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Terracotta statue of a winged figure holding a scroll.

A tan figure stands on a low base. They have wings extending from head height to about mid-thigh, though the left wing is missing its bottom half. The figure’s right leg is bent slightly back, and their arms stretch across their body to the right. In their hands is a wide scroll stretched out horizontally. The figure has short curly hair and a downward gaze. Their limbs are slender and muscular. A draped garment covers them from the chest down to the left knee, with the right thigh exposed. The sculpture style is somewhat vague and impressionistic.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.67
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Angel with the Superscription
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Standing Angel with Scroll
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1667 -1668
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230571

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
28.9 x 17.1 x 13.8 cm (11 3/8 x 6 3/4 x 5 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. Pacetti inventory, 1802
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
1937.67
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
  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 48 no. 17, pl. XXIIIa
  • 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
  • Hans Gerhard Evers, Die Engelsbrucke in Rom, Verlag Gebr. Mann (Berlin, Germany, 1948), p. 15, abb. 6
  • Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the sculptor of the Roman Baroque [1st ed.], Phaidon Press (London, England, 1955)
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, p. 185
  • Hans Kauffmann, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini: Die figurlichen Kompositionen, Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, Germany, 1970), p. 302, pl. 185b
  • Mark S. Weil, The History and Decoration of the Ponte S. Angelo, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA, 1974), p. 48, p. 50 fig. 41
  • Harriet Feigenbaum Chamberlain, "The Influence of Galileo on Bernini's Saint Mary Magdalen and St. Jerome", Apollo (1977), vol. LIX, p. 80, p. 81 fig. 18
  • Irving Lavin, "Calculated Spontaneity: Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch", Apollo (May 1978), vol. CVII, no. 195, pp. 398-405, p. 404, p. 401 fig. 4
  • Charles Avery, Fingerprints of the Artist: European Terra-Cotta Sculpture..., exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1981), p. 21 fig. 15
  • "Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini from the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig", M Preview, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, summer 1982), repr. in b/w (n.p.)
  • Michael P. Mezzatesta, The Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini: Selected Sculpture, exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1982), no pages, fig. 44
  • Catherine M. Soussloff, "Old Age and Old-Age Style in the 'Lives' of Artists: Gianlorenzo Bernini", Art Journal (1987), vol. XLVI, no. 2, p. 116 fig. 3
  • Maria Grazia Tolomeo Speranza, "La decorazione del ponte", La Via degli Angeli, ed. Luisa Cardilli Alloisi, De Luca Edizioni d'Arte (Rome, Italy, 1988), p. 72, fig. 31
  • Helga Tratz, "Werkstatt und Arbeitsweise Berninis", Romisches Jahrbuch fur Kunstgeschichte (1988), bd. 23/24, p. 449, p. 450 fig. 25
  • Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, Electa (Milan, Italy, 1990), p. 289
  • Sergej O. Androsov, Alle origini di Canova: le terrecotte della collezione Farsetti, exh. cat., Marsilio Editore (Venice, Italy, 1991), p. 66
  • Maria Giulia Barberini, Sculture in Terracotta del Barocco Romano: Bozzetti e Modelli del Museo Nazional, exh. cat., Fratelli Palombi Editori (Rome, Italy, 1991), p. 48
  • 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. 14, p. 119; repr. in b/w as fig. 89
  • Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1997), pp. 165-169, fig. 221
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Maria Giulia Barberini, "Base or Noble Material? Clay Sculpture in 17th and 18th Century Italy", Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, and London, 2001), pp. 43-59, p. 54, repr. as fig. 59
  • Bruce Boucher, "Bernini's Models for the Angels of the Ponte Sant' Angelo in Rome", Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, and London, 2001), pp. 60-66, p. 64, repr. as fig. 64; detail repr. as fig. 69; p. 200
  • "The Object of Art Museums", Whose Muse? Art Museums and the Public Trust, ed. James Cuno, Princeton University Press/Harvard University Art Museums (Princeton, NJ / Cambridge, MA, 2004), pp. 49-75, p. 56, repr. as fig. 2
  • 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)
  • 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

  • Collection Highlights
  • 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