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Terracotta statue of a kneeling, winged figure pressing fabric to their chest

A tan figure kneels on a low, wide platform. They have curly hair, large wings that extend from head height down to their hips, and a draped garment that covers their chest and extends to their feet, pooling on the platform they kneel on. They hold the top edge of the garment to their chest. Their chin is lifted, but their eyes seem to gaze down. The figure is sculpted in a somewhat subtle and vague style, without detailed facial features. The sculptor’s lines are visible in the clay, especially in the figure’s wings and garment.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.63
People
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian (Naples, Italy 1598 - 1680 Rome, Italy)
Title
Kneeling Angel
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1672
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Lazio, Rome
Culture
Italian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230913

Location

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

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Dimensions
34 x 18.4 x 21.5 cm (13 3/8 x 7 1/4 x 8 7/16 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
1937.63
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, reproduced pp. 1A and 4E
  • Richard Norton, Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art, The Macmillan Company (New York, NY, 1914), p. 48 no. 14, pl. XXb
  • 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, fig. 94, no. 78
  • Irving Lavin, "The Bozzetti of Gianlorenzo Bernini" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 1955), Unpublished, pp. 192, 194 ff.
  • 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. 405 figs. 10, 11; 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
  • Charles Scribner, III, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1991), p. 46 fig. 69
  • 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. 33, p. 124, repr. as fig. 101
  • 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. 23, p. 102; repr. in b/w p. 119 as fig. 27; p. 81
  • James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp.174-175
  • Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, Thames & Hudson (London, England, 1997), fig. 146
  • 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, 170, 187, 188
  • 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
  • Bruce Boucher, ed., Earth and Fire: Italian Terracotta Sculpture from Donatello to Canova, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven CT and London, 2001), p. 200, under no. 46
  • Maurizio Fagiolo dell'Arco, Berniniana: Novità sul regista del Barocco, Skira (Milan, 2002), repr. p. XLIV as fig. 55
  • "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. 1
  • 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)

Exhibition History

  • Christmas Seen by Baroque Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 12/08/1955 - 01/08/1956
  • The Italian and English Renaissance, Charles Hayden Memorial Library, Cambridge, 03/02/1958 - 03/20/1958
  • 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
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 08 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/23/2008 - 11/16/2008
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 09 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/16/2009 - 11/08/2009
  • HAA 10 Survey Course (S421): The Western Tradition: Art Since the Renaissance (Fall 10 Rotation 2), Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 10/15/2010 - 11/06/2010
  • 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