30-4-30:

Your daily dose of crazy. Also known as Bernini.

How do Bernini’s sculptures even exist? I am so in awe of how life-like each of his works are, from expression to position to texture. Even just in sketches, I find it difficult to keep humans from looking stiff, much less in sculpture. Yet Bernini defied the unyielding nature of marble and created these incredible pieces that look as though they’ve been frozen mid-turn.

Okay, so in the first picture, Bernini’s David, how does the slingshot look stretched, and the cloth hastily flung? How does that even happen? The fluidity of fabric is in each of the sculptures pictured above, and never ceases to amaze me. To a slightly lesser extent, the hair continues that flow, windswept in place. In the third picture, the branches Daphne is morphing into don’t look like stone; they look like actual branches, or at the very least, fake foliage spray painted white. All of these completely organic elements convincingly carved in stone.

And then to the bodies. They all are so seamless, anatomically perfect, and, well, alive. Every flexed muscle is present, but not over-pronounced or exaggerated. The hands and feet are spectacular; you can even see the veins and bones through the skin, and the positions are totally natural. In David, his front foot looks like it is gripping the base, not to mention the hands in The Rape of Proserpina. Each touch appears to be that of two separate entities, not a single slab of rock.

The facial expressions are excellent as well. You can practically hear the gasp of The Blessed Ludovica, feel the pride of Louis XIV. The little involuntary facial contractions of a natural expression are all captured by Bernini in each subject of each statue.

I don’t know how to comprehensively end this rant other than with: Bernini was a boss. Quake in the face of his awesome!