‘Lost’ Marble Skull Sculpted by Baroque Artist Bernini Found Hidden in Plain Sight

Pope Alexander VII commissioned the work, which sat unidentified in Dresden for decades, as a reminder of mortality

A curator's archival research identified a previously unattributed marble skull as a lost masterpiece by Bernini. (© SKD / Photo by Oliver Killig)

By Isis Davis-Marks

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
JUNE 1, 2021

For decades, a skillfully carved rendition of a skull sat largely overlooked in Germany’s Pillnitz Castle. Who crafted the cranium has long been a mystery, but new research detailed in “Bernini, the Pope and Death,” an exhibition on view at the Dresden-based Semper Gallery, suggests the marble head’s creator was none other than famed Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

“Everybody had the same reaction to it,” curator Claudia Kryza-Gersch tells the Art Newspaper’s Catherine Hickley. “We were standing around a table, looking at it. The question of course was—who made it? And since it has Roman provenance, someone jokingly said ‘maybe it’s a Bernini?’”

Per the German Press Agency (DPA), Kryza-Gersch spotted the skull while preparing for a separate Caravaggio exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery). She then had it moved to the restoration workshop at the Dresden State Art Collections.

“There was something about seeing the object out of its glass case,” Kryza-Gersch tells the Art Newspaper. “I was so overwhelmed. It’s scary—it has an aura.”

Curious about the skull’s origins, the curator began researching it in the Dresden archives. She soon came across the papers of Raymond Le Plat, art advisor to Polish king Augustus the Strong, and found a reference to a “famous death head” sculpted by Bernini. Further investigation indicated that Pope Alexander VII, who led the Catholic Church between 1655 and 1667, commissioned the cranium within days of taking office.

According to the Gemäldegalerie’s website, the pope kept the eerily lifelike piece of white Carrara marble on his desk as a “reminder of the fragility of human existence.” Though a plague befell Rome shortly after his ascension, Alexander’s proactive response to the threat ensured that the city escaped relatively unscathed, as Taylor Dafoe reports for Artnet News.

The skull is on display in Dresden alongside a portrait of Alexander VII resting his hand on it. (© SKD / Photo by Oliver Killig)

Writing for Artnet News in 2017, Menachem Wecker pointed out that artists throughout history have created similarly macabre symbols. Inspired by the Latin phrase memento mori, which roughly translates to “remember you must die,” these paintings, sculptures, drawings and tokens seek to remind viewers of their own mortality. Though the objects may appear morbid to modern viewers, Artnet notes that they often carried “optimistic, carpe-diem messages” about making the most of one’s time on Earth.

After Alexander’s death in 1667, the head—“so realistically sculpted that it could almost be mistaken for a genuine human skull,” according to the Gemäldegalerie—was transferred to his nephew, a prominent antiquities collector. In 1728, Augustus acquired the marble sculpture, as well as 164 antique statues and four Baroque works. It was subsequently moved to Dresden.

Until recently, the Dresden State Art Collections had listed the skull as an unattributed work, notes a separate DPA report. Held in the archaeology department, it attracted little interest from curators more interested in ancient artifacts than modern ones. As a result, a supposedly lost masterpiece by one of art history’s most renowned sculptors remained hidden in plain sight for almost 200 years.

“This time, all the pieces came together like a beautiful puzzle,” Kryza-Gersch tells the Art Newspaper.

Born in Italy in 1598, Bernini displayed artistic talent from an early age. At just 8 years old, locals later claimed, he created a stone head that “was the marvel of everyone,” as Arthur Lubow wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2008. Bernini’s father encouraged the young artist to continue honing his craft, and by his mid-20s, he had established himself as one of Rome’s most preeminent sculptors. Among his famed creations are a life-size rendering of David, the triumphant Biblical warrior who slayed the giant Goliath, and an intricate depiction of Daphne, a mythological Greek nymph who transformed into a laurel tree to escape the unwanted advances of the god Apollo.

The newly identified Bernini skull—as well as a painting showing Alexander resting his hand on the marble sculpture—is on view in Dresden through September 5.

About Isis Davis-Mark

Forgotten Last Supper Scene Linked to Renaissance Master Titian Spent Century Hidden in Plain Sight

Researchers spotted the artist’s signature, among other clues to the 16th-century painting’s provenance, on the canvas

A descendant of art collector John Skippe donated the painting to the parish in 1909. (Courtesy of St. Michael and All Angels Church via Facebook)

By Isis Davis-Marks

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
MARCH 4, 2021

For more than 100 years, a yellowed painting of the Last Supper hung largely unnoticed on a church wall in Ledbury, a town of almost 10,000 in western England. Most worshippers never gave the 12- by 5-foot canvas a second glance, though some did suggest that the parish “get rid of it,” as Reverend Keith Hilton-Turvey tells the Hereford Times’ Charlotte Moreau.

Now, reports Dalya Alberge for the Telegraph, experts have revealed that the seemingly unassuming image was actually created in the workshop of Titian, one of the most prominent artists of the 16th century.

Staff at the St. Michael and All Angels Church initially asked art historian and conservator Ronald Moore to restore a 19th-century copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. But when Moore approached the painting, which hangs above the church’s altar, he found himself drawn to the less prominently displayed canvas.

“I could see it was a bit special, but I didn’t know how special,” the scholar tells the Telegraph. “It’s about ten feet off the ground, so you can’t see it unless you stand on a ladder.”

After studying the work for some 11,000 hours, writes Lianne Kolirin for CNN, Moore and researcher Patricia Kenny found a number of telling clues, including Titian’s signature, a virtuosic underdrawing of the artist himself and a 1775 letter penned by collector John Skippe that references his purchase of a Titian painting. One of Skippe’s descendants donated the Last Supper scene to the Ledbury church in 1909.

“It’s so big and nobody’s taken any notice of it for 110 years,” Moore says to the Telegraph. “Anything coming from Titian’s workshop is very important indeed.”

Titian's signature was hidden on a jug in the Last Supper scene. (Courtesy of Ronald Moore and Patricia Kenny)

Kenny and Moore spent around three years analyzing the painting and another three months conserving it. Per BBC News, the pair removed layers of centuries-old varnish and examined the canvas under ultraviolet light, which enabled them to identify Titian’s signature on the bottom left of the canvas and match the face of an apostle to the Old Master’s likeness.

The researchers determined that members of Titian’s Venice workshop completed the piece, which was commissioned by a Venetian convent, between 1560 and 1580. Because Titian’s studio regularly hosted a large group of artists and writers, Moore posits that others, like the painter’s son Orazio Vecellio, contributed to the artwork.

Per the Hereford Times, the painting employs a number of different techniques, styles and materials.

“The biggest problem of all was that the heads are painted by different artists, some of staggering quality,” Moore tells the Times.

When Titian died of the plague in 1576, he left behind a number of unfinished pieces—including, perhaps, the one in Ledbury.

“He was a very popular and busy artist and I think he just never got time to work on it and finish it,” Moore explains to BBC News.

The dynamic religious scene depicts Jesus and his disciples dining on the eve of his death. Intriguingly, reports the Telegraph, facial recognition software and images overlaid on the work by Kenny suggest that some of the apostles are based on Titian and his family members.

A self-portrait of Titian dated to around 1567 (Public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

“It is almost certainly the only large-scale Titian workshop painting that is undiscovered until now,” Moore tells CNN. “Being created over 20 years, it gives us the opportunity to examine the different hands involved in the workshop.”

Born in Venice in 1488, Titian practiced art from a young age, serving as an apprentice to mosaic craftsman Sebastiano Zuccato. The prodigal painter later left Zuccato’s studio to study with Giovanni Bellini, one of the most prominent Venetian artists of his time.

Titian refined his style as he matured, creating vibrant, realistic depictions of a variety of subjects, from portraits to landscapes to mythological tales. He worked with studio assistants to create some of his most famous paintings, including Venus of Urbino, an alluring scene of a young bride lying nude on a bed.

The Ledbury Last Supper has sustained significant damage over the centuries, losing much of its detail, tone, glazing and coloring. But while the painting is in poor condition, Moore tells CNN, that “it is unique. It’s the first chance we’ve had in art history to be able to look at a Titian workshop painting done over quite a long period of time.”

Moore’s research will be outlined in his upcoming book, Titian’s Lost Last Supper: A New Workshop Discovery.

Isis Davis-Marks is a freelance writer and artist based in New York City. Her work has also appeared in Artsy, the Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. Website: isisdavismarks.com

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