The Rape of Proserpina

Neil Noland
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The Rape of Proserpina
The Rape of Proserpina

Il Ratto di Proserpina, more accurately translated as "The Abduction of Proserpina," is a sculpture by the Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini (executed in 1621-22, one of his earlier pieces; he was 23 years old).

This shows the god of the underworld, Pluto, with his three-headed dog Cerberos. (Cerberos is the gatekeeper to Hades.). Proserpina was the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres (Ceres being the goddess of agriculture). Pluto erupts from the underworld to kidnap Proserpina one day while she's out picking flowers, taking her back down to the underworld.

Ceres, hearing her daughter scream, was so upset that she dried the earth causing failed harvests. Jupiter then had to strike a deal with Pluto in which Proserpina spends half the year with him, and half in the world of the living. So there are your seasons. Spring signals the return of Proserpina and autumn signals that she's gone back to the underworld.

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The myth explains the creation of the four seasons. Proserpina

The Galleria Borghese, housed in the villa of the same name, in the gardens of the same name, may as well be called the Bernini Museum. But, no...it's the Galleria Borghese.

A museum in the Villa Borghese that consists of twenty rooms over two floors, most of Bernini's secular (and seminal) works are here, and were sculpted for the spaces in which you see them.

There are ties to Napoleon here. Camillo Borghese was Napoleon's brother-in-law. He became the second husband of Napoleon's sister Pauline (who is immortalized in sculpture in this museum). Camillo, however, was forced to sell some of the gallery's most prized sculptures to Napoleon. Among them, the Borghese Gladiator and Borghese Hermaphroditus. If you want to see those two, you'll have to hop on a plane (or train) and head to Paris to see them at the Louvre.

As for what's here, in audition to a reclining Pauline, the main floor of the museum mainly showcases antiquities from the 1st-3rd centuries A.D., including a gladiator mosaic from 320-330 A.D. The lifesize Pauline as Venus Victrix (by Antonio Canova) is also on this floor, and Bernini's Apollo and Daphne.

Also among the collection, you'll find a Raphael or two, a Caravaggio or two, and -- represented here -- a special exhibit of Rubens' work.

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Taken on: July 21, 2024
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Sets appears in:   • Galleria Borghese    • Bernini   
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