BERNINI, Pietro
(b. 1562, Sesto Fiorentino, d. 1629, Roma)

Autumn in the Guise of Priapus

1616-17
Marble, height 228 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A pair of garden statues - called term figures - was commissioned by Cardinal Scipio Borghese for his villa in Rome in 1616. The two figures, representing Autumn and Spring, were set up just inside the garden gate. They were erected on pedestals carved with emblems of the Borghese eagle.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the teenager son of Pietro, already a brilliant sculptor, helped his father in carving the early Baroque figures.