Bernini, Damned Soul, 1619
In Catholic tradition, Lucifer was the archangel of Intellect.
Was Bernini portraying some cause(s) of damnation as well as the effect?
Is it a damned or a blessed state to always be monitoring oneself and others, to always be standing on the outside of experience, to be looking in the mirror during a kiss, to oversee rather than to undergo? Someone once wrote: "To shed light is to burn."
Supposedly Bernini burned his arm to get the face right. If you did that, would you get a picture of screaming or a picture of looking?
If he did that, how would we know unless he told someone? Is the compulsion to know related to the compulsion to tell, a need for the acknowledgement of others?
Since this sculpture was also self-advertisement, what personal qualities was Bernini advertizing? In other words, what might the story and the sculpture have been intended to symbolize about Bernini?
Bernini, Damned Soul, 1619
In Catholic tradition, Lucifer was the archangel of Intellect.
Was Bernini portraying some cause(s) of damnation as well as the effect?
Is it a damned or a blessed state to always be monitoring oneself and others, to always be standing on the outside of experience, to be looking in the mirror during a kiss, to oversee rather than to undergo? Someone once wrote: "To shed light is to burn."
Supposedly Bernini burned his arm to get the face right. If you did that, would you get a picture of screaming or a picture of looking?
If he did that, how would we know unless he told someone? Is the compulsion to know related to the compulsion to tell, a need for the acknowledgement of others?
Since this sculpture was also self-advertisement, what personal qualities was Bernini advertizing? In other words, what might the story and the sculpture have been intended to symbolize about Bernini?