September 1 through November 4, 2007
At The Fogg Art Museum (more about the Fogg)

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Model of the “Moor,” c. 1653. Terracotta, h. 80.3 cm. Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, Texas, TL40138. Photo by Maggie Nimkin

The 17th-century sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini created models in clay before making giant sculptures in bronze and marble. Alongside 15 studies in the Fogg’s collection, we present the model for Rome’s Fountain of the Moor. This imposing male nude, recently acquired by Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum, is exhibited with texts by Harvard art historian Frank Fehrenbach and by Anthony Sigel, who recently treated it at the Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. This is an unrepeatable opportunity to see one of the most impressive clay sculptures of the age among the world’s largest collection of Bernini terra-cottas.

Organized by Ivan Gaskell, Margaret S. Winthrop Curator of Painting, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, and Stephan Wolohojian, curator of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. The curators thank the Kimbell Art Museum for the gracious loan of the Model of the "Moor."