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Working models A superb display of Bernini's terracotta models explores his creative process in subtle detail, writes Michael Cole Bernini: Sculpting in Clay 3 October 2012-6 January Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Catalogue by CD. Dickerson III, Anthony Sigel, Ian Wardropper et al. ISBN 9780300185003 (hardback), £45 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
For centuries before the emergence of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), it had been standard practice among Italian sculptors to make small models for large-scale works. But by 1600 two things had changed: the profession of the sculptor had reconfigured itself so that the making of models could be a given artist's primary occupation, and models had come to be collected outside the artist's workshop. As Bernini began to gain employment from cardinals and popes in the 1620s, models allowed him to harness what Jennifer Montagu once called 'the industry of art', the massive labour force he now had at his disposal. But even after his projects were complete, many of the artist's models were thought to merit preservation, with the consequence that we now have more surviving works in clay by Bernini than any earlier artist.
One enjoyable path through the spectacular show currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (and subsequently at the Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth; 3 February-14 April) is the question 'Bernini/not Bernini?'. The curators, making their own judgments on this, have not only considered quality, style, tool marks, provenance, early documentation, and the apparent relationship of the terracottas to finished works, but also identified a number of signature techniques: clay pushed around a limb, a fingernail pinch on a neck, a finger stroke over a shoulder or around the back of a head. The result is a newly circumscribed corpus of works that will certainly remain the first reference point for years to come, even if it is a corpus with a confident centre and more questions at its edges. With exemplary candour, the curators have used the exhibition to enable evaluation of the challenging cases. The label...