Drawings
by Gian Lorenzo BERNINI

The formulation of the concept of a sculpture usually meant beginning with an analysis of various ideas in numerous preparatory drawings and bozzetti. Only a few of what must have been countless numbers of these drawings and models survive, but they clearly demonstrate the nature and intensity of Bernini's working method. The most important groups of drawings are in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, and in Rome at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and the Gabinetto delle Stampe. The drawings - primarily pen, chalk, or pen over chalk - are remarkable for their freshness and vitality, recording with bold, spontaneous lines the essence of a figure or architectural detail.

Bernini occasionally produced highly finished drawings and models, so-called presentation pieces. Such works were used to obtain project approval from the patron or as guides for assistants in the preparation of full-scale statues.

Bernini made various kinds of preparatory drawing, from summary but dynamic compositional sketches to more careful studies of particular details, but he also produced independent drawings. Closely related in style to his known portrait paintings are portrait drawings. There also survive some religious compositions. His pioneering caricatures delighted his contemporaries and broke new ground in the art of social satire.

Preview Picture Data File Info Comment
Caricature of a Man Pointing
-
Pen and brown ink, 129 x 104 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

885*1100
True Color
69 Kb



Caricature of a Cavalier
-
Pen and brown ink on laid paper, 207 x 145 mm
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York

784*1100
True Color
73 Kb



Caricature of Scipione Borghese
-
Pen and brown ink
Biblioteca Apostolica, Vatican

623*852
True Color
48 Kb



Grotesque Head
1672-75
Red chalk, 195 x 202 mm
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

517*500
True Color
102 Kb



Design for the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII
c. 1670
Pen and brown ink and brown wash over graphite on laid paper mounted on paperboard, 233 x 168 mm
Museum of Art, Philadelphia

954*1100
True Color
182 Kb



Study for an Equestrian Statue of Loius XIV
c. 1669
Pen, wash, and watercolour, 270 x 385 mm
Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa

750*1052
True Color
104 Kb



Design for a looking-glass
c. 1656
Pen and brown wash over black chalk, 230 x 188 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

904*1100
True Color
173 Kb



Monstrance
-
Pen, wash and Indian ink on paper, 211 x 161 mm
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon

768*1009
True Color
94 Kb



A portrait of a Man
c.1630
Black, red and white chalk on buff paper, 410 x 267 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

740*1100
True Color
189 Kb



Portrait of Sisinio Poli
1638
Black, red, and white chalks, on light brown laid paper, 270 x 207 mm; addition 62 mm
The Morgan Library and Museum, New York

715*1100
True Color
179 Kb



Self-Portrait
1675-80
Black and white chalks on buff paper, 413 x 271 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

718*1100
True Color
93 Kb



Self-Portrait
c. 1635
Black and red chalks, heightened with white chalk, 275 x 215 mm
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

857*1100
True Color
202 Kb



Sketches for a Wall Tomb with Skeletons (recto)
1630s
Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk, 292 x 224 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

839*1100
True Color
143 Kb



Sketches for a Wall Tomb with Skeletons (verso)
1630s
Black chalk, 224 x 292 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1100*836
True Color
67 Kb



Study for the Glory, Cathedra Petri
1656-57
Black chalk and pen, with brown ink, 373 x 273 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

1054*1400
True Color
193 Kb



Sanguis Christi (Blood of Christ)
1670
Pen on paper, 386 x 247 mm
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

829*1280
True Color
219 Kb



Studies for Daniel
c. 1655
Red chalk, 378 x 238 mm
Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig

651*1024
True Color
117 Kb



Emperor Constantine on Horseback
c. 1655
Chalk drawing
Museo de la Real Academia de San Fernando, Madrid

1006*1100
True Color
206 Kb



Study for a fresco
1672-1675
Pen on paper
Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig

749*821
True Color
94 Kb



A seated male nude
c. 1630
Red chalk on buff paper, 559 x 423 mm
Royal Library, Windsor

842*1100
True Color
179 Kb



Study for the Fontana del Tritone
1630-39
Pen and brown wash, 319 x 263 mm
Royal Collection, Windsor

1248*1484
True Color
265 Kb



Study for a Triton (recto)
1642-43
Red chalk, 364 x 245 mm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

738*1100
True Color
171 Kb




Summary of works by Bernini
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