Le Anime del Bernini (Bernini's Souls)

The Vatican Museums and the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See are presenting the famous Blessed Soul and Damned Soul, two masterpieces by Bernini that are not usually visible to the public, in the Pinacoteca Vaticana.   

Usually kept in the Spanish Embassy at the Holy See, the splendid works of art were commissioned by a high Spanish prelate and realised by the artist in 1619 when he was only 21. 

The faces of the two marble busts - one female, with masterful sculptural details, and the other male, according to some critics, a possible self-portrait of Bernini - unveal two different emotions and spiritual conditions: the woman, in ecstasy, looking upwards, contemplates the heavenly Grace, towards eternal salvation; the man, his face down, deformed - between anguish and horror - is the representation of the soul facing eternal damnation.

In an extraordinary union of art and faith, the sculptures, in which the genius of the Baroque master is evident, fully represent the cultural and religious atmosphere of the early 17th century, characterised by a strong religiosity and spiritual devotion focused on the Four Last Things - in theology the Quattuor novissima - death, judgement, hell and paradise.  

Curated by Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums, and Helena Péreza Gallardo, Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, the exhibition inaugurates the cultural events that the Vatican Museums are dedicating to the Jubilee Year 2025.

Photo Vatican Museums Press Office