Saint Longinus (Bernini)
Saint Longinus | |
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Saint Longinus | |
Dimensions | 440 cm × 440 cm (170 in × 174 in) |
Location | St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City |
Saint Longinus is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Completed in 1638, the marble sculpture sits in the north-eastern niche in the crossing of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.[1] It is over four meters high and was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, a great patron of Bernini.
Commission
In 1627 Bernini replaced Carlo Maderno as the chief architect for St. Peter's Basilica and was given complete control over any new projects in St. Peter's until 1647, three years after the Pope's death. Bernini not only oversaw the addition of interior decoration in St. Peter's but he was responsible for the creation of several works, including Saint Longinus.[2]
Saint Longinus was one of four massive statues commissioned for the niches under the crossing of St Peter's, along with statues of
Preparatory studies
It is likely that the early bozzetto (a rough model made in terracotta), held in the
A later terracotta sketch, held in the Museo di Roma, and rescued during excavation in the 1980s, is closer to the final design. The Museo di Roma model has been cut up into various pieces; the places of the cuts (along the right arm, drapery and torso) are the same as the divisions in the marble block on the final sculpture. This indicates Bernini used the model to calculate how the various blocks of marble could be brought to together to form a physically robust and seemingly complete whole.[8]
Bernini and his assistants are likely to have produced many more preparatory designs. The German artist Joachim von Sandrart counted 22 small models for Saint Longinus when he visited Bernini's studio in 1635.[9] Additionally, there are another set of eight drawings in the Düsseldorf Museum Kunstpalast.[10] Once the model had been agreed by the relevant parties, Bernini set to work on the sculpture, taking three years to produce the final design.
Historical context
Begun in 1545,
Religious context
Composition
Bernini captures the moment when Longinus experiences his spiritual awakening. His face looks up towards the sky with a partially open mouth to indicate his spiritual awakening. The Holy Lance is thrust to the side and his armor and military apparatus lay behind him, a symbol of his revocation of his career as a Roman soldier. Longinus, with his arms extended, receives the divine light. This divine light, in practice, would come through the windows of St. Peter's Basilica.[13]
Artistic style
Bernini is known for using intense emotion to communicate a psychological or spiritual awakening in his subject. The way in which he depicted a subject's fabric was often manipulated by Bernini to enhance the drama of the scene. Longinus's clothes twist and billow around him with great intensity, acting as a visual representation of Longinus's spiritual moment converting to Christianity. The billowing fabric also suggests another important trait of Baroque sculpture and Bernini's work, namely movement. Bernini has composed the scene as if the viewer has stumbled upon Longinus, frozen in time at the exact moment of his spiritual transformation. The fabric, depicted in what would otherwise be an unrealistic placement, suggests movement and that the viewer has just stumbled upon Longinus in his exact moment of spiritual awakening.[14]
Bernini has also elevated the drama of the scene by manipulating the construction of the sculpture to create sharp contrasts between light and dark. An iconic visual element of the Baroque era is chiaroscuro, or the contrast between light and dark, which served to heighten the drama of a scene. Bernini uses two techniques in this sculpture to facilitate this contrast and add more drama to the scene. Using a claw chisel, Bernini has created large and small linear patterns across the sculpture, or hatching effect commonly seen in drawings. Areas of the sculpture, especially in the fabric, are also heavily undercut to create pockets of shadow. These two techniques create more darker shadows in the sculpture that are juxtaposed against the bright white marble, thus enhancing the dramatic effect of light and shade.[15]
Physiognomy
Manipulating a subject's facial expression to depict their inner feelings and personality was a common technique employed by Bernini and other
References to Catholic Christianity
When Longinus pierced the side of Christ both blood and water came from the wound. The mixing of blood and water symbolizes the sacraments of the
Later engravings
An engraving by H Frezza, created in 1696, exists in the Wellcome Library, London.[18]
Notes
- ^ Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 250-1.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,102.
- ^ Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,123-9.
- ^ Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 250-1.
- ^ Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,123-9.
- ^ Harvard Art Museums's website, Harvard Art Museum, retrieved 17 November 2011, http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collection/detail.dot?objectid=1937.51&fulltext=bernini&pc=1&page=1.
- ^ Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,123-9.
- ^ Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,123-9.
- ^ Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,123-9.
- ^ Harris, Ann Sutherland, "New Drawings by Bernini for 'St. Longinus' and Other Contemporary Works,"383-391+432-447.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,37.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,104.
- ^ Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 56.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,104.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,104.
- ^ Poseq, "On Physiognomic Communication in Bernini,"161-90.
- ^ Neuman, Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture,103.
- ^ H. Frezza after C. Patacchia after Gianlorezno Bernini, Saint Longinus, 1696, Engraving, Wellcome Collection, London,
References
Bray, W. and J. Evelyn.
Dickerson III, C.D., Anthony Sigel, and Ian Wardropper. Bernini: Sculpting in Clay. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
H. Frezza after C. Patacchia after Gianlorezno Bernini, Saint Longinus, 1696. Engraving. Wellcome Collection, London.
Harris, Ann Sutherland. "New Drawings by Bernini for 'St. Longinus' and Other Contemporary Works." Master Drawings 6, no. 4 (Winter 1968): 383-391+432-447.
Harvard Art Museums's website. Harvard Art Museum. Retrieved 17 November 2011. http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collection/detail.dot?objectid=1937.51&fulltext=bernini&pc=1&page=1.
Neuman, Robert. Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture. New York City: Pearson, 2013.
Poseq, Avigdor W.G. "On Physiognomic Communication in Bernini." Artibus et Historiae 27, no. 54 (2006): 161–190.
Wittkower, Rudolf. Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque. London: Phaidon Press, 1997.