All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in October 2022.
Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller
in Rome(St. Sebastian by Giuseppe Giorgetti at Basilica di S. Sebastiano)
This is a directory of links to the pages where Baroque sculptures are shown.
The list is split in three sections in line with
Rudolf Wittkower's Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750. You can see a similar directory covering Baroque Architecture.
Period of transition (approximately from 1600 to 1625)
Baroque Age (approximately from 1625 to 1675)
Late Baroque and Rococo (approximately from 1675 to 1775)
(left) St. Longinus by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in S. Pietro; (right) Antinous (Hermes) del Belvedere, the classical statue regarded as a model by Bernini
The admired statue of Antinous is in the
same Court. Nothing can be more light,
elegant, and easy; the proportions are exact, and the execution perfect. It is an
exquisite representation of the most beautiful youth that ever lived.
John Moore - A View of Society and Manners in Italy - 1781
The distinctive features of baroque statues are a) the use of more than one block of marble, thus
allowing a large array of gestures; b) the treatment of cloaks, which do not fall in an ordinary
way, but are moved by a sort of wind; c) the use of variegated/coloured marble or of different marbles; d) a torsion of a very often tall and slim body.
The first column shows the name of the sculptor and his dates of birth and death. The second column has the link to the page where the statue is shown. Sculptors are sorted by year of birth.
Period of transition (approximately from 1600 to 1625)
The most important popes in this period were Gregory XIII (1572-1585), Sixtus V (1585-1590), Clement VIII (1592-1605) and Paul V (1605-1621).
| Pietro Bernini (1562-1629) | Fontana della Barcaccia in Piazza di Spagna |
| Camillo Mariani (1567-1611) | Angels in S. Pudenziana Three statues in S. Bernardo alle Terme |
| Nicolas Cordier (1567-1612) | Bust of Jesus in S. Agnese Monument to Silvestro Aldobrandini in S. Maria sopra Minerva Statue of Henry IV in S. Giovanni in Laterano |
| Stefano Maderno (1576-1636) | St. Cecilia in S. Cecilia in Trastevere Miracle of the Snow in S. Maria Maggiore |
| Francesco Mochi (1580-1654) | St. Veronica in S. Pietro
Baptism of Jesus for S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini St. Peter and St. Paul for S. Paolo fuori le Mura Statues for the Cathedral of Orvieto |
Baroque Age (approximately from 1625 to 1675)
The most important popes in this period were Urban VIII (1623-1644), Innocent X (1644-1655) and Alexander VII (1665-1667). The works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini are listed in a separate page.
Late Baroque and Rococo (approximately from 1675 to 1775)
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Barberini: The Vestal Virgin Tuccia, a symbol of Chastity, by Antonio Corradini, a leading Venetian sculptor (see his statue of Count von Schulenberg at Corfu) who had a studio near Palazzo Barberini in 1743 before moving to Naples
While Bernini used realism and surface refinement to express convincingly the ethics of the Catholic Reaction, the shallow symbolical genre seems to be a pretext for a display of technical bravura. A piece of hypertrophic virtuosity is Corradini's Chastity, where the thin veil through which the body is visible as if nude, belies the theme of the figure. Wittkower - Chapter on Late Baroque and Rococo Sculpture
The most important popes in this period were Clement XI (1700-1721), Clement XII (1730-1740) and Benedict XIV (1740-1758).
The image used as background for this page shows a detail of the Monument to Cardinal Antonio Barberini by Bernardino Cametti at Palestrina.
Other pages/sections which might be of interest to you:
