Bernini, DAVID, villa Borghese

Speranza




The precedent in an ancient statue is the GLADIATORE BORGHESE, in the Villa Borghese.

BERNINI chose for David a dramatic movement.

The tension BEFORE imminent action fills the whole figure, from the toes which are firmly pressed against the ground to the eyes which seem to transfix his antagonist.

GOLIATH, at whom David's stone is aimed, must be imagined as ssatanding in the space in which the spectator moves.

This imaginary opponent is a NECESSARY complement of the figure of DAVID, whose action would be SENSELESS without postulating the existence of the enemy.

Thus, the spiritual focus of the statue is somewhere in space, outside the statue itself, in other words, the boundary between the stone figure and the space in which we live and move has been abolished.

Like the groups of this period, Bernini's "DAVID" has only ONE PRINCIPAL view.

It lies EXACTLY on the central axis of the figure and on the eye level of an average person.

Although the movement in depth and the rich spatial qualities of the DAVID naturally lead to a number of SUBORDINATE views, only from the CORRECT standpoint is the movement entirely homogeneous and the great sweep fully effective, going through LEG, BODY, and NECK, and counterbalanced by the TURN of the head and the ARM holding the stone in the sling.

The intensity of movement, the sophisticated rendering of texture, and the almost VIOLENT realism are admirable.

UTMOST concentration and energy are epitomised in the head with its compressed LIPS, the strained muscles around the MOUTH, and INFLATED NOSTRILS, the knitted BROW, and the PIERCING eye -- clearly incorporating physiognomical studies made before a mirror (as held by S. Borghese, in his villa).

------