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Terracotta sculpture of man’s head with beard

A tan terracotta sculpture of a man’s head. Though the top of his head is bald, he has long, curly hair and a full, long, curly beard and mustache. His brow and nose are bony and his cheeks are hollow, perhaps suggesting old age. His mouth is open. His closed eyes are extremely deep-set. The sculptor's lines in the clay are clear in the texture of the man’s hair, eyebrows, and beard, but they are also subtly visible in the shaping of the man’s cheeks and eyes. When the sculpture rests on the ground, it tilts slightly to the right.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.77
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Head of Saint Jerome
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1661
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230503

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
35.1 x 28.7 x 22.9 cm (13 13/16 x 11 5/16 x 9 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 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
1937.77
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Gaile Robinson, Super models. For years, a curator shaped and molded a dream exhibit: a collection of terra-cotta 'sketches' by 17th-century master sculptor Bernini, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1A, 4E-7E, Sunday, February 3, 2013, p. 6E, reproduced and discussed
  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 47 no. 11, pl. XVIII
  • 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. on cover
  • "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. 226
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, pp. 138-141
  • Maria Vittoria Brugnoli, "Un Bozzetto del Bernini per il 'San Girolamo' ", Arte Antica e Moderna, Casa Editrice G. C. Sansoni (Florence, Italy, 1961), 13/16, p. 293 fn. 2
  • Hans Kauffmann, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini: Die figurlichen Kompositionen, Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, Germany, 1970), pl. 129
  • Irving Lavin, "Calculated Spontaneity: Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch", Apollo (May 1978), vol. CVII, no. 195, pp. 398-405, p. 398 fig. 1, p. 402
  • Irving Lavin, Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini, from the Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ, 1981), p. 232, fig. 85
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), cat. 146, p. 129, repr.
  • Giancarlo Gentilini and Carlo Sisi Gentilini, La Scultura: Bozzetti in terracotta, piccoli marmi e altre sculture dal XIV al X, S.P.E.S. (Florence, Italy, 1989), p. 230, p. 232 fig. 150
  • 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), no. 40, p. 125, repr. as fig. 106
  • Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1997), fig. 211
  • 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, p. 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)
  • Sarah McPhee, "Bernini's Sculpture in Clay", The Burlington Magazine (March 2013), CLV, No.1320, pp. 208-210, p. 210, repr. p. 210 as fig. 66
  • Penelope J. E. Davies, Walter B. Denny, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Joseph Jacobs, Ann M. Roberts, and David L. Simon, Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition, Pearson and Laurence King Publishing Ltd. (Boston, 2016), p. 688, repr.
  • Evonne Levy and Carolina Mangone, ed., Material Bernini, Routledge / Taylor & Francis (London, 2016), pp. 73-74, 130-131, repr. pp. 74, 130-131, fig. 4.1
  • 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
  • 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