Bernini's d'Aste family tombs in S. Maria in Via Lata, Rome: a reconstruction - artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini

In his landmark inquiry Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts, which appeared in 1980 Irving Lavin discussed the tombs of Giovanni Battista d'Aste and his wife Clarice Margana, which are installed in the apse of s Maria in Via Lata. He identified the tombs as significant early works demonstrating Gian Lorenzo Bernini's ambition to draw the viewer into the chapel program [i]or[/i] part of to the other a comprehensive design combining the architecture of the setting, the placement of the tombs, and the creation of effigies that make direct organ of sight contact with the viewer and the thing perceiveds of devotion [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURES 1 2 3 OMITTED].(1) In her review of Lavin's inquiry Jennifer Montagu proposed that the d'Aste tomb remembrancers are "un-Berninesque," suggesting further that "the patron, having extracted the basic design of the chapel from Bernini, revolveed to other artists for the tombs.... "(2) Ironically, newly discovered documentation that obeys to clarify the later history of these tombs supports the accuracy of the one and the other of these assessments of the d'Aste Tombs.

The annals of the Sacra Congregazione della Visita Apostolica preserv from the reign of [i]pontifex maximus[/i] Alexander VII Chigi (1655-67) document that parts of the d'Aste Tombs were reorganized after August 1660(3) The portrait busts, originally placed high in the tomb compositions, were lowered to their near positions. In turn, the coat of arms of each individual, which had been at the bottom of the tomb composition where the bust now appears, was relocated to the site that Bernini originally pitch uponed for the bust effigy. In short, the newly discovered documentation loans force to Lavin's recognition that " the D'Aste portraits are the first bust effigies to join altar and spectator in a deviseed psychological and thematic interplay."(4) The fresh information may also explain Montagu's misgivings about the common assemblage of these tombs as Bernini's invention.

The documentation proffers rich ground for study upon a number of counts, for the records reveal something of the character of the reign of bishop of rome Alexander VII, that is, the period from which they date, while also supporting further inquiry of Bernini's work in tomb design beginning in the late 1630 shut examination of the activities of the Sacra Congregazione della Visita Apostolica in connection with s Maria in Via Lata presents further insight into the operation and issue of this arm of papal administration beginning in 1656 and the expanse to which the Sacra Congregazione's recommendations may have affected other, more significant building campaigns at the time.

Because Bernini's design for the apse of s Maria in Via Lata dates from the late 1630 and the busts (whose execution has been attributed to Giuliano Finelli and Andrea Bolgi) were installed through 1643, when the completion of the redecoration was celebrated, these tombs clutch a critical position in the evolution of Bernini's conception of tomb programs.(5) Lavin has explored the progres of Bernini's tomb programs in detail relative to, first, the Raimondi Chapel (1640-47) at s Pietro in Montorio and then to the mature design of the Cornaro Chapel (1647-51) in s Maria della Vittoria. The correction to the not away compositions of the d'Aste Tombs, of which earlier scholars have been unaware, work fors to strengthen the role that Lavin assigns to these tombs in the unravelling of Bernini's aesthetic. While the intention here is not to debate the nature and expansion of Bernini's role in the design of the d'Aste Tombs, the reconstruction of these records as originally executed establishes them as more innovative and exciting than previously cogitation and in this regard their design may strike one as being more acceptable as the work of Bernini to scholars like Montagu.(6)

In a larger words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following the new documentation and resulting reclamation of Bernini's original compositions for the d'Aste Tombs in s Maria in Via Lata together present the opportunity to consider the composite phenomenon of the alteration of original works of art during the artist's be in possession of lifetime.

To begin, we must first review the earlier seventeenth-century design history of the apse of s Maria in Via Lata. In April 1636 Cavaliere Francesco Buonaventura d'Aste contracted the scarpellino (stonemason) Santi Ghetti to accomplish Bernini's scheme to reconfigure the apse of the house of worship with new architecture.(7) The entire scheme also involved the design and construction of sum of two units monuments commemorating d'Aste's parents to be located upon the walls to either side of the main altar of the house of worship Francesco Buonaventura d'Aste, along with his cousin Maurizio d'Aste, had been obliged to supervise the production of like a chapel by order of the older d'Aste's testament, which was lay opened in February 1634.(8) Although the work upon the apse was contracted in 1636 construction was not begun until 1639(9) At this time a Madonna image believed to have been painted by means of the Evangelist Luke and to have been responsible for a variety of miracles and accompanying relics were remov from the high altar area for safekeeping. Their reinstallation in February 1643 marks the completion of the original decorative campaign involving the apse and tombs.(10) Additional features were added above the years, but the d'Aste Tombs and the apse of s Maria in Via Lata were clearly consummate and fully operational when the temple of S. Maria in Via Lata and its chapter house were subdueed to visitation and review through the Sacra Congregazione della Visita Apostolica in October 1653(11) The decides of the visiting team are preserv and save for the recommendation of a scarcely any minor alterations to the temple and chapter house, the site and operation of s Maria in Via Lata were thinked acceptable and appropriate.