Art Encounter #1-Pluto and Persephone by Bernini

Gian Lorenz Bernini

The sculpture I wish to explore is Pluto and Persephone by Gian Lorenz Bernini executed between 1621-1622.  Bernini's principal patron Scipione Borghese funded it but then gave it to Cardinal Ludovisi in 1622, who took it to his villa, it remained there until 1908.  The Italian state purchased it and returned it to the Galleria Borghese where it now stands.  The white marble sculpture is placed in contrapposto pose.  Contrapposto is an Italian term used to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs.  This pose makes the sculpture appear more dynamic, as if in motion. Contrapposto was an extremely important sculptural development for it is the first time in Western art that the human body is used to express a psychological disposition.  The position of the human body could convey a human experience.

Front view

This sculpture is three views in one.  You can see the triumphant return of Pluto (Hades) to the underworld with his prize Persephone (Prosperina) from the front of the sculpture.  This pose demonstrates his strength and pride.

Left View

 The view from the left is the abduction of Persephone.  You can see her twisting away and fighting his strong grip.  His fingers seem to actually grip her flesh in the detail from the right view.

Detail from right view

The whole right view is interpreted as Persephone's prayer to her mother, Ceres(Demeter), to return to the world.  Her hair is blowing in the wind, at close look she actually is shedding tears of terror, her mouth open with unheard screams.  Next to her, Cerberus, the three-headed dog is howling.

Right view

Cerberus is the three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades to prevent people from escaping.  His presence is a clear indication of the fate that awaits Persephone as Queen of the Underworld.

This sculpture depicts the mythological moment when Pluto carries his unwilling bride Persephone across the threshold of Hell.  The story of her abduction is traditionally referred to as the Rape of Persephone.  Persephone was a normal half immortal (daughter of Zeus and Demeter) woman until Hades abducted her. She was innocently picking flowers in a field when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through the earth. The place where Persephone was said to have been carried off is different in the various local traditions. The Sicilians believed that Pluto found her in the meadows near Enna. The Eleusinians mentioned the Nysaean plane in Boeotia and said that Persephone had descended with Pluto into the lower world at the entrance of the western Oceanus. Later accounts place the rape near Attica. The Cretans thought that their own island was the scene of the rape.  The devastated Demeter, goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened.  Zeus eventually forced Hades to return Persephone to the earth but for only three seasons of the year.  When she returns it is Spring and when she must yet again retire to the underworld the earth is cold and barren, Winter.  This story is often used as an origin story to explain the seasons.  I found this really great video of a live viewing/commentary of the sculpture. 

Baroque, the artistic style of the 1600s, targeted the senses using virtuosity and realism, reaching the mind through emotion rather than reason. The term Baroque was coined in the 1700s from the Portuguese word for an irregular pearl, barroco.   Baroque art has qualities of theatricality, movement, and exuberance. Artists like others of the time who were interested in studying, and recording the world applied their genius of avid observation to render details of the physical world and of human psychology into a new style of art.

Bernini revolutionized sculpture, busts, fountains, and the tomb in the 17th century.  When you discuss Baroque sculpture every other artist pales in comparison to him.  His extensive development of realism is extraordinary.  His sculpture is lifelike and dynamic, qualities not seen before him.  He worked for seven different Roman pontiffs during his vast career.  The altar canopy, the baldachin (1624-1633) over the St. Peter's altar is said to be masterful feat of engineering, architecture and sculpture and the first of many serious undertakings for St. Peter's.  He was also the first to use light in a sculptural setting, exemplified in his famous masterpiece The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1645-1652).

The Bust of the Savior

I believe that this sculpture must leave you breathless when viewed in person.  Since, I cannot view it but through pictures or video my two dimensional appraisal will have to suffice.  The detail and proportion of their bodies is so life-like, if they weren't carved of marble you would think them flesh.  The movement that is implied through the way it was carved is powerful.  The story of Pluto and Persephone is intriguing and romantic.  Someday I wish to see it in person.

Works

Concept Blog #1-Twinkle, twinkle little star

How would you feel if you found out that everything you knew about the world you lived in was nothing like you had thought?  Would you be curious to know what your reality was?  Would you be able to publicly display your findings despite being completely ridiculed and ostracized by your peers and even your God?  This is the story of Nicolaus Copernicus.  He was a Renaissance man for certain.  His ideas revolutionized the worldview and religious thought of his time.  His ideas are also a solid base for today's Astronomy and its reach to the future.

Prior to the Renaissance, the model of the cosmos that was accepted came from the Greek philosopher Ptolemy in 140 AD.  Simply put; the Earth was the center of the Universe and the moon, sun, planet, and all the stars orbited around it in a circular pattern.  This was the way it was and everyone knew.  Copernicus started to question this theory, it in fact became his life's work.  As an avid astronomer and star gazer he knew that there was planetary motion that could not be explained by Ptolemy's unchallenged 1300 year old theory.

Copernicus theorized a startling different world.  The reason that the stars appeared to orbit the Earth was an illusion because the Earth itself rotated on its on axis every 24 hours, hence night and day.  He dared to go further suggesting that the strange planetary motion that no one could explain was solved with the deduction that the stars orbited the Sun and not the Earth.  This of course leads to the theory that the Earth and all heavenly bodies orbit the Sun: Copernican Theory.

Copernicus was a devout Catholic and he risked heresy proposing such ideas.  He wasn't just challenging Science but also God.  The Vatican viewed the earth as unmovable and the center of the world.  Any beliefs otherwise were contrary to Holy Scripture.  He kept his ideas to himself for thirty years because of his fear of the imminent censure from the church.  Only as he was nearing death did he decide to publish his findings in 1543, in the book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.  Legend has it that he saw it in print on his deathbed and it was immediately put on the papal index of forbidden books.

His ideas remained  forgotten for nearly 80 years till a man named Galileo started to question planetary motion.  Galileo proved Copernicus right with his brilliant mind and telescope.  These ideas caused such a sir that the church put Galileo on house arrest till his death.  These ideas were built upon by Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton...etc.  A brilliant mind builds upon the ideas of another brilliant mind.  This is how we will pave the path to the future.