Bernini Marble Sculptures

The billowing robes and the golden light are typical of the artist s fusion of marble and gilt.

Bernini marble sculptures.

Another piece commissioned by cardinal scipione borghese it still resides in the galleria borghese. Bernini s insistence that beauty should be found in observing humans and nature instead of studying classical statues or renaissance paintings was a move away from the traditional ways of creating work. It shows the abduction of proserpina an ancient roman goddess. A perfect example of the way bernini combined sculpture and architecture it depicts the rapture of st teresa of avila at the moment when an angel pierces her heart with the golden arrow of divine love.

The following is a list of works of sculpture architecture and painting by the italian baroque artist gian lorenzo bernini the numbering follows rudolph wittkower s catalogue first published in 1955 in gian lorenzo bernini. Mostly i m keeping an eye out for bernini sculptures particularly apollo and daphne a sculpture so delicate and alive it s hard to believe it s carved from marble not from snow. His progressive focus on human emotion and sensuality became important to later artists all the way up to the modernist period. The influence of religion on art during the 16th and 17th centuries was a reflection of society at that time and bernini was an individual whose connection to catholicism was supremely strong meaning his inclusion of religious ideals and narratives was not something he simply did at the request of those commissioning his work he was.

Bernini depicted david dressed in typical shepherd s attire with the armor of israel s king saul given to david for battle and his harp lying beneath. Every time i m in rome i make a pilgrimage to the borghese to see it. The sculptor of the roman baroque. Apollo and daphne is a life sized baroque marble sculpture by italian artist gian lorenzo bernini executed between 1622 and 1625 housed in the galleria borghese in rome the work depicts the climax of the story of apollo and daphne phoebus and daphne in ovid s metamorphoses.

But on this trip a visit to see apollo and daphne isn t enough. Young woman with a unicorn raphael. These marble works show an unparalleled virtuosity in carving that obdurate material to achieve the delicate effects usually found only in bronze sculptures. The story goes that she was taken by pluto who was the ruler of the underworld.

Bernini s sensual awareness of the surface textures of skin and hair and his novel sense of shading broke with the tradition of michelangelo and marked the emergence of a new period in.