This remarkable group was executed by Bernini--sometimes called Michael
Angelo the second--when he was but eighteen years old, and is now in
the Villa Borghese, Rome. Near the close of his long life Bernini
declared that he had made little progress after its production.
The flying nymph is seized by the young god and is already being
changed into a laurel tree. The upraised hands are terminated by twigs
and leaves instead of fingers. The wonderful manner in which the lower
limbs are barked about is difficult to describe.
The technical details and mechanical skill of this group excel anything
of the kind ever attempted, and the work is such as would beforehand
have been pronounced an impossibility.
[Illustration]
Proserpine.
“The Maiden.”
“_What ails her that she comes not home?
Demeter seeks her far and wide,
And gloomy browed doth ceaseless roam
From many a morn till eventide.
‘My life, immortal though it be,
Is naught!’ she cried, ‘for want of thee,
Persephone, Persephone.’_”
--JEAN INGELOW.