The Dawn of Genius Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Bernini's sculptures are imbued with life. His figures don't pose, they're animated. Whether you're talking about this figure of Autumn, which is expressive and voracious, or the emotional intensity of his Ecstasy of St. Teresa for Santa Maria della Vittoria, He was able to manipulate the marble in ways that no other sculptor was able to do. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the most important sculptor after Michelangelo. You cannot walk down the street in Rome for more than a few minutes without seeing something that he designed or something that he actually carved. Bernini started in his father's workshop at a very young age. Pietro nurtured his great talent, which was recognized very early in his life. And in fact, he became a favorite of the Pope's. There are masterpieces by Bernini all over Rome. I think the most enduring favorite is his Apollo and Daphne Monumental Marble, which was made for the Borghese family and is still in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. There with the figure of David and the Rape of Proserpina, It's an incredible grouping of marbles that were made over the course of only five years. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the father of the Baroque. And above all, it was an emotional style. And that was what was so revolutionary about his work. He worked in the tradition of the Renaissance sculptors, of course, like Michelangelo. But he went much further and was not interested in representing a figure in its ideal form. He was interested in representing real emotion, fright, or love, or ecstasy. He knew how to manipulate the marble so that you could see the realistic creases in the flesh and movement of the body. This sculpture is a personification of autumn in all of its bounty, its abundance. It was carved in 1616 in Gian Lorenzo's father's studio, where he collaborated with him. This is a moment when he is searching for his creative voice, and I think he's found it. This is a moment when his star is in ascendance, when he becomes the greatest sculptor in Italy and, in fact, in Europe. What I love about this sculpture is that it tells the story of Bernini's inventiveness and his love of emotion and movement. You see this figure straining. You see his straining muscles. You see the tendons in his neck as he curves it and looks over his shoulder. He is striding forward and upward. His back is arched. The muscles are tensed. There's torsion in his torso and other parts of his body. And the motion is one forward trajectory. This sculpture explodes with vitality. Having a sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini at auction is incredibly rare. There are only a handful of sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his father outside of Italy, and certainly no others that I know of that are secular. Autumn was in the collection of Hester Diamond. What was spectacular about Hester's collection was the juxtaposition of contemporary objects with Renaissance, Gothic, Baroque objects, and they all seemed to live together so perfectly. To me, this sculpture represents her entire collection so beautifully. It's a tour de force in marble carving.