Bernini's David
The Baroque was a dramatic period in Europe: the religious unity the continent had enjoyed for centuries had come to a crashing halt with the Protestant Reformation. King was turned against King, prince against pontiff. Persecution and war were dominant themes, especially following the excommunication of Henry VIII from the Church. Bernini's David, sculpted between 1623 and 1624, represents the swirling, dramatic, grim activity of the times (Avery). It is indeed a strong manifestation of the Baroque principles and themes: David is reared back, depicted in mid-action, like a lock ready to be sprung on his foe. He is full of conviction, bent on striking, Unlike Michelangelo's Renaissance Era David, which aimed mainly for a frontal view to show off the human form and which conveyed a sense of the confidence, leisure, pride and grandeur of the Renaissance Age, Bernini's David is a figure of determination -- a sculpture designed to give a 360-degree effect of engaging with its surroundings, just as many works of Baroque art meant to push the boundaries and convey the world in its entirety, with great care for detail, action, and dramatic effect. This paper will interpret Bernini's David to show how it is a perfect representation of the Baroque for both its religious connotations and its action-oriented depiction of a hero engaged in one a tremendously lopsided conflict.
The chiseled face of Bernini's David is stern, grim, and full of life and fury. He is a character who is bent on slaying the opposition -- Goliath from the Old Testament narrative -- the foes of Catholicism in the Baroque Era narrative. His teeth are set: his eyes narrowed in extreme focus. His brow lowered...
His muscles are taut, his torso twisted, his legs set wide apart, giving the sculpture a triangle shape -- which in and of itself is symbolic of the Trinity -- the symbol of the Christian Godhead, the three Persons of God -- Father, Son and Holy Ghost (Laux). Embodied in the stance and posture of David is the expression of the
faith of the Old World. Implicit in the sculpture is the militancy and immediacy of the Old World Faith finally taking action -- the sort of action it should have taken centuries earlier in order to correct the abuses committed among churchmen. Savonarola had decried these abuses in Italy and been murdered for them. Dante and Chaucer had depicted them in
literature. The Church, slow to react, lost its footing and moral high ground to those who were willing to raise their voices in protest. Bernini's David is a
reflection of the Church no longer delaying to act -- no longer putting off what it should have done earlier: it is the Church taking aim and about to fire.
The Counter-Reformation was already in full swing: it had begun with the Council of Trent at which the Church had reiterated the basic core beliefs of the Faith in Nicene Creed (Elton). The Church was no longer on the defensive but rather on the offensive -- just as David is crouched back and in mid-launch of the rock that will take down the giant. The heresies that had sprung forth from virtually everywhere in Europe -- Luther in
Germany, Knox in England, Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in France -- were like many several giants gathering about the Church, shaking her foundations and causing many to lose the faith they had once held dear (Shearer). Bernini's David had been commissioned by Cardinal Borghese. While Churchmen in Italy and all over Europe had been commissioning works of art for centuries, the design of Bernini's David illustrates how the world had changed since Michelangelo had sculpted his masterpiece by the same name. Michelangelo's art works were designed to express the ideal form of beauty, the
human nature that we were meant to have but…
