Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Sepolcro di Urbano VIII

In 1623, the ascension to the papal throne of Maffeo Barberini, who chose the name Urbano VIII, led Bernini, then twenty-five, to take on an official role within the pope's political program. The humanistic culture and the intelligent interest in the arts demonstrated by Urbano VIII fostered a long friendship between the two. Almost a minister of propaganda, the artist translated the pope's grandiose projects into monumental works, reflecting his desire to celebrate the Roman Catholic Church and his own ambitious family.

Urbano VIII, as early as 1628, commissioned his tomb to be placed in the right niche of St. Peter's apse. Bernini managed to unify the commemorative monument and the sepulchral monument: indeed, the triumph of papal power, the historical aspect, and personal memory, the human aspect is emphasized. Urbano blessing from his throne sits atop an architectural base, flanked by representations of Charity and Justice, above the fearsome skeleton of Death at life-size, in the act of writing Urbano VIII’s epitaph in golden letters.

The contrast of materials is significant: everything in direct contact with the deceased — the sarcophagus, Death, the papal statue itself — is crafted in dark bronze; the allegories of Virtue, on the other hand, are in shining white marble: these, with their human qualities, particularly the woman depicting Charity, act as mediators between the observer and the pope. Bernini, surpassing the composed classicism of sixteenth-century sepulchral monuments, infuses the funerary theme with spectacular vitality and dynamism.

Death that writes “is a lively and pulsating way to substitute the banal epigraphic cartouche”, the critic Fagiolo Dell'Arco rightly highlights in my opinion. With this work, the artist marks a clear division with the old tradition of funerary sculpture.

The monument, rich in color variations and light effects caused by the adoption of various materials, represents the archetype of the Baroque tomb, the ideal expression of seventeenth-century religious drama. And Bernini is its best exponent.