Bernini: Sculpting in Clay

Dickerson III, C. D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, with contributions by Andrea Bacchi, Tomaso Montanari, and Steven F. Ostrow (2012)

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Description

The brilliantly expressive clay models created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) as "sketches" for his masterful works in marble and bronze offer extraordinary insights into his creative imagination. Marked with impressions from the artist's fingers and tools, these models give the viewer a sense of looking over Bernini's shoulder as the sculptures were taking shape. Most the models—especially his sketches, or bozzetti—are executed in a loose style that conveys great speed and dexterity, as well as the artist's concern with developing the best possible design. Even though long admired, these models have never before been the subject of such extensive technical examination and art-histoical research.

Bernini: Sculpting in Clay seeks a deeper understanding of the sculptor through a careful analysis of fifty-two terrracotta models, which he used not only to shape his ideas in three dimensions but also to convey his designs to patrons and to guide his assistants. Individual discussions of each terracotta describe Bernini's modeling techniques and address issues of attribution and function, while giving the reader a vivid sense of how the artist fulfilled a steady stream of monumental commissions in seventeenth-century Rome's busiest sculpture studio. Wide-ranging essays treat such topics as Bernini's education as a modeler, the relationship between his models and drawings; the use of different types of terracotta models in the sculptor's workshop; contemporary responses to the models; and how modern scholars have engaged with the. A visual glossary of techniques offers the reader tools for looking at the models and for determining how they were made.

Richly illustrated with striking new photographs of the terracottas—including revealing close-up details and X-radiographs—as well as the monumental sculptures, fountains, and chapels for which they were made, Bernini Sculpting in Clay transforms our understanding of the artist and how he worked.

Table of contents

Directors' Foreword
Sponsor's Statement
Lenders to the Exhibition
Acknowledgments

Introduction
C.D. Dickerson III

Bernini at the Beginning: The Formation of a Master Modeler
C.D. Dickerson III

Sketching on Paper and in Clay: Bernini's Use of Preparatory Drawings and Models
Ian Wardroper

The Role of Terracotta Models in Bernini's Workshop
Andrea Bacchi

Creating an Eye for Models: The Role of Bernini
Tomaso Montanari

"The Fire of Art"?: A Historiography of Bernini's Bozzetti
Steven F. Ostrow

Visual Glossary
Anthony Sigel

Catalogue
C.D. Dickerson III
Anthony Sigel

I. Working for the Barberini
II. Fountains
III. Chapels and Saints
IV. Equestrian Monuments
V. Working for the Chigi
VI. The Ponte Sant'Angelo
VII. Altar of the Blessed Sacrament

Checklist of Drawings
Ian Wardropper

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Photography Credits

About the authors

C. D. Dickerson III is Curator of European Art at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth.

Anthony Sigel is Conservator of Objects and Sculpture at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge.

Ian Wardropper is Director of the Frick Collection, New York.

Andrea Bacchi is Associate Professor of Modern Art History, Università degli Studi di Trento

Tomaso Montanari is Associate Professor of Modern Art History, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.

Steven F. Ostrow is Professor and Chair, Department of Art History, University of Minnesota.

Press reviews

Publishers Weekly

"To know and understand the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), it is not enough to look at his finished sculptures. The thesis of this monumental art book is that Bernini's clay models and drawings reveal an even greater genius ... As a scholarly study of artistic process, the book is thorough and well organized, including equal shares of history and biography, art criticism, reception studies, historiography, and curatorial practice ... As a catalogue of Bernini's models, the book is equally as exhaustive, with enlarged photographs of key details ..."

The Wall Street Journal

“...the catalog for a magnificent exhibition, currently at the Met in New York, focusing on the Italian master's use of hand-formed terracotta models as first drafts or sketches for his supremely refined marble sculptures of the human form, including the famed angels of the Ponte Sant' Angelo in Rome. These works, which still bear traces of Bernini's fingerprints in the clay, document the artist's acute powers of observation and profound expressive gifts, offering a peek into the creative process of a truly towering figure in Baroque art.”

Evening Standard

"Bernini: Sculpting in Clay is perhaps the most enlightening book of recent years on Gian Lorenzo Bernini."

The Burlington Magazine

"The show and the catalogue are the culmination of the patient work of the organizers over a period of some fifteen years ... it is the patient and imaginative analysis of fifty-two terracottas made by or related to Bernini that ... is the core contribution of the catalogue. ... The show and catalogue succeed in invoking the magic of the creative process."

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