The bust of Francesco I d’Este is an undisputed masterpiece by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who welcomes visitors at the entrance to the Galleria Estense in Modena. The perfection and beauty of the sculpture surprise at every glance, the refinement of the modelling, the naturalness with which the drapery floats in the air, the precision in rendering the long wig worn by the Duke, every detail of this work expresses its high artistic value.
Astonished to learn that the artist and the commissioner never met, Bernini was able to sculpt this masterpiece by transferring Francesco’s facial features from a pictorial – therefore two-dimensional – work to the three-dimensionality of marble. Bernini in the mid 17th century was an established artist whose patrons were Pontiffs and Kings. During negotiations, he repeatedly emphasised that it was not to his liking to work without seeing the model, and it took the insistent intermediation of Cardinal Rinaldo, the Duke’s brother, to get him to accept the Modenese commission. This was not, however, the first time Bernini had been asked to do this, as Charles I of England and Cardinal Richelieu had already commissioned their portraits “remotely” and without the possibility of expressing their opinion during the work. This aspect is important as it confirms the prestige that an established artist can bring to the commissioner, furthermore a real competition was created between sovereigns to win the services of such an artist.
At the end of the negotiation Bernini demanded to have more portraits of the Duke and the exact measurements of the height and width of the shoulders, so two profile portraits of the Duke by Justus Sustermans were sent to Rome while the one commissioned from Boulanger, in which the Duke was represented frontally, did not arrive in time. Bernini began sculpting the portrait of Francesco I in August 1651 and the bust was completed by the following September.
The work recounts the genius of its author: the marble loses the weight of its material and becomes light, the cloak moved by the wind is used as a ‘frame’ within which Francesco’s bust is modelled, the refined details of the embroidered collar and the naturalness with which the thick hair of the wig falls softly along the Duke’s shoulders and chest are astonishing.
The sculpture arrived in Modena in November of the same year and when the case was opened, the Duke was so pleased with it that he paid Bernini the exaggerated sum of 3,000 scudi, which was equivalent to the commission paid by Pope Innocent X for the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona in Rome!
Francesco I with this important and costly commission pursued his desire for high-level cultural sponsorship, in fact the enormous success of the prestigious work enriched not only his art collection but above all increased the reputation of the Este family.
