PAULINE BONAPARTE - Canova 1805 Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, is represented as Venus Victrix: in her left hand she is holding the golden apple thanks to which Paris recognized her beauty as being superior to that of the other two goddesses, Juno and Minerva. The story comes from ancient Greece. Paris the Trojan

AENEAS AND ANCHISES - Bernini 1619 The first sculptural group executed by Bernini for Cardinal Scipione, it may be dated, at least approximately, by a payment made on 14 October 1619. In the 17th century doubts were raised as to its authorship: German artist and writer von sandart assigned the sculpture to Pietro Bernini

STATUE OF SLEEPING HERMAPHRODITE Despite the fact that the head has been restored, the statue is one of the best of the 20 known copies of the sleeping hermaphrodite. In his investigation of the origins, Plato postulated that the nature was indivisible and perfect before the division of the sexes; The son of

RAPE OF PERSEPHONE - Bernini 1621 The king of underworld, Pluto, abducted the daughter of Ceres and Jupiter, Proserpine, while she was picking flowers in Sicily, outside the walls of Enna. On becoming Pluto's wife, Proserpine was also made queen of the underworld. Her myth, linked to the spring, could also symbolize the

DAVID - Bernini 1623 David is a life-size marble sculpture, completed in the course of seven months from 1623 to 1624. Bernini’s David is like a major league pitcher winding up to throw a 95 miles an hour fastball. The pitcher gathers all of his strength for each pitch and puts everything he has

APOLLO E DAFNE Gian Lorenzo Bernini created for Cardinal Scipione Borghese an unprecedented masterpiece depicting the metamorphosis in laurel of the Nanny caste, Dafne, pursued in vain by Apollo, god of light. The natural marble work, begun by Bernini at twenty-four years, between 1622 and 1625, was placed in the same room of