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Terracotta statue of a winged figure with outstretched arms.

A tan figure stands on a low, wide platform. They have large wings extending from head height down to the hips. Their posture, with bent knees and a downward tilt of the head, suggests a seated or half-kneeling position. Their arms are bent at the elbow. Both hands are missing. Their facial features are fairly vague and undetailed, but their expression may suggest closed eyes. They wear a long draped garment that leaves their right shoulder exposed and swirls around their feet. The sculptor’s lines are visible in the clay, especially in the area just behind the figure’s body.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.66
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Half-Kneeling Angel
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1672
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230499

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2520, European Art, 17th century
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
28.6 x 17 x 20.5 cm (11 1/4 x 6 11/16 x 8 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. Ferri inventory 1799
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 Fogg 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
1937.66
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 48 no. 19, pl. XXIVa
  • 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
  • "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
  • Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the sculptor of the Roman Baroque [1st ed.], Phaidon Press (London, England, 1955), p. 240, no. 78
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, p. 216 f.
  • Luigi Grassi, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Edizioni dell'Ateneo (Rome, Italy, 1962), p. 140
  • Irving Lavin, "Calculated Spontaneity: Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch", Apollo (May 1978), vol. CVII, no. 195, pp. 398-405, p. 403, fig. 7; p. 404
  • Franco Borsi, Bernini Architetto, Electa (Milan, Italy, 1980), p. 346
  • Irving Lavin, Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini, from the Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ, 1981), p. 323, fn 2
  • Maria Giulia Barberini and Carlo Gasparri, "I bozzetti ed i modelli dei secoli XVI-XVIII della collezione di Bartolomeo Cavaceppi", exh. cat., Fratelli Palombi Editori (Rome, Italy, 1994), nos. 48-50, p. 126; repr. as fig. 108
  • Laura Falaschi, "Il Ciborio del Santissimo Sacramento in San Pietro in Vaticano Secondo, i designi e i progetti di Gian Lorenzo Bernini da Urbano VIII Barberini a Clemente X Altiers", L'ultimo Bernini 1665-1680 : nuovi argomenti, documenti e immagini, ed. Valentino Martinelli, Quasar (Rome, Italy, 1996), no. 26, p. 103; repr. in b/w p. 118 as fig. 25; p. 81
  • Andrea Bacchi, ed., Sculture del '600 a Roma, Longanesi & Co. (Milan, Italy, 1996), pl. 190
  • Mark S. Weil, "Bernini Drawings and Bozzetti for the Ponte Sant' Angelo: A New Look", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), vol. VI, no. 3, 144-150
  • Colette Czapski Hemingway, "Borghini, Félibien, and Five Angels for the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), vol. VI, no. 3, 151-161, figs. 163, 164, 173, 174, 179, 182, 185, 190
  • 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. 42-43
  • Nancy Lloyd, "Fingerprints", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), VI, No. 3, 119-124
  • Tony Sigel, "The Clay Modeling Techniques of Gian Lorenzo Bernini", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), VI, 3, 48-72
  • C. D. Dickerson III, Tony Sigel, Ian Wardropper, Andrea Bacchi, Tomaso Montanari, and Stephen E. Ostrow, Bernini Sculpting in Clay, exh. cat. (New York, 2012)
  • Evonne Levy and Carolina Mangone, ed., Material Bernini, Routledge / Taylor & Francis (London, 2016), pp. 82, 85, repr. p. 85, fig. 4.11
  • Nina Pasquini, "Model Masterpieces: Bernini's Terracotta Sketches", Harvard Magazine (May-June 2024), vol. 126, no. 5, p. 72

Exhibition History

  • In Memoriam: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/1980 - 10/15/1980
  • Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini from the Museum der Bildenden Kunste Leipzig, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 08/19/1982 - 10/10/1982
  • Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Sketches in Clay, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/28/1998 - 06/30/2008
  • Bernini: Sculpting in Clay, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/03/2012 - 01/06/2013; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 02/03/2013 - 05/05/2013
  • 32Q: 2520 Winter Garden, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu