Two young Bernini 'souls' on show at Vatican

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 19 - Two youthful masterpieces by Baroque great Gian Lorenzo Bernini are on show at the Vatican Museums after leaving their previous hard-to-visit seat at the Spanish embassy to the Holy See.
    The works, Damed Soul and Blessed Soul, are on show on the occasion of the Jubilee Holy Year 2025 until January 31.
    The two sculptures were created in 1619, when the artist was just 21 years old, and each represents a face sculpted in marble that portrays a condition of the spirit: a woman with an ecstatic face, contemplating heavenly Grace upwards, is the soul that has arrived, or is on the way, to eternal salvation, while the man with his face distorted by a grin of anguish who looks downwards represents the soul facing the prospect of eternal damnation.
    To portray him, explains the curator of the exhibition Helena Pérez Gallardo, it is said that Bernini stood in front of a mirror and let his hand be burned by the fire of a candle: from there the artist created the sketch as a model for the work.
    Whether reality or legend, the two heads placed one in front of the other represent a 'memento mori' of great artistic effectiveness.
    They were commissioned by Pedro de Foix de Montoya, a literary cleric of the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Resurrection of Christ the Redeemer, based in the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli, who most likely instructed Bernini to leave the two busts to the institution after his death.
    For the members of the latter, meditation on heaven and hell was one of the central aspects of devotion.
    "Bernini was the great director of the Baroque", underlines Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, on the occasion of the presentation of the exhibition.
    An artistic period that in the Vatican "finds its maximum expressions thanks to the works he created": for this reason the Museums have welcomed "with enthusiasm" the proposal of the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See Isabel Celaà Diéguez to exhibit Bernini's Souls, works "that testify to the surprising technical and artistic ability" of the artist since his youth, underlines Jatta who was also the curator of the exhibition, hosted in a separate room in the spaces of the Vatican art gallery.
    The exhibition also has a charitable aspect: the proceeds from the sale of the catalogue will be donated to the victims of the flood in Valencia, "a huge tragedy caused by climate change that has caused a huge loss of human lives and property", says ambassador Isabel Celaà Diéguez. (ANSA).