Gianlorenzo BERNINI, dit Le BERNIN (1598-1680)

Countess Matilda of Canossa (Mantua, c. 1046 - Bondeno di Roncore, 1115) Circa 1640 Black patina bronze statuette Height: 40 cm Provenance: Private collection, France Private collection, France Related work: - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Monument to Matilda of Tuscany, 1633-37, Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica. Other bronze examples listed in the artist's bibliography -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Matilde de Canossa, H.40, 2 cm, former collection of Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Galerie Carlo Orsi in 2013; - Gian Lorenzo, Matilde de Canossa, gilded bronze, titled on the front of the marble base: "MATHILDI / GRATI. ANIMI/ERGO/URBANUS.VIII/POSUIT, former Palazzo Barberini collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, n°inv. E2.a-B-1970; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, c. 1634- 1637, bronze, H. 39.5 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbe Museum im Schloss Köpernick, no. 1977.159; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, circa 1634-1637, bronze, inscribed on the front of the base: CONTESSA MATILDA, Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Art Museum, no. 1998.1; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, H. 40 cm, inscribed on the reverse of the base 'OPUS EQUITIS BERNINI', North Carolina Museum, Raleigh, n°inv. 58.4.20; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, H. 40 cm, Berlin, Kunstgewerbe Museum im Schloss Köpenick; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, New York, Michael Hall Collection, (cf.Bewer, 1999, p. 166); -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, H. 39.1 cm, New York, Michael Hall Collection, formerly Christie's, London, December 2, 1997, lot 116; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, h. 41.5cm). United States, private collection, formerly Sotheby's London, December 11, 1980, lot 264; Francesca Bewer (1999, p. 166) as in an American private collection; - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, Amsterdam, C. Vecht (cf. Charles Avery, 1997) - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, gilded bronze, H. 39.2 cm, formerly Private Collection, Milan, Carlo Orsi in 2012; -Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Mathilde de Canossa, bronze, Rome, private collection (cited but not reproduced in Bewer, 1999, p.166; Related literature: -Rudolf Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the sculptor of the Roman Baroque [2nd ed.], Phaidon Press London, 1966, cat. no. 33, p.. 202; -Michael P. Mezzatesta, "Three Statuettes of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany", The Art of Gianlorenzo Bernini: Selected Sculpture, Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, TX, 1982), no. 2 and fig. -Charles Avery, Bernini, Genius of the Baroque, London: Thames and Hudson, 1997; -Francesca Bewer, "Bronze Casts after Bozzetti and Modelli by Bernini", in Sketches in Clay for Projects by Gian Lorenzo Bernini: Theoretical, Technical, and Case Studies, Harvard University Art Museums Bulletin, ed. Ivan Gaskell and Henry Lie, MA, Spring, 1999, VI, pp.162-167; -C. D. Dickerson III, Tony Sigel, Ian Wardropper, Andrea Bacchi, Tomaso Montanari, and Stephen E. Ostrow, Bernini Sculpting in Clay, Cat. Exp, New York, 2012, n°5, pp.132-134; -Andrea Bacchi, Matilde di Canossa. Un bronzetto di Bernini degli anni Trenta, Carlo Orsi antichità, Milan, 2013; - Michele K. Spike, Matilda Canossa and the origins of the Renaissance, An exhibition in honor of the 900th Anniversary of her Death, Cat. Exp. held February 7 to April 19, 2015, Muscarelle Museum of Art, 2015, notice n°9 p.122-123; -Ss dir. Maurizia Cicconi, Flaminia Gennari Santori, Sebastian Schütze, L'immagine Sovrana, Urbano VIII e i Berberini, "La fabbrica dei Santi", Cat. Exp. held March 18 or July 30, 2023 in Rome, Barberini/Corsini Gallerie nazionali, notice 17, pp.206-207. This bronze statuette derives from the main figure of a famous monument commissioned by the pontiff Urban VIII: that of Matilda of Tuscany, executed for the Basilica of Tuscany. Tuscany, executed for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican by the most famous sculptor of Baroque Italy, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598- 1680). Holding the rod of command in her right hand, the papal tiara and the keys of St. Peter in her left, Matilda of Tuscany is depicted here as Fortitudo, the first of the theological virtues. This image of bravery conveys the heroic character of this illustrious woman of the turn of the 11th century. Her unwavering support for pontifical primacy served as an example in a seventeenth-century Rome of divisive and hostile factions. The image of the "Virago catholica", a native of Tuscany like the Barberinis, was for the Pope a propaganda tool necessary to the policy of consolidating his dynastic and pontifical power. Born around 1046, Matilda was the daughter of Tuscan duke Boniface the Pious and Beatrice of Lorraine, as well as the wife of Lorraine duke Godfrey the Hunchback, then of Welf of Bavaria. At the head of vast territories tr