Bernini

I am in my hometown tonight, on the eve of my father's birthday. My father and mother and I celebrated by meeting at The Foundry on Melrose Ave, and caught Louis and Keely: Live at the Sahara. On my to meet them, as I drove up Santa Monica Blvd, I noticed banners for a Bernini exhibit at the Getty Museum. Now, who is Bernini?

GianLorenzo Bernini was an Italian Baroque artist whose strength lie in his skills as a sculptor. The period of the Baroque followed on the heels of the Renaissance. While the Renaissance was about nature, and its perfections- the Baroque period moved away from classicism and into its own genre. What made a piece Baroque is its depcition of a "transitory moment." For example, in the story of Apollo and Daphne, Daphne was a virgin who caught the eye of Apollo and many other suitors who would have her. So she devised a plan. No one was as fleet of foot as Daphne when she ran through the woods. She challenged her would be suitors to a race. The man who would catch her could claim her.

Apollo was no mere mortal, he was a god from Olympus and as he pursued her, she knew that she would lose. She called out to Poseidon, the god of the ocean and trees, to save her- and keep her honor pure. In response, as Apollo gained, Daphne was transformed into the laurel tree. Consumed with regret, Apollo made a crown of her leaves. Which is why the laurel was used in the Olympic games. Bernini's sculpture of this moment is depicted in Apollo and Daphne.

He chose to depict the moment of Daphne's transformation- a perfect example of this transitory moment.

I took a class on Bernini at UCSC from the nation's leading scholar. Cathy Soussloff made her name in the art history community with her identification of a sculpture by Bernini at a college in the midwest. I am curious to see if she was called upon to help curate this exhibit. A review will be forthcoming....