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Dresden: Marble skull believed to be lost rediscovered by Bernini

2021-05-31T00:39:02.514Z


It was lost for almost 300 years, now a skull made of white Carrara marble has reappeared in Dresden. The work of the baroque sculptor Bernini is now exhibited there.


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Artwork by Bernini: looks like a real skull, but is made of marble

Photo: Robert Michael / dpa

This work of art by the Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini has been described many times, but has been considered lost for generations: a deceptively real, marble-carved skull made of white Carrara marble.

Now it was found during research in Dresden, where it has apparently been for almost 300 years.

Scientists discovered the work of art while researching a Caravaggio exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister 2020 in the holdings of the sculpture collection.

The museum director Stephan Koja announced on Friday.

The deceptively real-looking skull and a painting showing Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) with the work of art are the focus of the show "Bernini, the Pope and Death" in the Semperbau at the Zwinger until the beginning of September.

She looks back on a historic pandemic that the newly elected pontiff Alexander VII rigorously and successfully contained in Rome: the plague of 1656/57.

The work came to Dresden as early as 1728

"It was really a coincidence, the head caught our eye and immediately pulled us into its aura," reported curator Claudia Kryza-Gersch. Because of Corona, she was only able to research the art collection of the noble Chigi family from Siena online in the Vatican archives, which provided popes and cardinals. Fabio Chigi (1599-1667), then Pope Alexander VII, bequeathed the skull to a nephew who was his "right hand" and cardinal, said Kryza-Gersch.

It came to Dresden as part of the Chigi collection, which was purchased in Rome in 1728 for Saxony's Elector King Augustus the Strong (1670-1733).

It comprised 164 ancient sculptures and four contemporary pieces, including the skull.

According to Kryza-Gersch, mainly archaeologists have dealt with the Chigi collection, which could be one reason why the skull was not recognized and found for so long: "It was believed that it was simply broken or lost."

Combating a pandemic through masks and quarantine

The realistic execution in marble with delicately curled cranial seams, undercut cheekbones and wafer-thin nasal septum make it an exceptional piece.

"Carrara marble has been the supreme discipline of sculpture since Michelangelo," said the curator.

It is "the most luxurious, most beautiful, most expensive medium".

An oil painting shows the Pope at his desk, his right hand lying on the unique piece.

The picture is on loan from the Sovereign Knights of Malta Order in Rome.

"It borders on a miracle that we got the export license so quickly," said Kryza-Gersch.

It was painted by a pupil of Bernini, who died of the plague in 1656.

The show also sheds light on the Pope's successful fight against this pandemic through strict quarantine, masks and the shutdown of public life.

kae / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-05-31

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