A Classical Story, a Baroque Interpretation, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini Essay

When told his son would surpass him in artistic brilliance, Pietro Bernini of Florence simply responded, â€Å"†¦remember, that in this game the loser wins† (Fagiolo 9). A conversation held in the distant past, there was no way for Pietro to know that his son, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, would come to be known as one of the most talented artists the world has ever seen. Fully immersed in the art world at a young age, Gian Lorenzo Bernini catapulted to artistic prominence soon after his initial commissions within the papacy. One of his earliest works, Bernini’s sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina not only illuminates Bernini’s astonishing skill in marble craft, but also serves as a perfect manifestation of Baroque ideals while simultaneously solidifying Bernini as a key artist of the Baroque art period which began its sweep across Europe during his lifetime. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born on December 7th, 1598, in the city of Naples, Italy (Fagiolo 3). His father, Pietro Bernini, was a gifted Florentine sculptor who moved his family to Rome in 1606, the city in which Bernini would live until his death. In his youth, Bernini spent a great majority of his time and training in his father’s workshop; it was here that Pietro taught his son â€Å"to exercise hand and eye continually in his craft† (Fagiolo 3). After moving to Rome, his father worked for several years in the service of the Borghese Pope Paul V (Wittkower 3). Through his father’s fortunate connection with the papacy, the young and extremely gifted Gian Lorenzo caught the eye of the Pope and his nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese (Wittkower 3). This initial discovery launched Bernini into his lifelong successful artistic career. From 1618 onwards, Bernini was consistently employed, creating incredible and awe-inspiring artworks in the city of Rome: â€Å"For more than half a century he was sculptor-architect to eight popes, all of them†¦so respectful of Bernini’s genius that they gave him the richest commissions any artist has ever received† (Wallace 10). Following years of countless commissions—including what some might call his most prominent and well known, the architectural design of St. Peter’s Square outside of the Vatican—Bernini died on November 28th, 1680 at the age of 81, leaving behind an extraordinary legacy which is still pertinent in present day Italy: â€Å"†¦only the Romans had a greater influence on Rome than Gianlorenzo Bernini† (Bent). The story behind Bernini’s Pluto and Proserpina stakes its origins in ancient Greek mythology. Copied from the Greeks by the Romans, â€Å"The Rape of Persephone†Ã¢â‚¬â€daughter of the Greek goddess of the harvest, Demeter—was written in order to explain the forming of the four earthly seasons: fall, summer, spring, and winter (Fairbanks 176-178). In the story, Persephone is in a meadow, picking flowers as she walks, when she spies a narcissus flower that is â€Å"finer than the rest† (Fairbanks 178). As she stoops to claim it for her bouquet, the ground opens up and Hades, god of the dead, on his ghastly chariot, abducts Persephone and drags her to the underworld against her will (Fairbanks 178). Demeter, who discovers her daughter’s fate from Apollo, pleads with Zeus to return Persephone to her. (Fairbanks 179). To Demeter’s dismay, Persephone had ignorantly eaten pomegranate seeds of the underworld, and was therefore obliged to remain with Hades (Fairbanks 179). However, an agreement was made in which Persephone may spend half of a year in the underworld with her king, and the other half on Earth with her mother (Fairbanks 179). In the spring, when Persephone returns to the earthly realm, Demeter causes the flowers to grow in order to welcome her daughter home (Fairbanks 179). When Persephone must return to the underworld, Demeter mourns her daughter’s leaving, causing the leaves to wither and fall off the trees—and thus, the seasons were formed (Fairbanks 179). One of Bernini’s earlier works, the sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina is truly a wonder to behold. Completed in 1622 when Bernini was a mere twenty-three years old, the marble sculpture is larger than life and currently presides in the Borghese Gallery in Rome (â€Å"Pluto†). The sculpture, named for the Roman characters of myth, captures the very moment in which Pluto (Hades) has snatched his soon-to-be bride, Proserpina (Persephone), and drags her to his deathly realm. This is made apparent in the presence of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guardian of the underworld, who snarls ferociously under Proserpina’s writhing form. Pluto, with his firm grip, clasps Proserpina as she tries to flee from her somber king. However, Proserpina’s efforts are futile as Pluto is already successfully grounded in the underworld, and knows she cannot escape his clutches or a life spent in his shadowy kingdom. Pluto and Proserpina, as an artwork, serves as a pinnacle of Baroque values. The Baroque period, which began approximately around the year 1600—two years after Bernini’s birth—marked a severe transition in European artistic ideals: â€Å"In comparison with the art of the High Renaissance, Baroque art is†¦more colorful, higher-pitched, and ‘theatrical. ’ Baroque art makes a direct appeal to the emotions of the viewer† (Wallace 11). In this regard, Pluto and Proserpina is dead on—as Proserpina strains against the force that is Pluto, the emotion portrayed via the body language and faces of both is a clear example of Baroque style. â€Å"Bernini interpreted this†¦as a conflict between brutal lust and desperate anguish,† a notion which is made clear in movement of the sculpture (Wittkower 4). As Proserpina struggles with all of her might, she pushes her left hand against Pluto in a feeble attempt at escape, all the while marble tears roll down her cheeks, an expression of anxiety and sadness written clearly on her face. Pluto, whose taut, muscular legs and firm grip on Proserpina’s thigh and stomach, has won his prize and intends to claim it—he looks on the struggling form of Proserpina with a hint of a smirk and nothing but desire in his eyes. The expressions Bernini gave the two only emphasize his influence on fundamental Baroque elements: â€Å"Baroque gestures in†¦sculpture are vividly dramatic†¦Facial expressions†¦are so explicitly rendered that they verge on caricature† (Wallace 11). The scene that Bernini portrays in Pluto and Proserpina is nothing short of emotive, dramatic, theatrical, steeped in movement, and utterly Baroque. Depicting a quintessential classical tale, Bernini’s sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina was created shortly after the conclusion of the High Renaissance, an art period in which â€Å"ancient celebrations of the human figure, together with the optimistic spirit of the early sixteenth century, fostered an unprecedented interest in the figure as art† (Wood 138). Artists practicing within the Baroque period took this appreciation of the human figure and aimed to embellish it with drama, movement, and sensation. Bernini’s Pluto and Proserpina does exactly that—maintaining the High Renaissance’s desire for classicism and appreciation of the individual, Bernini expertly crafts idyllic human forms while simultaneously adding Baroque flourish to the work. The rippling, muscular form of Pluto reflects attention to the male figure similar in quality to that of Michelangelo’s David, yet differs severely in Pluto’s movement versus David’s stagnant pose (Michelangelo’s). As Pluto lunges into the underworld with his fleshy prize, there is distinct sense of mobility and, in essence, story-telling within the work. David, on the other hand, is found lacking in both action and drama—in a relaxed stance, David has his slingshot casually slung over his left shoulder, holding the stone listlessly in his right hand. Despite the fact that David is wearing an expression of what seems to be concentration or concern, Michelangelo’s work is a far cry from the emotional drama present in Pluto and Proserpina. Through Bernini’s portrayal of the contrasting feelings of Pluto and Proserpina in such an exaggerated and dramatic way, the audience is caught up in the moment of the story as if they are actually experiencing it. Static statues such as Michelangelo’s David, however, leave the viewer rooted in time and place, contemplating what the work has potential to do, without actually witnessing it. Despite the truly amazing artistic prowess behind Pluto and Prosperpina, not to mention the fact that the work was created almost four hundred years ago, Bernini’s massive portfolio of work has only recently been circulating the art world in terms of its analysis and critique. â€Å"Bernini himself predicted that his reputation would diminish after his death; his art is much concerned with emotion and faith, and†¦he sensed†¦these qualities would not be the most admired in the age of reason† (Wallace 10). Praised for years by eight different papacies, Bernini’s remarkable artwork fell by the wayside, and was even slandered by English art critic John Ruskin who believed it was â€Å"impossible for false taste and base feeling to sink lower† than Bernini’s work (Wittkower 1). However, although his reputation as an artist hit an all-time low in the Victorian era due to Ruskin’s harsh critique, Bernini is finally beginning to receive the recognition he deserves. With transportation more readily accessible than ever before in combination with he notion â€Å"†¦that citizens of the late 20th century, having seen what a botch men of reason have made of the world, are increasingly open-minded toward men of feeling,† Bernini’s work is only now, within the last one hundred years or so, being considered by art historians, as implausible as it may seem (Wittkower 12). Pluto and Proserpina, though an exceptional work of art, is one of Bernini’s lesser-studied sculptures—it is next to impossible to find any sort of analysis of the work. Yet, even though it is not considered to be his best work—if even considered at all—those who have had the chance to observe and contemplate it recognize Bernini’s sheer technical expertise as exhibited in Pluto and Proserpina. In an article from The North American Review, Bernini is considered â€Å"the soul of his age† in that he provided â€Å"a solid, emotional core† to â€Å"a theatrical style like Baroque† (Bent). The article praises Bernini as â€Å"a master of detail who always built his figures around a single, dramatically potent gesture. His ‘Pluto Abducting Proserpina’ is a case in point† (Bent). More praise for Bernini comes from author John Wallace, who, in his book, The World of Bernini, describes the sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina as â€Å"†¦one of the most remarkable in carved†¦sculpture† in terms of its astounding physical and psychological realism (Wallace 18). As â€Å"†¦an artist whose influence on his time is without parallel in history,† Bernini was undoubtedly a crucial artist in the foundation of the Baroque movement (Wallace 9). Born two years prior to the dated beginning of the Baroque period, Bernini spent his entire life creating works of art steeped in Baroque ideals—works of movement, drama, and emotion. The sculpture of Pluto and Proserpina does nothing but emphasize this notion of Bernini’s reign as a leading Baroque artist in Rome. Despite the fact that his reputation as an incredibly accomplished artist diminished drastically in the years following his death in 1680, Bernini is without a doubt one of the most skilled artists to have ever lived. Without Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s considerable contributions, the Eternal City of Rome would be found lacking in the majority of its artistic grandeur, and the Baroque period would be missing an absolutely essential founding father.