. Gianlorenzo BERNINI, known as Le BERNIN (1598-1680) The Countess Matilda of Canossa (Mantua, c. 1046 - Bondeno di Roncore, 1115) Circa 1640 Black patina bronze statuette H. 40 cm Provenance : Private collection, France Related work: - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Monument to Matilda of Tuscany, 1633-37, Vatican, St Peter's Basilica. Other bronze examples listed in the bibliography of the artist the artist -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, H.40, 2 cm, former Palazzo Barberini collection, Rome, Galerie Carlo Orsi in 2013; - Gian Lorenzo, Matilde of Canossa, gilded bronze, titled on the front of the marble base: "Matilde of Canossa". of the marble base: "MATHILDI / GRATI. ANIMI/ERGO/ URBANUS.VIII/POSUIT, former collection of Palazzo Barberini, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, n°inv. E2.a-B-1970 ; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, circa 1634- 1637, bronze , H. 39,5 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbe Museum im Schloss Köpernick, n°inv. 1977.159 ; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, circa 1634-1637, bronze, inscribed on the front of its base: CONTESSA MATILDA, Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Art Museum, n°inv. 1998.1 ; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, H. 40 cm, inscribed on the reverse of the base 'OPUS EQUITIS BERNINI', North Carolina Museum, Raleigh, n°inv. 58.4.20 ; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, H. 40 cm, Berlin, Kunstgewerbe Museum im Schloss Köpenick; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, New York, collection Michael Hall, (cf.Bewer, 1999, p. 166) ; -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, H. 39.1 cm, New York, Michael Hall Collection, formerly Christie's, London, 2 December 1997, lot 116; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, h. 41,5cm). United States, private collection , formerly Sotheby's London, 11 December 1980, lot 264; Francesca Bewer (1999, p. 166) as in an in an American private collection; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, Amsterdam, C. Vecht (cf. Charles Avery, 1997) - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, gilt bronze, H. 39,2 cm, formerly Private Collection, Milan, Carlo Orsi in 2012; -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilda of Canossa, bronze, Rome, private collection (cited but not reproduced in Bewer, 1999, p.166 ; Related literature: -Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the sculptor of the Roman Baroque [2nd ed.], Phaidon Press London, 1966, cat. no. 33, p.. 202; -Michael P. Mezzatesta, "Three Statuettes of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany", The Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini: Selected Sculpture, Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1982), no. 2 and fig.20 -Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, London: Thames and Hudson, 1997; -Francesca Bewer, "Bronze Casts after Bozzetti and Modelli by Bernini", in Sketches in Clay for Projects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Theoretical, Technical, and Case Studies, Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, MA, Spring, 1999, VI, pp.162-167; -C. D. Dickerson III, Tony Sigel, Ian Wardropper, Andrea Bacchi, Tomaso Montanari, and Stephen E. Ostrow, Bernini Sculpting in Clay, Cat. Exp, New York, 2012, n°5, pp.132-134; -Andrea Bacchi, Matilde di Canossa. Un bronzetto di Bernini degli anni Trenta, Carlo Orsi antichità, Milan, 2013; - Michele K. Spike, Matilda Canossa and the origins of the Renaissance, An exhibition in honor of the 900th Anniversary of her Death, Cat. Exp. held from 7 February to 19 April 2015, Muscarelle Museum of Art, 2015, notice n°9 p.122-123; -Ss dir. Maurizia Cicconi, Flaminia Gennari Santori, Sebastian Schütze, L'immagine Sovrana, Urbano VIII e i Berberini, "La fabbrica dei Santi dei Santi", Cat. Exp. held from 18 March to 30 July 2023 in Rome, Barberini/Corsini Gallerie nazionali, note 17, pp.206-207. This bronze statuette is derived from the main figure of a famous monument monument commissioned by the pontiff Urban VIII: that of Matilda of Tuscany of Tuscany, executed for St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican by Italy's most sculptor of Baroque Italy, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598- 1680). In his right hand, he is holding the rod of command, in his papal tiara and the keys of Saint Peter, Matilda of Tuscany is Tuscany is represented here as Fortitudo, the first of the theological theological virtues. This image of bravery conveys the heroic character of this illustrious woman of the turn of the 11th century. Her unwavering unwavering support for the pontifical primacy served as an example in a Rome Rome of the 17th century. The image of the Virago catholica", originally from Tuscany like the Barberinis, was a necessary propaganda tool for the Pope's policy of consolidating of consolidating his dynastic and pontifical power. Born around 1046, Matilda was the daughter of Boniface-le-Pieux, Duke of Tuscany, and Beatrice of Lorraine. Béatrice of Lorraine, as well as the wife of the Duke of Lorraine, Godefroy le Bossu the Hunchback, then of Welf of Bavaria. At the head of vast and coveted coveted territories stretching from Lorraine to southern Tuscany, she played a leading role in the Investiture Dispute between the future between the future German emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. She also donated some of her possessions to the Papacy before her death in Bondeno in 1115. 107 108 109 In June 1633, the pontiff Urban VIII did not hesitate to commission the theft of the Countess' remains from the Mantuan abbey of San Benedetto abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone, leading to a serious political crisis with the Duke of Mantua, Carlo I Gonzaga de Nevers. He then his relics in the Castel Sant'Angelo until they were transferred to St Peter's in 1644. At the same time, he commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to create a monument to the woman, which was built between 1633 and 1637 and installed in St Peter's Basilica, in front of the altar of the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament. Our bronze figure is not, however, a reduction of the monumental the monumental figure of the Countess that adorns this tomb, as their their many iconographic differences. Our bronze print is taken, directly or indirectly, in a way that is exceptional in the the artist's work, directly or indirectly, from the terracotta sketch of this of this work (considered to have disappeared). The sketch would have served as the model for a dozen bronze copies that have now been catalogued. The in-depth study published in 2013 by Andrea Bacchi has made it possible to the production of bronze works based on this sketch. from this sketch. As early as the late 1640s, a gilded bronze example of the Countess Matilda is mentioned in the inventory of the pontiff's nephew pontiff's nephew, Taddeo Barberini (1603-1647) (now in the National Gallery of Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia). This work is mentioned another bronze example (precisely the one studied by A. Bacchi in studied by A. Bacchi in 2013) in the after-death inventory inventory dated 1686 of Prince Maffeo Barberini (1631-1685). The presence of these two examples of the Comtesse Mathilde in the collections of the Pope's entourage supports the hypothesis already mentioned by Bernini specialist Rudolf Wittkower that the Pontiff Urban VIII wished to have a bronze copy as a souvenir in his private in his private flats. The pontiff would have demanded the exceptional production of bronzes created from Bernini's model in order to consolidate his power by presenting gifts to those close to him. As R. Wittkower and the generations of Bernini specialists scholars after him, at least eleven of the twelve examples of the Countess of the Countess Mathilde are derived directly or indirectly from the directly or indirectly from the preparatory model in terracotta for the monument monument in St Peter's in the Vatican. The unfinished aspect of the sketch is particularly visible on the backs of the statuettes on the backs of the statuettes (as on our copy), where traces of tools form large parallel striations. As A. Bacchi, this deliberate choice to preserve unfinished' aspect to the bronze - an intermediate stage in the artist's creative process - is an exceptional choice for the period. At the time, neither sketches nor modelli were intended to be cast in bronze. cast in bronze. They served only as reference tools for the master or his workshop in the execution of large models which would then be translated into marble (or bronze). Urbain VIII must have decided that "casting in bronze would ennoble the model, ensure greater durability guarantee it greater durability and would also allow it to be reproduced reproduction", says A. Bacchi. Bernini therefore probably gave his terracotta model to the Pope at the start of the project for the commission around 1635 and his authorisation to make bronzes of it. It would seem that our copy is a thirteenth version not yet as yet unrecorded. The works in the corpus show many variations in the variations in the treatment of the tiara, keys, movements of the drapery movements, drapery, feet and hair. The quality of the casting and and finishes also vary. Some are much more carefully chiselled others have thicker or thinner patinas. Francesca Bewer suggests that these differences in treatment and quality different uses: from diplomatic gifts to presentation bronze from diplomatic gifts to presentation bronzes, not forgetting the cruder work the creative process for lovers of bozzetti. Our work, with its thick, rough cast, whose modelling is undoubtedly attenuated by the by the thick posterior patina, has iconographic and technical similarities with iconographic and technical similarities with some of the examples notably the one in the Kunstgewerbe Museum in Berlin or Cambridge (the tiara motif and, above all, the poorly modelled feet). of the feet). Bernini specialists note that some copies could have been have been made indirectly, from a first bronze copy (the one kept by the Pope? (the one kept by the Pope?). The primacy of the two bronzes in the Barberini collection is undisputed, but some bronzes - notably those in and Berlin, as well as our own, which have less clear model, could therefore be derived from a first bronze rather than directly from the rather than directly from the original sketch. All of the bronzes representing the Countess Mathilde were therefore were therefore derived either from Bernini's terracotta sketch or from a first first bronze copy. The artist agreed to to offer them to the Pontiff as diplomatic gifts. These reminded the Princes of Europe of their duty to defend the Church of the Church, as did Matilda, whose epitaph on her tomb reads The epitaph on her tomb reads: "Countess Mathilde, woman of virile courage, defender of the Apostolic See [...] who, forgetting her sex, equalled the who, forgetting her sex, equalled the Amazons of antiquity, leading troops of iron-clad men into war". of iron.