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Terracotta sculpture of a helmeted figure sitting against a wide background.

A figure sits on a large platform in front of a wide, low wall. She wears a tall, bulbous helmet with an ornamental crest at the top. It has a strap that goes around her chin. Her right arm rests across her lap, and her left arm is bent up. She rests her chin against it. She wears a long, draped garment. The sculpture style is vague and impressionistic. The features of her face and clothing are not explicitly detailed, and the sculptor’s lines are visible. However, we can still make out her downturned mouth and slightly furrowed brow.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.75
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Allegorical Figure
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Relief with helmeted female figure
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, figurine
Date
1630/1631
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230639

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
27 x 25.7 x 11.4 cm (10 5/8 x 10 1/8 x 4 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Giovanni Piancastelli, Rome, Italy, Sold to Mrs. Edward D. Brandegee, 1905. 
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
1937.75
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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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. 5E, reproduced
  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 46 no. 1, pl. XI
  • 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. 191, cat. no. 26
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, p. 67 f.
  • Irving Lavin, Drawings by Gianlorenzo Bernini, from the Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ, 1981), p. 76 fn. 10
  • Olga Raggio, "Bernini and the Collection of Cardinal Flavio Chigi", Apollo (1983), vol. CXVII, p. 370 fig. 5; p. 372
  • Irving Lavin, "Bernini's Memorial Plaque for Carlo Barberini", Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (1983), vol. XLII, no. 1, p. 6-10, p. 10 fig. 7
  • Yves Bonnefoy, Rome 1630: l'horizon du premier baroque, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1994), repr. p. 22 as fig. 13
  • Andrea Bacchi, ed., Sculture del '600 a Roma, Longanesi & Co. (Milan, Italy, 1996), pl. 133
  • Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1997), p. 255, pl. 370
  • 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
  • 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, p. 229
  • 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, 84, 136-137, repr. p. 84, 137, fig. 4.10 + 6.11
  • 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
  • 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