From Roman Poetry to Renaissance Art: The Influence of Ovidian Texts on Bernini’s Sculptures Myth and the Memory Play Desire and Ability: The Case for Appetite

This paper seeks to examine closely the influence of the poet Ovid’s texts – primarily the Metamorphoses and Fasti – on three of the most well-known sculptures by Renaissance sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. After providing a brief history of Bernini’s life and the cultural context in which he began his sculpting career, the study examines, in order, the works Daphne and Apollo, The Rape of Proserpina, and Neptune and Triton alongside textual excerpts from Ovid’s work; each case seeks to identify both visual details and thematic ideas in Bernini’s sculptures that reveal the crucial influence of Ovid on this man’s oeuvre. Beyond merely identifying the links to Ovid in these works, the study additionally considers how Bernini manipulated these Ovidian, “pagan” influences to fit into the Catholic culture in which he worked. In examining the works of the Renaissance sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, it becomes immediately apparent that this artist drew heavily from classical texts for inspiration – whether in subject matter or style, a number of Bernini’s works heavily reflect classical influence. This study, as a result, seeks to identify and examine more clearly the influences of Ovidian texts on the sculptures of Bernini. A number of this artist’s sculptures, through both their subjects and craftsmanship, demonstrate the idea of transformation that is so crucial to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, such that any consideration of Bernini’s work becomes meaningless without its appropriate classical context. In order to analyze Bernini’s works appropriately, one must first consider the era in which this artist lived and worked. Born in 1598 at Naples, Gian Lorenzo Bernini began to study the art of sculpting under his father, Pietro, at a very early age. The young Gian Lorenzo was so talented, however, that he quickly established himself as an independent sculptor and gained the patronage of Pope Paul V. During his time in Rome as a young man, Bernini became intimately familiar with the various Greek and Roman works housed in the Vatican, and furthermore developed a deep knowledge of High Renaissance painting.1 Surrounded by a healthy intellectual community in Rome, Bernini entered into the field of sculpting in an era in which educated citizens were well1 Howard Hibbard, "Gian Lorenzo Bernini," in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1, last modified October 29, 2013, accessed April 3, 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/62547/Gian-Lorenzo-Bernini. 1