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Sculpture and Movement |
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written
by liu9700 / 10.24.2005 |
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| Sculpture and movement |
1 of 1 |
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Assignment |
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The room in the Galleria Borghese that houses Pauline Bonaparte’s sculpture is arranged so that the entering visitor first encounters the sculpture’s back. It is interesting to compare this to the setup of Bernini’s David and the Apollo and Daphne. Both these pieces greet the visitor at the climax of their story. Because of this the visitor already has a good idea of what they will see before they circle around the statue’s base. In contrast, when the visitor first encounters the Bonaparte statue they have no idea what they will be facing when they walk around to its front.
For the following let us consider that the piece was originally lit with a single candle placed near the statue’s front left corner. From their initial position the visitor sees nothing but a silhouetted form, reclining on a sofa in the center of the room. From the back it almost seems as though Pauline has been captured in a pensive moment. Her posture is relaxed and her head is turned towards her left shoulder, her stare fixed at some unseen object.
The natural movement for the visitor is to walk first towards the statue’s feet, in an effort to obtain a better view of the softly lit face. Here they will see Pauline Bonaparte gazing not at but past them, casually reclined on the sofa. The candlelight illuminates her bare chest, her face and her drawn back arm. Her expression is not one of thought but one of indifference. Her drawn back arm seems an intentional exposure; to ensure that her breasts are plainly viewable at all angles.
From her feet the visitor moves forward towards the source of the light. The hand that was draped in shadow before is now seen to be illuminated on its other side, revealing an apple delicately grasped in Pauline’s fingers. The sheet is intentionally tucked around her waist, as if to kill any thought that it might have accidentally slipped from her shoulders. Her unconcerned look and intentionally bared chest reminds the visitor of the idealized statues of the goddesses carved by the ancients, the apple an allusion to Aphrodite and the decision of Paris.
As the visitor moves around the sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte they gradually descend through different levels of her social sphere. From the first viewpoint Pauline is not much more than a shadowed and beautiful form. However, as the visitor continues around the sculpture they reveal an arrogant and manipulative woman. The use of candlelight to dimly illuminate choice features, the refusal to meet the visitor’s gaze and the audacity to idealize herself as a goddess give hint to the nature of the patron behind the sculpture. Those who do not yet know a person well most easily see their more superficial qualities, in this case a beautiful and educated woman. As they approach the statue the visitor gradually comes to realize Pauline’s less favorable attributes and gain a better perspective of her true nature. By the end the visitor sees in her expression and posture a woman that is vain and self-important, who manages to disregard others even as a statue.
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