# Bust of Pope Urban VIII [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Marble, height 102 cm ## Commentary In viewing this work, we immediately grasp Bernini's extraordinary power to elicit a living breath from inert matter. He does this with tiny details that may appear secondary: the slightly parted lips, the hair unshaven on the cheeks, the button partly unfastened on the mozzetta, the irises of the eyes carved with the tip of the drill. These details set the fleeting present moment in stone, seize the instant and instill the portrait with great immediacy and psychological individuality. All these factors bear witness to the masterly technique by which Bernini gleaned particular effects from the marble, not by virtuosity for its own sake, but to endow the portrait with such naturalness that the viewer feels truly in the pope's presence. ## Related artworks - [A portrait of a Man]() - [A seated male nude]() - [Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius \(detail\)]() - [Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius]() - [Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius]() - [Altar Cross]() - [Angel]() - [Angel with the Column]() - [Angel with the Crown of Thorns]() - [Angel with the Superscription]() - [Angels on Ponte Sant'Angelo]() - [Apollo and Daphne \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()