''The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun'' is the earliest known work by the Italian artist
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his ...
. Produced sometime between 1609 and 1615,
[Wittkower 1955, p. 231.][Mormando 2011, p. 29.][Avery 1997, p. 19.] the sculpture is now in the
Borghese Collection at the
Galleria Borghese
The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist ...
in Rome.
Background
According to
Filippo Baldinucci
Filippo Baldinucci (3 June 1625 – 10 January 1696) was an Italian art historian and biographer.
Life
Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period ...
, even before Pietro Bernini moved his family from Naples to Rome, eight-year-old Gian Lorenzo created a "small marble head of a child that was the marvel of everyone".
[Baldinucci 2006, p. 8.] Throughout his teenage years, he produced numerous images containing ''
putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...
'', chubby male children usually nude and sometimes winged. Distinct from cherubim, who represent the second order of angels, these ''putti'' figures were secular and presented a non-religious passion.
[Dempsey 2000, pp. 3–4.] Of the three surviving marble groups of ''putti'' that can be attributed to Bernini, ''The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun'' is the only one that is approximately dateable. In 1615, a carpenter was paid for providing a wooden pedestal for the sculpture group.
Some writers date the work as early as 1609, based on stylistic grounds and an interpretation of the 1615 pedestal invoice indicating that the base was a replacement.
Description
The sculpture shows
Amalthea as a goat, the infant god
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...
, and an infant
Faun
The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology.
Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their c ...
.
See also
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List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The following is a list of works of sculpture, architecture, and painting by the Italian Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, , ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 159828 November 1680) was an Italian ...
References
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External links
Web Gallery of Art*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goat
1600s sculptures
1610s sculptures
Goat
Goats in art
Marble sculptures in Italy
Sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Sculptures of classical mythology
Sculptures of children
Sculptures of Jupiter (mythology)