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DOI Artikel:Kaczmarzyk, Dariusz: "Niobe" by Bernini and the ancient Niobe from Nieborów
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18861#0059
group (253 cm) makes it difficult to execote a copy of the head, strongly inclined and representing
the most important element of the compositions.
Artistic values of the Warsaw „Niobe" and its individual forms in relation to the hesd in the
Prozerpina statuę indicate that it is a replica of the latter, executed probably in Bernini's atelier
by one of his morę apt pupils or colaboratois of the young artist. It should be presumed that
in the workshop there was a life-size plaster model after which the group was sculptured in marble
and there also must have been a clay model. Up today there still exists a fragment of Prozerpina's
head model in terracotta, 15,25 cm high, preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art; it
represents only the face with a fragment of neck9.
Close correlations between the head of the Warsaw „Niobe" and this fragment of Prozerpina's
head indicate that „Niobe" could have been executed after this terracotta model. In clay,
which is softer a materiał, the hair could be carved in a more detailed and gentle way. They
were thus repeated in individual and not sharp forms in the head of the Warsaw- „Niobe".
The group of Pluto and Prozerpina was created in the years 1621—1622 on commission
of the cardinal Scipione Borghese10. It was a juvenile work of a 23 years old, but already maturę
8. Y. Martinelli, Scuhura italiana dal Manierismo al liococo, Milano, 1968, p. 54, fig. 54.
9. H. Hawley, ,,A Terra-cotta Model for Bcrnini's Prozerpina", T/ie Bullctin oj the Clewland Museum of Art, LVIII, 1971,
no. 4, p. 107-111, fig. 1.
10. I. Faldi, „Note sulle sculttire Borghesiane del Bernini", Bolletlino d'Arle, XXXVIII, ser. IV, 1953, no. 2, p. 146;
no 4, p. 314; Wittkower, op. cit. p. 179.
3. G. L. Bernini, Prozerpina, a fragment of the group (after Martinelli, Scultura italiana)
51
the most important element of the compositions.
Artistic values of the Warsaw „Niobe" and its individual forms in relation to the hesd in the
Prozerpina statuę indicate that it is a replica of the latter, executed probably in Bernini's atelier
by one of his morę apt pupils or colaboratois of the young artist. It should be presumed that
in the workshop there was a life-size plaster model after which the group was sculptured in marble
and there also must have been a clay model. Up today there still exists a fragment of Prozerpina's
head model in terracotta, 15,25 cm high, preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art; it
represents only the face with a fragment of neck9.
Close correlations between the head of the Warsaw „Niobe" and this fragment of Prozerpina's
head indicate that „Niobe" could have been executed after this terracotta model. In clay,
which is softer a materiał, the hair could be carved in a more detailed and gentle way. They
were thus repeated in individual and not sharp forms in the head of the Warsaw- „Niobe".
The group of Pluto and Prozerpina was created in the years 1621—1622 on commission
of the cardinal Scipione Borghese10. It was a juvenile work of a 23 years old, but already maturę
8. Y. Martinelli, Scuhura italiana dal Manierismo al liococo, Milano, 1968, p. 54, fig. 54.
9. H. Hawley, ,,A Terra-cotta Model for Bcrnini's Prozerpina", T/ie Bullctin oj the Clewland Museum of Art, LVIII, 1971,
no. 4, p. 107-111, fig. 1.
10. I. Faldi, „Note sulle sculttire Borghesiane del Bernini", Bolletlino d'Arle, XXXVIII, ser. IV, 1953, no. 2, p. 146;
no 4, p. 314; Wittkower, op. cit. p. 179.
3. G. L. Bernini, Prozerpina, a fragment of the group (after Martinelli, Scultura italiana)
51