After Gian Lorenzo Bernini

This intriguing wood figure is carved after Gianlorenzo Bernini's personification of the river Nile for his iconic Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona in Rome (1648-1651). Bernini and his workshop executed models of the fountain in wood and terracotta. See the models in a Roman private collection (Bernini inheritance) and in the Accademia di Belle Arti, Bologna, both published by Bacchi and Coliva, op. cit., nos. VIII.6 and VIII.7. In both models the figures of river gods are modelled in terracotta, which probably precludes the present figure from coming from one of the artist's models for the scheme. A terracotta bozzetto of the Nile by Bernini is in the Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro in Venice (inv. no. 77). It seems plausible that the present figure was carved by a student working in the circle or wake of Bernini, perhaps at one of the academies in Rome.

RELATED LITERATURE

 D. Dickerson III, Anthony Sigel and Ian Wardropper, Bernini: Sculpting in Clay, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, New Haven and Yale, 2012, pp. 155-157, no. 9; Andrea Bacchi and Anna Coliva, Bernini, exhibition catalogue, Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2017, pp. 276-280, nos. VIII.6 and VIII.7