Cardinal Scipione Borghese - Villa Borghese
Apollo and Daphne (1622–25) - flattered patrons who knew their classical sources: in this case the Apollo Belvedere and Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Apollo, the sun-god, tries to abduct the wood-nymph Daphne. She prays for help and is transformed into a laurel tree as soon as Apollo touches her.42 Apollo refuses to give up and adopts the laurel as his emblem.
Narratives, such as that concerning Apollo and Daphne relied on the thrill of the chase for effect, more often attempted in paintings, not in sculpture.
Daphne is lifted off the ground as roots grow from her toes and the bark consumes her skin. Her head swings back and she cries, either still calling to her father, the river-god to whom she prayed, to help her, or breathing her last mortal breath.
The swirl of Apollo’s cloak, more than 3 metres long, is caught in the energy of the chase, while Daphne’s hair swings back transforming into foliage. Like the David, the twisting composition invites the viewer to move around the statue to reveal different aspects of the narrative.
Apollo and Daphne is life-sized.

Preparatory studies of posed models and terracotta bozzetti (small-scale clay mock- ups) before lifting a chisel for his portrait busts.
Bernini was styling himself as a creative intellectual, rather than a messy craftsman. Had many sculptors working for him.
Sketched his subjects moving around in everyday life, not immobile and posed, this
way he captured the true person, their character, gestures, their essence.
Bust of Cardinal Sciopone Borghese and Louis the XIV
Louis bust - ‘the grandest piece of portraiture of the baroque age’.
Criticised by Winckelmann, who accused him of creating distortions, rather than accurate or even idealised portraits.
Bust of King Charles I of England, made from a portrait painting by Anthony Van Dyck. Bernini put the weak King in military attire to flatter and display power.

The unity of the visual arts: Wolfflin's definition of the Baroque emphasised how all parts must serve the whole.
Bernini was the first to attempt to unite architecture with sculpture and painting in such a manner that together they make a beautiful whole [bel composto]
Interweaving of painting, sculpture and architecture.
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515–82) in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Vittoria (c.1644– 52), commissioned by Cardinal Federigo Cornaro.
Bernini used all the arts at his disposal to display a spiritual experience.
Bernini’s theory of beauty: ‘the various parts are not only beautiful in themselves but in their relationship to other parts’.
Bernini uses coloured marble to claim these painterly effects. In the Cornaro Chapel, the lateral walls contain fictive balconies from which sculpted portraits of family members past and present seem to lean out and discuss the vision of Saint Teresa before them, like an audience at a play. This ‘audience’ reinforces the lines of sight created by the balconies in directing the viewer towards the vision of Saint Teresa and the angel. Set into a deep recess in the rear wall of the Cornaro Chapel, Teresa and the angel are lit from above by a hidden window. The columns framing the niche enclose the statue as though it were a painting. Like the invisible light source in a painting, which is only visible as a result of the effects it creates, the light from the hidden window illuminates the deeply carved draperies. The comparative darkness of the chapel and church make this ‘spotlight’ appear all the more dramatic. Bernini made a ‘chapel within a chapel’ at San Francesco a Ripa, breaking through an existing altar wall to add a new space behind, into which he could insert the architectural, sculptural and painted elements that make up his bel composto.
Controversial aspect of the interpretation of Teresa, is she n sexual ecstasy?
Sexualised representation of Teresa, Bernini’s controversial innovation was to depict Teresa with her head thrown back, submitting totally to the divine, not kneeling in prayer or elegantly swooning as was more usual. However she is amply clothed and was accepted by the patron.

The Four Rivers Fountain: Patron Innocent X, Pamphilj family (reigned 1644–55), Piazza Navone. Obelisk, at the base is a huge fountain.
Water a symbol of power and control in Rome, Fountains were publicity, showing how the patron, Popes family the Pamphilj, were bringing water into the city through the aquaducts.
Competition, Bernini excluded but still created a design, rivalry with Borromini. Bernini won.
Obelisk as a transmitter of divine light that had the potential to send the Christian message to the four corners of the earth, an important key to the fountain’s meaning.
The large, 24-metre diameter central basin at ground level symbolises the sea, out of which, in the centre, rises a 6.7-metre ‘grotto’, which ‘is tunnelled through so that from all four sides one can see through to the other side of the piazza. Four figures represent the rivers and the continents, The Nile - Africa, The Danube - Europe, The Ganges - Asia and The Rio de la Plata - America.
The fountain stands for papal Rome, represented by the rocky outcrop and the obelisk, as the source from which all the rivers of the world flow. Christian symbolism.
Bernini was later ashamed of the work.
Wolfflin and the zeitgeist - capturing the mood of the era, Bernini and Rome. art contributing to shaping the mood also.

	Created by Dearbhla Dunne almost 10 years ago

Book 2 Part 1: City and country 1660-1760 Note on Notes - Chpt 1 B2 P1, created by Dearbhla Dunne on 05/22/2014.

Notes - Chpt 1 B2 P1