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Gilded statue of a man with his right arm extended

Statue of a bearded man standing on a low platform. His right hand reaches up and out to the side, his hand in a fist. His left arm is missing beyond the elbow. The man’s face is slightly upturned. His arms and chest are bare, and a voluminous garment is wrapped around his left shoulder, waist, and legs. The entire surface of the statue is gilded, though the finish is worn away around the man’s face, neck, arms, and legs. The terracotta beneath is a pale gray color.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.51
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Saint Longinus
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 1630-31
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230910

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta with gilding over gesso
Dimensions
52.5 x 38.2 x 17.2 cm (20 11/16 x 15 1/16 x 6 3/4 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
1937.51
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. 7E, reproduced
  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 46, no. 2, plate XII
  • 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, fig. 29, fig. 5
  • "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), pp. 192-93, no. 28
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished
  • Hans Kauffmann, "Bernini's Hl. Longinus", Miscellaneae Hertzian (Munich, Germany, 1961), 369 ff.
  • Howard Hibbard, Bernini, Penguin Books (Baltimore, MD, 1966), p. 82, no. 40
  • Ann Sutherland Harris, "New Drawings by Bernini for 'St. Longinus' and Other Contemporary Works", Master Drawings (Winter 1968), vol. VI, no. 4, pp. 383-391, p. 384
  • Irving Lavin, Bernini and the Crossing of St. Peter's, New York University Press (New York, NY, 1968), p. 36, plate 77
  • David Bindman, European Sculpture from Bernini to Rodin, Studio Vista (London, England, 1970), p. 31
  • Hans Kauffmann, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini: Die figurlichen Kompositionen, Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, Germany, 1970), pl. 57
  • Yves Bonnefoy, Rome 1630: l'horizon du premier baroque, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1970)
  • Hans Kauffmann, "Bernini's St. Longinus", Bernini in Perspective, ed. George C. Bauer, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1976), pp. 101-107, fig. 14
  • Irving Lavin, "Calculated Spontaneity: Bernini and the Terracotta Sketch", Apollo (May 1978), vol. CVII, no. 195, pp. 398-405, pp. 401-402; p. 399, plate V
  • Michael P. Mezzatesta, The Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini: Selected Sculpture, exh. cat., Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1982), fig. 6, note 21 fig. 2 (1998.1)
  • Olga Raggio, "Bernini and the Collection of Cardinal Flavio Chigi", Apollo (1983), vol. CXVII, p. 368
  • Elena Bianca di Gioia, "Un Bozzetto del 'San Longino' di Gian Lorenzo Bernini Ritrovato nella bottega di Francesco Antonio Fontana", Antologia di Belle Arti, F. Apolloni e M. Tazzoli (Rome, Italy, 1984), nn. 21-22, pp. 65-69
  • "Bozzetti e modelli", exh. cat., Fratelli Palombi Editori (Rome, Italy, 1986), pp. 174-175, foto 4
  • 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. 145, p. 128, repr.
  • Catherine M. Soussloff, "Old Age and Old-Age Style in the 'Lives' of Artists: Gianlorenzo Bernini", Art Journal (1987), vol. XLVI, no. 2, p. 115, fig. 1
  • Rudolf Preimesberger, "Berninis Statue des Longinus in St. Peter", Antikenrezeption im Hochbarock, ed. Herbert Beck, Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, Germany, 1989), p. 152
  • Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, Electa (Milan, Italy, 1990), pp. 250-251
  • Hein-Th. Schulze Altcappenberg and Susannah Cremer-Bermbach, Facetten des Barock: Meisterzeichnungen von Gianlorenzo Bernini bis Anton Raphael Mengs aus dem Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf/Akademiesammlung, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf, Germany, 1990), pp. 44-45, no. 9
  • Charles Scribner, III, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1991), p. 18, fig. 18
  • Maria Giulia Barberini, Sculture in Terracotta del Barocco Romano: Bozzetti e Modelli del Museo Nazional, exh. cat., Fratelli Palombi Editori (Rome, Italy, 1991), p. 27
  • 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. 32, p. 123; repr. as fig. 100
  • Yves Bonnefoy, Rome 1630: l'horizon du premier baroque, Flammarion (Paris, France, 1994), repr. p. 23 as fig. 14
  • Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1997), fig. 118
  • Kendra Roth, "The Technical Examination of Polychrome and Gilding Layers Applied to Two Bernini Modelli" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1997), Unpublished, pp. 1-15 passim
  • From the Sculptor's Hand: Italian Baroque Terracottas from the State Hermitage Museum, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1998), repr. p. 36, fig. 9
  • James Fenton, Leonardo's Nephew: Essays on Art and Artists, Viking (Penguin Books) (London, England, 1998), repr. in b/w, fig. 37
  • 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, p. 42
  • Kendra Roth, "Decorative Coatings on the St. Longinus and St. Ambrose Modelli", Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 1999), VI, no. 3, 125-127, p. 125-127. p. 125 fig. 131, p. 126 fig. 132
  • 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
  • Rudolf Preimesberger, "Il San Longino del Bernini in San Pietro in Vaticano: dal bozzetto alla statua", Camera dei Deputati (Rome, Italy, 2001), repr. in color, p. 95 and p. 105, fig. 10; text p. 107
  • Betty Blandino, The Figure in Fired Clay, A & C Black (Publishers) Limited (London, 2001), p. 66, repr. in b/w
  • Elena Bianca Di Gioia, Le Collezioni di Scultura del Museo di Roma: Il Seicento, Campisano (Rome, Italy, 2002), p. 49; repr. figs. 11 & 12, p. 57
  • Tomaso Montanari, Grandi Scultori: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (Rome, 2004), under no. 12, pp. 106-108
  • Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 97, repr.
  • 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

  • Unidentified Exhibition, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1940, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 11/22/1940 - 12/29/1940
  • 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
  • Re-View: S422-423 Western Art of the Middle Ages & Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 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

Related Works

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