OVIDIO E BERNINI

Speranza

By temperament, BERNINI was an illustrator.

The form and subjects of his early groups may vary, but the intention behind all of them is the same: to provide a visual embodiment of a literary text.

The "PLUTONE di OVIDIO" like the "PLUTONE di BERNINI" has been pierced by Amore's dart, and is inspired by LOVE, not lust.

It is OVIDIO who describes the wind baring the limbs of Dafni, and APOLLO's hand feeling her pulse beneath the barkk.

It is OVIDIO who pictures TRITONE rising from the water to sound his echoing chonch as NETTUNO stills the flood.

In the SEICENTO, it was popularly held that PAINTING was mute poetry.

BERNINI transposes this conception to the sister art of SCULPTURE.

In France, BERNINI expressed his admiration for POUSSIN with the words, "o il grande favoleggiatore", and POUSSIN alone rivals the mythopoetic faculty, the gift for supremely sensitive narration, evident in Bernini's early groups.