Blessed Soul

Blessed Soul

The marble bust Blessed Soul, or Anima Beata, was created in 1619 along with Damned Soul when Bernini was only 20. The piece is thought to have been commissioned by Cardinal Pedro Foix de Montoya [1]. The bust depicts a woman looking up toward heaven with a slightly open mouth with an almost absent expression. She wears a crown of flowers atop her long, curly hair, and the bust, like Damned Soul, cuts off around her collarbone and neck. While Damned Soul captures an intensity of emotion and pain, the woman in Blessed Soul almost appears absent from life, fixated on looking toward heaven. The parted lips and slight head tilt add an aura of innocence to the woman's expression.

While the emotion is far less eminent in Blessed Soul than in Damned Soul, Bernini still captures an instantaneous motion and emotion rather than capturing a figure at rest. With her head tilted, lips parted, and eyes looking upward, the woman looks as though she is about to speak or perhaps ascend to heaven.

Though the purity in her face is clear, the absence of life and emotion almost leaves a negative connotation on going to heaven [2]. The Damned Soul clearly experienced agony, but appears more alive with such intensity of emotion.

Bernini again used sculpture as a media to depict an expression that may have more typically been seen in oil portraiture prior to the Baroque period. Through next examining a portrait of Caravaggio, this connection can be understood. Once again looking beyond a medium’s history and standard uses, Bernini established himself as a visionary almost agnostic to the medium he was working with. His paintings, sculptures, and architecture are connected by their dynamic nature.

[1] “Anima Beata (the Blessed Soul).” Sotheby's. Sotheby's. Accessed October 18, 2021. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/tomasso-the-more-a-thing-is-perfect/anima-beata-the-blessed-soul.

[2] Rowland, Ingrid D. “Bernini: He Had the Touch.” The New York Review of Books. NYREV, July 21, 2020. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/06/04/bernini-he-had-touch/.

Bernini

Montagu, Jennifer. “Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts.” The Burlington Magazine 124, no. 949 (1982): 240–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/880696.

Rowland, Ingrid D. “Bernini: He Had the Touch.” The New York Review of Books. NYREV, July 21, 2020. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/06/04/bernini-he-had-touch/.

“Anima Beata (the Blessed Soul).” Sotheby's. Sotheby's. Accessed October 18, 2021. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/tomasso-the-more-a-thing-is-perfect/anima-beata-the-blessed-soul.

Piazza di Spagna

1619

Meena Gudapati

Image of marble bust

Sculpture

Piazza di Spagna, Rome, Italy