February 28, 1998 through June 30, 2008
Fogg Art Museum

In one of its most important purchases ever, the Fogg, in 1937, acquired twenty-seven terracotta sculptures, fourteen of which can be associated directly with Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples 1598-1680 Rome), the greatest sculptor of the Roman Baroque. A fifteenth was added in 1995. These works are studies for some of Bernini's most important projects and cover nearly the whole of the artist's career. They include saints and allegorical figures, and the extraordinarily vivid angels, seemingly descending directly from a heavenly realm in swirls of flowing drapery.

 
Kneeling Angel by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1673. Terracotta, 1937.63.

As the guardian of the most important body of his intimate work-in-progress, the Harvard University Art Museums has dedicated a gallery to these sculptures. Most of these sculptures have not been on public exhibition for many years and they return to view following the most comprehensive study of such a body of material ever undertaken. The results of this collaborative research by members of the Fogg's Department of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Art, and the Straus Center for Conservation inform the innovative reinstallation and have been published as an issue of the Art Museums' Bulletin.

The installation, marks the quatercentenary of Bernini's birth (1998), was organized by Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator, and Colette Czapski Hemingway, 1996-1998 Andrew W. Mellon Intern, Department of Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, with contributions by Jeannine O'Grody, 1995-1996 National Endowment for the Arts Intern. The exhibition opened February 28, 1998.

See also Exhibition Catalog and Press Release.