From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bust of Cardinal Richilieu
Artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Year1640–41 (1640–41)
Catalogue42
TypeSculpture
MediumMarble
Subject Cardinal Richelieu
Location The Louvre, Paris
Preceded by Medusa (Bernini)
Followed by Memorial to Alessandro Valtrini

The Bust of Cardinal Richelieu is a marble sculpture by the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, situated at the Louvre in Paris.

Richelieu had hoped to commission Bernini to make a full-length sculpture, through his friend Jules Mazarin and the French ambassador in Rome François Annibal d'Estrées, but Pope Urban VIII would not permit it, so the sculpture became a bust, sculpted by Bernini between November 1640 and January 1641. He worked from images of Cardinal Richelieu that had been sent to Rome from France.

Once completed, the bust was transported to Paris. [1] [2]

The bust arrived in Paris in August 1640, but Richelieu was not happy with the work, quickly commissioning another bust by Jean Warin.

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ Entry at Louvre website[ permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 1997 (4th ed.), p. 260.

External links

Media related to Portrait of the cardinal Richelieu at Wikimedia Commons