QUATTROCENTO, CINQUECENTO, e BERNINI

Speranza

BERNINI follows the RENAISSANCE precedent, for the CLIMAX of an action can be fully revelaed from ONE MAIN aspect alone.

In othe respects, however, BERNINI depearted from RENAISSANCE tradition.

EVERY RENAISSANCE statue (or statuary group) is ENCOMPASSED by the marble block or the bronze, the cube of the block, in the case of the marble, that constitutes its PHYSICAL as well as its SPIRITUAL limits.

The block-shape seems to impose no limitations on the imageination of the late CINQUECENTO mannerist modelers and sculptors.

THEY invented freeely, unimpeded by material restrictions.

THUS, contours of figures were BROKEN up and extremities MADE to stick out.

THIS NEW FREEDOM, expressive of a deep spiritual change, led also to MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS in sculpture.

WHILE BERNINI could NOT accept the many views of mannerist statuary, which prevent the perception at a glance of one centre of energy and one climax of action, BERNINI did not return to the Renaissance limitations dicated by the block form, because he wanted to wed his statues to the surrounding space.

BY COMBINING the SINGLE viewpoint of the Renaissance with the FREEDOM achieved by the mannerists, BERNINI laid the foundations for a ndew conception of sculpture in which all elements are complementary.

The SINGLE VIEWPOINT and energetic action, the choice of a TRANSITORY moment, the breaking down of the restrictions imposed by the block, the elimination of different spheres for statue and spectator, and intense REALISM and subtle differentiation of texture -- these were the means by which BERNINI made the beholder an EMOTIONAL participant in the spectacle before his eyes.