Bernini’s David

David (Bernini) . It is a statue that represents the future King David , one of the Old Testament characters , in the scene where he defeats the giant Goliath by throwing a stone with a sling.

Summary

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  • 1 Description
  • 2 Comment
  • 3 Some information about the author
  • 4 The work
    • 1 TECHNICAL SHEET
    • 2 ANALYSIS OF THE WORK
  • 5 COMMENT
    • 1 CONCLUSION
  • 6 Others David
  • 7 Sources

Description

Bernini represents the biblical hero in the instant preceding the throwing of the stone that struck the giant Goliath, called by the Philistines to fight against the Israeli army of King Saul. On the ground are the armor donated to David by the sovereign and the harp, a habitual attribute of the hero, which here significantly ends in the head of an eagle, clear evidence of the commission and the celebratory intention of the Borguese family.
The sculpture at the rear is unfinished, as it was originally leaning against a wall in the Hall of the Vessel, now Hall I. As for Apollo and DaphneThis position exalted in the viewer the perception of the development of the action through the twisting of the body and the arms contracted on the sling, until reaching the vision of the face concentrated in the effort of the moment. Originally, the work was supported by a smaller base, a technical measure that increased the viewer’s participation in the space of dramatic action.

Commentary

With his twisted David, Bernini manages to emancipate himself from the schema of the Mannerist serpentine figure, since the spiral structure of his composition arises as a result of an expressive search and not as a choice of an earlier, mechanically repeated model.
Thus, Bernini, by means of the spiral, captures an instant of the unfolding action, expressing both the tense inconclusiveness of the gesture and its possibility of resolution in the action, physically with the stone’s throw, psychologically resolving the desire in action. With this masterful work, in which he emphasizes the realistic and psychological aspects, Bernini overcomes the static fixity of Renaissance sculpture, by proposing the unfolding action, happening, without fractures, between the real space of the spectator and the fictitious one of the moving statue.
In this way, the observer is attracted by the movement of the statue itself, which does not mean that in order to capture its compositional complexity or its dynamic effects, a multiplicity of perspectives is necessary and that it must be turned around (as its location suggests today in the center of a room). On the contrary, Bernini conceived this work, and the successive ones, to be placed against a wall, providing a single point of view, the most suitable, to reveal the culmination of a concrete action. With this highly pictorial conception of sculpture, Bernini sought to arouse wonder in the surprised observer, creating moments of great emotional tension.

Some information about the author

BERNINI ( 1598 – 1680 ) Gianlorenzo Bernini was a multifaceted artist: architect , sculptor , [[]] painter… His creative ability to express different themes was incredible. For example, in 1650 , an English traveler wrote down some of the wonders he did, specifically, a public opera in which he designed the set design, music , libretto, created machine inventions … In addition, everyone liked him very well.
He was a precocious artist. Two biographies of his were soon written, one of Domenico Bernini (his son) and the other of Filippo Baldinicci, who said that he was so precocious that at 8 he was already carving, and at 16 he was already materializing works, without help from anyone.
Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of the powerful Pope Paul V , saw the young Bernini do works of great quality and took him to papal circles, where he would be working all his life.
Bernini’s sculpture is configured thanks to:

  1. The paternal workshop of Pietro Bernini, Mannerist sculptor.
  2. His entry into papal circles. From the beginning, you will have access to the artistic collections of the popes, which include ancient sculpture, and collections of sculpture and painting from the Cinqueccento.
  3. Within the sculpture of antiquity, he was more interested in the Hellenistic, since he is interested in strength and emotion.
  4. From the cinqueccento, he was interested in the interpretations that Raphael and [[] Michelangelo]] had made of antiquity.
  5. Early Baroque painting : it basically draws on Caravaggio and Carracci. From this, he captures affections, an emotion studied without leaving beauty.

The play

David ( 1623 – 1624 ) It is interesting to see how this biblical hero has been treated in the Renaissance , to be able to observe the novelties. Both examples are different, but they have something in common (which Bernini will change): they are quiet and they appear to us as victors.

  • David, by Donatello (1430). David has already won, because he has the head of Goliath at his feet.
  • David, by Michelangelo (1502-1504). David appears thoughtful, figuring out how to beat Goliath. Although he has not fought, no one doubts that he will win, due to his security and physical strength.

Like these artists, Bernini will draw inspiration from antiquity, but also early Baroque painting. You can see how Annibale Carracci , at the Farnese Gallery, captured the very moment of the action. You are seeing the unrequited love of the Cyclops Polyphemus for Galatea, specifically, when he throws a large rock on his lover, Acis. Bernini presents David at the very moment of the action, under a baroque reinterpretation: he presents him as a normal man , small in size, but big because he fights for his ideals.
Bernini represents through anatomythe body in maximum tension; the face shows the transitory emotions: frown, tight lips, fixed gaze. Of course, the figure is in motion over space. Open diagonal lines are found again; there are several points of view, but only one main one (the sculpture would have to be presented against a background). Goliath, the enemy, is implicit, although not sculpted, so it could be said that it is almost a sculptural group. Bernini’s great technique is observed, with a difference between the textures.

DATA SHEET

“David”, a marble sculpture made by the Baroque artist of Neapolitan origin and settled in Rome Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1623 and 1624 . The Work was commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, one of the sculptor’s first patrons and whose palace is now the Galeria Borghese , one of the main art galleries in Rome, where the sculpture in question is located.

ANALYSIS OF THE WORK

The sculpture, made of life-size white marble (1.70 meters high), shows the free-standing image of David’s entire body, represented just at the moment in which he stretches the sling to the maximum to throw the stone that will kill the man. giant Goliath.
Bernini represents the character in an instant of action. Supported on both legs, they open to the maximum, seeming to want to get out of its base, where it barely supports the toes, the only support of the left foot, behind the right that advances towards us. The body arches and twists, retracting violently as its arms taut the rope of the sling to throw the stone.

The sculpture is typically Baroque both for its composition of open lines, in the shape of a cross or X, which seem to project all the energy outwards, and for the oblique ascending line marked by David’s gaze, which is directed towards a point outside. of sculpture; as well as by the inclination of the arm that tightens the sling.
David shows in his half-naked body the tension and concentration of the moment, manifested in the muscles and in a scowling face, whose lower lip bites as a result of the effort of the transcendental moment. On this occasion, Bernini has opted for an adult model, far from Donatello’s Apollonian or Michelangelo’s youth, where realism prevails over idealization; so that David appears to us as a vulgar shepherd, as witnessed by the leather bag that crosses his chest.

In a time of greater moral puritanism, as a consequence of the Counter-Reformation, Bernini shies away from representing the complete nude so that the body is partially covered by a cloth. At the feet he sculpts a lyre alluding to the future poet king as well as a cuirass, which David does not use, and which could symbolize the superiority of David’s faith; who, without weapons, With a simple slingshot, he wins against all odds against the force, represented by Goliath. Finally, highlight the magnificent polishing of the sculpture and the chiaroscuro effects that run through the work.

COMMENTARY

Bernini returns to the theme of David’s confrontation with Goliath that had already been dealt with by some of the great sculptors of the Renaissance such as Donatello, Verrochio or Michelangelo. However, Bernini’s sculpture is absolutely novel both for the moment chosen and for the way it is represented. If the Renaissance showed us the later moments, case of the works of Donatello or Verrocchio, or the previous one, like Miguel Ángel; Bernini chooses to capture the fleeting moment of the attack. Bernini seems to have frozen that moment in which David puts his whole body in maximum tension to throw the stone, so that the sculpture seems to reach far beyond the space limited by the block of stone in which it is sculpted, breaking with statism and serenity of Renaissance works. Here David is not a young Apollonian with praxitelian curves, nor the young man of perfect proportions, but a vulgar shepherd who assumes the destiny that God reserves for him as the leader of his peopleand that with faith he uses all his strength and energy to destroy the greatest and fiercest soldier in the Philistine army. The entire work overflows with dynamism to the point that it seems to go out of its physical support, the pedestal, in a typically baroque resource.

CONCLUSION

Bernini shows in his David a new spirit, that of the counter-reformist baroque fighting Protestantism, away from the humanist idealism that had left its mark on the representations of the same Renaissance theme. During the realization of this work, Cardinal [[] Maffeo Barberini]] was present on numerous occasions, who was to become Pope Urban VIII that same year and welcome Bernini as one of his favorite artists.

Others David

  1. David of Donatello (1444)
  2. David de Verrocchio (1473-1475)
  3. David by Michelangelo (1501-1504
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