Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Medal
1674 (made)
1674 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This medallic portrait of the famous sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned from François Cheron by Louis XIV. It has his portrait, at the age of 76, on the obverse and shows, in allegorical form, the various arts in which Bernini excelled: sculpture, architecture and painting. Bernini's experience of Louis' patronage, during his visit to France in 1665 had in fact been rather disappointing. His designs for the Louvre were never executed and his bust of the king had been unfavourably compared to Jean Warin's. This medal was made when Bernini was working on an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. When this arrived in France in 1685 the king disliked it so much that he had the head replaced and the statue banished to a distant part of the park at Versailles.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Gian Lorenzo Bernini (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Silvered bronze |
| Brief description | Portait medal of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, bronze, by François Cheron, Italian (Rome), 1674 |
| Physical description | Cast medal in silvered bronze, showing the portrait of the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label | PORTRAIT MEDAL OF GIAN LORENZO BERNINI (1598-1680)
French, but made in Rome; signed and dated 1674
Silvered bronze
By Charles Jean François Cheron (1635-1698)
Reverse: female figures representing the arts of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Geometry
Bernini was the most important sculptor and leading architect in Rome in the seventeenth century. He attended weekly devotion to the ‘good death’ in the Jesuit Church, and often pretended to be dying so as to prepare himself for ‘dying properly’, as he called it in his will. Bernini's model for Pope Alexander’s tomb is in the adjacent case. The pope commissioned a real coffin and marble skull from Bernini for the papal bedchamber as a reminder for his own morality.
(1993 - 2011) |
| Object history | Bought from Alfred Spero for £9. |
| Production | Signed F. Cheron on both sides. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | This medallic portrait of the famous sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned from François Cheron by Louis XIV. It has his portrait, at the age of 76, on the obverse and shows, in allegorical form, the various arts in which Bernini excelled: sculpture, architecture and painting. Bernini's experience of Louis' patronage, during his visit to France in 1665 had in fact been rather disappointing. His designs for the Louvre were never executed and his bust of the king had been unfavourably compared to Jean Warin's. This medal was made when Bernini was working on an equestrian statue of Louis XIV. When this arrived in France in 1685 the king disliked it so much that he had the head replaced and the statue banished to a distant part of the park at Versailles. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | A.2-1966 |
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| Record created | August 24, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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