Galleria Borghese: The Rape of Proserpina by Bernini

Today we take you to the Galleria Borghese to talk about The Rape of Proserpina, an extraordinary masterpiece executed in 1621 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who was then barely in his early twenties.
The work tells the story of the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, kidnapped by Pluto and forced into the Underworld to marry the King of Hades.
Ceres’ grief over the disappearance of her beloved daughter caused a terrible famine—a true calamity for all mankind. The father of the gods and Mercury worked to find a solution to the catastrophe, and to the satisfaction of all parties, it was agreed that Proserpina would spend six months with her mother, fostering the abundance of harvests, and six months in Hades with Pluto.

Bernini captures the crucial moment of the story: the unequal struggle between the young girl and the god. The two bodies generate opposing forces, creating a spiral and ascending movement. This is made even more intense by the god’s powerful grip as he forcefully clutches the body of the maiden. In tears, she desperately tries to push away the face of her captor, from whom she is inevitably unable to escape. Bernini makes us feel the speed of Pluto’s stride and his arrogance, highlighted by a triumphant gaze determined to see his impiety through to the end, carrying Proserpina across the threshold of Hades, symbolized by the presence of Cerberus.

The composition unfolds through time, in a sequence that leads from the abduction to the unfortunate girl’s arrival at the home of “cruel Dis.” In this work, one can observe Bernini’s ability to transform marble into something ductile and malleable under his compositional strength. We speak of “compositions” when it comes to Bernini’s works because of his practice of bringing together multiple parts carved from the same block of marble into a single unit that changes with light and surface textures.

The softness of the young girl’s skin contrasts with the coarseness of Cerberus’ fur and the rough opacity of the ground stepped upon by the god. This quality of Bernini’s marble surfaces leaves the viewer ecstatic, especially considering the artist’s young age. it invites us to witness the miracle of Baroque sculpture, of which Gian Lorenzo remains one of the most extraordinary masters.

Visit it to believe it.