1937.72: Study for the Personification of Silence

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1937.72

People

Melchiorre Cafà, Italian (Vittoriosa, Malta 1631 - 1667 Rome)
Possibly by Ercole Ferrata, Italian (1610 - 1686)
Previously attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)

Title

Study for the Personification of Silence

Other Titles

Alternate Title: Relief plaque of standing male figure

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture

Date

c. 1664

Places

Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome

Culture

Italian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/230573

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Dimensions

16.6 cm (6 9/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Giovanni Piancastelli, Rome, Italy, Sold to Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee, 1905. Piancastelli was the curator of the Galleria Borghese.
Mrs. Edward D. (Mary B.) Brandegee, 1905, Sold to Fog Art Museum, 1937.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Alpheus Hyatt Purchasing and Friends of the Fogg Art Museum Funds

Accession Year

1937

Object Number

1937.72

Division

European and American Art

Contact

am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

• Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 49 no. 22, pl. XXV
• Leonard Opdycke, "A Group of Models for Berninesque Sculptures", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, March 1938), vol. VII, no. 2, p. 29, repr. p. 28, fig. 4
• "Bernini Bozzetti for America: Sketches by the Baroque Genius for the Fogg Art Museum", Art News, Art News (New York, NY, June 4, 1938), vol. XXXVI, pp. 11-12
• Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, pp. 201-203
• Jennifer Montagu, "Melchiorre Cafà's models for Ercole Ferrata", Melchiorre Cafà: Maltese Genius of the Roman Baroque, Midsea Books (Valetta, Malta, 1996), pp. 67-78, pp. 67-68, repr. in b/w
• Eugene F. Farrell, Henry Lie, and Suzanne M. M. Young, "Clay Analysis", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), VI, 3, 39-47, pp. 42-44
• Jennifer Montagu, "The Fogg 'Silence': A Bozzetto by Melchiorre Cafà", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), vol. VI, no. 3, 128-132, fig. 134
• Tony Sigel, "The Clay Modeling Techniques of Melchiorre Cafà: A Preliminary Assessment", Melchiorre Cafà: Maltese Genius of the Roman Baroque, Midsea Books (Valetta, Malta, 2006), pp. 161-233, no. 5, pp. 183-188, repr. in b/w with details; p. 257, repr. in b/w

Exhibition History

• In Memoriam: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/1980 - 10/15/1980
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Sketches in Clay, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/28/1998 - 06/30/2008

Verification Level