Ricardo Fernández Gracia, Director of the Chair of Navarrese Heritage and Art.
Bernini at the Prado Museum
During these days, there are numerous possibilities to contemplate outstanding works of art in various exhibitions in Madrid. Among them, we will mention Bernini's and the Spanish Drawings at the Hamburger Kunsthalle at the Prado, the collection of paintings by Juan Abelló at the Cibeles Center, the Flemish painting at the Carlos de Amberes Foundation, Chronicles of the Conquest. The Route of Hernán Cortés at the Canal de Isabel II Foundation, American impressionism at the Thissen-Bornemisza and the one focused on religious art under the degree scroll de In His Image, Art, Culture and Religion at the Centro Cultural Villa de Madrid, which exhibits the Romanesque image of the monastery of Irache, now in the parish of Dicastillo.
The souls and their patron
Focusing on the first one, which is degree scroll Las Ánimas de Bernini. Art in Rome for the Spanish Court, has been curated by Professor Delfin Rodriguez, Full Professor of art history at the Complutense University of Madrid. cima It should be noted that this is the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the multifaceted artist who reached his peak during the pontificates of Urban VIII Barberini and Alexander VII Chigi, coordinating, selecting and directing the great projects of the triumphant Rome of his time.
Bernini (1598-1680) was the great artist of Baroque Rome, at a time when the city was experiencing a glorious sunset as the capital of the arts. He was a sculptor, architect, painter and draughtsman, caricaturist, stage designer and playwright. At times everything passed through his hands: the baldachin, the silvering of copper plates, the design of ebony and tortoise frames, he appraised paintings of the papal fleet and was involved in work typical of court artists, such as diplomatic gifts.
The exhibition is divided into three sections that describe Bernini's complex relationship with Spain, while tracing the master's evolution as a multifaceted artist through some of his great architectural and urban planning projects, his chapel scenes, sculptures, fountains, paintings and drawings. The sections referred to are the portraits of the soul, first, the city of Rome as the theater of nations, second, and art, religion and diplomacy around the last works of the artist, as the third and last area.
The sample welcomes us with exceptional pieces, some arriving from Rome: portraits of the artist, the bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese and the small sculptures of the beatific soul and the damned soul, where a young Bernini shows the baroque portrait of the passions or states of the soul. young Bernini shows the baroque portrait of the passions or states of the soul. The latter came from the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican and were commissioned by the Spanish prelate residing in the eternal city, Pedro de Foix Montoya, whom the sculptor portrayed around 1621. Bernini himself recounted years later what happened to the bust of the ecclesiastic in these terms: "Urban VIII, then still only a cardinal, came to see it with various prelates, and they all found it with a wonderful resemblance..., that there was one who said: It seems to me Monsignor Montoya petrified; and Cardinal Barberini said with great grace: It seems to me that Monsignor Montoya resembles his portrait. As after that this Spaniard paid him very well, but he left his portrait in his house for a long time, without sending for it; Being surprised at this and commenting on it with some people, they told him that, since many cardinals and prelates saw this portrait in his studio, it was an honor for Monsignor Montoya, since those same cardinals, ambassadors and prelates, meeting him in the street, would stop their carriages to talk to him about his portrait, and that this pleased and flattered him, since he had not been singled out in anything until then".
The bust of Cardinal
It is a work that is chronologically placed in 1632, when he was at the peak and his art was unattainable for many, so it has been pointed to Urban VIII himself as the one who made possible the realization of the sculpture, perhaps to pay the vote of Cardinal Borghese in the conclave. The price of the piece and the fact that it is one of his great portraits The price of the piece and the fact that it is one of his great portraits place us before an exceptional work, where the cardinal seems to be conversing, with his penetrating gaze and his carved pupils. A friend of the artist suggested the very presence of the cardinal because he perceived him as A friend of the artist suggested his own presence of the cardinal because he perceived him as "alive, breathing", something that is in keeping with Bernini's way of working, who observed the model and took numerous notes of the sitter in his daily chores, instead of the traditional posing, trying to capture his physical resemblance and his liveliness. In this regard, it should be remembered that Bernini stated that "the secret of portraits is to exaggerate what is fine and give it a touch of grandeur, and to diminish what is ugly or even make it disappear, but without flattery. This real presence is in keeping with the who's who or the quid pro quo, of which we also have evidence in works by Velázquez during his second Roman stay. In this regard, it is worth remembering that Velázquez and Poussin signed in Rome the most daring mimetic games, although also the most divergent, taking the representation by resemblance to the highest possible Degree . The resource was very abundant in the literature of the time and comes from the Plinian sources where anecdotes about the game between image and reality are counted by dozens.
It is a work that is chronologically placed in 1632, when he was at the peak and his art was unattainable for many, so it has been pointed to Urban VIII himself as the one who made possible the realization of the sculpture, perhaps to pay the vote of Cardinal Borghese in the conclave. The price of the piece and the fact that it is one of his great portraits The price of the piece and the fact that it is one of his great portraits place us before an exceptional work, where the cardinal seems to be conversing, with his penetrating gaze and his carved pupils. A friend of the artist suggested the very presence of the cardinal because he perceived him as A friend of the artist suggested his own presence of the cardinal because he perceived him as "alive, breathing", something that is in keeping with Bernini's way of working, who observed the model and took numerous notes of the sitter in his daily chores, instead of the traditional posing, trying to capture his physical resemblance and his liveliness. In this regard, it should be remembered that Bernini stated that "the secret of portraits is to exaggerate what is fine and give it a touch of grandeur, and to diminish what is ugly or even make it disappear, but without flattery. This real presence is in keeping with the who's who or the quid pro quo, of which we also have evidence in works by Velázquez during his second Roman stay. In this regard, it is worth remembering that Velázquez and Poussin signed in Rome the most daring mimetic games, although also the most divergent, taking the representation by resemblance to the highest possible Degree . The resource was very abundant in the literature of the time and comes from the Plinian sources where anecdotes about the game between image and reality are counted by dozens.
Drawings, projects
The uniqueness and exceptionality of the pieces that make up the sample makes us understand and appreciate the registration that appears on the medal that, in honor of the artist, was minted in 1674, which reads: "Singularis in singulis in omnibus unicus", or the grade that his great patron, Pope Urban VIII, made of him as "extraordinary man, sublime inventor, born by divine mandate for the glory of Rome and to illuminate the century".
Various proposals for the decoration of the Cornaro chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome can be seen, especially a terracotta sketch of the ecstasy of St. Teresa, his most important work of topic Spanish. Also on display are projects for the ornamentation of the naves of St. Peter's in the Vatican for the canonization of St. Thomas of Villanova, a special moment for everything related to the feast. In connection with the latter, where the Baroque culture reaches its climax, also on display is the design, known through the print by François Collignon, of two fireworks machines to celebrate the birth of the Infanta Margherita, daughter of the fourth of the Felipes.
Through an audiovisual, an analysis is made of the statue of Philip IV and the frustrated project of his collation in Santa Maria la Maggiore, in the context of the complex diplomatic relations of the Holy See with Spain and France.
The drawing, property of the Prado, in which the Truth unveiled by time (c.1646-1647) is contemplated, must have been made as a retribution for the criticism received for some of his performances. It is one more sample the genius and virtuosity of the master, and at the same time the subtlety of his thinking. Its presence contextualizes the facet of Bernini the architect and the disagreements with the papacy for the design of St. Peter's bell tower.
Of particular interest are the equestrian figures, beginning with the preparatory drawings for the Constantine on horseback of the Scala Regia, and continuing with the portrait of Louis XIV that did not please the Sun King and that with the face of Charles II was commissioned in the year of the artist's death, very possibly by Don Gaspar de Haro, Marquis del Carpio, Spanish ambassador and one of the great collectors of his time who had in his possession several paintings by Velasquez.
Delicate piece is the little lion coming from a bronze model of the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi of the Piazza Navona in Rome that arrived in Spain in 1665 and that is conserved in the Royal Palace, except for the dismountable pieces that completed it, one of which is the little lion.
Two judgments on the artist
The visit to the exhibition is undoubtedly a good opportunity to get to know the creative genius of one of the great masters of the European Baroque, whom Chantelou described on the occasion of his stay in Paris in 1665 as a man of fiery temperament, with a talent "of the best that nature has ever formed; for, without having studied, he has almost all the advantages that the sciences give to man. For the rest, he has a good report, a lively and ready imagination, and, as far as his judgment is
his judgment, he seems to be sharp and solid. He is a very good conversationalist, and has an entirely particular talent for expressing things by word, face, and gesticulation, and for making them look as pleasing as the greatest painters have known how to do with their brushes."
A man who, like all geniuses, also had his enemies who would give vent to envy - always an inferiority complex - with serious accusations, at a time when the artist had lost papal favor and momentarily eclipsed his figure, during the pontificate of Innocent X, favoring patronage over other projects. A hostile text paints him as follows: "that dragon who continually watched over the orchards of the Hesperides made sure that no one could take the golden apples of papal favor. He spat poison everywhere and always sowed with fearful difficulties the path that led to the longed-for rewards".