colonnade. Over these, as though they formed the head and arms of a
cross, is drawn a bearded figure, his head crowned by the dome of the
church, his arms outstretched on the colonnades and with his feet
crossed slightly one above the other and resting just where, at the
beginning of the Borgo, Bernini intended, as another of the sketches
makes plain, to put a building. There can be no doubt, after seeing this
drawing, that Bernini’s intention was to make the Piazza symbolic of
Christ and the Crucifixion. Evidently not a mere builder of houses this
man Gian Lorenzo Bernini, but somehow, and somewhence, he has got a
poet’s vision and he makes his mark in the world not merely by moulded
clay and shaped stones, but by shaping men’s hearts and moulding their
ideas.
Such was Bernini, one of the great artists of the world. It is true that
he was revolutionary, but he destroyed not through ignorance or envy. He
destroyed merely that he might then create. The arts in his day were
strangled by academic rules and had become cold and lifeless. The
intensity with which he felt things gave him strength to break these
bonds and to make sculpture once more a means of conveying living
thoughts and emotions. He was like the butterfly which tears away the
stiff-plated chrysalis before it can spread its wings in the free air.
It is useless to try to explain his technical skill; he was born with
it, just as others are born with a keen sense of colour or a musical
ear, but it is certain that without it he could never have carved such
figures as the Saint Theresa or the portrait of Fonseca[17] which show
intense emotion brought on by loss of all sense of self in the
contemplation of the mystical meaning of the Passion. Such feeling could
not be shown by restrained action and quiet faces. Much movement was
necessary and the works are successful and beautiful because the feeling
shown is perfectly simple and natural and not forced and put on for the
sake of effect.
Bernini’s technical power made him, however, a bad master for others to
imitate. Not that the work of his followers is any more inane than that
of the copiers of Michael Angelo or of those of any other great man, but
his peculiarities were such as are at least superficially easy to see.
Where he quite easily and simply distinguished between the appearance of
silk or flesh, his imitators wasted their energies on elaborate
arrangements, the only object of which was to show technical dexterity.
Where he carved figures that are racked and torn with feeling, the
imitators gave forms that are contorted and as unemotional as gymnasts.
But he is not to be blamed for their work. By no means was he one of the
blind leading the blind. He was the seer, the prophet, by odd chance
honoured in his own home, whose visions were so believed by his
followers that they vainly tried to see the like. What their eyes
strained towards and failed to see, his heart yearned for and gained. To
them praise was a prize to win, to him it was a spur to renewed effort
and further advance. He had faults, as who has not, but they were due to
his being a pathbreaker and having to find out for himself ways to carve
and show figures such as no sculptor before him had ever dreamed of;
they were not the faults of ignorance or stupidity. If it be well for us
that we judge not lest we be judged, so too is it well, should we judge
Bernini or other men, to judge not what there is in him of weakness or
failure, but what there may be of noble intention and high endeavour.
Doing this we shall see that Bernini, working always with bowed heart,
but with uplifted spirit, broke down the middle wall of partition
between art and life.
II. A COLLECTION OF SCULPTOR’S MODELS BY BERNINI
The clay models by Bernini, descriptions of which follow, form one of
the most interesting artistic records left us of the sculpture of the
Renaissance. Drawings made by the painters of that period to serve as
studies for their pictures are not uncommon, but the sketch-models made
by the sculptors are rare.
This is because sculptors carved the marble without any previous models,
as Michael Angelo frequently did, or else that the models, being
cumbrous and of material that was easily destroyed, have, in the course
of years, been got rid of either intentionally or by accident. It may
seem strange to suggest that the clay of which the sculptors may have
made their studies is more liable to destruction than the paper used by
the painters, but it must be remembered that while nothing is more
durable than baked clay, air-dried clay is extremely perishable. Wax was
also used by the sculptors for their preliminary sketches, but this,
owing to expense, could never have served for work of any great size or
quantity; and even if less apt to complete disintegration than unbaked
clay, it is very liable to injury.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XIII.]
What precisely was the origin of this collection of Bernini’s models we
cannot tell; but it is our great good fortune that when they were made
there was some one, perhaps one of Bernini’s pupils, who cared for them
and saw to their being properly dried or baked so that they have
preserved their pristine freshness. It is also extremely fortunate that
their present owner realized their great beauty and extreme interest and
added them to the artistic treasures stored in America, where they will
serve in the ages to come to show students and sculptors a clear
reflection of the mind of one of the world’s greatest artists.
In the Museum at Berlin are other models by Bernini, but there is, so
far as I know, no other collection, either public or private, that
approaches the Brandegee Collection in number, variety or excellence of
these works. In America I know of but one other model purporting to be
by Bernini. It is in the Morgan collection and represents Pope Urban
VIII, but it does not show a single touch by the master; it is an
imitation, copied from the statue in the Campidoglio at Rome. In the
collection of the late Mme. Edouard Aynard, sold in Paris, December 1–4,
1913, were two terra-cotta models of angels (lot 307) “attribuées au
chevalier Bernin, d’après les originaux du port Sant Ange, à Rome,” and
one equestrian statuette in the same material (lot 308), said to be the
“esquisse originale de la statue en marbre de Louis XIV, dans le parc de
Versailles, par le chevalier Bernin.” The two angels are certainly not
by Bernini; the portrait may be.
From the artistic point of view these models are of the highest
importance, for they show with startling clearness the great fertility
of invention which characterized Bernini and the vivid way in which he
visualized the creations of his brain. There is not a trace of effort in
them, there is not a sign of rubbing out or doing over, but each group
or figure was obviously seen by him with the sharpness of a dream and
reproduced by his skilful fingers in the fresh clay while the impulse
and uplift of the vision was still on him.
The knowledge of the purely technical side of the art of sculpture which
the models reveal is magnificent. The way, for instance, in which the
various planes are treated in the oval relief of the Virgin and Child
(Plate XXVI) is as subtle as, and very similar to, that of the reliefs
on the ancient vases from Arezzo, while the relation of draped portions
of the figures to the parts left nude, and the manner in which the body
beneath gives life and meaning to the covering drapery, is as fine as
any work by Pheidias.
But the most fascinating and interesting characteristic of these
terra-cotta figures is that one sees in every least portion of them how
Bernini’s fingers, trained by long years of hard practice, played over
the wet clay like wavering flame and moulded the dead material to
enduring forms of beauty. Once more the old mythology comes true, and
Pygmalion, taking the rough material offered him by Mother Earth,
fondled it, and, warming it with the fires of his brain, gave it back
the life that lies asleep till the lover’s kiss wakes it once again.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MODELS
No. 1.—PLATE XI
Seated female figure in high relief, wearing helmet, and heavily
draped; the left cheek rests on the back of the raised left hand. Feet
missing.
For the tablet in memory of Carlo Barberini in Santa Maria d’Aracoeli,
Rome.
Width 10 inches.
No. 2.—PLATE XII
Figure of Longinus, in St. Peter’s. In the round, and gilded.
Height 20¾ inches.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XVI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII.]
No. 3.—PLATE XIII, _a_
Two _putti_, for the decoration of the piers in St. Peter’s. High
relief. The scale of measurement is scratched on the right edge. The
wings are broken from the lower figure.
Height 11⅛ inches.
No. 4.—PLATE XIII, _b_
Another two _putti_, also for St. Peter’s. The scale of measurement is
scratched on the left edge. The wings are broken from the upper
figure.
Height 11⅜ inches.
Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8.—PLATES XIV, XV
Four heavily draped bearded male Saints, for the _Ciborio_ in the
_Cappella del Sacramento_ in St. Peter’s.
The figures stand on thin, square plinths, one of which (Height 10⅜
inches; PLATE XIV, _a_) is unmarked, but on the other three are the
names _Bartolomeo_ (Height 10¼ inches; PLATE XV, _b_), _Tomaso_
(Height 10⅜ inches; PLATE XIV, _b_), and _Filippo_ (Height 10 inches;
PLATE XV, _a_).
The heads of all four are turned to the left, and the figures rest
their weight on the right leg. The left arm of the Bartolomeo is gone,
but was outstretched; the others all stretch out their right arm.
No. 9.—PLATE XVI
Bas-relief with half-figures of four men, and traces of architectural
background.
For the side wall of the _Cappella Borghese_ in Santa Maria della
Vittoria, Rome.
Width 17¼ inches.
No. 10.—PLATE XVII
Half figure of a Triton holding a draped woman on his shoulders.
For a fountain. The head and arms of the woman are gone.
Height 19½ inches.
No. 11.—PLATE XVIII
Front part of the head of a bearded man.
For the Saint Jerome in the _Cappella Chigi_ in the Duomo of Siena.
Height 13½ inches.
No. 12.—PLATE XIX, _a_
Model (head missing) for the kneeling Angel on the left of the
_Ciborio_ in the _Cappella del Sacramento_, St. Peter’s.
Height 11 inches.
No. 13.—PLATE XX, _a_
Another model for the same figure. Tip of right wing missing.
Height 11¼ inches.
No. 14.—PLATE XX, _b_
Angel on the right of the _Ciborio_ in the _Cappella del Sacramento_.
Other models for these two Angels are mentioned by Fraschetti (p.
394), who also suggests that this angel on the right is not by
Bernini, but “perhaps by Paolo Bernini, touched up by his father.”
I do not feel tempted to agree with this idea of Signor Fraschetti;
there is no doubt whatever that this model of the right-hand angel is
by Gian Lorenzo himself. Height 13⅛ inches.
No. 15.—PLATE XXI
Nude figure of an Angel holding the Crown of Thorns. The head and feet
are gone. The weight rests on the right leg.
Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte, Rome.
Height 13¼ inches.
No. 16.—PLATE XXII
Angel holding the Crown of Thorns.
This is the final model of the figure in Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte.
The action of the legs is the reverse of that in 15. Height 17½
inches.
No. 17.—PLATE XXIII, _a_
Model for the Angel holding the Scroll. The tips of the wings are
missing.
In Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte.
Height 11¾ inches.
No. 18.—PLATE XIX, _b_
Another model for the same figure as No. 17; lacks the right leg, the
head and most of the wings.
Height 11⅛ inches.
No. 19.—PLATE XXIV, _a_
Angel, perhaps for the ecstasy of Saint Theresa in _Santa Maria della
Vittoria_, Rome. Right hand missing.
Height 11½ inches.
No. 20.—PLATE XXIII, _b_
Angel, draped, right leg bare, turning to the left. Part of right wing
missing.
Height 11½ inches.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX.]
[Illustration: PLATE XX.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXVI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXVII.]
No. 21.—PLATE XXIV, _b_
Angel, draped, kneeling, head turned to right, right arm (hand
missing) raised, left arm with open hand stretching downwards and
outwards.
Height 11¾ inches.
No. 22.—PLATE XXV
Standing male figure, in high relief. Drapery hangs from the right
shoulder, leaving torso bare but covering the legs with heavy folds.
The left arm hangs down, and there was a palm branch in the now
missing hand. The right arm is bent up with the hand over the chin.
The head bends down and to the right. The figure rests its weight on
the left leg.
The right side of the plaque is curved; the left side is straight, and
on it is scratched a scale of measurements.
Height 16⅝ inches.
No. 23.—PLATE XXVI
Oval bas-relief of the Virgin seated and looking down to right while
holding the Child in her lap. High relief.
Very sketchy, but the most masterly of all these models.
Height 11 inches.
No. 24.—PLATE XXVII, _b_
Draped, standing female figure. She bends forward, turning to the left
with arms (right arm missing) raised to support a slab that rests
across her shoulders. The weight rests on the left leg. At her feet
suggestion of a cuirass.
Study for the base of some monument such as the obelisk in the Piazza
della Minerva. (Cf. Fraschetti, pp. 300–303.)
Height 8½ inches.
No. 25.—PLATE XXVII, _a_
Standing angel, heavily draped; the left knee is bent sharply
backwards. The right arm is bent across the breast, the left arm
(forearm missing) bent across the body lower down. The wings are
missing.
Height 8⅝ inches.
No. 26
The Magdalen kneeling, and grasping the foot of the Cross.
This figure is not by Bernini, and shows clearly the difference
between the work of a master and that of an imitator.
Height 10 inches.
No. 27
Study of a hand.
Length 8 inches.
III. BERNINI’S DESIGNS FOR THE PIAZZA OF ST. PETER’S
The pen and ink sketches by Bernini for the construction and adornment
of the piazza in front of the Vatican, together with the surrounding
buildings, deserve to be more widely known than they are at present.[18]
Any details regarding the history and growth of this part of Rome are of
the deepest interest to those who study the intellectual development of
mankind. Did we possess any record of the reasons why Pericles and his
advisers placed the temples and other buildings on the Acropolis of
Athens just as they did, we should have a clearer understanding of the
character and ideals of Athens than we now have. So a study of these
drawings by Bernini will show very distinctly that the present form of
the piazza is due to no mere thoughtless and haphazard erection of
colonnades and fountains, but is the result of a deeply considered plan
and illustrative of a very large idea.
The drawings are carefully done with pen and ink on fourteen sheets of
paper which were numbered by some old-time owner. These sheets have had
the edges trimmed. Ten are, with slight variations, 14 by 6¾ inches. The
others are, as will be noted later, of different sizes. All, however,
judging by the paper and method of drawing, belong unquestionably to the
same series. The drawings were mounted and bound together by the
previous owner.
[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXIX.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXX.]
The history of the drawings can only be guessed at. In this connection
the following facts are to be noted. Bernini was officially appointed
architect of the _Fabbrica_ of St. Peter’s in 1680. After him Luigi
Vanvitelli was head architect. With Vanvitelli there worked Andrea-Vici.
In 1817 Vici left by his will to his friend the sculptor Canova drawings
by Bernini representing the burial of the Countess Matilda, and Louis
XIV on horseback. This legacy shows Vici to have owned original drawings
by Bernini, and it is not improbable they had been given him by
Vanvitelli. By the same will Vici left to his grandson Busiri his name
and his studio, with all the original drawings by various masters
therein contained. Consequently it is not a rash hypothesis that these
drawings of the piazza came from Vanvitelli to Vici, and so to
Busiri-Vici. Finally they were sold at auction in Rome in 1903. They are
now in the Brandegee Collection.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
No. 1.—PLATE XXVIII
This drawing shows the Orb; the Christian symbol of the world,
surmounted by a cross.
The cross with the head and arms ending in curves like apses suggests
the plan of a church, and the following drawings show clearly that the
Orb and Cross were the fundamental idea in Bernini’s mind when he
planned the _piazza_.
No. 2.—PLATE XXVIII
This is on a square piece of paper, similar in size to No. 1, and at
present mounted on the same sheet at the left of No. 1. It shows the
figure of a bearded man with arms outstretched as though on a cross. A
curved dotted line stretches from hand to hand over the head and drops
about an inch perpendicularly below each hand. This dotted line is a
suggestion of the existing colonnades.
That the figure is thought of as being on a cross is borne out by
sketches that follow and also by the dot in the palm of the left hand
which possibly represents a nail.
The sharp, broken lines with which the figure is drawn are
characteristic of Bernini.
No. 3.—PLATE XXIX
An outline plan of the church with the colonnades in front. It is to
be noted the latter start at the corners of the façade of the church
and project a short distance parallel to the main axis before curving
to each side.
Size 6½ × 8¾ inches.
No. 4.—PLATE XXIX
Similar to No. 3, but in greater detail. The figure of a bearded man
represented within the plan of the church in the attitude of
crucifixion. In the left arm of the colonnade is drawn the sun and in
the right arm the moon and stars.
This is pasted in the book at the left of No. 3.
Size 6⅝ × 8¾ inches.
No. 5.—PLATE XXX
This shows the same crucified figure as before. Over the head and
below each hand is the dotted line seen in No. 2. Behind the head and
arms is drawn with dots the elevation of St. Peter’s, the Vatican and
the colonnades.
No. 6.—PLATE XXX
Similar figure to the preceding, but with the arms contorted so as to
follow the straight portion of the colonnade (shown in No. 3) before
following the curve. Behind the head the dotted outline of St. Peter’s
and behind the figure’s left arm the colonnade and Vatican buildings
laid in with dots and a few lines.
No. 5 is at the right of No. 6, and the size of the sheet is 14 × 6¾
inches.
It should be noted that the figure is so placed in these two drawings
that the dome of the church suggests a bishop’s mitre.
No. 7.—PLATE XXXI
Outline elevation of the north half of the façade of St. Peter’s and
the north colonnade, rising behind which is shown the Vatican Palace.
On the left half of the sheet are faint pencil lines showing the south
side of the colonnade and façade.
The sky is touched in with bluish white.
Size 14¼ × 6½ inches.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIV.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXV.]
No. 8.—PLATE XXXII
Two drawings of the north colonnade. These are similar to the
preceding, but more elaborate (with shadows washed in in gray), as
shown by dotted lines drawn to the eyes of outlined figures from
various points.
We find here the architect’s intention regarding the view from
different positions.
Size 14⅜ × 6¾ inches.
On the back of the sheet is a sketch of the door of St. Peter’s with
the balcony where the Pope used to appear. I do not feel sure that
this is by Bernini. There is also another sheet with a more detailed
drawing of this door.
No. 9.—PLATE XXXIII
Similar to No. 8, but still more elaborate and larger; there is only
one drawing on the sheet.
In this design Bernini has altered the line of the colonnade. Instead
of having, as in the preceding drawing, a straight portion projecting
from the church, he has here drawn the colonnade in one large curve
from the church outwards, putting an elaborate entrance to the Vatican
Palace near the church. This entrance would have led to the Cortile di
San Damaso.
Size 14 × 6⅝ inches.
No. 10.—PLATE XXXIV
Slight outline sketch of the outer end of the north arm of the
colonnade, which is here made two-storied.
Size 13⅝ × 6⅜ inches.
No. 11.—PLATE XXXV
Interior of inner end of north arm of colonnade, showing the stairway
as it exists at present. Size 14½ × 6⅜ inches.
No. 12.—PLATE XXXVI
Two sketches; one showing the plan, the other the elevation, of the
Cortile di San Damaso.
Size 13⅝ × 6⅝ inches.
No. 13.—PLATE XXXVII
View of the façade of St. Peter’s with both colonnades, which are
two-storied. The sky is touched in with bluish white.
The buildings of the Vatican are also shown,—those on the right exist,
those on the left are imaginary.
Size 14⅝ × 6¾ inches.
No. 14.—PLATE XXXVIII
View looking east from the front of St. Peter’s.
On each side are the ends of the colonnades; they are in two stories,
that on the right crowned with low clock-towers similar to the “asses’
ears” once placed by Bernini on the Pantheon.
Beyond the piazza is the _Borgo_ much reconstructed and made
symmetrical. In the distance the Castel Sant’ Angelo.
Size 14⅜ × 6⅝ inches.
No. 15.—PLATE XXXIX
Two sketches in pen, washed with sepia, of the Borgo, looking towards
St. Peter’s.
These show different methods of treating the north arm of the
colonnade. The one on the right shows the colonnade closing the view
up the Borgo, the other shows an opening carrying the eye beyond and
between St. Peter’s and the Vatican.
Size 14½ × 6½ inches.
The buildings shown exist in much the same form to-day. Even the
fountain still serves.
No. 16.—PLATE XL
Plan of the piazza showing how it was intended to symbolize the orb of
the world suggested on No. 1.
In this sketch we see the circle within which is a dotted square.
Within the square is a figure with arms and legs outstretched along
the diagonals. At the top is written over a faint pencil outline of
the church (perhaps not original) _San Pietro_. At the bottom is
written twice _Piazza Rusticucci_ and on a piece of paper pasted on is
the plan of a building shown in No. 14,—one of the buildings intended
for the reconstructed _Borgo_.
On the right and left of the figure are indicated the _Porta Angelica_
and the _Porta Cavalleggieri_.
The dotted square within the circle is divided into quarters in which
is written _Asia_, _Europa_, _America_, _Affrica_.
Size 7¾ × 8⅝ inches.
These are the plans showing Bernini’s ideas regarding the Piazza of
St. Peter’s. From a study of them we see how the circular piazza
itself was intended to represent the world at large, while the
colonnade symbolized the arms of the Cross. Crowning all was the great
Church, founded by Him whose arms could embrace the whole earth, and
from whose doors should stream to every quarter the promise of hope
and love for which He died.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVIII.]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIX.]
[Illustration: PLATE XL.]
ASPECTS OF THE ART OF SCULPTURE
I. THE ART OF PORTRAITURE
All students have noticed the similarity in style between certain
Egyptian portraits and other works by ancient Roman as well as
Florentine artists, and the resemblance in style that exists between
Greek and Venetian portraits. Also there is a marked dissimilarity
between the Egyptian-Roman-Florentine Group on the one hand and the
Greek-Venetian Group on the other; and these two facts suggest the
conclusion that the art of portraiture consists in something more than
the mere photographic imitation in stone, or with paint, of the human
face or figure. Were such imitation the essential factor in the art the
only differences in portraits of different epochs would be those of
ethnographic character. The special characteristics of portraiture as of
the other arts at any given period are the result of the intellectual
and material condition of the people to whom the artist belongs. Style,
that is the distinguishing quality of the work of art, the quality which
differentiates it from a work of another period or race, is the result,
largely unconscious, of the relation of the artist to life and its
effect upon him. The material, the means by which he gives expression to
his endeavour at creation or representation, is of minor importance.