Bernini's David as a Symbol of the Baroque and Counter-Reformation

Introduction: Bernini's David and the Baroque Era

The Baroque was a dramatic period in Europe: the religious unity the continent had enjoyed for centuries came 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, and grim activity of the times (Avery). It is indeed a strong manifestation of 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 and bent on striking.

Unlike Michelangelo's Renaissance David — which aimed mainly for a frontal view to display the human form and conveyed a sense of confidence, leisure, pride, and grandeur befitting the Renaissance Age — Bernini's David is a figure of determination. It is a sculpture designed to produce a 360-degree effect of engaging with its surroundings, just as many works of Baroque art pushed boundaries and conveyed the world in its entirety, with great care for detail, action, and dramatic effect. This paper interprets Bernini's David to show how it is a perfect representation of the Baroque in both its religious connotations and its action-oriented depiction of a hero engaged in a tremendously lopsided conflict.

Form and Faith: Reading the Sculpture's Posture and Expression

The chiseled face of Bernini's David is stern, grim, and full of life and fury. He is a figure bent on slaying the opposition — Goliath from the Old Testament narrative, and by extension the foes of Catholicism in the Baroque era. His teeth are set, his eyes narrowed in extreme focus, and his brow lowered sternly and intensely, as though the full force of his energy were concentrated there. His muscles are taut, his torso twisted, his legs set wide apart, giving the sculpture a triangular shape — which is itself 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 Old World's faith. Implicit in the sculpture is the militancy and immediacy of that faith finally taking action — the sort of action it should have taken centuries earlier to correct the abuses committed among churchmen. Savonarola had decried these abuses in Italy and been murdered for doing so. Dante and Chaucer had depicted them in literature. The Church, slow to react, lost its footing and moral high ground to those willing to raise their voices in protest. Bernini's David is a reflection of a 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 Context and Contrast with Michelangelo

The Counter-Reformation was already in full swing, having begun with the Council of Trent, at which the Church reiterated the core beliefs of the Faith in the Nicene Creed (Elton). The Church was no longer on the defensive but on the offensive — just as David is crouched back and in mid-launch of the rock that will fell the giant. The heresies that had sprung forth from virtually every corner of Europe — Luther in Germany, Knox in England, Zwingli in Switzerland, Calvin in France — were like many 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 throughout Europe had been commissioning works of art for centuries, the design of Bernini's David illustrates how profoundly the world had changed since Michelangelo sculpted his masterpiece of the same name. Michelangelo's works were designed to express the ideal form of beauty — the human nature that humanity was meant to have but lost as a result of Original Sin. Michelangelo held the mirror up to perfect beauty and perfect form, displaying every muscle in much the same way that a bodybuilder flexes to demonstrate the parts of the body he or she has worked to tone to perfect shape. This humanistic focus was central to the Renaissance. But that time had ended with the rise of Protestantism.

The Church could no longer afford to relish the reflection of humanity's natural gifts and talents. Cracks had appeared, and the Devil had entered through the details: Luther's attack on the Mass, Calvin's doctrine of predestination, Henry's annihilation of marriage vows and ecclesiastical hierarchy — all of it was related (Laux). All of it echoed Satan's non serviam to God, and in Bernini's David one sees the response of Saint Michael to Satan: the same spirit is there, the same avenging flame of passion. David, like Saint Michael before him, is there to defend what belongs to God. He is no longer present merely to be admired, as Michelangelo's David is. Bernini's David is there to fight, to enter into combat.

Michelangelo's David is seen post-combat, his sling resting on his shoulder, his face pondering the horizon and his future glory as king. None of this "glory" matters to Bernini's David. What matters is that the deed be accomplished, that the stone hit its target. David is concentrated and coiled like a spring. The viewer almost expects him to snap out of his posture at any moment and launch the deadly blow that will bring down the Goliath of Bernini's own times.

Conclusion: David as Emblem of the Counter-Reformation

Bernini's David represents the Baroque movement in terms of style, subject, and tone. In style, the subject is caught in the middle of a tremendous action. In subject, the work draws on the distinctly religious nature of the Old Testament narrative and connects it to Bernini's contemporaneous conflicts with the Reformation and his role as an artist in the Counter-Reformation. In tone, the audacity of the work — interacting with the viewer across 360 degrees, pulling the audience into its sphere, and immersing the individual in the action on display — is thoroughly Baroque.

The Baroque era was all about representing the imperfect pearl, and from a Catholic standpoint — which was Bernini's standpoint — the imperfect pearl was a symbol of the soul that had fallen and was tainted with Original Sin, yet was not beyond the saving grace of God. Bernini's David is the soul summoning all its powers of memory, intellect, and will and compressing them into one single, fluid volley: the sling is stretched, the stone about to be hurled, and David's face is possessed with determination and conviction. David shows that the Counter-Reformation was underway.

Works Cited

Avery, Charles. Bernini: Genius of the Baroque. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Print.

Cunningham, Lawrence, and John Reich. Culture and Values: A Survey of the Humanities. NY: Cengage, 2014. Print.

Elton, G. R. Reform and Reformation: England, 1509–1558. MA: Harvard University Press, 1977. Print.

Laux, John. Church History. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1943. Print.

Shearer, Rob. Famous Men of the Middle Ages. Charleston, SC: Forgotten Books, 2008. Print.