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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#0064
Borghese and Villa Ludovisi in Eome". Bernini's attitude to the ancient art was therefore
active and creative. And so the Belvedere Apollo became a model for the Apollo and Daphne
group. The group of Pluto and Prozerpina was inspired by a poetical vision of Ovid's Metamor-
phoses16 and as a sculptural composition it represents a response to manneristic groups such
as the Rape of Sabines by Giovanni da Bologna19, whereas individual figures of the Pluto and
Prozerpina group were modelled upon Greek sculptures: Pluto after Laokoon20 and the head
of Prozerpina with its dramatic expression — after Niobe21.
The statuę of Niobe with her daughter was discovered in 1583 and is now in the Uffizi Gallery
in Florence22. In Ronie, on the other hand, there was most probably, in the time of Bernini.
the ancient bust of Niobe which, according to Kazimierz Michałowski, was still there in the
first half of the XVIIIth century, before it came, at the end of the century, to adorn the Radziwiłł
Palące in Nieborów23. It can be presumed that Bernini could have had known this ancient
sculpture sińce there are essential resemblances occurring between this very sculpture and the
statute of Prozerpina in the arrangement of the head, the hair dropping to the shoulders, the
creases on the neck and above all — in the tragic expression of the face with the mouth open
in a scream. All those compositional and expressive elements which are to be found in the ancient
Niobe, now in Nieborów, were interpreted by Bernini according to the principles of the baroąue
art in the statuę of Prozerpina.
Bernini excelled in organization of collective work, what makes it difficult today to evaluate
the share of the master and colaborators in many of his works. It makes also difficult to judge
the relationship between the Warsaw „Niobe" and Bernini himself. In a very generał sense,
however, it might be accepted as an artistic idea of Bernini regardlcss of the fact whether he
himself carved it in marble or it was executed in his atelier by someone else.
Since the Warsaw sculpture represents exclusively the head of a woman, without any attributes
enabling the proper iconographic designation, in spite of the fact that it is a repetition of Prozer-
pina^ image, I propose to keep its traditional name of Niobe. Such an interpretation would
receive an additional support if the relationship to the ancient representation of Niobe suggested
here could be maintained.
Translated by Anna Benesz
17. Ibidem, p. 180-181.
18. Martinelli, op. cit., p. 54.
19. Wittkower, op. cii., p. 180; Hawley, op. cit., p. 110.
20. Brandi, op. cii., p. 48.
21. Hawley, op. c l., p. 110.
22. Mansuelli, op. cit., p. 102; Hawley, op. cit., p. 110.
23. Michałowski, ,,Eiu Niobekopf"., op. cit., p. 60; Idem, Zbiór antyków. op. cit., p. 128.
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active and creative. And so the Belvedere Apollo became a model for the Apollo and Daphne
group. The group of Pluto and Prozerpina was inspired by a poetical vision of Ovid's Metamor-
phoses16 and as a sculptural composition it represents a response to manneristic groups such
as the Rape of Sabines by Giovanni da Bologna19, whereas individual figures of the Pluto and
Prozerpina group were modelled upon Greek sculptures: Pluto after Laokoon20 and the head
of Prozerpina with its dramatic expression — after Niobe21.
The statuę of Niobe with her daughter was discovered in 1583 and is now in the Uffizi Gallery
in Florence22. In Ronie, on the other hand, there was most probably, in the time of Bernini.
the ancient bust of Niobe which, according to Kazimierz Michałowski, was still there in the
first half of the XVIIIth century, before it came, at the end of the century, to adorn the Radziwiłł
Palące in Nieborów23. It can be presumed that Bernini could have had known this ancient
sculpture sińce there are essential resemblances occurring between this very sculpture and the
statute of Prozerpina in the arrangement of the head, the hair dropping to the shoulders, the
creases on the neck and above all — in the tragic expression of the face with the mouth open
in a scream. All those compositional and expressive elements which are to be found in the ancient
Niobe, now in Nieborów, were interpreted by Bernini according to the principles of the baroąue
art in the statuę of Prozerpina.
Bernini excelled in organization of collective work, what makes it difficult today to evaluate
the share of the master and colaborators in many of his works. It makes also difficult to judge
the relationship between the Warsaw „Niobe" and Bernini himself. In a very generał sense,
however, it might be accepted as an artistic idea of Bernini regardlcss of the fact whether he
himself carved it in marble or it was executed in his atelier by someone else.
Since the Warsaw sculpture represents exclusively the head of a woman, without any attributes
enabling the proper iconographic designation, in spite of the fact that it is a repetition of Prozer-
pina^ image, I propose to keep its traditional name of Niobe. Such an interpretation would
receive an additional support if the relationship to the ancient representation of Niobe suggested
here could be maintained.
Translated by Anna Benesz
17. Ibidem, p. 180-181.
18. Martinelli, op. cit., p. 54.
19. Wittkower, op. cii., p. 180; Hawley, op. cit., p. 110.
20. Brandi, op. cii., p. 48.
21. Hawley, op. c l., p. 110.
22. Mansuelli, op. cit., p. 102; Hawley, op. cit., p. 110.
23. Michałowski, ,,Eiu Niobekopf"., op. cit., p. 60; Idem, Zbiór antyków. op. cit., p. 128.
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