Description of the Baroque style. Sculpture "Apollo and Daphne", "The Rape of Proserpina" (Bernini)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The art of sculpture came to us from the depths of millennia. Europe learned classical Hellenic works of art during the Renaissance from Roman copies. But the movement moved inexorably forward. The 17th century demanded other forms of expression of thought. This is how the “bizarre” and “strange” baroque appeared. Sculpture, painting, architecture, literature - all responded to the call of the times.

Origin of the term

The emergence of the word "Baroque" causes a lot of controversy. A Portuguese version is proposed - a “pearl”, the shape of which is incorrect. Opponents of this trend called it "ridiculous", "pretentious", as this style bizarrely merged combinations of classical forms, as well as emotionality, enhanced by lighting effects.

Style signs

Pomp and grandeur, illusion and reality, deliberate excitement and some unnaturalness - this is all the Baroque style. Sculpture is an integral part of it, which shows the disclosure of the human image in conflict, with increased emotionality and psychological expressiveness of the character. The figures are given in quick and sharp movements, their facesdistorted by grimaces of pain, grief, joy.

Lorenzo Bernini created the dynamics of images and tension in his works. With the help of a dead stone, he portrayed dramatic narratives, especially skillfully using light. The artistic superiority compared to L. Bernini's contemporaries is indisputable for our time. Baroque sculpture was raised by this genius to extraordinary heights. She strove to become like a painting thanks to the skillful transitions of light and shadow. Artworks can be viewed from all angles, and every time they will be perfect.

This happens because the material is completely subordinated to the artistic idea. The work of the baroque sculptor, sculpture in particular, comes into contact with the environment, with the air space around it. It is Baroque that opens up in nature, in gardens and parks, a new milestone in the history of secular sculpture.

How a sculptor works

Only the brilliant Michelangelo was able to take a block of marble and cut off all unnecessary, creating a masterpiece. The main thing is how the image is born in the head of the sculptor, what creative torments it is associated with, how every detail is thought out, how the sculptor sees the future result in advance, and how he strives to get closer to the imaginary ideal. This is how creative people have worked for centuries. The baroque style is no exception. The sculpture was created using the same technique. Lorenzo Bernini, as he himself said, marble subdued like wax.

The myth of the abduction of Proserpina

The sculptural composition AbductionProserpines” was ordered by the young talented sculptor L. Bernini (1621-1622) Cardinal Scipio Borghese. The master was only 23 years old. He decided to express as vividly as possible all the feelings that arose at the moment of the capture of the young Proserpina by Pluto. The youth of Demeter's daughter passed happily, who frolicked and danced with her friends in the meadows and forests. She and her mother did not know that the powerful Zeus decided to make her the wife of the ruler of the underworld, Pluto. Once, while walking, she liked a flower. Proserpine plucked it. It was at this moment that the gloomy ruler of the kingdom of shadows and the dead, Pluto, appeared from under the earth on a golden chariot. Only Helios saw from heaven how the mighty god grabbed and took the beauty underground. Proserpina only had time to scream.

Sculpture by Lorenzo Bernini

The dynamic composition "The Rape of Proserpina" is well balanced and symmetrical.

Pluto's powerful body, with tight biceps and carefully carved calf muscles, swollen veins and ligaments, is very stable thanks to the legs wide apart and the knee pushed forward. The figure of Proserpina writhes in his hands. With one hand, she pushes Pluto's head away from herself, and with the other, in a plea for help, she threw it up. With her hips and her whole body, the young girl pushes herself away from the formidable god. Tears stream down her face.

She's all - a rush up, to freedom. The delicate body of the girl is tightly and gently held by the graceful fingers of God. Their bodies form a stable X-shaped composition. Firstthe diagonal runs from Pluto's leg set aside up to the tilted head. The second - through the right leg of Proserpina, the body and head of God. The bodies of the characters, including the Cerberus, which is designed to balance the composition, look extremely realistic. If you look at it from different angles and under different lighting conditions, you get either sinister effects or warm ones on the faces. Also interesting is the contrast of smooth, softly rounded bodies with shaggy Cerberus hair. That's how exciting art can be. The sculpture gives the impression that they are made of different materials. But it's not. In addition, it should be added that the hair on the head of the god seemed to have been blown up by the wind, and they look extremely natural. The work “The Abduction of Proserpina” should be walked around in a circle, then it will turn out that with a minimum number of details the master created a masterpiece with a completely helpless girl and Pluto, unshakable in his desire.

The second order of Cardinal Borghese

Delighted by the perfection of the sculptor's work, Cardinal Borghese in 1622 ordered him the following composition. It was also based on Greek myth. He was familiar to enlightened Italians from Ovid's Metamorphoses. The bottom line is that Apollo, struck by Cupid's arrow, saw the beautiful nymph and began to pursue her. Now he had already overtaken her, but the fugitive began to pray to her father, the god of the river, for help, and before the eyes of the shocked Apollo, she turned into a laurel tree. The sculpture "Apollo and Daphne" by Bernini depicts exactly the moment when the legs of the nymph turn into roots, and the fingers into branches with foliage.

Nothing left of her but her radiant beauty. Phoebus did not lose his love for her. He kissed the bark that hid the body of the nymph, and put on his head a wreath of laurel branches. The genius of Bernini turned poetry into reality. He showed the dynamism of action and change. Especially Daphne. Her outfit, falling from her shoulder, turns into a bark, her hands into branches. The expression on the face of the nymph is a tragedy. God looks at her with infinite hope and does not believe that she will change. This sculpture illustrates vain love. She says that the pursuit of earthly pleasures can lead to disappointment and, moreover, harm the other person.

Both compositions are now on display at the Borghese Gallery in Rome.