Damned Soul (Bernini)

Damned Soul
Latin: Anima damnata
ArtistGian Lorenzo Bernini
Year1619 (1619)
Catalogue7
TypeSculpture
MediumMarble
DimensionsLife-size
LocationPalace of Spain, Rome
Preceded byBust of Pope Paul V
Followed byBlessed Soul (Bernini)

Damned Soul (Italian: Anima dannata) is a marble sculpture bust by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini as a pendant piece to his Blessed Soul.[1] According to Rudolf Wittkower, the sculpture is in the Palazzo di Spagna in Rome. This may well be what is known today as the Palazzo Monaldeschi.[2]

There is a bronze copy, executed by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi some time between 1705 and 1707, in the Liechtenstein Collection.

Recent scholarship on the sculpture has queried whether its topic is not the Christian personifications of pain (possibly inspired by prints by Karel van Mallery),[3][4] but a depiction of a satyr.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cueto, David García (2015-01-01). "On the original meanings of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Anima beata and Anima dannata: Nymph and Satyr?". Sculpture Journal. 24 (1): 37–53. doi:10.3828/sj.2015.24.1.4. ISSN 1366-2724.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Wittkower 1955, pp. 237–238.
  3. ^ Rowland, Ingrid D. (2015-06-04). "Bernini: He Had the Touch". The New York Review of Books. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  4. ^ "Bernini Artworks & Famous Sculptures". The Art Story.