Elephant and obelisk
Italian (Roman) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Porcelain, rosso antico marble and rosa baveno granite
Measurements
350 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516593
Summary
Porcelain, rosso antico marble and rosa baveno granite, elephant and obelisk, Italian (Roman) School after a design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), probably 19th century. A souvenir model adapted from the elephant and obelisk monument in the Piazza della Minerva, Rome. The obelisk is made of hard-paste porcelain, incised with transcribed hieroglyphics and tin-glazed, the cushion is made of porcelain, glazed and gilt, and the elephant carved of rosso antico marble, standing on a lead-glazed ground, mounted on a rosa baveno granite base. The model was most likely made in Rome in the 19th century as a souvenir of the Grand Tour. The elephant and obelisk monument was designed by the great Italian baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and probably executed by his assistant Ercole Ferrata (1610-86). It was unveiled in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in 1667. The elephant supports a small ancient Egyptian obelisk originally brought from Sais to Rome by Diocletian for the Temple of Isis and excavated in 1655. In the original the elephant sports an elaborately embroidered saddle which is missing in this derivative model.
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Italian (Roman) School, sculptor after Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples 1598 – Rome 1680), designer
References
Heckscher 1947: William S. Heckscher, 'Bernini's Elephant and Obelisk', The Art Bulletin, vol. 29, no. 3 (September, 1947), pp. 155-182 Posèq 2003: Avigdor W. G. Posèq, 'The physiognomy of Bernini's elephant', Notes in the History of Art, vol. 22, no. 3 (Spring 2003), pp. 35-46