Italian baroque sculpture

Grand Prince Ferdinando de' Medici (1663?713),

                                              Portrait Bust, 17th century (ca. 1683?5)
                                             Giovanni Battista Foggini (1652?725), Sculptor
                                             Italian (Florence); Made in Florence, Italy
                                             Marble; base of gray marble; H. (including base) 39 in. (99.1 cm)
                                             Purchase, The Annenberg Foundation Gift, 1993 (1993.332.2)

  Alternate Views

Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children,

                                              17th century (ca. 1616?7)
                                              Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), Sculptor
                                              Italian (Rome); Made in Rome, Italy
                                              Marble; H. 52 in. (132.1 cm)
                                              Purchase, The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, Fletcher, Rogers,and Louis V.Bell Funds,                                     and Gift of J.Pierpont Morgan, by exchange,1976 (1976.92)

 Alternate Views

Presentation for Italian baroque sculpture.

        I prepared two sculptures in Italian baroque period. One is bacchanal : A faun teased by children made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, he was the herioc central figure in italian baroque sculpture. The other is Grand Prince Ferdinando de’Medici made by Giovanini Battista Foggini. (by the way) Medici family was famous for their wealth as a trades man and banker.

        Let’s look at first one. See page one. We can see here in the buoyant forms and cottony texture of the bacchanal. This was the influence of his father, Pietro. However, the liveliness and strongly accented diagonals are the distinctive contribution of the young Gian Lorenzo. Although he made this work when he was about eighteen, he already displayed what would become a lifelong interest in the rendering of emotional and spiritual exaltation. The bacchanal reveals the young Bernini’s intensive study of bacchic subject matter.

        And next page, this sculpture is the bust of the elder son of Grand Duke Cosimo de’Medici. This work, also, belongs to a series of compelling images representing members of the Medici family. The dramatic, vigorous late baroque style reveals the influence of Bernini and his followers on Foggoni. Ferninando is portrayed in his early twenties. The artist captures his dreamy and sensitive nature, which radiates from his handsome, regular feature. His face is framed by a mass of cascading curls that merges with the lavish Venetian gros-point lace of his jabot and the folds of his generous mantle. At the time the portrait was carved, Cosimo was pressing the young prince to take a wife. Ferdinando married in 1689, but the union did not produce an heir. When the prince predeceased his father, the grand-ducal crown was passed to his brother Gian Gastone, the last Medici to rule Florence.