“Bernini's Cristo Vivo”
From St. Peter's to Princeton
For the article in Princeton University Art Museum Record, Vol. 77-78, 2017-18 (2021), pp. 15-23, click this link:
https://www.scribd.com/document/528346804/Bernini-s-Cristo-Vivo
Bernini's Cristo Vivo crucifixes in St. Peter's Basilica and the Princeton University Art Museum incorporate a unique revision by the artistic impresario of Baroque Rome. Designed in 1659 and executed—under close supervision—by his assistant Ercole Ferrata, the Cristo Vivo represents the dramatic finale of the series of 25 crucifixes commissioned by Pope Alexander VII Chigi. Tracing Bernini's earlier development of the Cristo Morto, the author explains the surprising late addition of the Living Christ to the series of castings both stylistically (in comparison with Algardi's prior version) and iconographically, with special reference to Bernini's Daniel and the Lion in the Chigi Chapel. In his dynamic evocation of Christ's final words on the cross, Bernini added a proleptic vision of the Resurrected Christ celebrated in the Eucharist at the altar below—a brilliant conflation in sculpture of sacrifice and triumph.