Type Sculpture Subject Alessandro Valtrini Artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini Year 1639 | Medium Marble relief Dimensions Life-size skeleton Created 1639 Catalogue 43 | |
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Location San Lorenzo in Damaso, Rome Similar Memorial to Maria Raggi, Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, Tomb of Pope Alexande, Fontana delle Api, Elephant and Obelisk | ||
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.