Foot

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Terracotta sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Room 21

Inventory

PV 13959

Material and technique

Terracotta

Author

after Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)

Dating

c. 1650-1675

Dimensions

15x24x10 cm.

Origin

Gorga Collection (1948)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This rather small terracotta depicts a foot, accidentally cut off at the ankle; it is not in perfect condition, and is missing a number of toes. Radiographic analysis carried out by Claudio Falcucci shows a compact, whole structure and the only visible fracture, other than those presumably caused by damage evident where the toes join the foot and which caused the fall, cuts across the sole, in line with the stucco on the sole, in the middle of the inscription reading “Lorenzo Bernini”. If, on the one hand, the presence of this signature confirms the link with a work by Bernini, probably one of the two Angels by the artist for Ponte Sant’Angelo and now in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, then on the other it excludes the hand of Bernini, who would not have had any reason to sign his own work. It remains to be understood whether the work is one of the so-called “cavi”, or hollow models, produced as part of a series, or whether it is rather an exercise by a young studio artist. Both theories are possible. In the first case, in fact, one can imagine that in the workshop of a teacher or a restorer like Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, many sculptures of this type existed, taken from works by more important artists and used for new compositions or also as a cue for additional restorations. It was a common practice, indeed, for apprentices to model clay and reproduce the hands and feet of the most famous marble sculptures.

                                                                                                                            Cristiano Giometti

Bibliography

A. E. Brinckman, Baroch Bozzetti, Frankfurt 1924, II, p. 38; Collezioni Gorga. Raccolte archeologiche e artistiche, Roma 1948, p. 19; M. G. Barberini (ed.), Sculture in terracotta del Barocco romano. Bozzetti e modelli del Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia, exh. cat., Rome 1991, p. 27