Bernini


My drawing from Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Portrait of Camilla Barbadori, marble sculpture in the State Art Museum in Copenhagen. Here is a link to a photo of the actual piece:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_of_Camilla_Barbadoni#/media/File:Buste_af_Camilla_Barbadori._Moder_til_Pave_Urban_VIII_Barberini.jpg

Bernini was a monumentally accomplished sculptor. I have been advised that I must see the Apollo and Daphne, in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_and_Daphne_(Bernini)#/media/File:Apollo_and_Daphne_(Bernini).jpg

Daphne’s prayer to be turned into a tree, to escape the advances of Apollo, is shown in the process of being answered in the affirmative.

Bernini made the portrait bust now in Copenhagen when he was just 23. My experience sketching from it was one of those times when I was really far off in my initial placements of things, but not so far off that I thought I needed to quit the drawing. The forms of the sculpture, and their interrelationship, became more deeply beautiful the more I studied the piece. I wanted to keep going with what I started.

Looking at the photo of the actual sculpture, I see that I completely invented the direction of the gaze.
 
My drawing may have been prohibited from too closely resembling  its model by some early decisions that I made, but I still felt on track to successfully capturing something important that I was experiencing in Bernini’s work. When I am working from life I often have feelings like this. Bridging the gap between the power and beauty of life that I see in the model, and what I have to work with in my drawing, seems like a fundamental part of the drawing process.

Drawing can be a meditative way to learn both about a particular subject of interest, and about myself. The drawing decisions that I make can seem to have a particular character, as I draw. Building on this character can determine the course of the drawing. While perhaps inaccurate to the model, this personally aware expression can end up feeling vibrantly real, well worth investigating. I’m thinking about Rembrandt as I write this, but that’s a subject for another blog post.

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