Bust of the Cardinal Scipione Borghese
Rome, Latium, Italy
Borghese Gallery
Scipione Borghese
Italian State
1632
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598, Naples-1680, Rome )
CCLXVI
Marble
H: 82 cm
Borghese Collection
Sculpture
In 1605 when Paul V became Pope, he immediately made his nephew Scipione a cardinal, despite his young age, quickly promoting him to a position comparable to secretary of state. This enormous power allowed the cardinal-nephew to create a splendid home and a marvellous art collection over a decade, in an unorthodox manner.
The bust portrait of Scipione by Gian Lorenzo Bernini was sculpted for his first major patron in 1632, after a creative hiatus of nearly seven years as a sculptor, during which he developed a new concept in portraits, more representative of the vibrant Baroque style.
The spontaneous and intense pose, the arrangement of the bust with the head turned in a slight movement, the attentive gaze and the mouth open in an expression of vague wonderment combine to create a highly expressive, almost colloquial relation with the viewer.
The cloth folds in the mozzetta (a short elbow length cape worn by Catholic clergy) and the detail of the small unfastened button showing us the live body beneath the clothes are an integral and involving part of the piece.
The marked confidence displayed by this excellent example of a Baroque style of which Bernini was a master gives an intimate and human dimension to the sitter, despite his official status.
With the bust almost finished, a hairline fracture opened up in the marble around the forehead, due to the stresses of the sculpting tools. The sculptor was forced to produce a second version of the bust at very short notice. This shows how little attention Bernini paid to his choice of marble, something that was of fundamental importance for other sculptors, such as Michelangelo. Despite the crack, the Cardinal requested that both works be delivered to him, keeping both in the Galleria Borghese.
Cardinal Borghese, the pope’s nephew, was a passionate collector and looked after the cultural policy of the papal court. He had a sensitive instinct for artistic quality and gave a boost to the birth of the Baroque. Bernini renders the Cardinal life-like; the transience of human feeling and the expression of inner emotions are part of the Baroque aesthetic.
The Borghese Collection was acquired by the Italian State in 1902.
Faldi, I., Galleria Borghese. Le sculture dal secolo XVI al secolo XIX, Rome, 1954, n.36, pp. 37–39.
Wittkower, R., Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London, 1955 (ed. Italiana Milano, 1990, cat. 31, p. 88).
Coliva, A., “Due Busti di Scipione Borghese”, in Bernini Scultore, La nascita del Barocco in Casa Borghese, catalogo della mostra, Rome, 1998, pp. 276–289.
Ulivi, M., Sorrentino, M. A., Chilosi, M. G., Rockwell, P., “Due Busti di Scipione Borghese”, in Bernini scultore e la tecnica esecutiva, Rome, 2002, pp. 216–233.
Copyright image: Archivio fotografico Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e Polo Museale della Città di Roma.
Sofia Barchiesi, Maria Assunta Sorrentino "Bust of the Cardinal Scipione Borghese" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus11;1;en
Prepared by: Sofia BarchiesiSofia Barchiesi
SURNAME: Barchiesi
NAME: Sofia
TITLE: Author and Researcher
CV:
Sofia Barchiesi, a graduate and specialist in Art History and recipient of a scholarship from the School of Mediaeval and Modern Art History at Lumsa University, has been working with the Superintendency for Historical Artistic Heritage and the Museums of Rome since the late 1980s. She was responsible for cataloguing the art of the region and museums of Rome, studying the period of the Counter-Reformation particularly closely. She works with journals and writes essays, alternating her research and teaching work., Maria Assunta SorrentinoMaria Assunta Sorrentino
SURNAME: Sorrentino
NAME: Maria Assunta
AFFILIATION: Borghese Gallery, Rome
TITLE: Conservation Department Co-ordinator
CV:
Maria Assunta Sorrentino, holder a of a Diploma in Painting and Fresco Restoration and a degree in the Science of Cultural Heritage (historical-artistic), has worked at the Borghese Gallery since 1993, where she manages the Conservation Department and is in charge of the technical and organisational co-ordination of temporary exhibitions. She is currently working on the Ten Great Exhibitions project underway at the Borghese Gallery. She has published several papers on conservation and history in relation to the exhibition, with particular reference to artists such as Bernini, Domenichino, Canova and Caravaggio.
Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez
Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.
True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.
MWNF Working Number: IT1 02