Memorial to Alessandro Valtrini explained

Memorial to Alessandro Valtrini
Image Upright:1
Artist:Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Catalogue:43
Type:Sculpture
Material:Marble relief
Subject:Alessandro Valtrini
Dimensions:Life-size skeleton
City:Rome
Museum:San Lorenzo in Damaso
Preceded By:Bust of Cardinal Richelieu
Followed By:Memorial to Ippolito Merenda

The Memorial to Alessandro Valtrini is a funerary monument designed by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1639, and executed by his workshop in the same year. It is situated in the church of the San Lorenzo in Damaso in Rome. It has strong affinities with the Memorial to Ippolito Merenda; both were undertaken by Bernini's workshop and commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini to commend the ecclesiastical work done by Valtrini and Merenda respectively. In aesthetic terms, both broke new ground in figuring Death as a moving skeleton carrying a flowing inscriptions and, in the case of Alessandro Valrtrini monument, a medallion-shaped portrait of Valtrini himself.

Valtrini had been a wealthy donor during his lifetime. Three churches he had supported erected monuments to him, Il Gesù (where his body remained), Santa Maria sopra Minerva and the Bernini version in San Lorenzo in Damaso. He died in 1633. Francesco Barberini organised the Bernini commission in the late 1630s.

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