What sets this investigation of BerniniвЂ™s innovations in portraiture apart from WittkowerвЂ™s canonical view is that it situates Bernini alongside his contemporaries. For Bacchi and Hess, as for Wittkower, BerniniвЂ™s ability to capture the physiognomic and psychological particularities of his subject and to imbue marble with lifelikeness by portraying the subject in motion, as if breathing, speaking, turning, and gesturing, constituted a dramatic departure. The sculpted portrait is a rather conventional genre, and the current project hinged on identifying the degrees of departure from the inherited norm. Embracing Rudolf WittkowerвЂ™s thesis that вЂњBerniniвЂ™s achievement in the field of portraiture was no less revolutionary than in that of religious imageryвЂќ (Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London: Phaidon, 1997 ), exhibition organizers Andrea Bacchi and Catherine Hess contend that Bernini was responsible for the emergence of portrait busts that possessed a вЂњradicallyвЂќ unprecedented degree of resemblance to the living model. While the exhibition was an unparalleled event, the premise that governs both it and the accompanying catalogue is a more conventional affair. From this perspective, Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture, the first comprehensive exhibition outside Italy to bring together Roman Baroque portrait sculpture from private and public collections in Europe, the United States, and Canada, was an extraordinary achievement. Even more exceptional is their exhibition in North America. For logistical and economic reasons, shows featuring early modern European sculpture, let alone portrait busts, are rare. There has never been a specialized exhibition of Gianlorenzo BerniniвЂ™s portrait busts.

Paul Getty Museum and the National Gallery of Canada-the genre of early modern portrait sculpture celebrated an unparalleled year. With two independent exhibitions in 2008 devoted to the Baroque portrait bust- Heads on Shoulders: Portrait Busts in the Low Countries, 1600вЂ“1800, at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp and Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture, co-organized by the J. Performance Art/Performance Studies/Public Practice.Museum Practice/Museum Studies/Curatorial Studies/Arts Administration.Drawings/Prints/Work on Paper/Artistc Practice.

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Baroque portraiture