Rape of Proserpina
Artistafter
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
(Italian, 1598 – 1680)
Dateearly 20th century
MediumStone
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN5132
Showing the Roman god Pluto’s abduction of Proserpina, this stone statue is largely indebted to marble sculptures of the same subject by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and François Girardon (1628-1715). The story, taken from Roman poet Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i> (ca. 8 AD), relates how the god of the underworld abducted Proserpina, daughter of the harvest goddess Ceres, and carried her down into Hades. Ceres, overcome by sorrow, brought a great drought to the earth, forcing the intervention of Jupiter, king of the gods, who ordered that Proserpina spend half the year with Pluto (corresponding to the Winter months) and half with her mother (the harvest months).
In this example, the human figure on the ground has replaced the three-headed dog Cerberus, guardian of the underworld, that appears in Bernini’s masterpiece. This replacement figure is likely modeled on the cowering Sabine warrior in Giambologna’s <i>Rape of the Sabines</i>. The Ringling example is similar in this way to a marble statue at Versailles by Girardon, who replaced Cerberus with a female figure generally identified as one of Proserpina’s attendant nymphs, Cyane. An even closer comparison is a stone garden sculpture at Villa Querini in Mestre (Venetian mainland) with a male figure whose pose compares well to that of the analogous figure in the Ringling work.
On View
On viewLocation
- Museum of Art, Courtyard
