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Gian Lorenzo Bernini:
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Possibly the greatest Baroque sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini earned accolades from Popes, Kings and nobles during his long artistic career. |
Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture is the first exhibition that examines the artist's talents as a portrait sculptor capturing likenesses in marble for posterity.
Title: Bust of Pope Urban VIII, about 1632
Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 15981680)
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: Object (with base): H: 94.7 x W: 68.8 x D: 34.3 cm
(37 5/16 x 27 1/16 x 13 1/2 in.)
Object: H: 76.2 x W: 71.1 x D: 36.8 cm (30 x 28 x 14 1/2 in.)
Purchased 1974, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 18086
EX.2008.4.54
Image Courtesy: The J. Paul Getty Museum
Visitors will be able to compare a chronological spacing of works from two early bronze portrait busts of Popes: the then deceased Pope Paul V and the newly elected Gregory XV both were created during the years 1621-1622. It was Pope Paul V's nephew Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who commissioned both of these sculptures. It is important to include these works for it was Borghese's commissions launched Bernini's career.
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Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum and Ottawa's National Gallery of Canada have assembled an impressive collection of Bernini sculptures and supportive works to celebrate the Italian master. Currently on display at the Getty it will move to Canada and be shown at the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa. |
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Berninis talents as a sculptor irrevocably changed sculptural portraiture, explains Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. He found a way to breathe life into a marble bust through his systematic and detailed rendering of every surface texture, and animated the material with not only the physical likeness of the sitters, but also their individual personality and living presence.
Title: Self-Portrait, about 1625
Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 15981680)
Medium: Black and red chalks, heightened with white chalk
Dimensions: Unframed: 27.5 x 21.5 cm (10 13/16 x 8 7/16 in.)
Framed (approx.): 60.5 x 45 cm (23 13/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
Purchased (Hope Fund), 1944, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England, P.II.792
EX.2008.4.12
Image Courtesy: The J. Paul Getty Museum
Bernini had an uncanny ability to portray his subjects personality; oft called Bernini's "speaking likeness".
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Among the works are portraits and busts of several members of the Barberini family whose prominence increased when Cardinal Maffeo Barberini became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. |
Don't overlook Bernini's portrait drawings which are included in the exhibit; notably two self-portraits of the Italian Baroque artist.
Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture
J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center:
August 5 October 26, 2008
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa:
November 28, 2008 March 8, 2009