FOGG ACQUIRES BRONZE STATUETTE BY BERNINI
Released: February 23, 1998
Cambridge, Massachusetts - On the 400th anniversary of the birth of the greatest sculptor of the Roman Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), the Harvard University Art Museums has added to its unparalleled group of fifteen clay models by the artist a highly important bronze statuette of the Countess Matilda.
In 1633 Pope Urban VIII Barberini commissioned Bernini to design a tomb in Saint Peter's Basilica for the Countess Matilda (1046-1115), the benefactress of the Church who effected a reconciliation between Pope and Emperor. Her large marble statue, conceived as a personification of the papacy, was completed in March 1637. At least one clay model, probably made to show Bernini's conception to the Pope prior to carving the marble, was the source of several bronze casts. Some of the casts are likely to have been made under Bernini's supervision, as presentation pieces for the Pope and others. Nine casts of varying character are known in museum and in private collections on three continents. Thanks to the generosity of their owners, curators and conservators at the Harvard University Art Museums have been able to study the majority first-hand, four of them simultaneously in the laboratories of the Art Museums' Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. The cast just acquired by the Art Museums was in the collection of Max Falk of New York City for over thirty years. Mr. Falk has long been a patron of the Art Museums.
The Falk bronze is one of two casts of the Countess Matilda-the other remaining in Barberini ownership-that appear to be especially close to a lost clay model, preserving an appearance found in such works, notably striations across the rear of the base and down the back of the figure's garment. Appreciating the importance of this work in the context of the Fogg's outstanding collection of Bernini clay models, Mr. Falk generously offered Countess Matilda under a part gift-part purchase arrangement. The Countess Matilda therefore takes her place as the Art Museums' first acquisition of 1998 in the new installation Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Sketches in Clay opening in a permanent collection gallery of the Fogg Art Museum on February 28, 1998.
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The Harvard University Art Museums' facilities are wheelchair accessible. For general information, please call (617) 495-9400. For press information or photographs, please contact Kate McShea Ewen at (617) 495-2397. For more information on events, please contact the Friends, Fellows, and Special Programs Office at (617) 495-4544. World Wide Web: www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.
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The Harvard University Art Museums comprise three museums (Busch-Reisinger Museum, Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum), all located on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, MA, at the intersection of Quincy Street and Broadway, adjacent to Harvard Yard. The Art Museums are open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Closed holidays. Admission is $5.00; $4.00 for senior citizens; $3.00 for students; free under 18 and on Saturday mornings. For special tour reservations, please call (617) 496-8576. General tours are offered Monday through Friday from September through June. The Fogg tour is at 11:00 a.m.; the Busch-Reisinger tour is at 1:00 p.m.; and the Sackler is at 2:00 p.m.
The Harvard University Art Museums is supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. -end