BERNINI

 'Modelling in clay is to the sculptor what drawing on paper is to the painter… In the soft clay the genius of the artist is seen in its utmost purity and truth…'
Johann Joachi, Winckelmann, History of Art, 1776

 

                                                      

     Images and quote above are from the Victoria and Albert Museum website  

      

From left to right:

A River God, Giovanni Bologna, about 1575. Museum no. 250-1876, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sketch model of Pope Alexander VII, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Italy, 1669-70. Museum no. A.17-1932, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

From the The Metropolitan Museum of Art website


 Bernini in Action: Gesture and Technique in Clay

Program Information

In conjunction with the exhibition Bernini: Sculpting in Clay (on view October 3, 2012–January 6, 2013), Anthony Sigel, Guest Curator, and Conservator of Objects and Sculpture, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums, outlines the research and discoveries he and his fellow curators made in preparation for the exhibition. By researching Bernini's methods, Sigel has determined which figures Bernini created himself and which ones were likely created by assistants. His lecture includes his own photographs of the models and detailed descriptions of Bernini's methods.