David
hall |
David
hall |
In the time of Cardinal Scipione, this room had two beautiful portraits of Venus, painted by Cranach and Brescuanino (both portraits are now in Room no.10). At present, the room is dominated by the statue of David, commissioned by Cardinal Scipione and carved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini when he was 26 years old in 1624. The statue is a wonderful exemplar of baroque style, more dynamic and Iess hieratic than the Renaissance style. Bernini portrays the young boy as a pagan hero while he is plying the sling to
throw the stone against Goliath. |
On the walls one can see The imprisoned Samson, painted by Annibale Carracci (a very important painter in the beginning of the I 7th century) and Andromeda rescued by Perseo who saved her from the sea monster, by Rutilio Manetti from Siena.
Among the ancient sculptures, the most remarkable one is the Sarcophagus with
the labours of Hercules (160 a.d.).
The ceiling shows the Falì of Phetonte, painted by Francesco Caccianiga in 1777.
DIDASCALIA: BERNINI AND THE DAVID
According to many critics, David’s face is a self-portrait of the artist. The historian Baldinucci who lived at the time of Bernini, told us that the artist carved the statue of David while Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (the future Pope Urbano VIII) held the mirror.
At the foot of the statue are the armour and the eagle headed harp, which is the Borghese’s escutcheon.
