Ajit Vadakayil: BERNINI, THE UNSUNG GENIUS- BERNINI VERSUS MICHELANGELO

BERNINI, THE BEST SCULPTOR ON THIS PLANET -

Bernini who?

Now wonder, for in school they taught you about Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, who lived 100 years before Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Till I visited Rome, even I did not know about Bernini.

There was a Bernini statue of a woman kept aside for cleaning, and as I walked past I caressed the ass . My wife took a picture and later we noticed that every single tourist man, woman and child caressed the ass. It was that much live.

The whole statue was dirty brown except that white gleaming ass portion which was getting caressed by all. That was the hilarious part.

Explains human sexuality –nay- sensuality , right?

If you painted a beautiful woman white and kept her next to the statue you couldn't tell the difference. Compared to all this what is the worth of the wax statues of Madame Tussuad's, who use photographs from all angles?

Bernini was one of those people who seem to be able to do just about anything. In addition to being a master sculptor, he was also a musician and composer, a writer, an actor, an architect, an interior designer and a portrait painter.

Bernini’s father Pietro was a great sculptor too. Bernini started sculpting at the age of 8 and got noticed by the Pope Paul V.

Bernini’s unique sense of light sourcing and shading, his surface textures of skin and hair far exceeded Michelangelo’s. He molded stone like none other before him, marble into visceral, sensual sculptures. He converted hard marble to soft butter.

He would incise the irises deeply so that they lay in shadow and appeared dark. The texture of cloth could be seen on hard marble ,the tiny wrinkles of the skin.

Most of the time he sculpted from memory without a clay model or a subject in front of him, relying on his vision .

Check out Bernini’s David in action. He’s head is turned to the left, he is obviously looking at his enemy and his face is also tense and deeply concentrated.

David has twisted back and is about to sling shoot Goliath. The sculpture is almost breaking out of its own pose and this provides vibrant energy to the space around it .

David face expression is dramatic and realistic .

Bernini captured a moment –a shot frozen in action. You go around the statue which is alive-- the figure is true from every angle. This is the meaning of artistic expression, nay--aesthetic magic. It is a real soulful 3D show. See the muscles sinews in the legs and how the chest is tensed.

In comparison, Michelangelo’s David statue below is out of proportion— check out the hands and head. I can tell you this as I am a sculptor on clay myself. This 1:6 ratio is of a ten-year-old boy. Adults have to be given 1:8.

Michelangelo's David face above is overwrought with expression. And-- real HE-men do not stand in this pansy way. We must understand that Michelangelo was gay.

OK, I get it. The spin doctors wanted the tourism money . The critics and the established academics have their own reputations to protect!

Michelangelo’s pieces are intense and still; Bernini’s are dramatic and active—poetry in motion , literally. Michelangelo made his works out of a triangle, a circle, a square. Bernini ran free – he broke out of all constricting shapes.

Check out Michaelangelos’ Pieta’s - Mother Mary and Jesus, below . It is totally out of proportion with respect to age. Mary looks like a young female with a man’s face. Jesus was thirty three when he died and his lifeless body cannot be so reed like and slender.

On the other hand check out Bernini’s “The Rape of Proserpina”. It is exact to every minute detail--the fingers pressing into Proserpina’s side, the wrinkles in her twisted body. .

Bernini has freed the soul of the character from the confines of the stone.

Check out St Theresa’s passionate emotions, her toes curled in orgasm.

Bernini went to Paris in 1665, where he was cheered on the streets like a hero. He made the bust of by King Louis XIV and made a novel design for the new French palace.