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Thursday, July 26, 2012

IL SUCIDA LUDOVISI -- e Bernini, "Pluto e Proserpina"

Speranza

More important than Bernini's borrowing of Graeco-Roman motifs is the fact that BERNINI felt strongly DRAWN towards a TYPE of HELLENISTIC statue (or statuary group) as represented by the

"VANQUISHED GAUL SLAYING HIS WIFE",

which forms part of the Ludovisi collection, in the museo delle TERME.

This group is planned with ONE MAIN and two subsidary views.

Its plinth is NOT a neutral area -- like the plinth of Giambologna, "Ratto delle Sabine".

Rather, the plinth is treated as A STAGE onw hich the figures 'move'.

As narrative, the group is INCOMPARABLY VIVID, and appeals directly to the eomtoional responses of the onlooker.

The BODY OF THE WOMAN is precariously balanced, about to slump onto the ground, and blood spurts from a self-inflicted wound in the throat of the standing warrior as he looks across his shoulder at an unseen foe.

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If we pass directly from this group to the "PLUTONE E PROSERPINA", which Bernini carved for the VILLA LUDOVISI, we shall find first that it is built up in the SAME WAY.

Second, that the plinth is ALSO treated SPATIALLY.

THIRD, that it makes use of precisely the SAME NARRATIVE decvice: Proserpina cries vainly to the unseen figure of her mother CERES as she is lifted from the ground.

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