Abduction of Proserpina 2

Abduction of Proserpina 2A second perspective on Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Abduction of Proserpina (Ratto di Proserpina, 16211622), carved when the artist was just 23 and now housed at the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Where the closest detail shot reveals Pluto's hand sinking into marble, this angle widens to show the composition itself the spiral of the figures, Proserpina's desperate arm raised against her abductor, Pluto's bearded intensity. Bernini captured the mythological

A print of Étienne Baudet's Bust of Minerva — a 17th century French line engraving after an antique bust of the Roman goddess of wisdom

Carved from a single block of Carrara marble

A masterful contrast of darkness and light

wings sweeping up behind in a single confident line

The inscription on the pediment — M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT — still credits the original patron

capturing their rhythmic form in a minimalist

she was closely associated with the ocean and seafaring

Part of the Light & Shadow collection

The figure of a woman personifying the country

Carved when Bernini was just 23 years old and now housed at the Galleria Borghese in Rome

drawn in the muscular

central mythological panels