Rijksmuseum receives Sculpture by Italian Artist Bernini on Permanent Loan

It is the only sculpture by this world-renowned Baroque sculptor in the Netherlands. The terracotta study model of Triton standing on a shell was commissioned by the then pope for the Fontana del Moro, which stands on Piazza Navona, one of Rome’s most important squares. The 72 centimetre tall sculpture was previously on view in the Rijksmuseum in 2020 as part of the Caravaggio–Bernini exhibition.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) is regarded as the single most important Italian Baroque sculptor. He produced unrivalled works such as Apollo and Daphne (Galleria Borghese, Rome) and The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome). He also designed St Peter’s Square and the monumental St Peter's Baldachin in the Vatican, and made the celebrated Fontana dei quattro fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), located at the heart of Piazza Navona in Rome. The pope subsequently also commissioned Bernini to embellish the two existing fountains on the same square.

Bernini made the model of the standing Triton, a mythical sea creature, for the southern fountain in in 1653. The final version of this impressive central figure was rendered in marble by Bernini’s assistant Giovanni Antonio Mari. This work soon came to be known among the citizens of Rome as il Moro (The Moor), because they perceived the figure’s facial characteristics as African. It is for this reason that the fountain is now known as the Fontana del Moro. The sculpture owes its great dynamism to the rotation of the body and its forward motion: an imaginary breeze rustles the hair and beard and propels the sea creature, gliding on the shell, towards of the larger Fontana dei quattro fiumi. Water gushing from the mouth of the dolphin between the figure’s legs reinforces this sense of dynamism.

The terracotta figure now on view in the Rijksmuseum remained unnoticed for a long period. In part this was because for centuries the object remained the private property of a single Italian family, the descendants of Cardinal Flavio Chigi, who, as the pope’s representative, had personal contact with Bernini. Additionally, for a long time it was hidden beneath a thick layer of dark paint that masked its quality. Restoration work carried out in 2018 involved the removal of this overpainting, bringing to light Bernini’s signature characteristic and virtuosic style.

A second version of the terracotta model on view in the Rijksmuseum is held by the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth (Texas, US). Bernini probably made this more elaborately detailed figure after having completed the fountain, as a gift for the pope, who commissioned it. The model now on view at the Rijksmuseum, by contrast, is a study model that served as a reference for the final work. In all probability this work is the ‘modello fatto da me’ (‘model made by myself’) listed in Bernini’s invoice for the fountain in 1655.

Main Image: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Triton 1653. On loan from a private collector, Courtesy Rijksmusem Amsterdam