermost bee, at the rim of the sarcophagus basin beneath the cover, has no
stinger it is not broken off, it never had one (Fig. 61). In a kind of punning
witticism in extremis, the image conflates the quintessential principles of
classical moral political philosophy and Christian eschatology. Urbans
choice of his name as a cautionary reminder to temper his natural tendency
to austerity, was evidently inspired by Senecas invocation, in his treatise On
Clemency, of the stingless king bee as a metaphor for the beneficent ruler,
the king himself has no sting. Nature did not wish him to be cruel or to
seek a revenge that would be so costly, and so she removed his weapon,
and left his anger unarmed.58 (All three of the majestic bees in Cortonas
ceiling fresco are stingless! Fig. 13) And St. Paul alluded to the same apian
menace, disarmed by faith, in his celebrated invocation of the Resurrection,
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?!, which in this
case refers not only to Urban VIII and all humankind, but to the Church
itself through the eternal succession of popes.59 The gentle, loving bee seeks
its master attracted no doubt by the sweet odor of sanctity while its
siblings rise, as if reborn whole, to the resurrection above.
Such a profound and touching public display of urbanity has no equal,
I think, and I think there is, and can be, only one conclusion. Urban VIII,
with Bernini at his side, gave to the papacy, to the church, to Rome, and
to the world at large, a new face more personal, more intimate, more
accessible, more sophisticated, more gracious, more expansive, more humane
more urbane, in sum urbi et orbi. And in the end the new face has
only one name, modern.
58
1332
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Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation for the Gospel, trans. Edwin Hamilton
Gifford, 2 vols., Eugene, 2002
Fabrizi, Principio, Delle allusioni, imprese, et emblemi...sopra la vita, opere,
urbanitas urbana
1333
et attioni di Gregorio XIII...nei quali, sotto lallegoria del Drago, Arme del
detto Pontefice, si descrive anco la vera forma dun principe Christiano...,
Rome, 1588
Fairclough, H. Rushton, Virgil with an English Translation, Cambridge, MA,
1986
Ferro, Giovanni, Teatro dimprese, 2 vols., Venice 1623
Finocchiaro, Giuseppe, DallApiarium alla Melissographia. Una vicenda
editoriale tra propaganda scientifica e strategia culturale, Rendiconti
dellAccademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e
filologiche, ser. 9, XV, 2004, 61140
Fiorani, Luigi, Le visite apostoliche del cinque-seicento e la societ religiosa
di Roma, Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma, IV, 1980, 53148
Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard, Entwurff einer historischen Architectur,
Vienna, 1721
Forcella, Vincenzo, Iscrizioni delle chiese e daltri edificii di Roma dal secolo XI
fino ai giorni nostri, 14 vols., Rome, 186984
Fraschetti, Stanislao, Il Bernini. La sua vita, sua opera, il suo tempo, Milan,
1900
Freiberg, Jack, Gregory XIII, Constantine, and the Law, to be published in
the acts of a conference, Unit e frammenti di modernit. Arte e scienza
nella roma di Gregorio XIII Boncompagni (15721585), Rome, June
2004
Gothein, Marie Luise, A History of Garden Art, New York, 1966
Guidiccioni, Lelio, Ara Maxima Vaticana, Rome 1633
Hager, Werner, Die Ehrenstatuen der Ppste, Leipzig, 1929
Haury, Auguste, Lironie et lhumour chez Ciceron, Leiden, 1955
Heilmann, Christoph H., Die Entstehungsgeschichte der Villa Borghese in
Rom, Mchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, XXIV, 1973, 97158
Heuer, Karl Heinz, Comitas - facilitas liberalitas. Studien zur gesellschaftlichen
Kultur der ciceronischen Zeit, Ph.D. diss, Lengerich, 1941
Hibbard, Howard, Carlo Maderno and Roman architecture, 15801630,
University Park, PA, 1971
_____ and Irma Jaffe, Berninis Barcaccia, The Burlington Magazine, CVI,
1964, 15970
Hirschfeld, Peter, Mzene: die Rolle des Auftraggebers in der Kunst, 1968.
The Hours of the Divine Office in English and Latin, 3 vols., Collegeville,
Minn., 1963
Jaff, David, Mellan and Peiresc, Print Quarterly, VII, 1990, 16875
1334
urbanitas urbana
1335
XXXII
The Baldacchino
Borromini vs Bernini: Did Borromini
Forget Himself?*
borromini vs bernini
1337
1338
The work on St. Peters, especially during the reign of Urban VIII, is
one of the best documented projects in the entire history of art. The minute
financial records kept by the papal paymasters and accountants are preserved
virtually in tact, and have been meticulously researched and published
posthumously by the brilliant Polish scholar Oskar Pollak (18931915),
a childhood friend and correspondent of Franz Kafka, who perished as a
combatant in the Austrian army in World War I.3 How is it possible to have
such widely divergent opinions in the face of such ample and unambiguous
documentation? I shall try to respond by reviewing, super-summarily, what
might be called the hard evidence that is, contemporary evidence
in its three forms: payments for work done, drawings that testify to the
contributions of both artists, and references to the subject in literary sources.
In spite of the acrimonious debates it is interesting that the evidence has
never been collected and focused upon in quite this way.
The importance of the issue is obvious to all students of the period since
the baldachin, while absolutely saturated with references to tradition, also
breaks with tradition in fundamental ways and inaugurates a new epoch in
the history of art. The break took place early in 1624 when the newly elected
Urban VIII appointed a young interloper, Bernini, aged 26 and with very
little experience in architecture, to carry out the first, most urgent, and most
important project of his reign, the completion of a permanent marker for
the high altar. It is essential to recognize that this drastic move signifies not
only the popes determination finally to get the job done, after many earlier
efforts had failed, but a fundamentally new conception of how it was to be
done. The new vision was implicit in that veritable clarion call of the early
Baroque issued by Urban at the time, when he was said to have proclaimed
in reference to Bernini that his reign would bring forth a new Michelangelo.4
Clearly Urban thought of himself as inaugurating a new era, with a new
concept and a new design at the very heart of the church, meaning not only
the basilica of St. Peter but the institution itself. The popes reference to
borromini vs bernini
1339
1340
from the outset with the project for the Baldacchino, which also created,
in its way, a chimeric marriage between two distinct and traditionally
mutually exclusive forms of symbolic markers of sacral distinction, one
commemorative, monumental, and stationary the architectural ciborium
(Fig. 4); the other ritual, ephemeral, and mobile the processional canopy
carried on staves (Fig. 5).8 The link between them was provided by a third,
intermediate type in which an architectural, often columnar, substructure
was surmounted by a lightweight, open, often ribbed, superstructure; this
was the case with the original Constantinian pergula installed at St. Peters,
which Berninis Baldacchino was surely meant to recall (Fig. 6). Given its
hybrid nature, there is no proper term for Berninis work, an art historical
hapax legoumenon; I have capitalized the Italian word to acknowledge its
traditional name, but distinguish it from the traditional baldachin, indeed,
from any of its prototypes.
In Berninis imagination considerations of scale, visibility, stability,
and homage to both commemorative and ceremonial traditions ultimately
required that these prototypes be conflated, a process that inevitably
affected many elements of the design. I shall focus here on only one element
of the final design, albeit the most important and controversial, that is,
the relationship between the lambrequin with hanging lappets proper to
a ceremonial baldachin, and the columns proper to the commemorative
ciborium or pergola (Fig. 7). The evidence is ample to show that if the
genetic hybrid was to be achieved (and, as with the conflation of central with
longitudinal plan in St. Peters itself, some thought the very idea anathema),
this relationship was the crux of the matter. I do not use the word crux
idly, since the conjunction was belabored throughout the long agony of the
Baldacchinos gestation. It is important to bear in mind that what became
the final solution was not reached only at the end, as is often assumed,
but was repeatedly considered from the very beginning. In fact, several
of the altar tabernacles in the nave of Old St. Peters included traditional
entablatures decorated along the lower edges with lappets or scalloped
ornaments. Particularly suggestive in our context was the tabernacle
of the Sacrament installed in the early sixteenth century by Antonio da
The high altar of St. Peters is covered with a temporary baldachin supported by
standing angels on one version of the print showing the beatification of Elizabeth of
Portugal, while Berninis first project for the baldacchino appears in a second version.
Bernini designed the elaborate installations for the ceremony, which took place on May 22,
1625. See Lavin 1968, 10f.
8
borromini vs bernini
1341
Sangallo the Younger for Pope Pius III (Fig. 8). 9 The entire monument
was displayed beneath a tasseled canopy hung from the entablature of the
nave colonnade, and the entablature of the tabernacle itself, fringed along
the bottom, was supported by two of the famous spiral columns decorated
with vine scrolls symbolic of the Eucharist, said to have been retrieved
from the Temple of Jerusalem by Constantine the Great and installed
over the tomb of the apostles in the choir of the original basilica.10 Inside
Sangallos tabernacle the altar was again covered by a lambrequin no
doubt reminiscent of the canopies carried over the pope as he displayed the
Sacrament in the traditional Corpus Domini procession.11 Under Bernini,
the architrave and frieze were replaced by rows of tasseled lappets, and
the resulting lambrequin-cum-cornice became a leitmotif and bone of
contention in the subsequent development of the Baldacchino: first it was
in (Figs. 9, 10), then it was out (Fig. 11), then it was in again (Fig. 12),
then it was out again (Figs. 13, 14), and finally it was in again at last (Fig.
15). Essential to any possible solution was a dual problem of formal syntax:
one of support, since a lambrequin, which counters no weight, is formally
and mechanically incompatible with the lateral thrusts of a superstructure;
and one of conjunction, since columns can formally and mechanically be
braced only by an entablature. Hence the crucial role of the angels, who, as
Gods minions, always do the heavy lifting.
PAYMENTS
The documents make it clear that Borromini was busily employed at St.
Peters throughout the reign of Urban VIII under Berninis direction, on
a great variety of projects: he is mentioned no less than thirty-seven times
in Pollaks index, working as stone mason, marble and wood carver, wax
modeler, and as a draughtsman. But never as architect. Only two sets of
payments to him concern the baldachin, very distinctly separate both in time
and in character. Between January 30, 1627, and April 4, 1628, Borromini
We owe this important observation to Zampa 19957, 16774, esp. p. 173, and I am
grateful to Jack Freiberg for calling Zampas work to my attention. Other examples may be
seen in the reproductions in Rice 1997, figs. 16, 17, 18, 22, 26.
10
The hanging canopy is visible in Rice 1997, fig. 16. On the spiral columns, see Lavin
1968, 1416.
11
On the eucharistic significance of Berninis Baldacchino and that of the Corpus
Domini procession at St. Peters, see Lavin 1968, and 2005, 4555; Lavin, forthcoming.
9
1342
was paid for work as a mason (scarpellino) and carver on the foundations of
the columns, on the altar stairs, and on the models of the pedestals of the
bronze columns.12
There follows a gap of three years, until he was paid between April
12, 1631, and January 22, 1633, for work on the crown of the baldachin,
designing and carrying out the beaten copper ornaments that cover the
superstructure; that is, large scale drawings and carvings in wax and
drawings on copper for the carpenters and copper workers (beaters): large
drawings for all the arches (centine), plants (piante), cornices (cornici),
foliage (fogliami), and other carvings (intagli) that go inside the ribs
(costole) and moldings (cimase), and for tracing them on the copper, so that
the carpenters and those who beat the copper cannot err.13
DRAWINGS
Borrominis drawings of the Baldacchino are also neatly divided into two
completely contrasting groups. The earlier group consists of three amazing
perspective views of the baldachin, intended no doubt to serve in judging the
scale and proportions of the monument, and its relation to the surrounding
architecture (Figs. 1618). They were made during the design phase of the
crown, including full-scale models, and while they show details that appear
in the final work there is nothing to suggest that Borromini was trying
out new ideas of his own in these contextual renderings. On the other
hand, experimentation is precisely what takes place in a series of sketches
by Bernini in which he studies a variety designs for the crown intended
to diminish its weight, raise its center of gravity, and ensure the stability
of the structure (Figs. 13, 14).14 A crucial step further is then taken in the
fulminating sketch by Bernini that returns to the cornice-lappets solution
with the undulating curvature of the ribs and the angels standing on the
columns (Fig. 15) The second Borromini group consists of three very large
wash drawings no less exceptional in Borrominis oeuvre than the spatial
perspectives of the baldachin for details of the ornaments (Figs. 1921).
These elaborate and delicately finished sheets, surely the same or similar
Pollak 1931, II, 342 top, Nos. 11225.
Pollak 1931, II, 373f., Nos. 127487.
14
Static considerations were raised with respect to the version with the raised canopy
and surmounting figure of the Risen Christ.( Lavin 1968, 12, 23).
12
13
borromini vs bernini
1343
1344
uncertain terms, The artist was Bernini, who acquired great applause and
fame, but the thought and idea was of Urban himself.17 While it is tempting
again to dismiss this point as typical Baroque flattery, or to seize upon it as
a means of deflating Berninis reputation for arrogance, I think it should be
taken seriously, not as an indication of Urbans literal role as a designer, but
in the basic view of the monument as the focal point of a newly coherent and
unified architectural and ideological concept of St. Peters. This was indeed
the principle Bernini followed through the entire process of designing the
crossing of St. Peters and I have no doubt that it was indeed a sympathetic
response to the popes own ideology and ambitions.
Berninis biographers, Baldinucci and the artists son Domenico,
make it clear that Berninis own concern was not with the design of the
Baldacchino, but with the problem of determining its scale and proportions
in the vastness of St. Peters. We know from Borrominis perspective
drawings and especially from the documents, which record a whole series
of models ranging up to full scale that were actually erected in situ, that an
unprecedented effort was expended to study the problem.18 Yet, in the end,
despite all this advance planning, Bernini avowed that the baldachin had
succeeded well, by chance.19 The observation was an ironic inversion of
17
Andrea Nicoletti: Lartefice fu il Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino che in tal lavoro
acquistossi grande applauso e maggior fama, ma il pensiero e lidea fu di Urbano stesso
(cited after DOnofrio 1979, 244).
18
The history of the execution of the Baldacchino, with special emphasis on the use of
models, is the subject of an important essay by Bauer 1996.
19
Baldinucci 1948, 83:
Soleva dire il cavaliere che questopera era riuscita bene a caso, volendo inferire che
larte stessa non poteva mai sotto una s gran cupola ed in ispazio s vasto, e fra moli
di eccedente grandezza dare una misura e proporzione che bene adequasse, ove
lingegno e la mente dellartefice, tale quale essa misura doveva essere, senzaltra
regola concepire non sapesse.
borromini vs bernini
1345
Michelangelos famous dictum that the true artist must have the giudizio
dellocchio:20 since there was no precedent for the scale of the project at
St. Peters, the just measurement and proportion of the Baldacchino could
not be found by artistic skill alone; so that if the artists ingenuity and
intelligence did not find the solution, it must have been found by chance.
I suspect that the repetition and insistence upon this overarching act of
creative judgment may refer specifically to the selection process that guided
the laborious study mechanism, including the models and drawings such as
those by Borromini, through which Berninis evolving design concepts were
envisioned. Borrominis drawings of the Baldacchino, which portray the
project in its spatial and architectural setting, are absolutely unique in his
oeuvre: for him, a building was an isolated, self-contained ideal.
Borrominis drawings of the Baldacchino in situ are, on the contrary,
brilliant reflections of Berninis revolutionary concern for what he called
the i contrapposti. Bernini employed this old term in a radically new,
contextual way in reference not to oppositional but to complementary
and mutually dependent contrasts.21 Things do not appear only as they
are, but as they seem in relation to things nearby, which change their
appearance. A building will appear larger if it is juxtaposed with others
that are small, etc. While Borrominis elaborate perspective renderings have
no parallel in the corpus of Bernini drawings, many of Berninis informal
sketches show him studying visibility, viewpoints, and relationships, not in
terms of mathematical proportions but as he envisioned them to be seen by
the viewer.22 Moreover, unlike his predecessors at St. Peters, Bernini did not
il Sto, la Mole, la Vastit del Vano, che empie senza ingombrarlo, la Vaghezza de
Rilievi, la Ricchezza della Materia, e tutto ci che essa / 39 , e la proporzione che
fuor di essa nel Tutto saccorda, rimane appagato, e sodisfatto, m in tal modo, che
tramandandone la specie nellimaginativa, f di mestiere, che lintelletto affermi
per verit, ci che diceva per sua modestia il Cavaliere, QuestOpera essere riuscita
bene a caso, volendo con raro temperamento dimostrare di haverla pi tosto per
buona, che fatta.
(The eye alone can be a worthy judge, and, being satisfied, the intellect confirms
as true what the Cavaliere said in modesty, that his work succeded by chance,
meaning that he achieved it intuitively, rather than deliberately.)
On the giudizio dellocchio, see especially Summers 1981, 36879.
On Berninis concept of i contrapposti, see Lavin 1980, 911.
22
Brauer and Wittkower 1931, pls. 56a, 57, 62b, 63ab, 69c, 74ab, 94a, 96.
20
21
1346
borromini vs bernini
1347
1348
26
borromini vs bernini
1349
1350
to replace his own words with those of Borromini, verbatim, which in fact
Martinelli did, except for one notable omission (Fig. 25). Along the left and
bottom margins, in pencil faintly visible beneath Martinellis inked copy,
Borromini wrote:
It was the thought of Paul V to cover with a baldachin the high
altar of St. Peters with a richness proportional to the opening made
at the Confession and sepulcher of the same. Whence Carlo Maderno
presented him with a design of twisted columns; but the baldachin
did not touch the columns or their cornice. Thereafter, Paul died
and the work remained on the design until the pontificate of Urbano
VIII, who told the said Carlo to be content that Bernini would
make the said work. The Cavalier Celio, perhaps not completely
informed, printed that it was the invention of most holy wisdom
(that is, of the pope) carried out by the said Bernini. Vincenzo Berti
in a manuscript in the possession of Mons. Landucci, sacristan of
our father Alexander VII and for his eminent virtues most worthy of
a higher post, has written that it was a design of Ciampelli, cousin of
the said Bernini, which I am not sure is true; but rather that he did
not agree with Bernini about the decorations and other things; and
he said that baldachins are not supported on columns, but on staves;
[not transcribed by Martinelli or DOnofrio: and that the baldachin
ought not run together with the cornice of the columns] and in any
case he wanted to show that the angels carry it; and he added that
it was a chimera.29
The passage was transcribed by Thelen in his corpus of early Borromini drawings,
1967a, I, 98f.; Lavin 1968, 11f. n. 53, 47 no. 2; DOnofrio 1969, 158 (incomplete; see
Appendix):
F pensiero di Paolo V coprire con baldacchino laltar maggiore di S. Pietro con
ricchezza proportionata allapertura fatta alla confessione e sepolcro di d.o Onde
Carlo Maderno gli present un disegno con colonne vite; ma il baldacchino
non toccava le colonne, ne il lor cornicione: sopragionse la morte di Pauolo, e
rest lop.a sul disegno sin al ponteficato di Urbano VIII. il quale disse al d.o
Carlo si contentasse, che il Bernino facesse d.a opera. I1 Cavalier Celio, forse
non ben informato del tutto, stamp essere inventione di Santiss.o giuditio (cio
del Papa) messo in opera dal d.o Bernino. Vincenzo Berti manoscritto appresso
Mons.r Landucci Sacrista di Nro Sig.re Alessandro VII e p le sue eminenti virtudi
dignissimo di grado superiore, ha scritto, esser disegno del Ciampelli cognato del
d.o Bernini, il che non s se sia vero; ma si bene non concorreva con d.o Bernini
circa labbigliam.ti et altro; e diceva, che li Baldacchini non si sostengono con le
29
borromini vs bernini
1351
1352
borromini vs bernini
1353
1354
borromini vs bernini
1355
1356
6. Constantinian
Presbytery, Old St.
Peters, reconstruction
drawing.
borromini vs bernini
8. Altar of the Holy Sacrament, Old St. Peters, drawing. Archivio del Capitolo
di San Pietro, MS A 64 ter, fol. 22r, Vatican Library, Rome.
1357
1358
borromini vs bernini
1359
1360
borromini vs bernini
1361
16. Borromini,
Perspective study
of the Baldacchino
in situ, drawing.
It. AZ., Rom, 763,
Albertina, Vienna.
1362
borromini vs bernini
20. Borromini, Design for the entablature over the columns of the Baldacchino,
drawing. RL5636, Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
1363
1364
borromini vs bernini
1365
1366
borromini vs bernini
1367
1368
borromini vs bernini
1369
31. Giulio Romano and workshop. East wall, Sala di Costantino, Vatican Palace, Rome.
1370
borromini vs bernini
1371
1372
33. Giulio Romano and workshop, Meeting of Constantine the Great and Pope Sylvester,
relief. East wall, Sala di Costantino, Vatican Palace, Rome.
34. Giulio Romano and workshop, Gregory the Great celebrating Mass, relief. East wall,
Sala di Costantino, Vatican Palace, Rome.
borromini vs bernini
1373
1374
borromini vs bernini
1375
of the victorious cross displayed between them (Fig. 33).35 Bauer noted that
the reference to Pope Gregory was appropriate in the context of Urban VIIIs
project since one of the important acts of Gregorys reign was that he had
decreed that masses be celebrated over the body of St. Peter (Hic fecit ut
super corpus beati Petri missas celebrarentur).36 This event was illustrated
in a relief inserted in the wall above, where the confession at the tomb is
shown below the altar, and four of the famous spiral columns are displayed
in a row, as they appear before the apse in the frescoed reconstruction of
the Constantinian building (Fig. 34).37 When the completed Baldacchino
was inaugurated on 29 June 1633 (the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul), it
was indeed a reenactment of Gregorys original inauguration of a new
Christian veneration of the papacy and the church.38 However, the frescoes
were relevant to Urban in another, no less important, and more personal
way, in relation to the basic theme of the Donation of Constantine, which
purported to record the first Christian emperors gift of vast territories to the
papacy and hence the foundation of the earthly hegemony of the Church.
Although long since discredited as a medieval forgery, the Donation was
still deeply significant of the papacys call for acknowledgement by secular
powers of its claim to temporal dominion. This was the underlying theme
of the decoration of the Sala di Costantino itself, commissioned and carried
out under the Medici popes Leo X and Clement VII. The meaning is made
clear by Medici emblems and inscriptions that accompany the frescoes: the
banderoles that flutter behind, intertwined with a yoke and inscribed with
the famous Medici motto, SVAVE, i.e., the gentle yoke of Medici rule; and
the diamond ring, symbol of perpetuity. Taken together the two parts fulfill
the overarching conceit of Medicean rule: Annulus nectit jugum suave (the
ring unites, the yoke is easy).39 Here the allegories sustain the papal canopy
through the tie-ring with one hand, while holding aloft the yoke with the
other.40
Quednau 1979, 287. Quednau discussed the reliefs in greater detail in Raffaello
1984, 244f.
36
Bauer 1996, 158f.
37
Quednau1979, 303f.
38
Pollak 1931, II, 421.
39
Moroni 184061, XXXVIII, 45; Shearman 1972, 87; Perry 1977, 6836; CoxRearick 1984, 368.
40
Matthew 11:
29 tollite iugum meum super vos et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde
35
1376
The essence of this reference to the Medicean power behind the throne
was carried over into Berninis design, where heavenly angels replace the
secular allegories, and the garlands of Barberini laurel leaves, symbolic
of a new era of eternal springtime, replace the Medici tie-rings and yoke
(Fig. 35). Berninis insistence on retaining the angels through the sequence
of design changes of which Borromini evidently disapproved since he
quoted the vociferous criticism, and which modern scholars have attributed
simply to Berninis prejudice in favor of sculpture over architecture may
best be explained by this reference to the divine election and beneficent
authority of the pope. These were, in fact, the fundamental themes of Urbans
conception of his office: his election was signaled by divine intervention; at
his coronation he invoked the all-powerful Archangel Michael as patron of
his papacy; and his choice of his name announced the gentility of his rule.41
The angels sustain the Baldacchino effortlessly through delicate garlands of
laurel that are not attached but mysteriously disappear between the ribs and
the canopy. This is important work, after all. The Baldacchino is, after all,
a kind of miracle.
borromini vs bernini
1377
Appendix
Cesare DOnofrio, Roma nel seicento. Roma ornata dallarchitettura,
pittura e scoltura di Fioravante Martinelli, Florence, 1969
Marginal emendations to passages in Martinellis text suggested by
Borromini concerning Bernini and himself.
Page
11
Martinelli text
S. AGOSTINO
S. ANASTASIA
Laltar maggiore architettura di
Honorio Lunghi: ma lornamento
della tribuna con colonnato disegno
del Cav. Borromino fatto dordine del
Card. Carpegna allhora titolare*. Il
disegno della facciata col resarcimento
della chiesa di Luigi Arigucci fatto
fare da Urbano VIII.
Borromini emedation
* il tabernacolo fatto con
disegno di un amico di (Santi
Ghetti) ...: il Martinelli aveva
scritto: con architettura e assistenza di Santi Ghetti, et in esso
sono due Angeli scolpiti dal
Cav. Bernino. Questultima
frase corretta dal Borromini:
da Giuliano Finelli Carrarino per il C.r Bernino.
1378
15
57
69
* et al presente . . . Borromino.
* detto ; ma era da
Milano.
* e minacciando . . . ecc.,
sembra suggerimento del Borromini.
* Il cornicione . . . Borromino.
S. MARIA MAGGIORE
Lincoronatione del Papa di sopra di
Pietro padre del Cav. Bernino* ; man
destra dIppolito Butio Milanese,
man sinistra di Gio. Antonio Valsoldino. Li termini sono scarpellati dal
detto Pietro.
borromini vs bernini
158
1379
S. PIETRO VATICANO
S. PIETRO VATICANO
1380
218
220
* et il tempietto . . . sopra.
231f
* et altri.
borromini vs bernini
282
1381
1382
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DOnofrio, Cesare, Roma vista da Roma, Rome, 1967
DOnofrio, Cesare, Roma nel Seicento, Florence, 1969
DOnofrio, Cesare, La papessa Giovanna. Roma e papato tra storia e leggenda,
Rome, 1979
Dooley, Brendan, Morandis Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics,
Princeton, 2002
Fagiolo, Marcello, Lattitiv di Borromini da Paolo V a Urbano VIII (I
borromini vs bernini
1383
1384
VISIBLE SPIRIT
THE ART OF GIANLORENZO BERNINI
VOL. III
IRVING LAVIN
Table of Contents
Preamble
13
13
14
21
29
34
41
41
41
Birth
66
Purification -
Healing
68
Lupercalia
76
81
83
88
Jubilee
Lizards and the Sol Iustitiae
Justitiae
96
96
105
117
Giotto's Navicella, the Natalis Solis Invictus, and the Sol Iustitiae
124
Beelzebub
128
Paired Tombs
131
133
143
154
154
157
161
Ingress -
Egress
Commemoration
164
164
182
182
189
216
228
228
228
229
236
243
246
249
The Plague
249
Pre-conception
252
BERNINI's WAY oF
BERNINI'S
OF SALVATION:
257
261
267
272
276
Consummation
The Sacrament Altar (1673-5)
281
281
298
298
309
Bibliography
323
343
Index
345
ExcuRsus
EXCURSUS C. THE
41
PEDESTALS oF
OF THE BALDACCHINO:
FOOTSTEPS
45.
FooTSTEPS ON THE WAY TO REDEMPTION 45
God, we say, is in the details. My project in this essay is to discuss in some detail some details
of the Baldacchino, that is, the pedestals and the things represented on them. Some of these
details are eminently conspicuous and have been subject to the most extravagant explanations, others are barely visible and are rarely, if ever noticed by the public. Taken together, I
believe, these details give us to understand that the pedestals are indeed the foundation stones
on which that miraculous work of art rests, not just structurally but also spiritually. With its
pedestals the Baldacchino recounts in intensely human terms an epic theological drama, a
brazen metaphor of the Divine Comedy.
In essence the Baldacchino constitutes a fusion of the three traditional types of honorific
markers that served to confer the distinction of holiness on the ciborium supported on
columns, the suspended canopy, and the processional baldachin carried on staves. The idea of
merging these quite distinct species into what one contemporary described as a "chimaera"
"chimaera'' was
more than an ingenious solution that synthesized and epitomized the hallowed traditions and
unique challenges that confronted Bernini in the unprecedented task of "furnishing" the high
altar of St. Peter's. The typological merger was also a creative act in which the three species were
subsumed under a new unity, a metaphor for the divine creativity of the Holy Trinity itself,
which had created the church for the express purpose of achieving the salvation of humanity. 46
46
This ecdesiologically generative nature of the Trinity is explicit in a drawing showing the early
project for the Baldacchino, in which the sun passing through the apse window containing
47 With God
the triangular sign of the Trinity illuminates the choir (Fig. 31, c Fig. 21).
21) .41
the Father portrayed in the act of creation in the apex of the lantern of the cupola, and
See the comprehensive account of the theme in scholastic theology by Emery 1995.
The problematic drawing, in the Morgan library, is a pastiche consisting of two sheets, one showing the
choir with Bernini's early project for the upper niches in the piers and in the apse the Cathedra Petri with the
Trinitarian window, on which a second sheet has been pasted showing a papal ceremony with the early project
for the Baldacchino. The apse project is evidently an alternative to that shown in a drawing at Windsor, where
47
47
42
43
33. After Fabio Cristofani, Ballot for the Election of Urban VIII, tapestry. Musei Vaticani, Rome.
the glorious dove of the Holy Spirit alighting, wings wide-spread, through the underside of
the canopy to illumine the crucifixion at the altar below, the Baldacchino came actually to
incorporate this mystery of the Trinity, in a form that echoes the traditional disposition of
the Trinity in the Throne of Grace or Mercy Seat (Fig. 32). The notion of the Trinity as the
creative agent of redemption was as old as the church itself and had its direct legacy in the
belief that to insure the continuity of the promise of salvation through Christ's vicar on earth,
the Divine Wisdom intervened at the election of every pope. Divine inspiration is invoked
frequently during the election conclaves through the ancient hymn Veni creator spiritus
recited liturgically at Pentecost, when the Holy spirit descended on the Virgin and apostles
in the first storey, below the window, a presumably sculptured image of St. Michael carrying the keys and papal
tiara appears in a sunburst above the niche containing the Cathedra upheld by Fathers of the Church (see Lavin
2007,17,
2007, 17, fig. 6; Rice 1997, 89f., 267). First published by Stampfle 1973,
1973,101-4,
101-4, and attributed to Agostino
Ciampelli by Thiem 1977, 310-2 (sed contra Prospero Valenti Rodino 1981, 122-6), the Morgan drawing
has been discussed by Merz 1991, 162 n. 125, Schiitze 1994,282-4,
1994, 282-4, Dombrowski 2003, 40, Connors 2006,
122-3. None of these authors consider the Trinitarian creativity conveyed by the radiant window emblem for
our understanding of the Baldacchino.
For more on the Trinitarian genesis of Urban's conception of St. Peter's see Lavin 2007, 17f.
44
to insure the divulgation and continuity of Christ's teaching. 48 The Holy Spirit intervened
in a particularly, indeed triply auspicious way at the election of Urban VIII, August 6, 1623:
during the conclave a swarm of bees descended through a window of the Sistine Chapel
to settle on the wall of Barberini's cell (Fig. 33); owing to their perfect community and
beneficent creativity, bees were a traditional symbol of Divine Wisdom, and three of the
species had formed Cardinal Maffeo Barberini's personal coat of arms. The trinity of big
bronze bees that have alighted and conjoined to bind the crown together and sustain the
universally triumphant Cross at the apex, seems to reenact in perpetuity this heavenly descent
of divinely providential salvation (Fig. 34). The episode was also reenacted metaphorically at
the apex of Pietro da Cortona's ceiling fresco in the great salone of Palazzo Barberini, where
at the direction of Divine Providence, Rome carries the papal crown above the flight of bees
framed by a laurel wreath (Fig. 35); and the all-presiding inspiration of Divine Wisdom is
portrayed in Andrea Sacchi's vault fresco in the north wing (Fig. 36).49
36). 49
48
48 See
49
49 See
35.
3 5. Pietro da Cortana,
Corron a, Divine Providence and the Coronation of Urban VIII. Palazzo Barberini, Rome.
45
45
46
47
WEST
118
lilA
iliA
IInA
A
1118
IVA
18
lA
IA
IV
IVB
8
37. Diagram of
ofPedesrals
Pedestals and sequence of
offaces.
faces.
Surprisingly, perhaps, the creative nature of the Holy Spirit was represented more
directly in the pedestals that serve as the very foundation stones of the Baldacchino (Fig.
37). It has frequently been observed, and much disputed, that the swelling forms and
disposition of the three Barberini bees in the coats of arms on the exterior faces of each
pedestal suggest the body of a pregnant woman, and that the female faces enclosed in the
cartouches above portray the phases of parturition. (Figs. 38-54). The sequence begins
at the left facing the nave with a smile, passes clockwise around the Baldacchino through
various more or less pained expressions and ends facing the nave at the right where a
radiantly beaming, winged cherub's head appears. Below, at the groin, grotesque masks,
half human, half bestial, sneer and threaten vile, demonic pleasures.
The pregnancy and parturition were first mentioned in print in 1883 in a touristic
guidebook to Rome, transmitting the salubrious anecdotes no doubt recounted by local
5o
The second to consider them was a distinguished historian of ancient medicine
ciceroni. 50
and gynecologist Giacomo Emilio Curatulo, who in 1901 published an obstetrical analysis
that he believed confirmed the birthing physiologically. The eschutcheons and the theme of
so
so Hare
48
[IA].
38. Baldacchino, Southeast Pedestal, East Side [IAJ.
49
50
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
51
52
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
BERNINIATST.PETERS
BERNINI
AT ST. PETERS
65
r~r
f~'r
II~.
~,
~b
------_.-----,==-----------'==-
parturition were often seen as satiric, prurient allusions to scandalous rumors that circulated
about the pope's family. This was also the view of the great Russian motion picture maker
and theorist Sergei Eisenstein who first gathered and summarized the early literature on
the pedestals in a famous unfinished treatise on cinematic montage (1937-40) (Fig. 55). 5151
Eisenstein interpreted the reliefs in formal terms as a perfect demonstration of his theory of
montage, that is, sequential narration in film, and argued that their full significance could
only be grasped when they were considered in this way. Ironically, he grossly misprized
their meaning in a radical anticlerical vein, but his understanding of the temporal import
of the escutcheons was astonishingly perceptive with respect to their ultimate significance.
The pedestals have been discussed seriously only twice in recent scholarly literature. Philip
Fehl explained them in adulatory terms as a "compliment" to the felicitous reign of Urban
VIIJ.5 2 Cesare D'Onofrio considered the reliefs metaphorically, referring to the ecclesiastical
VIII,52
tradition of the church as mother of the faithful, Mater Ecclesia. 53 As we shall see, all these
51 Eisenstein
51
1985, 87-100;
111-31 ; Eisenstein 1991,
1991,6787-1 00; Eisenstein 1989, 111-31;
67- 80 The essay has been discussed
Yve-Alain Bois in Eisenstein 1989, 111-5, and by Spagnolo 2006, 56f.
by Yve-A1ain
52 Fehl 1976.
52
53 D'Onofrio 1979, 243-9.
53
of Witkowski 1908, who was
243-9. D'Onofio's work was greatly dependent on that ofWitkowski
the first to consider the reliefs in positive, if witty, ecclesiological terms.
66
interpretations contain elements of truth, which is, however, rooted in a heretofore totally
unexplored substratum of meaning that underlies these extraordinary, powerful, and
evocative images, at once discomfiting and endearing, images that are indeed the fundamental
cornerstones of the Baldacchino. 54
Birth
The basic theme of the sequence is announced in the first panel, where, uniquely, the papal
tiara includes a winged cherub above which a bee mounts heavenward (Fig. 56). Under
the apian aegis of Divine Wisdom, the cherub seems to forecast the infant that replaces
the woman's head at the end of the series. In fact, in the Celestial Hierarchies of the PseudoDionysius, "the name cherubim signifies the power to know and to see God, to receive the
greatest gifts of his light, to contemplate the divine splendor in primordial power, to be filled
with the gifts that bring wisdom and to share these generously with subordinates as part of
the beneficent outpouring of wisdom" (Fig. 57). 55
55
In ecclesiological terms the creativity of the Trinity took two main forms, with respect
to God's method and purpose. The first, the creation of the Church, was embodied in John's
Apocalyptic vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation, in the famous
passage at the beginning of Chapter 12, describing the appearance of the Woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
Rev. 12: 1- 5
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and
the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the
earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to
devour her child as soon as it was born.
5'
54
Agostino Radi and Borromini were paid for executing the coats of arms between July 8,1626 and the end
of December 1627 (Pollak 1928- 31, II, 342f.).
55 VII.1;
55
VII.l; Pseudo-Dionysius 1987, 162. On the cherub-ornamented headdress see the comments ofTolnay
1943-60, I, 160, concerning Michelangelo's Pitti Madonna, which he calls Sibylline. D'Onofrio 1979, Fig.
188, p. 252, labels the head "allusione al
a! concepito." According to Eisenstein 1991, 774,
4, "It might be read as
something like a chapter heading or an introductory epigraph about the birth of a new scion of the family that
was crowned with the papal tiara." Witkowski 1908, 266, was most eloquent, and right on the mark: "Ces ecus
tourmentes n'allegorisent-ils
n'alh:gorisent-i1s pas encore les terribles epreuves subies par l'Eglise
I'Eglise militance
militante au Sion qui, reprenant
elle Ie
le "Tu enfanteras dans la
Ia douleur" de la
Ia Genese, aboutit, sous Ia
pour e1le
la protection de Ia
la tiare, au triomphe de
la
Ia beatitude celeste, a l'Eglise triomphante ou Jerusalem, personnifiee dans le
Ie dernier ecu par Ia
la tete du hebe
bebe
nous
us n' avons plus '!'
'l'oeil
oeil mauvais'
mauvais'."
."
angelique, souriant et cravate d' ailes? Cette fois .. . no
67
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron:
and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
From at least the time of Methodius's treatise on the virtues of virginity, these references
to the tribulations and joys of childbirth were understood as the labor and sufferings of
the Mother Church in bringing about salvation through a healing of the souls by virtue of
Christ's sacrifice at the crucifixion, reenacted in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the mass. 56
56
The woman who appeared in heaven clothed with the sun, and crowned with twelve
stars, and having the moon for her footstool, and being with child, and travailing in
birth, is certainly, according to the accurate interpretation, our mother ...
It is the Church whose children shall come to her with all speed after the resurrection,
running to her from all quarters. She rejoices receiving the light which never goes
down, and clothed with the brightness of the Word as with a robeY
56
56 For a survey of interpretations of Rev. 12, see Prigent 1959; also Kramer 1956. For Methodius and Hippolytus in particular, Rahner 1971, 161f.
57
57 Banquet of the Ten Virgins, ch. V, RobertS and Donaldson VI, 1951, 336
68
Purification - Healing
The particular relevance of these themes of divinely ordained gestation to the Baldacchino
over the apostles' tomb at St. Peter's, was established in the early sixteenth century with Leo X
58 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, 62, Roberts
58
Roberrs and Donaldson, V, 1951,
1951,217.
217.
59 Genesis 3:16.
59
3: 16. Multiplicabo aerumnas tuas et conceptus tuos; in dolore paries
60
60
filios ...
...
69
de' Medici's program of reaffirming the hegemony of the church and the papacy in the great
campaign of decorations that he entrusted to Raphael - frescos in the Vatican palace, and
tapestries for the Sistine chapel. In the compass of these decorations two subjects in particular
were associated with the high altar of St. Peter's, both of which served as historical and doctrinal
precedent for Bernini's project. In the Sala di Costantino the Donation of Constantine was
conceived as actually taking place in the basilica, and Raphael's portrayal of the disposition
of the spiral columns from the Temple of Jerusalem in the Constantinian presbytery of Old
St. Peter's (Fig. 58), as well as the suspended canopies over the flanking portraits of Sylvester
I and Gregory the Great (Figs. 59-60), reverberated not only in the design but also in the
meaning of Bernini's Baldacchino. 61 The second connection, which arose from the same
conflation of the Temple with St. Peter's as embodied in the spiral columns decorated with
vine scrolls symbolic of the Eucharist, was metaphorical: the columns provided the setting for
the tapestry depiction of the Healing of the Lame Man by Peter, in the company of St. John
62
and a multitude of bystanders (Fig. 61).
61).62
The significance of the Healing lies in the fact that it
61
61
Besides Tuzi 2002, two important studies have been devoted to the columns, Nobiloni 1997, and Kinney
2005. On the canopies, see below.
62
62 Acts 3: 1-8:
1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the
temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones
received strength.
8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping,
and praising God.
70
7711
61. Pieter van Aelst after Raphael, St. Peter Healing the Lame Man, tapestry.
tapestry.
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome.
Rome.
is the first miracle recounted of the apostles, that is, by Peter, Christ's chosen vicar, who insists
that the miracle was not achieved by his own power but by that conveyed to him by Jesus.
The healing thus inaugurated the salvific power of grace vested in the church through Peter
and Christ's subsequent successors. The miracle was performed in the place where Jesus had
himself performed acts of spiritual healing, in his youthful disputation with the Doctors and
2 et quidam vir qui erat claudus ex utero matris suae baiulabatur quem ponebant cotidie
coddie ad portam
templi quae dicitur Speciosa ut peteret elemosynam ab introeuntibus in templum
incipiences introire in templum rogabat ut elemosynam acciperet
3 is cum vidisset Petrum et Iohannem incipientes
4 intuens autem
aurem in eum Petrus cum Iohanne dixit respice in nos
ille intendebat in eos sperans se a1iquid
aliquid accepturum ab eis
5 at ilIe
6 Petrus autem dixit argentum et aurum non est mihi quod autem habeo hoc tibi do in nomine Iesu
Christi Nazareni surge et ambula
et plantae
7 et adprehensa ei manu dextera adlevavit eum et protinus consolidatae sunt bases eius er
8 et exiliens stetit et ambulabat et intravit cum illis in templum ambulans et exiliens et laudans
Dominum
72
later by driving out the money changers, thus signifying the power and legitimacy of Peter's
vicarage. The events took place, however, before the famous Porta Speciosa, famous for its
heavy brass doors, for which Raphael instead substituted the Solomonic columns whose vine
scrolls gave them a sacramental significance singularly appropriate for the altar at St. Peter's
tomb. Peter says explicitly to the bystanders at the event that they should not mistake him as
a magician for it was not he who had worked the miracle, but through the power ofJesus. 63
Peter insists that while the healing was physical, it was effected through faith, not a physical
but a spiritual healing. Peter was acting as the vicar of Christ, who had described himself as
the physician, whose power came from his father, and declared, "they that be whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick ... for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. " 64
John Shearman's analysis of the tapestry has made it amply clear that Raphael's bold
transposition of the Healing of the Lame Man with reference to St. Peter's was intended to
evoke the legacy of Christ the Physician, Christus Medicus, to Peter his vicar, and hence to Leo
X, whose family name was de'Medici. 65 1he
The theme of papal healing was represented in a relief
in the Sala di Costantino above the portrait of Sylvester I, who had baptized the emperor
Constantine the Great (Fig. 62). The relief refers to the fact that Sylvester had earlier cured the
emperor of leprosy, which led to his conversion. In correspondence to the healing depicted
here the relief above the portrait of Gregory the Great (Fig. 63) illustrates Gregory's decree
that mass be celebrated over the tomb of St. Peter; four of the spiral columns are displayed
in a row, as they appear before the apse in the reconstruction of the Constantinian building
in the intervening fresco of the Donation. The fact that the columns in the tapestry are silver,
rather than marble, constitutes another, specific reference to the altar, for Gregory the Great
had erected over the tomb a "cyborium cum columnis suis IIII ex argento puro," and had also
decreed that masses be celebrated over the body of St. Peter ("Hic
("Hie fecit ut super corpus beati
63
63
Acts
3:12, 16:
Acts3:12,
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men ofIsrael,
oflsrael, why marvel ye at this? or why
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea,
the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
12 videns autem Petrus respondit ad populum viri israhelitae quid miramini in hoc aut nos quid
intuemini quasi nostra virtute aut pietate fecerimus hunc ambulare
nostis
tis confirmavit nomen eius et fides quae per eum est
16 et in fide nominis eius hunc quem videtis et nos
dedit integram sanitatem istam in conspectu omnium vestrum
M Matt. 9:12-13:
12 at Iesus audiens ait non est opus valentibus medico sed male habentibus
yolo et non sacrificium non enim veni vocare iustos
13 euntes autem discite quid est misericordiam volo
sed peccatores
12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they
that are sick.
13 But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
65
65 Shearman 1972,55-7,
1972, 55-7, 77f. Shearman does not himself make this deduction, concluding only that: "the
meaning of the columns cannot, therefore, be literal but must be symbolic - either of the miraculous healing
powers of one of them, or of Solomon himself, Rex Pacificus, or perhaps both" (p. 57).
62. (Detail of Fig. 59), Sylvester I curing Constantine ofLeprosy, terracotta relief.
relief
Sala di Costantino, Palazzo Vaticano, Rome.
63. (Detail of
Fig. 60},
St. Peter's,
ofFig.
60), Gregory the Great celebrating Mass at the altar ofSt.
relief Sala di Costantino, Palazzo Vaticano, Rome.
terracotta relief.
73
74
celebrarentur"). 66 1he
Petri missas celebrarentur").66
The relief above his portrait in the Sala di Costantino actually
shows him celebrating mass before a structure with four spiral columns.
Raphael perpetrated another astonishing conflation in the tapestry, also noted, but not
discussed by Shearman. Raphael flanked the central episode of the Healing of the Lame Man
with figures that clearly allude to the Hebrew rituals of presentation and purification mandated by the Lord in the book of Leviticus: at the right an infant carrying a pair of doves and
a handmaiden with other celebratory food offerings, and at the left a mother carrying her
child at her bosom. Following the birth of a child a woman is considered unclean for certain
specified intervals according to the sex of the newborn, after which she must bring to the door
of the tabernacle offerings, a lamb or a pair of pigeons or turtle doves if she is poor, to the priest,
67
who makes an atonement for her so that she is cleansed and may again enter the sanctuary.
sanctuary.67
The rite of purification applied to Christ as well, since the Law of Leviticus provided that the
male child be presented by the mother at the same time. The Presentation of the Christ child
and the Purification of the Virgin were thus correlated themes, each with its proper feast in
the calendar of the church, and both were commemorated on the same day. From the earliest
Christian times the church Fathers emphasized that neither the Son of God nor the Virgin
Mary had need of purification, but they did so anyway so that the ritual of the Old Law of the
Hebrews, might finally be fulfilled, literally once and for all, in the New Law for all believers.
And when the tapestry series was continued after Raphael's death by Giulio Romano, the Pre-
66
66
Hie augmentavit
augmentavir in praedieationem
praedicarionem canonis diesque nostros in tua pace dispone, er
et cetera. Hie fecit bearo
beato
Perro apostolo
aposrolo cyburium cum columnis suis III!,
IIII, ex argento puro. Fecit autem vestem super corpus eius blatPetro
ut super corpus bead
beati Petri missas celebrarentur; item er
et
tinio
rinio et
er exornavit
exornavir auro purissimo, pens. lib. C. Hie fecit ur
bead Pauli apostoli
aposroli eadem fecit.
in ecclesiam beati
Rolf Quednau in Rajfaello
Raffaello 1984,245
1984, 245 (evidendy
(evidently
Duchesne 1955-7, I, 312; the silver ciborium was cited by RolfQuednau
unaware of this passage, Shearman, p. 57, puzzles over the silver columns); the mass mandated by Gregory was
cited by Bauer 1996, 158f. I have argued elsewhere that the painted canopies over the portraits of Silvester and
Gregory, were an important influence on Bernini's first project for the Baldacchino (Lavin 2008).
67
67 Shearman 1972, 56.
56.
Leviticus 12 (King James Version)
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the
rhe children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child:
then she shall be unclean seven days; according ro
to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she
be unclean.
3 And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no
hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.
5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation: and she shall
continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.
6 And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb
of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turdedove,
turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:
7 Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from
female.
the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.
turtles, or two young pigeons; the
8 And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turdes,
one for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for
her, and she shall be clean.
75
sentation of Christ in the Temple was located in the same ideally conflated setting, appropriate
to this critical act of transition from the Old Law to the New (Fig. 64).
The Old Testament purification and New Testament healing had been associated early
on by Origen under the rubric of Christ's power, as Christus Medicus, to cleanse the soul
of sin. Discussing Christ's definition of himself as the physician for the sick, not the well
(Matt. 9:12-13), Origen relates the purification rituals (Leviticus 12 and 13, specifically
12: 2, the birth of a male child), to Christ's healing of the leper, the disease par excellence of
uncleanliness, i.e., sin (Mark 1: 40-2).68
40-2). 68 The underlying common denominator lay beyond
these individuals: the sinfulness of woman was descended from Eve, and the lame man's
defect was inherited congenitally from his mother's womb, i.e., it was also inherent. It is clear
that the healing underlying both events was the redemption from the Original Sin, achieved
6a
6Il
Homilies on Leviticus, Homily VIII, Migne 1857- 1905, XII, cols. 492f.
76
by Christ's ultimate act of charity, instituted and perpetuated through his mother, Mary/
heavenly bridelthe
bride/the New Eve/Mother Church, and actuated at the altar. The altar was the
tabernacle of the New Church constructed by Christ on the Stone of his successor, also called
the petra durissima, the stone of refuge and security on which the church was built. Through
the setting of his tapestry, Raphael extended these relationships to Peter and to St. Peter's.
In the sermon that followed the healing, Peter adjured the witnesses not to assume that the
power came from him, but from Jesus whom they had condemned to death, and who had
himself attributed his power to his Father. In effect, the curative power of Christus Medicus,
expressed in Christ's metaphor referring to himself as physician, descended not just to Leo X
as a Medici, but to all those who occupy the papal throne. This idea lay at the very heart of
the ideology of Bernini's Baldacchino.
It is important, moreover, that in all these cases the healing brought revelation and
conversion, the leper cured by Christ who spread the good word (Mark 1: 43-5), the lame
man and bystanders who had witnessed the miracle. At the Purification and Presentation,
the witness and convertee was the just and devout Simeon, who recognized Mary and Jesus
and publicly proclaimed their salvation ''A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy
people Israel" (Luke 2: 32). This last pronouncement is crucial because it foreshadows what
would become the church's basic claim to be successor to paganism and Judaism, ecclesiae ex
gentibus and ex circumcisione.
Considering these implications of the two subjects Raphael combined in the tapestry, it
becomes clear why the scene was set among the twisted columns - not simply because they
came from the Temple of Jerusalem and were installed at the high altar at St. Peter's but also
because they were Roman columns on the one hand, and on the other richly ornamented with
vine scrolls that suffused them with the symbolism of the Eucharist. By framing the Healing
by the Presentation, and setting them both within the symbolic columns from Jerusalem at
St. Peter's, Raphael gave physical and topographic reality to the theme of succession that was
Catholicism's chief claim to universality. Hence the appropriateness of the ideology expressed
in the tapestry to its display in the Sistine Chapel, where papal elections were held and the
succession assured.
Lupercalia
The pedestals of the baldachin incorporate, conjugate would be a better word, as cornerstones
the two stones, Peter and Mary, on which Christ built his church. Following the words about
childbirth in the Book of Revelation and from Christ's own mouth as reported by St. John,
the tribulations and ultimate jubilation of childbirth depicted on the pedestals reenact the
process of salvation that is achieved in the sacrifice at the altar and triumphs with the Resurrection of Christ in the original plan for the Baldacchino, and with the world dominion of
the Cross as it was executed. The Original Sin over which the church triumphs and from
which the repentant sinner is redeemed is illustrated in the satiric, indeed devilish masks that
appear as if imprisoned at the "groins" of the cartouches. The grimacing visages, beginning
with the male "vagina dentata," recollect, besides the biblical Original Sin, for which the Old
77
77
Law of Leviticus failed to compensate, a lewd and orgiastic Roman pagan fertility festival
which the Purification of the Virgin was said to have superseded (Fig. 65).69
65). 69 In the Roman
church, the Purification-Presentation, and the Candlemas celebration, which is its most conspicuous feature, had long been understood as a replacement for a pagan festival that took
place in the same season. The first writer to do so, the Venerable Bede (673-735) asserted
that the feast honoring Mary, February 2, was an antidote to a Roman purificatory sacrifice
celebrated in that month in honor of Februus, as Pluto, the god of the underworld. 70 The
history of the Purification-Presentation feast in relation to the pagan festival was thereafter
embodied in church tradition, recorded notably in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend of
Jacopo da Voragine, who relates that Candlemas was instituted to remedy a Roman festival
honoring the goddess Februa, to celebrate her motherhood of Mars.7 1
69
69
In particular the masks seem to echo the series of 24 engraved masks designed by Cornelis
Camelis Floris, Giulio
tide Libro di variate mascare
Romano, and the Monogrammist IHS, published in 1560 by Rene Boyvin with the title
quale servono a pittori scuftori
quafe
scultori et uomini ingeniosi, from which our illustration is taken. See Miller 1999, No.
38, 120-5. A similar mask appears at the backside of a Protestant female pope-monster in the controversy over
Pope Joanna (see below).
70
70 Wallis 1999, 48f.
The second [month] he [Numa] called after Februus, that is, Pluto, who was believed to rule over
purificatory sacrifice. In that month, in which [Numa] ordained that justice be done to the gods of the
underworld, the city was obliged to make purificatory sacrifices. But the Christian religion altered this
custom of purificatory sacrifice I for the better, when in that same month, on the feast of St Mary, the
whole populace with the priests and ministers goes on procession through the churches and the city
whole'
neighbourhoods, all singing devout hymns, and carrying in their hands burning candles given them
by the bishop. As this good custom grew, it provided a model for the conduct of other feasts of the
blessed Mother and perpetual Virgin as well, not in the five-year lustration of a worldly empire, but in
the everlasting memory of the heavenly kingdom where, according to the parable of the wise virgins,
all the elect shall go out to meet the Bridegroom, their King, with the lamps of their good deeds alight,
and then shall enter into the heavenly city with Him.
Jones 1943, 208f.
Secundum dicavit Februo, id est Plutoni, qui lustrationum patens
potens credebatur, lustrarique eo mense
civitatem necesse erat, quo statuit ut iusta diis manibus solverentur. Sed hanc lustrandi consuetudinem
eadem die sanctae Mariae plebs universa cum
bene mutavit christiana religio, cum I in mense eodem
sacerdotil ministris hymnis modula devotis per ecclesias perque congrua urbis loca procedit, datasque
ipsum
urn in
a pontifice cuncti cereas in manibus gestant ardentes. Et augescente bona consuetudine, id ips
utique
que in
caeteris quoque eiusdem beatae matris et perpetuae virginis festivitatibus agere didicit, non uti
lustrationem terrestris imperii quinquennem, sed in perennem caelestis memoriam; quando, iuxta
parabolam virginum prudentium, omnes electi lucentibus bonorum actuum lampadibus obviam
sponso ac regi suo venientes, mox cum eo ad nuptias supernae civitatis intrabunt.
71
71 Voragine 1969, 151-2:
... the feast was instituted first to remedy a pagan superstition. For of old the Romans, in order to
honour the goddess Februa, the mother of Mars, used to light up the whole city with candles and
torches in the first days of February. This was done every five years, and its purpose was to procure
the favour of the goddess, so that her son Mars would insure their victory over their enemies. The
period of five years between the feasts was called a lustrum. In the month of February the Romans also
honoured Pluto and the other gods of the underworld. In order to win their good will for the souls
of the dead, the people offered them solemn victims, and passed an entire night singing their praises,
with lighted torches and candles. The women were especially devoted to this feast, in accordance
with one of the myths of their religion. For the poets had said that Pluto, enamoured of Proserpine's
78
Cat. III
lH pI.
pl. 1I
C.1t.
C"t. lH
III pl.
1'1. 1
Cat. IS
l!l pI.
pl. 4
Cat.
C"I. IS pl.
1'1. <;
lH 1'1.
pl. 7
Cat. IS
Cat.
C"t. IS pl.
1'1. I
Cat. IS pl. 9
79
Toward the end of the sixteenth century the great church historian Cardinal Cesare
Baronio (1538-1607) took a bold and crucial step by linking the Presentation specifically
and explicitly to the greatest, the most popular, the most ancient, and the most prurient of all
Roman celebrations, the Lupercalia (Fig. 66).72
66). 72 Baronio based this extraordinary leap of the
historical imagination on the fact that the earliest form of the Purification, the Quadragesima
Epiphaniae took place on February 14, the day before the Lupercalia on February 15. The
Lupercalia was, moreover, a quintessential Roman celebration, said to have been introduced
by Romulus himself and celebrated on a vast scale by the entire populace of the city. The
celebration incorporated the fundamental themes of augury for the coming spring, that of
purification and renewal, of regeneration and fertility. In addition to orgiastic and promiscuous public orgies, of both wine and libido, the festival was characterized by a quasi-primitive
ritual in which boys ran naked the length of the Via Sacra carrying goat skins, symbolic of
unrestrained productivity, with which they flagellated themselves and attendant girls, who
were thereby promised painless delivery of numerous offspring. 73 Above all, the evils of the
Lupercalia had been set forth in great detail in a vituperative polemic by Pope Gelasius I
(492-496) against the lingering vestige of the festival, which he condemned. Gelasius's letter
(492-496)
had been published for the first time in 1591, and Baronio cited it in arguing his illuminating
intuition, first in his discussion of the Feast of the Presentation in his 1586 revision of the
Martyrology/ 4 and later in his monumental Annales, which brought the theme to the very
Martyrology,74
forefront of Catholic ideology. By way of confirmation, Baronio refers to the Roman grammarian Varro, who describes the flogging of women with goat hides and says explicitly that
the Lupercalia was a celebration of fertility and purificationJ5
purification.7 5
beauty, had carried her off and made her his wife: and her parents, not knowing what had become of
her, were a long time searching for her with torches and candles. In memory of this, the Roman women
went in procession in order to obtain the favour of Proserpine. As it is always difficult to wipe out such
us decreed that in order to give to this one a Christian meaning, the Blessed Virgin
a custom, Pope Sergi
Sergius
should be honoured each year on this day, a blessed candle being carried in the hand to this end. Thus
the ancient usage was preserved, but at the same time transformed by a new intention. Candlemas was
established secondly to show forth the purity of the Virgin Mary. To impress her purity upon the minds
of all the Church ordered that we should carry lighted candles, as if to say: 'Most blessed Virgin, thou
hast no need of purification; on the contrary, thou art all light and all purity!' Such indeed was Mary's
innocence that it shone forth even outside of her, and any urgency of the flesh in others. Thus the Jews
tell us that although Mary was surpassing fair, no man could ever look upon her with desire. Thirdly,
the Candlemas is a symbol of the procession of Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna, when they presented
the child Jesus in the Temple.
72 Shorr 1946, 17-9, gives a succinct account of the history of the Feast of the Purification, including its
72
relation to the pagan festivals; she seems not to have been aware, however, that it was Baronio who focused on
the Lupercalia. The Lupercalia as a fecundity celebration was visualized by Domenico Beccafumi early in the
1998, 207- 19).
sixteenth century for a palace decoration in Siena (Domenico 1990, 132, 136; Barbagli 1998,20773
73 On the Lupercalian ceremonies see Franklin 1921, Holleman 1974, Vlf
Ulf 1982.
74 Baronio 1586,67.
1586, 67. I have used the 1613 edition, p. 63.
75
75 De lingua latina VI, 13, Vtzrro 1938, I, 184f.
p.
185
p.185
The Lupercalia was so named because the Luperci make sacrifice in the Lupercal. When the High-priest
announces the monthly festivals on the Nones of February, he calls the day of the Lupercalia februatus:
7.
80
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
It is important to realize that Baronio was not the first to emphasize the importance
of the Lupercalia in the legacy of pagan religious celebrations, notably in the notoriously
licentious and vituperatively vilified festival of Carnival. In contrast to many other writers,
who relate carnival to the Saturnalia, which took place in December, the prolific Carmelite
poet Baptista Mantuanus
Mantuan us (1447-1516),
(144 7-1516), later beatified, derived Carnival from the Lupercalia,
which took place on February 15. Mantuanus's series of poems on the calendar of Fasti
emulate in modern moralizing Christian terms those of Ovid, and his poem on Carnival,
February 5, takes Ovid's account of the Lupercalia (Fasti II 15) as its point of departure.
Mantuanus describes in livid terms the evils of the tradition, in particular the naked men
erotically aroused and wearing masks (personata libido) roaming the streets and lashing
women with goat hides, addressed specifically to their hidden parts (membra recondita).
Mantuanus's Fasti was published posthumously in 1518, with a dedication to Leo X. In
for februm is the name which the Sabines give to a purification, and this word is not unknown in our
sacrifices; for a goat hide, with a thong of which the young women are flogged
Rogged at the Lupercalia, the
ancients called a februs,
februs, and the Lupercalia was called also Februatio 'Festival of Purification,' as I have
shown in the Books of the Antiquities.
p. 184
Lupercalia dicta, quod in Lupercali Luperci sacra faciunt
faciunr.. Rex cum ferias menstruas Nonis Februariis
er id in sacris nostris
nosrris verbum non
edicit, hunc diem februatum appellat; februm Sabini purgamentum, et
ignorum:
ignorum: nam pellem capri, cuius de !oro
loro caeduntur puellae Lupercalibus, veteres februm vocabant, et
er
Lupercalia Februatio, ut in Antiquitatum libris demonstravi.
81
81
1535 the early folklorist Johannes Boemus Aubanus (ca. 1485-1533/6) published a work on
popular customs in which he, too, related Carnival to the Lupercalia.76
Baronio's association of the Purification of the Virgin and the Lupercalia was thus not
merely a coincidence of dates but also of religious substance. Though not generally accepted
by modern scholars, the theory struck at the very center of the Counterreformatory effort to
reaffirm the moral and theological superiority of the church over the degeneracy of the pagans
and, by implication, that of the heretical Protestants and the recalcitrant Jews. Baronio had
perceived, as no one before, an inner link between the Jews and the Romans, the idea of
purification, which Christ had appropriated and submerged in the universal Church. Christ's
sacrifice healed mankind of the original sin of the Jews and the promiscuous license of the
pagans. Baronio's replacement of the Lupercalia by the Purification and Presentation fulfilled
in the domain of procreation the age-old definition of the church as the successor to the
ecclesia ex circumcisione and the ecclesia ex gentibus. In effect, Baronio brought to fruition the
fundamental theme of the universality of the Church, as expressed in the biblical metaphor
of creativity, that is childbirth, from the Woman clothed with the Sun envisioned in the Book
of Revelation, and from Christ's own childbirth account of the period from his death to his
Second Coming. Precisely this notion, an agony of creation triumphing over evil toward a
salutary end, is portrayed on the pedestals that support the columns of Bernini's baldachin,
where Urban VIII with his coat of arms succeeds Peter, the stone on which Christ built his
church, who, punning on his own name, referred to Christ as a corner stone. n
76
76
For the foregoing on Mantuanus and Aubanus, see Triimpy 1979, 30-2, 80-3, and Ulf
Vlf 1982, 70- 2. On
Carnival and Lupercalis in Rome, see the introductory pages in Clementi 1938-9, I, esp. 14-22.
idem lap
idem
n Isaiah 28: 16: idcirco haec dicit Dominus Deus ecce ego mittam in fundamentis Sion lap
lapidem
lapidem
probatum angularem pretiosum in fundamento fundatum qui crediderit non festinet
continet
eJectum
net in scriptura ecce pono in Sion lapidem summum angularem electum
1 Peter 2: 6: propter quod conti
pretiosum et qui crediderit in eo non confundetur
78 On the concept of Mater Ecclesia, see Plumpe 1943.
78
79
79 The fundamental work on the ecclesiology of Innocent III is Imkamp 1983, in our context especially
the sections on "The Fruitfulness of the Bride, Mater Ecclesia," 260-8, and "The Bond between the Pope and
the Roman Church as a Spiritual Marriage," 300- 23. Innocent's sermons have been beautifully translated and
82
Innocent's concept was illustrated in the great mosaic he commissioned for the apse of St.
Peter's (Fig. 67): in the center at the earthly level of the visionary composition the sacrificial
lamb was Ranked
flanked by a portrait of the pope as Bridegroom and an image of Ecclesia Romana,
while the first converts to the faith, the twelve apostles in the form of sheep, approached from
so Hence the second part of Nicholas's formulation: "Christ the
Jerusalem and Bethlehem. 80
bridegroom increases her through the multitude of the converted, clearly implying to us that
she should be increased by the number of her servants."81
servants." 81 A recent patristic study formulates
the union of Christ and the Church and their offspring of the faithful, specifically in the
82
metaphor of copulation. 82
Urban VIII was surely aware of these precedents: fragments of the
edited by Vause et al. 2004; see especially sermons two and four on the Consecration of Pontiffs and three, on
the first anniversary of his own election. Here also, p. 28, the St. Peter's apse mosaic is explained as an illustration
oflnnocent portrayed as the Bridegroom of the Roman church.
ofInnocent
80
80 See Imkamp 1983, 322, with the bibliography given there, and the excellent study of the mosaic by
Iacobini 2005.
81
81 Nicholas III, Letter to the Canons of St. Peter's, February 3, 1279, cited by M. Aronberg Lavin in Aron43,, 121f. n. 189. The letter begins,
berg Lavin and Lavin 2001, 43
Civitatem sanctam Jerusalem novam descendentem de celo a Deo para tam sicut sponsam ornatam viro
suo militans figurare valet ecclesia ut sit civitas per militantium unitatem sancta, per conversationis
vecustate
exempla Jerusalem in vita pacifica, nova ut juventus sua renovetur ut aquila, peccatorum vetustate
repulsa, descendens, per timorem reverentia Deo pariter et prelatis, de celo, per gratiam in ecclesiasticis
sacramentis, a Deo parata per fidem, virtutes et opera, sicut sponsa ornata viro suo per dece~tiam et
uc civitas, id est ad similitudinem
decorem. Hec est ilia Jerusalem, que secundum prophetam hedificacur
hedificatur lit
civitatis illius, cujus participatio in idipsum. Hanc Christus sponsus amplificat per multitudinem
conversorum, nobis patenler insinuans illam amplificandam fore per numerum servitorum. (The
Church Militant may be visualized as the holy city of the New Jerusalem, descending from heaven and
prepared by God as a bride adorned for her spouse as a city, because of the unity of her defenders; holy,
because Jerusalem is the model of conversion to peaceful life; new because her youth is renewed like an
eagle, repulsed by the old age of sinners; descending, because of her reverent fear of God and equally of
prelates; from heaven, because of the grace in ecclesiastical sacraments;
sacraments; prepared by God, through faith,
virtues, and works; as a bride adorned for her husband, because of her decency and propriety. This is
that Jerusalem, which according to the prophet is built as a city, that is, in similitude to that City which
participates in chis
this one. Christ the bridegroom increases her through the multitude of the converted,
clearly implying to us that she should be increased by the number of her servants; translation thanks
to
to Samatha Kelly);
Gay 1938, no. 517, 197- 213, "De canonicis et beneficiatis basilice S. Petri inservientibus, decultu divino et
carta'' of the
capitularis mense rebus complure sancit," cf. 197. This lengthy missive has been called the "magna carta"
80- 2; Andaloro 1984, 143-77 (English resume, 178-81).
Vatican Chapter; Mann 1902-32, XVI, 80-2;
82
83
67. Apse mosaic with Innocent III and Ecclesia Romana, Old St. Peter's, watercolor.
MS Barb. Lat. 2733, 158f., Biblioteca Apostolica
Aposrolica Vaticana, Rome.
mosaic were preserved and the head of Ecclesia Romana, now in the Museo di Rorna,
Roma, carne
came
83
from the Barberini collection.
Iacobini
lacobini 2005, 49f.
84
Among the leading intellectuals who expected great things from the urbane and humanistically inclined new pontiff were the members of the nascent scientific society, the Accademia
dei Lincei, which included the pope's controversial protege Galileo. To celebrate the Jubilee
of 1625, the major event that followed, fortuitously, as if in celebration, the pope's election
(and the beginning of work on the Baldacchino), the group produced three novel, even revolutionary works of science and scholarly erudition, all devoted to the bee. 84 1he
The first was the
famous engraving, the Melissographia, dated 1625, showing three greatly magnified views of
the bee, top, bottom, and side, arranged as in the pope's coat of armsarms - the first illustration
Stelluti,
of a subject observed (by Francesco Stell
uti, so inscribed at the bottom of the print) under a
microscope (Fig. 68). The main preoccupation in the Lincei circle was with one above all of
the seeming miraculous virtues of the bee, its mysterious capacity to procreate autogenetically, without intercourse. This divine chastity had in antiquity made the bee sacred to the chaste
and virgin goddess, Diana, commonly identified with the Virgin Mary, and the second work
was a poetic numismatic tract with elaborate explanatory notes by the Belgian Lincean Justus
Riquius, devoted to the cult of Diana as represented on coins with her sacred bee (Fig. 69).
"Even the many-breasted statue of Diana at Ephesus ... did not mean that she was in any way
unchaste. Her abundant breasts were not for any sexual purpose, but to imbibe nurture and
nourishment. 85 So too the ample bee-breasts of the coats of arms. The chastity and fecundity
of the bees are inherent in those of the pope. 86 1he
The third Jubilee publication of the Linceans,
also in 1625, was an extensive treatise on the natural history of the bee by Federico Cesi
87
tided Apiarium. 87
himself, titled
Printed with extreme density in perfect order, like a bee-hive, on
four sheets conjoined to make a huge broadside (107 x 69.5 em), the work is a wonderment
in itself (Fig. 70). Cesi also starts with Roman bee coins, and eulogizes the many qualities
of the bee that correspond to those of the pope and his "Urban bees." But his prime interest
was precisely in the wondrous autogenesis of the bee, since it focused on the very nature of
creativity. Cesi is at pains to explain, in purely "natural" terms, how the king bee (actually the
queen) creates its myriad progeny without intercourse, while the females remain inviolate.
Nowhere does he appeal explicitly to divine intervention, but the reference to the pope as
the chaste King Bee is explicit, and he does appeal to what he calls the "seminal" or "vital"
spirits of the King; and the parallel with the theology of the incarnation and the progeny of
the Mother Church is implicit. All this under the aegis, as it were, of the triune image of the
Barberini bees. It is particularly significant in our context that this mysterious natural history
of the bee had long since been epitomized in the traditional explanation of the most famous
ritual of the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, in Voragine's Golden Legend: the wax
84
84
85
85
For what follows here I am wholly dependent on the splendid work of Freedberg 2002, esp. 154-78.
Riquius 1625. Freedberg 2002,439,
2002, 439, n. 26:
His alitur mortale genus, vitaeque animantium,
Vi tales succos hinc elemema
elementa bibunt.
86
86 "The leitmotif of the poem would thus be the parallel between the chastity of the bees and that of Urban
himself." Freedberg 2002, 165.
87
87 Undated but mentioned in a letter by Cesi of September 1625 (Freedberg 2002, 166). The work has recently been edited and translated by Guerrini and Guardo 2005. A fine
nne English edition and translation remains
Kidwell1970.
1970.
unpublished, Kidwell
85
86
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
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87
88
of the candles carried in the Candlemas celebration was "a sign of his [Christ's] body, which
was born of the Virgin Mary without corruption of the flesh, as bees make honey without
mingling with each other."88
other." 88
Another important tradition related to the theme of the progeny of the pope in his marriage
with the church relates to the ritual of the investiture of newly elected popes, from the
Coronation, when he is vested with the accouterments of his office, including the episcopal
ring as a sign of his ecclesiastical marriage, to the ceremony of taking possession of his
cathedral, in this case St. John's in the Lateran, the ancient seat of the papacy founded by
Constantine on the site of the Sessorian Palace. In the case of Rome the possession signified
the world dominion of the pope and the institutional church. Two biblical texts are crucial to
an understanding of how this process was conceived. The first is recited by Hanna, the famous
Song of Hanna, in the first Book of Samuel, where the prophetess intones her than~s to the
Lord for opening her womb, previously barren, to bear her son, whom she had promised to
dedicate to the priesthood, and who became the future leader of Israel.
Samuel1:
1:
1 Samuel
27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked
of him:
28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent
to the LORD.
1 Samuel
Samuel2:
2:
7 The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.
8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill
(de stercore elevat), to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon
them.
The theme and much of the wording is repeated in Psalm 112,
5 Who is as the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high:
6 and looketh down on the low things in heaven and in earth?
7 Raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting up the poor out of the dunghill:
8 That he may place him with princes, with the princes of his people.
9 Who maketh a barren woman to dwell in a house, the joyful mother of children.
sa Voragine
voragine 1993, I, 149. For associations of Mary with the bee, the candle, and wax, especially with respect
to the virgin birth, the references in Marracci 1710, 30f., 89; Salzer 1967, s.v. Biene, Kerze, Wachs.
89
about the genesis and elevation of Samuel was recited by the assembled
and the passage abour
cardinals as the newly elected Pope assumed his exalted position, reminding him of his humble
origin, of the divine act that had elevated him, and of the promise of sanctified progeny.
These texts are of primary importance in the history of rulership, in that they articulate
the moral conditions under which God bestows the authority of dominion over others. The
first is that it is indeed God on high who bestows this power. The second is that the rulership
results from God's charitable act of lifting the poor and needy to the company of princes.
The third is the promise of fulfillment through increase, expressed through the metaphor or
analogy of joy in the wonderment of a barren woman who bears children. In sum, the ruler
in his exaltation must remember that his power is not of his own making but stems from
God, that his origin is humble, earthly, and poor, and that God's benefice will be the joy
of his faithful subjects. For Cardinal Bellarmine, commenting on the psalm in the time of
Urban VIII, the man raised from the filth of original sin joins the possessors of the Heavenly
Jerusalem, and the participants of the Kingdom of Heaven. He compares this elevation to
the childless woman made fertile; and the latter generally to individual women from Sarah
to Anna. In a higher sense the elevation also applies to the church comprised of the gentiles,
ecclesia ex gentibus, which remained sterile for a long time, until in old age it gave birth to
89
many. 89
In the Middle Ages these biblical definitions of rulership gave rise to a traditional ceremony of taking possession in which once the pope was enthroned, all the cardinals honored
him by elevating him and intoning the stercore verse from the book of Samuel, after which he
threw three handfuls of coins to the people, intoning the line from the Acts of the Apostles
(3: 6) spoken by Peter when he healed the lame man at the Temple of]erusalem
ofJerusalem "Silver and
gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee."90
thee." 90 The medieval white marble throne in the
Lateran used for this ceremony came to be known, from the biblical vocabulary, as the Sedes
Stercorata or Stercoraria (the dung chair) (Fig. 71). The ceremony, in effect, consummated the
marriage between the Church and the pope. The term became notorious, however, when it
was associated with two other, altogether different "thrones" that were used in the ritual that
followed (Fig. 72).91
72). 91 Made of red marble thought to be porphyry, perforated and cut open at
89
89
90
91
the front, these chairs were of a shape that actually embodied the three elements of the biblical
theme of enthronement. The perforations corresponded to those used by ancient Romans in
their latrines and in obstetrical chairs, when women were delivered from a seated or reclining
position, and by virtue of their material they were indeed imperial thrones (Figs. 73-4).92
73-4). 92 1he
The
sedes stercorata and these extraordinary objects of papal ritual were notorious evidence, perhaps
even the progenitors, in the endless polemics about the supposed medieval female pope Joanna
who gave birth during the possession ceremony, and hence their use in verifYing the sex of
newly elected popes. 93 Through the Middle Ages the popes were indeed described as seated
successively on the two porphyry chairs in a distended position as if reclining. In point of fact,
however, early accounts of the coronation ceremonies give a quite specific explanation of the
two chairs and the reclining position - that the newly elected pope appeared to lie between
the primacy of Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the preaching of Paul, the apostle to the
Gentiles. In my view the phraseology, to lie "between the two lectulos"
fectufos" (biers) of Peter and
Paul, entombed at St. Peter's in the Vatican, refers to the transitoriness of the Pope's reign, an
idea by no means inconsistent with that of the "progeny" expected of his marriage with the
Church. 94 In this sense the election ceremony of a new pope may be understood as a sort of
mimetic commemoration of the passing of the apostles, as well as a rebirth of the Church,
92
92
On the terracotta relief at Ostia, see Helbig 1963- 72, IV, 14f., no. 3004.
Except for the ideological implications of the biblical passages that underlay the whole phenomenon, the
stories of the sedes stercorata and Pope Joanna have been amply studied by D'Onofrio 1979, to whose work I
have been indebted. Important subsequent studies are those by Gussone 1972, esp. 251-87, Maccarrone 1991,
II, esp. 1304-25, Paravicini-Bagliani 2000, 39-57, and Boureau 200l.
2001.
94 Qui siquidem electus illis duobus sedibus sic sedere debet ac si videatur inter duos lectulos jacere, id est,
94
ut accumbat inter principis Apostolorum Petri primatum et Pauli doctoris gentium praedicationem.
93
93
92
both points expressed in the pair of perforated porphyry thrones and the reclining position.
The scandalous stories nevertheless became powerful instruments of anti-papal Protestant propaganda, engendering a vicious polemic through the sixteenth century, including depictions
of the pope giving birth, being examined, as a female demon, as Satan himself with female
breasts, wearing a quasi-tiara, enthroned, legs spread to reveal an open-mouthed, jeering face;
the nether mask of Satan could also function ambiguously, expelling nude souls to a new,
eternal life in Hell (Figs. 75-9).9
75-9). 955 Partly owing to these unsavory associations, no doubt, the
sedes stercorata and porphyry chairs were long abandoned by Urban VIII's time. 96 But the
underlying ecclesiological theme was certainly not forgotten - Bellarmine and Baronio were
among the main protagonists in the debatedebate - and the biblically mandated, three-fold constituents of papal rule, redemption from original sin, exaltation to the highest dominion, and
the divinely ordained progeny born from his spiritual marriage to the church, are reflected
in the coats of arms that adorn the pedestals of the Baldacchino. Mary's Magnificat in Luke
I: 46ff. uses language similar to that of the Old Testament, and expresses the same idea of
the Lord miraculously fecundating the barren and raising up the humble. 97 And Hannah
Maccarrone 1991, 1318 and n. 198, rejecting altogether D'Onofrio's birthing interpretation, cites this text
to suggest that the purpose of the action was to give the pope a rest during the arduous ceremonies. (D'Onofrio's
reading, p. 152, of super for inter, is indeed unacceptable.) My own view, based on the admonition to humility
in the apostolic succession, coincides perfectly with those of Paravicini- Bagliani 2000, 50f., and Boureau 2001,
90-8; they also reject any reference to progeny, however, leaving unexplained the use of perforated chairs in the
ritual.
95
95 See the rich collection of material on the sixteenth-century debate collected and discussed by Zen 1994,
1979, 94-128. The fertility connota211 - 22. The Protestant images are discussed in this context by D'Onofrio 1979,94-128.
tions of nether-faced devils, including the Satan figures reproduced here, have been explored in an illuminating
study by Paxson 1998. Concerning Boaistuau see Bates 2005, 66, 72; Morrona, who published the second
pl. 10), dated it about 1500 and thought it represented the original form of Satan
engraving (1812, II, 240-3, pI.
in Orcagna's then much restored and now largely destroyed vision of Hell in the Camposanta
Camposanra (see also Bucci
fig. 44).
and Bertolini 1960, 58, fig.
96 Evidently Leo X was the last pope to use all three chairs, beginning with the sedes stercorata, the elevation
96
and the recitation of the passage from the Song of Hannah. In each case Leo X was said to have been seated
as if reclining. D'Onofrio (1979, 159) considered this position an allusion to parturition, which in my view
would indeed refer to the miraculous birth that concludes the biblical stercore passages. It is intriguing that
this obstetrical association might have been part of the Medici-Medicus metaphor that profoundly informed
.. . tres Priores Ordinum Cardinali
Cardinalium
urn
the ideology of Leo's reign from the outset. " ... ad quem jacentem ...
dixerunt super eum, dum eievarunt, suscitat de stercore etc. et Papa stans accepit de gremio Camerarii tres pugnos
. . .primo sed
sedens,
ens, quasi iacens ... et deinde ...
.. .
quatrinorum, et projiciens dixit, argentum, et aurum etc .... Postea ..
Papa surgens
surgens ivit ad aiiam Sedem, et jacuit ... (from the description of the papal Master of Ceremonies Paris de
Grassis, published by Cancellieri 1802, 64).
97
97 Magnificat, Luke 1:
46. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.
49. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
50. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
93
94
. . . . . .,.
A
__
__
_ or
'P J
J
.....
_
95
96
presented the infant Samuel in the Temple at Shiloh, as Mary presented Christ in the Temple
98
of Jerusalem. 98 98a
jubilee
Jubilee
The main themes we have discerned in the imagery of the coats of arms affixed to the pedestals
are encapsulated and incorporated into the fabric of the Baldacchino itself
itselfin
in the form of what
might be called marginalia, or rather footnotes distributed here and there on the plinths of
the bronze columns. 99 1hese
These seemingly incidental details, seven in all, are in fact serendipitous
testimonies to the kind of divine intervention that occurred with the invasion of bees at the
pope's election (Figs. 80-7). They are of two kinds: commemorative medals, personal as
well as devotional; and explicitly emblematic animals. Be it noted that these mementoes
51. He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts.
52. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.
53. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;
55. As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.
Luke 1
46. Et ait
air Maria: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum,
47. et exsultavit spiritus meus in Deo salvatore meo,
48. quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae. Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes,
49. quia fecit mihi magna, qui potens est, et sanctum nomen eius,
50. et misericordia eius in progenies et progenies timentibus eum.
51. Fecit potentiam in brachio suo, dispersit superbos mente cordis sui;
52. deposuit potentes de sede et exaltavit
exalravit humiles;
53. esurientes implevit bonis et divites
divires dimisit inanes.
54. Suscepit Israel puerum suum, recordatus misericordiae,
55. sicut locutus
locurus est ad patres
parres nostros,
nosrros, Abraham et semini eius in saecula ".
98
98 Anna presented Samuel to the Lord in the temple of Shiloh (lSam.
(1Sam. 1:24-28)
1:24-28);; the Virgin Mary presented
2:22-39) .
Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem (Luke 2:22-39).
9
& An astonishing parallel for the main theme encapsulated in the pedestals of the Baldacchino has recently
98:1
come to light, in the form of an allegorical painting by the Antwerp artist Frans Francken II (1581-1642). The
picture is composed in two horizontal registers, the empyrean above, centered upon the three cardinal virtues
flanked on left by Hercules, emblematic of Fortitude, and on the right by Minerva, emblematic of Divine
Wisdom; below, a scene of Hell, flanked by Death as a skeleton entering from the left, and by Father Time
fleeing from the right. The kind of moral allegory portrayed here is characteristic of Jesuit school drama, the
plays produced, often very elaborately and in emulation of classical drama, by the students in Jesuit seminaries
Harring 1989, 342f.
342( No. 362*).
everywhere. (Harting
(Harring 1983, 185 n.
n. 437; Harting
99
99 These details
Portoghesi 1967, 33; Antonazzi 1975,
derails have been discussed and in part reproduced by Porroghesi
2, Scarfone 1977, Wallace 1978, 161, Fehl 1986, 176f., Kirwin 1997, 140-5,
140-5 , Spagnolo, in Pinelli 2000 ,
Schede, 796, Noe 2001, 62f., and in the exemplary monographic study of Urban VIII's medals by Simonato
2008,50.
2008, 50.
97
are life-size, literally true to life, and partly for this very reason, they refer to the real world,
the altar itself and its role in the mission of the church. Suspended from beads or ribbons
draped over the edges of the column stylobates, the medals are all of the sort that would
have been acquired by pilgrims to the 1625 Jubilee and deposited by them anonymously as
votive signs of their devotion, in the hope of finding miraculous cures for their afflictions.
They came to St. Peter's as if to Jerusalem, circled around the Baldacchino, and ultimately the
passion relics displayed in the crossing piers, celebrating Holy Year in perpetuity in a kind
of virtual via crucis - exactly as Eisenstein understood. Two are medallic portraits of the
pope, such as were often inserted in the foundations of new structures as good omens and
historical records. One shows the pope facing left, his hand raised in blessing, wearing the
papal cap (camaura) and cape (mozzetta). The medal is shown backwards (the pope blesses
with his right hand, always the near hand on profile medals), probably as a negative form
prior to casting. The anomaly is no accident: shown thus on the north face of the Veronica
pedestal, the pope's blessing is toward the altar. No example of this type is extant, but
bur there is
a correspondence to the single medallic portrait of Urban shown blessing, wearing tiara and
cope, issued to commemorate the canonization of Andrea Corsini, which took place on the
same spot, as it were, in 1629; the scene on the reverse includes an important version of the
Baldacchino itself (Fig. 88). A third medal, which shows the pope facing right toward the
choir, hatless and wearing the papal cope, is doubtless the one issued in 1624, with an image
of Justice on the reverse, recording the pope's efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement to the
Thirty Year's War (Fig. 89).
WEST
Choir
Andrew
(1]. north face
face Fly
1 Southeast Pedestal [I].
Veromca
Veronica
2 Southwest Pedestal [II]. west face Rosary With
Vero111ca-Porta Santa Medal
Verolllca-Porta
[II]. north face Medal suspended from
3 Southwest Pedestal [II),
a ribbon,
nbbon. Urban VIII facing left,
left. right
nght hand raised
ra1sed biesslllg,
blessmg ,
weanng camaura and mozzetta
wearing
Helen
4 Northwest Pedestal [III).
[Ill]. west face Urban VIII medal
(obverse and reverse) suspended from a sash
5 Northwest Pedestal [III].
[Ill]. west face lizard
Lizard crawling up
[Ill]. north face lizard
Lizard crawling up
6 Northwest Pedestal [III].
Longinus
Longillus
Nortl1east Pedestal [IV),
[IV]. west face
Lizard crawling down
7 Nortlleast
face' lizard
clevo
Uri ng a scorpi
on
devouring
scorpion
1\nd'cw
I\ndrew
Longlno.r;
Longlnus
98
99
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
)
100
101
102
103
104
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
105
Of a devotional nature is a rosary from which is suspended an oval medal showing the
Porta Santa flanked by Peter and Paul; this was specifically a souvenir of the Jubilee, recalling
the indulgences earned by those who made the pilgrimage, passed through the portal and
100
performed this venerable devotion to the Virgin at the high altar. 100
The Porta Santa, as the
entrance both to St. Peter's and via the Church to redemption, was also known as the Porta
Coeli, the gateway to heaven, one of the most common epithets of the Virgin, referring both
to her virginity and the incarnation, and to her intercessory role in the process of salvation.
The reverse of the medal in the one known example of this oval type, shows Veronica presenting her miraculous image of the Savior, the display of which during Holy Year, very rare at
101
other times, was one of the celebration's most important features and attractions (Fig. 90).
90).101
The rosary had a particular relevance to the virginal theme of the pedestals and the Trinitarian ideology of the Baldacchino as a whole, since they evoked the Woman of the Apoca102
lypse and were recited in honor of the Trinity. 102
The rosary was also given special prominence
1he
during the 1625 Jubilee in a vast celebratory procession organized by the Dominicans at
Santa Maria sopra Minerva, 5-12 October. The celebration centered on a huge temporary
structure designed by Orazio Torriani (who the following year collaborated with Bernini on
the high altar of Sant' Agostino), which clearly reflects the Baldacchino in overall design and
103
in many details (Fig. 91).
91).103
Particularly significant, however, is the fact that in a detailed
contemporary account of the celebration the structure is called a "talamo," that is, a nuptial
chamber, in reference to the image it contained of the Queen of Heaven holding the Christ
child, striking
str~king exactly the same note as do the pedestals of the Baldacchino. The patron of the
event was Carlo Barberini, the new pope's brother.
100
100 For what follows here concerning the imagery, symbolism, and ritual related to the Holy Year, see the
comprehensive survey by Fagiolo and Madonna 1984.
101
101 Fagiolo and Madonna 1984, 54, fig. II 2.12a.
10
102z Lapide 1866-88, XXI, col. 238. Comment on Rev. 12: 1: et in capite eius corona stellarum duodecim:
Ex hoc loco nonnulli viri religiosi et cultus B. Virginis studiosi, conficiunt coronam, sive Rosarium
duodecim stellarum, illudque hoc modo recitant. In honorem S. Trinitatis legunt interpolate ter
orationem Dominicam, puta ter Pater noster...
103
103 First published by Lavin 1973; see Fagiolo dell'Arco 1997,262-4.
1997, 262-4. On the work at S. Agostino, Wittkowerl997, 246, no. 23.
kower1997,
104
II)4 1he animals on the marble columns, including a lizard on the health-giving Colonna Santa are noted by
Nobiloni 1997,
1997 ,passim,
passim, and see 94).
106
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
the traditional but patently anomalous and contradictory interpretation of one of the major
monuments of Greek art, the so-called Apollo Stauroctonos, originally a work in bronze by
Praxiteles, famous from the references to it in ancient sources and from the innumerable extant copies and variants in virtually all media (Fig. 92). The sculpture showed the god leaning
against a tree or tree stump, with a lizard climbing up the trunk. The god carried a bow and
arrow, as if preparing to shoot an arrow at the animal, hence the epithet, stauroctonos, lizard
killer, attached to the figure by Pliny, "He also made a young Apollo with an arrow watching a
lizard as it creeps up with the intent to slay it close
dose at hand; this is known as the Sauroktonos
or Lizard-slayer," whose interpretation was followed by the poet Martial, "Corinthian Lizard
Slayer. Spare the lizard, insidious boy, as she creeps toward you; she wants to die by your
fingers." 105
105 Preisshofen showed that Pliny was simply in error, misinterpreting the meaning
of Apollo's gesture, perhaps by association with the story of Apollo killing the python; and
especially misunderstanding the action of the reptile, which climbs up toward the god, rather
than scampering away to hide, as is the animal's wont under such circumstances. Most important is the fact that throughout the physiological tradition the lizard is sacred to Apollo,
dearly medicinal, invoked to augur
with whom it is frequently associated in contexts that are clearly
healing from disease, and one ailment in particular, diseases of the eyes. It was said that the
lizard had the extraordinary capacity when it lost its eyesight, by accident or as it aged, to face
the sun and regain its eyesight miraculously from the rays of light cast from the sun's rays.
Far from slaying the lizard, Apollo's luminous arrows actually heal him. The mythographer
Hyginus describes Apollo, the father of Asclepius,
Asdepius, as the first to practice the art of treating
106
the eyes. lOG The Praxitelean statue is not of a type known only from a single, misguided and
misguiding phrase in Pliny, repeated by Martial, but instead embodies one of the best known
(1a'tQ6c; Iatros in Greek, Medicus
and oft-repeated epithets of the god, Apollo the Physician (1a'rQ6c;
and Salutaris in Latin), perfectly embodied in the figure's tender form, gentle attitude, and
benign expression. 107 Hence the lizard itself became a medication and magical talisman to
ward off or recover from eye ailments; and the relationship was explicit, as can be seen, for
example, in a gem amulet showing a lizard and inscribed LVMINA RESTITVTA, where the
108
translucency of the material invokes the agent of the charm (Fig. 93).
93).108
It is astonishing to discover that Bernini may have been aware of the true meaning of
the Praxitelean work, even though the error was only corrected by modern scholarship in
88. Medal of Urban VIII facing right wearing tiara and cope, blessing;
reverse: Canonization of Andrea Corsini, 1629. British Museum, London.
107
108
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
Efcmpiare
Efcmplare del Talamo di fopra dcfcritto
109
110
Ill
111
2002. The statue was first associated with the passage in Pliny in the eighteenth century. The
version now in the Louvre was in the Villa Borghese in the early seventeenth century, where
in Jacomo Manilli's 1650 description of the villa the subject is correctly identified as Apollo
Salutare (Apollo the Physician), and the animal on the trunk identified as a snake, which
had the same attributes of shedding its skin and renewing its eyesight in the sun and was
109
Manilli may fortunately have been unaware of Pliny's and
also deemed a symbol of health. 109
Martial's misidentification, relying instead, as did Preisshofen, on the abundant literary and
numismatic evidence that associated Apollo with healing.
Bernini and his contemporaries very likely knew the sculpture and understood it in this
way. On the Baldacchino column bases two of the lizards are also shown climbing up the
face of the plinth toward the emblems of the sun that alternate with bees on the torus above.
Association of the Praxitelean type of Apollo healing the lizard with the architectural context
of the Baldacchino may have come from coins on which the figure is actually shown leaning on a column taking aim at the lizard crawling upward (Fig. 94). A further relevance to
the Baldacchino may have been suggested by coins that show the statue as a cult figure in a
110
four-columned front of the temple of the sun god (Fig. 95).
95).110
There may even have been an
association with the twisted columns, from the appearance of a lizard in the spiral volute of a
famous ionic capital in San Lorenzo fuori le
Ie Mura in Rome, where a frog appears in the other
111
volute (Fig. 96).
96).111
The names of the animals in Greek, Sauras and Batrachos, are recorded
in Pliny as two architects who designed temples in Rome; foiled in their wish to sign the
buildings, instead they inserted the homonymic animals in the "spiris" (literally spirals) of the
columns (in columnarum spiris inscalptae).112
inscalptae). 112 Winckelmann was the first to link the passage
to the capital at San Lorenzo, but the text might easily evoke the spiral columns at St. Peter's,
and serve as a personal commemoration and association with the ancient architect. 113 The
motif thus alludes to the same kind of healing process as that associated with the Colonna
109
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
112
Santa and the themes of purification and Petrine thaumaturgy Raphael had associated with
the twisted columns transferred from the Temple of Jerusalem to the high altar at St. Peter's.
Christian thought had long considered the obstinacy of disbelief a malady of the soul associated with blindness, as in depictions of Synagoga blindfolded (Fig. 97 ). In the Baldacchino
the miracle of healing from original sin was linked to the Church and hence to Urban. And
it involved a fundamental shift of emphasis and meaning from ritual and physical healing to
what might be called visionary healing that involved the double meaning of the verb to see,
that is, to verify with the physical eye, and to understand and believe with the inner eyeeye - to
be "illuminated" and "restored" to the "visio dei" of Paradise before the Fall. It is in this new,
visionary sense that Urban succeeds Leo X, in the role of vicarious Christus Medicus.
The relevance of this theme in particular to the papacy under Urban VIII is evident from
another attribute under which Apollo as healer was worshiped in antiquity - so devoutly
that the Hippocratic oath actually begins by invoking him, "I swear by Apollo the Physician
114
and by Asclepius and by Health and Panacea and by all the gods as well as goddesses ..." 114
Shown on coins, the healer holds in his left hand a branch of laurel, famous in antiquity for
115
its many medicinal powers, and in his left a bow and arrow (Fig. 98).
98). 115
The type is most famous from a figure of Apollo by the sculptor Calamis, which was
moved from Apollonia in Pontus to the Capitoline in Rome. The sculpture was a colossal
bronze, as tall as a tower, singled our
out by Pliny as a technical tour de force, a challenge that
must have appealed to Bernini as he prepared his colossal bronze columns. 116 One of the
important functions of the Sun God was to protect the populous from the plague, and the
coin type related to the Borghese statue, which bore the inscription Apollo Salutaris, was as117 Livy records that a famous temple
sociated with a third century plague epidemic (Fig. 99). 117
of Apollo Medicus in Rome, near the Theater of Marcellus, the remains of which are still
to be seen, was motivated by the plague. 118 The disease, always menacing, must have been
especially worrisome to Urban since the city had been threatened at the very beginning of
his reign. 119 Laurel, the plant sacred to Apollo, immune to lightning, capable of regenerating
from a branch, rather than from seed, was the third, along with the bee and the sun, of the
trinity of Barberini emblems. 120
120 In the Baldacchino, the laurel, symbol of eternal life, climbs
111
111
11 3
113
the twisted columns in the form of tendrils spiraling up toward the resurgent Christ, Justitiae,
Iustitiae,
as he rises to take his heavenly seat of judgment.
The medieval physiological tradition allegorized two main properties of the "Sun Lizard"
in specifically visionary terms: its capacity to heal itself in old age by shedding its skin and
to renew its eyesight by looking at the sun, is compared to the man who, clothed in old
vestments, the eyes of his heart blinded, seeks the intelligible rising sun, that is, Christ, whose
name means rising, and who is called the Sun of Justice, with healing in his wings. Thus the
intelligible eyes of the heart are opened and the man sheds his old self and dons the new. 121
121
The reference here to Malachi's prophesy of Christ as the rising Sol Justitiae
Iustitiae with healing
wings, is particularly significant in the context of what we said earlier about the Apocalyptic
Woman clothed in the Sun whose travail gives birth to the Church and the Man-Child. 122
122
The Apocalyptic Woman was also endowed with wings - "and to the woman were given
two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness" (Rev. 12: 14) 123
123 and in
121
121
Carmody 1941,134:
1941, 134:
Est qui uocatur saura eliace, hoc est anguilla solis. Cum senuerit, impeditur duobus oculis suis, et
excecatur, non uidens solis lumen. Quid faciet? ex bona sua natura inquirit parietem respicientem ad
orientem, et intrat in fissuram parietis, uidens ad orientem, et oriente sole aperientur ei oculi, et noua
efficitur.
Sic et tu, o0 homo, si ergo ueteris hominis indumentum habes [Col. 3. 9, Eph. 4. 22], uide ne quando
oculi cordis tui impediti fuerint, requiras intellegibilem oriemem
orientem solem dominum Iesum Christum,
cuius nomen uocatur oriens [ef.
[cj. Zach. 3. 8, 6. 12, Luc. 1. 78] in propheta Hieremia. Et ipse est sol
iustitie, sicut apostolus dicit [ef.
[cj. Mal. 4. 2]; et aperiet tibi intellegibiles oculos cordis tui, et nouum per
ueteris fiet tibi uestimemum.
uestimentum.
Carmody 1939, 60f.:
XXXVII Lacerta
Est uolatile animal quod lacerta dicitus clarum ut sol. Physiologus dicit de eo quia quando senuerit,
nee solis lumen uideat. Sed suae naturae huiusce modi praestat
utrisque oculis impeditur, ita ut nec
orientem, et per foramen exit, et apertis oculis
medicamentum: inquirit parietem attendentem contra oriemem,
renouatur.
Sic et tu, homo, qui ueteri tunica indutus es, quando oculi tui cordis caligentur, quaere locum
intelligibilem orientem uersus; id est, ad solem iustitiae [cf. Mal. 4,2] Christum dominum nostrum
Iesum te conuerte, cuius nomen oriens dicitur [cf. Zach. 3.8, 6.12]; quatenus oriatur in corde tuo per
spiritum sanctum, et lucem misericordiae suae ostendat tibi, qui illuminat omnem hominem in hunc
mundum uenietem [Ioh. 1.9]
I.9]
122 Malachi 4
122
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that
it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.
1 ecce enim dies veniet succensa quasi caminus et erunt omnes superbi et omnes facientes impietatem
stipula et inflammabit eos dies veniens dicit Dominus exercituum quae non relinquet eis radicem et germen
2 et orietur vobis timentibus nomen meum sol iustitiae et sanitas in pennis eius et egrediemini et salietis
sicut vituli de armento
armemo
123
123 14 et datae sunt mulieri duae alae aquilae magnae ut volaret in desertum [...
J.
. .. ].
11 4
the Physiologus she was actually merged with the Sol Justitiae.
Iustitiae. 124
124 The lizard was also related
directly to Christ the Healer in one of the many late medieval concordances of the Old and
New Testaments, Ulrich of Lilienfeld's Concorida Cartiatis (ca. 1350), notable especially for
its unprecedented systematic inclusion of the natural world, mainly the bestiary, along with
the biblical texts as witness to God's providential plan for salvation. 125
125
The assimilation of the ancient concept of Apollo the Healer (Salutari) with Christ of the
resurrection as the Savior (SolSalutatis)
(Sol Salutatis) and the Sun ofJustice (Sol Justitiae)
Iustitiae) was a fundamental
theme of church doctrine and forms one of the provisions of the catechism itself, prepared by
Carlo Borromeo and published in 1566:
# 1166
"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very
day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every seventh
day, which day is appropriately called the Lord's Day or Sunday." ... The Lord's day,
the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is called the Lord's day
because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If pagans call it the "day of the
sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of the world is raised, today is revealed the
sun of justice with healing in his rays 126
l26
11
Il~
~
It is surely in this
the salvific light of rhe
the Woman of rhe
the
rhis context of the lizard as the
rhe believer who "sees" rhe
the Virgin in Peter Breughel's \.%y to CalApocalypse wrapped in the
rhar it appears beneath rhe
rhe sun of her Son, that
vary (see Gibson 2000, 140f.), and Schongauer's woodcut and Durer's engraving of rhe
the Flight into Egypt (Koch
the penitent Sr.
St. Jerome by Luini (rogerher
(together
1976); and, since penitence is the route to salvation, in images of rhe
with a scorpion), Bosch (Friedmann 1980, 19, 150, 168, 269)
269f.) and Parinir
Patinir (Falkenburg 1988, 84).
125
125 Ulrich links rhe
the lizard's recuperation of vision to Christ healing of the blind (Luke: 18: 35-43), ro
to rhe
the
Tobias (Tobit: 6: 8; 11: 11-13), ro
to Jonathan whose eyes were enlightarchangel Raphael healing the
rhe blindness of
ofTobias
Hies toward the sun
ened by honey (l Kings: 14: 27), and to
ro the mother eagle of Physiological tradition, which flies
with her offspring, dropping the one that is blinded, saving the one that sees (Reallexikon 1937ff., col. 833- 54,
2000,231
figs. 67, 53, 54). Bernini
esp. cols. 839 no.
no. 27, Schmidt 1959, 92-4, Munscheck 2000,
231,, Boreczky 2000, 46 figs.
later used this emblematic eagle to
ro illustrate an important Jesuit treatise on optics (Lavin 1985).
126
126 On these Apollonian-Christian convergences see especially Dolger 1925 and Rahner 1971. The
Catechism:
1166 Mysterium Paschale Ecclesia, ex Traditione aposrolica,
apostolica, quae originem ducir
ducit ab ipsa die resurrectionis
merito nuncupatur >>.
. 105
105 Dies
Christi, octava
ocrava quaque die celebrat,
celeb rat, quae dies Domini seu dies Dominica meriro
est<< prima dies Hebdomadae >>,
, memoriale primae diei creationis, et << octava
resurrectionis Christi simul est
, Diem inaugurat <<quam
quam fecit Dominus >>
dies >> in qua Christus, post Suam magni Sabbati << quietem >>,
(Ps. 118:24), <<diem
diem sine vespero .
>>. 106 << Cena Domini >> centrum est eius, quia in ea tota communitas
fidelium Domino occurrit resuscitato
resuscitaro qui eos ad Suum invitat convivium:
convivium: 107
Dies Dominica, dies Resurrectionis, dies christianorum, dies nostra est. Unde et Dominica dicitur:
vicror ascendit ad Patrem. Quod si a gemilibus
gentilibus dies solis vocatur, et nos hoc
quia Dominus in ea victor
iustitiae ortus
orcus est, in cuius
cui us pennis
Iibentissime
libentissime confitemur:
confiremur: hodie enim lux mundi orta est, hodie sol iusritiae
>>. 1108
est sanitas .
08
550 (Migne 1844-77, XXX,
(108) Sanctus Hieronymus, In die Dominica Paschae homilia: CCL 78,
(l08)
78,550
cols. 218-9).
cols.218-9).
115
115
116
The third lizard, which now travels downward, displays the animal's own salvific virtue,
its enmity with the scorpion. 127 The scorpion is almost universally evil in the physiological
literature. The most notorious of these associations by far was the scorpion's identification
with the libido and lasciviousness, and indeed the genitalia, that is, the original sin of
carnal knowledge that brought about the expulsion of humankind from Paradise. In the
anthropomorphic zodiacal system (melothesia) that distributed the constellations to parts of
the human body, Scorpio was identified with the penis (Fig. 100).
100). According to Giovanni Piero
Valeriano the scorpion "represents the libido and lascivity, and among the human parts the
shameful ones are dedicated to him." 128
128 Cesare Ripa repeats Valeriano's statement, and adds
a description of the personification of Libido that is particularly interesting in our context:
''A woman lasciviously adorned, ...
. . . holding in her right hand a scorpion, nearby a goat
erotically aroused, and a vine with bunches of grapes." 129
129 When one recalls the sacramental,
originally Bacchic grape vines, that covered the twisted columns brought from Jerusalem,
analogy with the Bacchanalian and goatskin ritual of the Lupercalia is inescapable. The motif
shown here evidently reflects a remarkable phenomenon recorded by Pliny and preserved in
130
the medieval bestiary tradition. 130
The scorpion is so frightened by a certain kind of lizard, the
stellio (the name derived from its speckledspeckled - starrystarry - markings), that it is literally "scared
127
127
118
11 7
stiff," so that the lizard may devour his enemy without danger from its immobilized stinger.
Also interesting is Pliny's remark that the stellio is not found in Italy. The tradition has been
confirmed by scientific studies of the behavior of the stellio in Israel, where it is reported that
"scorpions were normally grabbed sideways at the mesosoma, so that initially the metasoma
(and stinger) protruded to one side of the gecko's mouth, and the pincers protruded to the
other side.
side . Only in one of the six well-observed cases was the scorpion grabbed from in front.
Thus in all cases, the metasoma and stinger were initially left free but in four of the six cases
131
they were stiff (as if paralysed) and no stinging occurred (Fig. 101)."
101)."131
Finally, it is surely
significant that at the Last Judgment, the damned should also be swallowed head first into
Hellmouth, the agent of God serving to punish sinners (see Fig. 79).
The salvific, solar lizard devouring the scorpion, head first, on its way to inferno, is thus
emblematic of the same drama portrayed in the coats of arms on the pedestals, which enact
the purification and healing of the original sin worked through the labor of Christ's sacrifice
at the altar.
131
13\
Zlotkin et
aI., 2003, 644.
eta!.,
The sources are cited in Shearman 1972,56,
1972, 56, n. 69, 71. On the Colonna Santa drawing by Francisco da
Hollanda reproduced here, see Nobiloni 1997, 97, Tuzi 2002, 177
133
133 The inscription speaks of demons expelled, the liberation of those vexed by malign spirits, and many
miracles worked daily. Ward-Perkins 1952,24
1952, 24 n. 19:
H(a)ec e(st) illa colu(m)na . in qua(m) d(omi)n(u)s n(oste)r YH'VS XPS appodiatus . dum populo
predicabat et deo p(at)ri p(re)ces i(n) templo effundebat . adherendo stabat qu(a)e una cu(m) aliis
triumphum
urn hui(us) basilic(a)e . hie locata
undeci(m) hic
hie circu(m)stantibus de Salomonis templo in triumph
fuit: demones expellit et ab inmuidis (sic) spiritibus vexatos liberos reddit . et multa miracula cotidie
Card(ina1em)
(ina 1em) de Ursinis ornata: anna
anno domin(i)
facit; p(er) reverendissim(um) p (a)trem et d(omi)num Card
MCCCCXXXVIII
132
132
118
119
120
108. Mosaic of Christ-Apollo. Tomb of the Julii, Grotto, St. Peter's, Rome.
121
122
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
123
with Christ's body and spiritually from the words he uttered to convert (heal) his listeners.
But fundamentally Christ's sanctity was incorporated in the column itself by a providential
grouping of motifs sculpted in relief on its front face: a tiny lizard flanked on the left of a vine
rinceau by a winged putto reaching to pluck a grape from a cluster
duster on a branch nearby, and
on the right by a bird flying heavenward (Fig. 106-7). The vine scroll and the grapes were
of course emblematic of the Eucharist, and the heaven-bent bird emblematic of the Holy
Spirit and the heaven-bent soul. Although small animals populate the vine scrolls of the other
spiral columns, this motif is unique to the Colonna Santa, and that this face was considered
the front of the column is evident from the fact that it confronts the devotee approaching
Cardinal Orsini's enclosure. 134 As we have seen, the lizard was from antiquity sacred to the
Sun God Apollo by virtue of its ability to renew its failing or lost eyesight by looking to the
rays of the sun. It thus became emblematic of divinely effected cures of vision, conceived in
the case of the Colonna Santa, as demons and unclean spirits. The Apollonian association of
the lizard must have seemed providential in view of the fact that St. Peter's was long believed
to have been built adjoining a temple of Apollo, variously identified with one of two ancient
rotundas later converted, one to St. Petronilla, the other to St. Andrew; both were destroyed
to make way for the new basilica. 135
135 In the Mirabilia Romae, the early pilgrims' guide book
to Rome, the very name Vatican came from the rituals practiced by the priests (vates) of the
temple of Apollo. 136
136 In this way the translation of the column to St. Peter's converged with
the pagan therapeutic legacy at the site. The same legacy evidently underlay the tradition
evinced in the twelfth century description of the basilica by Petrus Mellius, who states that
the twisted columns came from the temple of Apollo at Troy. 137
137 In 1574 during excavations
under the high altar an early Christian tomb was discovered, whose vault was covered with a
splendid mosaic representing Christ-Helios rising heavenward in his quadriga, amidst aacecelestial canopy of interlacing vine-scrolls (Fig. 108). Although the subject was not recognized
1134
34 Two winged putti reaching to pluck clusters of grapes appear on the back side of the Colonna Santa,
depicted by Francesco da Colonna. A winged putto and a lizard appear, without the bird, on one of the columns
flanking the reliquary niche of St. Longinus (Nobiloni 1997, fig. 26, p. 96).
I})
ll> No Temple of Apollo is known to have existed at the Vatican, but the tradition, first recorded in the
sixth century, persisted well into the sixteenth. The tradition is the subject of an exemplary study by Elisabeth
Schroter 1980. Schroter is mainly concerned with the humanistic repercussions of the Apollonian association,
however, and does not consider its importance for the papal mission of spiritual healing
1136
3G Yalentini
VaJentini and Zucchetti 1940-53, III, 43:
Infra palatium Neronianum est templum Apollinis, quod
dicitur Sancta Petronilla, ante quod est basilica quae vocatur
vacatur
Vaticanum, ex mirifico musibo laqueata auro et vitro. Ideo dicitur
Yaticanum,
Vaticanum, quia vates, id est sacerdotes, canebant ibi sua officia ante
Yaticanum,
templum Apollinis, et idcirco tota ilia pars ecclesiae Sancti Petri
Yaticanum
Vaticanum vocatur.
vacatur.
The rotunda converted to St. Andrew was variously identified with Mars, Diana, and Apollo (Cerrati
138- 9, 180).
137 Yalentini
137
Valentini and Zucchetti 1940-6, III, 348: "XII. columpnas, quas di Graecia portari fecit, quae fuerunt
di temploApollinisTraoiae"; cf. Ward-Perkins 1952,24;
1952, 24; Nobiloni 1997,
1997,117,
117, 119.
124
at the time, and there is no further reference to the tomb until it was reopened in modern
excavations at the end of World War II, the discovery may have reinforced the Apollonian
138
heritage of the site. 138
A measure of the significance of the spiritual healing embodied in the Colonna Santa,
not only for the ideology of the Baldacchino but for the role of St. Peter's itself in the process
of salvation, is evident from the fact that in 1632 it was installed in a chamber adjoining
the first chapel on the north side of the nave, the furnishing of which was then in course of
completion (Figs. 109-10). The column was joined at the same time by another miraculously
salutary relic, a frescoed image of the Virgin and Child, the Madonna della Febbre, that had
come from the converted rotunda of S. Andrea, to which the painting had given its own
name. 139 No doubt the location, immediately adjacent to the Porta Santa, was conceived as
the ideal starting point of the pilgrim's procession through the basilica to the high altar. The
intention was evidently to concentrate the focus of miraculous healing in the basilica on this
primary location.
Giotto's Navicella, the Natalis Solis Invictus, and the Sol Iustitiae
What might well be called the sun mysticism of Urban VIII worked its magic not only at the
center of St. Peter's in the Baldacchino, it also embraced the church at either end, in the apse
at the west where the window above the Cathedra Petri would have illuminated the emblem
of the Trinity (see pp. 41, 43, and Fig. 31 above), while at the east entrance the rising sun
shone through two huge windows that flanked one of the most important relics of
of Old St.
Peter's, Giotto's famous mosaic of the Navicella (Christ summoning the fisherman Peter from
his boat in the stormy Sea of GalileeGalilee - the act that inaugurated the established Church) (Fig.
111).140
111). 140 Urban had the mosaic installed in this location in 1628 in tandem, conceptually as
well as chronologically, with the execution of the Baldacchino. The Navicella had originally
138
1)8
Apollonji-Ghetti 1951, 37- 42. Alfarano described the mosaic, but conjectured that it was pagan: Fu
fatto in questo medesimo anno (1574) un portichetto innante la
Ia porta dell'altar maggiore, appresso all'altare
di S. Sisto PP. primo,
prima, 2 sostentato di doi colonne
colo nne bellissime, dei quali volendosi fare i fondamenti fu ritrovata
I'una colonna e l'altra
I'altra innante !'altar
l'altar maggior tutta di musaico antiquo con figure che
una bella sepoltura fra !'una
piu presto giudicai fosse di gentili. (Cerrati 1914, 154, also 168)
parevano cavalla pili
139
139 Torrigio 1635, 17: "Nel1632.
"NelI632. [the Colonna Santa] estata posta
pasta presso alia Cappella del Crocifissso, e vi
dell' altar
estata anco collocata vna diuota Imagine di Maria Verg. che staua gia nella Basilica vecchia nella naue dell'altar
diS.
di
S. Andrea." In 1631, evidently to enhance the image in preparation for the move, the Madonna and Child
were given golden crowns (Rice 1997, 184). The chapel is now the Chapel of the Pieta, from Michelangelo's
sculpture installed at the altar in 1749 (Rice 1997, 2219).
19). The 1643 date of an inscription over the door to the
chapel recording the exposition of the image, presumably refers to the completion of the work (Rice 1997, 184).
The Colonna Santa was moved into the Cappella della Pieta proper, at the flank of Michelangelo's sculpture, in
1888 (Busiri Vici 1888, pI.
pl. II, shows the former and the new locations). In 1975 it was moved to the Museo del
Tesoro in the Sacristy (Petrassi 1975).
14
140
Navicefla (though not in relaFor what follows here concerning the solar history and significance of the Navicella
tion to the Baldacchino)
Baldacchino),, see K6hren-Jansen
Kohren-Jansen 1993, 230- 3. On the vicissitude of the mosaic see also Marder
1997, 76- 8, Bauer 2000. On SolInvictus
1997,76Sol!nvictus and its Christian legacy, Halberghe 1972, 373-5.
373-5 .
125
111.
Ill. Giotto, Navicella, mosaic (much restored).
St. Peter's, Rome.
been made ca. 1300 for the inside of the entrance wall of the open atrium of the old basilica,
facing the facade (Figs. 112- 3). Mter the atrium was demolished the mosaic was preserved,
elaborately restored, and installed near the entrance to the Vatican Palace - until Urban
decided to return it to its featured location at the entrance to the church, but now high
up, between the windows and on the inner facade facing the worshiper exiting toward the
east. The choice was deliberate, and its purpose was to create in the new basilica an exact
counterpart to the cooptation-conversion at the high altar of the ancient Lupercalian and
Hebrew purification rites. In this case, the celebration was that of the third great Apollonian
tradition, besides the Salutaris and Iustitiae,
Justitiae, the Sol Invictus
Jnvictus that had long been identified
with the Roman emperors and whose birth was celebrated in the winter festival of the
Natalis Solis Invictus,
Jnvictus, on December 25. In the time of Constantine the ancient festival was
converted to Christmas and the birth of the Christian Sol Iustitiae,
Justitiae, but Leo the Great (440(440461) complained that pilgrims visiting the basilica were still wont to turn and kneel facing
eastward in devotion to the rising sun. Eventually, in fact, the celebration of Christ's birth
was shifted from Epiphany, January 6, to December 25. All this was well known in Urban's
time. It was said, indeed, that the Navicella was originally intended to substitute the Calling
of Peter for the pagan sun worship. As the high altar was intended to replace the Lupercalia,
Urban's installation of the Navicella was clearly intended to replace the Sol Invictus
Jnvictus with the
Calling of Peter and the rising of the Sol Iustitiae.
Justitiae. The basilica through its entire length thus
126
127
superseded the classical solar heritage, fulfilling the spiritual promise of Malachi, the last of
the Hebrew Prophets (1:11):
For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be
great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name,
and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD
41
of hostS.
hosts. 1141
Again, Cardinal Baronio may have been a prime mover in this grandiose scheme of cosmic
historical theology; his great reverence for the mosaic and understanding of its history was
still reported later in the century. One day he was asked why it had been placed in the middle
of the portico, in front of the portal of the basilica, rather than elsewhere. "He replied that
it was to eliminate the superstitious custom of some people who, entering the church, in
the ancient manner of the Gentiles turned toward the east, as pope St. Leo reported, and
142
lowering their heads in honor of that luminous planet, gave it profound reverence." 142
It was said that Urban opened the flanking windows so that the mosaic could be better
143
appreciated with the great flood of light. 143
Urban's antagonistic successor, Innocent X, later
removed the Navicella from its place in the sun, as it were, because it was too high and diffi144
cult to see in the glaring light. 144
In 1675 it was transferred to its present, in effect, the original
location on the inner wall of the narthex portico above the central entrance, facing Bernini's
"Feed my Sheep" (c Fig. 139).145
139). 14 5
141
141 Ab artu
ortu enim solis usque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus et in omni loco
meo oblatio munda quia magnum nomen meum in gentibus dicit
sacrificatur et offertur nomini mea
exercituumo
Dominus exercituum.
142
142 "Divozione singolare del Card. Baronio alia Navicella di s. Pietro: Guardava egli un giorno Ia
la Naviposta
cella di S. PIETRO fatta con nobil megistero da Ghiotto celebre artefice, di esquisito Mosaico, pasta
aile porte della Basilica, & erano con esso lui Ii
li Cardinali Dietrestain,
nel mezzo del Portico, dirempetto alle
de'quali
quali 10
lo prega
prego adir !oro,
loro, per qual cagione fosse
Fosse stata da i Maggiori
Taverna, Pamfilio, e Tarugi, uno de'
in quel
la superstiziosa usanza d'alcuni;
d'alcuni; Ii
li quali
que! sito piu tosto, che in alto; al quale rispose; Per togliere Ia
l'Oriente, come avnell'entrare del Tiempo, secondo I'antico
l'antico costume de'Gentili, si rivolgevano verso !'Oriente,
visa
viso S. Leone Papa, e piegato il capo in onore di cosl luminoso Pianeta, facevano a quello
queUo profonda
riverenza. Sono tant'anni continui (disse il pio, & eruditissimo Cardinale) che io seguito a visitare
lstoria, e Pittura; ne mai tralasciai di venerarla in ginocchio, aggiundendovi questa breve
questa Sacra Istoria,
undis. Le quali parole
orazione, Domine ut erexisti PETRVM a fluctibus, ita eripe me a peccatorum undis.
furono ricevute con godimento da quei divoti Cardinali, e subbito Pamfilio con gli altri, genuflessi
Ia medesima Orazione con grand'edificazione de'circostanti, proseguendo poi sempre il
recitarono la
medesimo pio costume essi, e molti altri, che visitano questa S. Basilica sino al giorno d' oggi." (Piazza
1687,388;
1687, 388; cited by Kohren-Jansen 1993, 132)
143
143
da ambi i lati gli apri fenestroni perche meglio con Ia
la copia de raggi potesse essere vagheggiata (from
a report of 1644-53, cited by Marder 1997, 268 n. 112).
144
144 non godendosi per la
Ia troppa altezza, et abbarbagliandosi Ia
la vista nel rimirarla per le
Ie due finestre
...
..
(report
by
Virgilio
Spada
published
by
Giithlein
1979,
186).
laterali
145 Marder 1997, 78.
145
0
128
Beelzebub
The last and least conspicuous of the animal marginalia is perhaps the most important of them
all. In the biblical tradition the fly has one and only one association, that is, with the Philistine
God Beelzebub, whose name was commonly translated as Lord of the Flies and equated with
Satan. Of particular relevance here is the fact that he was consistently invoked in matters of
healing. So in the second Book of Kings the ruler Ahaziah, who had suffered a fall, sent to
inquire of Beelzebub the God of Ekron, whether he would recover. Offended by this want
of faith in himself, the God of Israel decreed that he would indeed die of his injury. 1146
46 He
appears repeatedly in the Gospels when the disbelieving Jews attributed Jesus's power to heal
and cast out devils to the power of Beelzebub, now identified as Satan himself; to which Jesus
47
replies, that cannot be so, since the house divided against itself shall not stand. 1147
Matt. 12:23-8
23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? 24 But
when the Pharisees heard [it], they said, This [fellow] doth not cast out devils, but by
Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto
them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city
or house divided against itself shall not stand: 26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is
divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? 27 And if I by Beelzebub
cast out devils, by whom do your children cast [them] out? therefore they shall be
your judges. 28 But ifl
if! cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
148
is come unto you.
Comelis aLapide interprets the passages in 2Kings and the gospels in exactly this way,
Cornelis
ascribing all manner of evils to the Lord of the Flies, especially the libido and anabaptism. 149
146
146
2Kings 1: 2, 3, 6, 16.
Matt. 10:25; 12:24; 12:27; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15.
148
148 23 et stupebant omnes turbae et dicebant numquid hic
hie est Filius David. 24 Pharisaei autem
audientes dixerunt hic
hie non eicit daemones nisi in Beelzebub principe daemoniorum 25 Iesus autem
sciens cogitationes eorum
eo rum dixit eis omne regnum divisum contra se desolatur et omnis civitas vel
domus divisa contra se non stabit 26 et si Satanas Satanan eicit adversus se divisus est quomodo ergo
stabit regnum eius 27 et si ego in Beelzebub eicio daemones filii vestri in quo eiciunt ideo ipsi iudices
erunt vestri 28 si autem ego in Spiritu Dei eicio daemones igitur pervenit in vos regnum Dei
149
149 For Beelzebub see on 2Kings 2, Lapide 1866-88, IV, 3:
Vide dicta Matth. x, 25. Quibus adde nonnullos cum Serario sentire, quod Beelzebub sive Myodes, id
est Deus muscce, fuerit libidinis deus, aut dea qua:piam, ob impudicitiam et libidinem qua: in muscis
notatur ; unde Lucianus in Encomio musca: tradit olim fuisse meretrices, qua: musca: vocabantur.
Insuper dit (da:mones) omnes propter multitudinem, insolentiam, impudicitiam, mordacitatem,
sordes, fcetorem, musca: vocari possum:
possunt: unde hoc sa:culo da:mon specie magna: musca: vel crabronis
involans in eum, qui relicta fide orthodoxa Anabaptismum profitebatur, illico eum quasi possidens, S.
Scriptura: peri tum efficiebat, eumdemque hac peritia privabat, si ab Anabaptismo ad fidem rediret, uti
oculati testes narrant.
On Mathew 10: 25, Lapide 1876- 1908, II, 33f. and Lapide 1866-88,
1866- 88, xv,
XV, 27lf.
271f.
147
147
129
The little, insidiously inconspicuous insect thus represents the very devil and his myriad
150
hosts, whose power is exorcized at the altar of St. Peter's.
Peter's.150
An ironic inversion of zoological healing under the aegis of Urban VIII may be found
in an extraordinary drawing by the great Dutch master of natural and supernatural
imagery Jacques de Gheyn II (1565-1629) (Fig. 114). The composition emulates the
Barberini microscopic bee emblem (Fig. 68), substituting three microscopic views of
151
"real" flies (including their shadows) arranged in a similar way. 15l
The relationship can
scarcely have been coincidental, and the metamorphosis into flies was surely inspired by
the knowledge of the fact that the Barberini crest originally consisted of three large but
humble horse-flies - tafoni, whence Tafano, the name of the Tuscan locality whence
the family sprang. The tafano, whose bite was vicious, even mortal in droves, had a
particularly bad reputation, and Maffeo adopted the noble bee instead when he became
cardinal. The matter was important enough so that some years later the pope's nephew
Cardinal Francesco sent to Florence to have the flies excised from the coats of arms visible
there and in their subsequent home town nearby, Barberino in Val d'Elsa. 152 In antiquity
the fly was identified with the plague and, by a familiar homeopathic principle of like
healing like, fly amulets were worn to ward off the enemy. The medieval Mantic Virgil
was said to have warded off the plague from Naples with a huge bronze fly. 153
153 There was a
major outbreak of the plague in the Netherlands in 1624, and de Gheyn, who was deeply
150 I believe, in fact, that this "devilish" import may underlie many works in which "illusionistic" flies alight
150
as if from the "real" world (for which see Pigler 1964, although he does not consider the biblical Beelzebub).
151
I 5 I On de Cheyn's
Gheyn's flies see "Nach dem Leben . .. ,"
, "2000,
2000, 94, where it is noted that his microscopic works
date from the last years of his life.
152 On the Barberini coat of arms and its transformation by Maffeo from menace to munificence, see Lavin
152
2007.
153 See the references given in Pigler 1964, 60f., Heckscher 1985, 78.
153
130
'
BERNINI AT ST. PETERS
involved with witchcraft and devilry, may have had this kind of Barberini Trinitarian papal
therapy in mind. 154 Although married to a Catholic, de Gheyn in 1598 had made a portrait
of Marnix van St. Aldegonde that was published repeatedly beginning in 1631 in Marnix's
famous pre-Barberini anti-catholic bee diatribe The Beehive of the Holy Roman Church (De
Byencorfder H Roomsche Kercke), first published in 1569.155
1569. 155 Here, alone among the animals
that inhabit the columnar plinths, the minuscule fly is gilt, glowing with the glittery allure
of sin.
The mementoes that grace the lowermost plinths of the columns appear to have been left,
as if inadvertently, by the "providential" hand of the Baldacchino's creator. They appear
inexplicably, and their very inadvertency is an essential ingredient in the heaven-sent message
they convey. For taken together these memorabilia tell a memorable story of their own,
consistent with and underlying the main theme of the pedestals, that is, the expiation for
original sin purchased by Christ's sacrifice and achieved through its reenactment at the altar.
. In that case the initial fornication begins at the left, or sinister side of the entering worshiper,
moves in a purificatory circuit clockwise about the altar to end with the felicitous newborn
soul at the right, as the pilgrim prepares to depart. Accordingly, Beelzebub the King of the
Flies lurks unseen, from the beginning, back inside the first pedestal; the pope, the rosary, and
the healing lizards, placed nearest the sanctuary of the choir, guard the route; and at the end,
the embodiment of the original sin is finally destroyed by the Apollonian agent of the sun's
salubrious power. The drama unfolded in these details seems to encapsulate the overarching
theme with which Urban imbued the basilica itself, to which he may himself have referred
when he described Bernini:
"Rare man, sublime intelligence, and born for Divine Purpose, and for the glory of
Rome to bring light to that Century."l56
Century." 156
With all their depth of meaning, however, the Baldacchino's little marginalia are also
charming, sophisticated, witty, even humorous, and thus ingratiating in a spirit that can best
be described, I think, as "urbane." This quality, characteristic of Bernini, also permeates other,
contemporary work he carried out for Urban VIII, and corresponds to a fundamental cast of
157
the new pope's mind, his public policy, as well as the very name he chose as Christ's vicar. 157
Except for the scorpion and the fly, the Baldacchino of St. Peter's pullulates with animation;
everything everywhere is in motion, a living organism, a veritable chimaera and justly a
divine creation, at the very center of Christianity.
154
154
On the 1624 plague in the Netherlands, see Israel
1995, 484, 625. On de Gheyn's conflation of natural
Israel1995,
science and witchcraftery, see Swan 2005.
II~~
SS Waard 2002; Beemon 1992.
156 Huomo raro, Ingegno sublime, e nato per Disposizione Divina, e per gloria di Roma a portar luce a quel
156
que/ Secolo
(Bernini 17 13,
13,27).
27).
157
157 On Urban's choice of name and the theme of urbanity see Lavin 2007.
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