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173:. Gian Lorenzo then sent a servant to slash Costanza's face with a razor, a traditional punishment for a woman who had offended a man's honour. Costanza was imprisoned for adultery and fornication in the monastery of Casa Pia, the servant was exiled, as was Luigi Bernini to protect him, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini was fined 3,000 scudi. His mother, Angelica Galante Bernini, wrote to Cardinal
193:. Payment orders refer to her as "Signora Costanza", or after her husband's death as "Costanza Piccolomini", and also as "Costanza scultora" ('sculptor'). She exhibited a large collection of artworks on the main floor of her house and in two rooms on the upper floor. One of the most famous was the
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family. The first time she appears in documents is in Rome in 1625, when she was 11 years old and living in what is now Via della Vite with her father and her step-mother
Tiberia. Her mother's name is not mentioned in the document or in Costanza's last will, signed around 23 January 1662. In
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Matteo
Bonarelli died in 1654; in his will, signed in 1649, he designated as his sole heir "Signora Costanza Piccolomini mia dilettissima moglie" ('my most beloved wife'). Costanza subsequently gave birth to a daughter, Olimpia Caterina Piccolomini.
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described it in a letter as the most beautiful portrait
Bernini had ever created. Bernini portrayed Costanza not as a modest, chaste woman but as a passionate lover, with parted lips and wide-open eyes, her chemise falling open in what art historian
181:, pleading for help "taming" him. The Pope subsequently pardoned him in view of his impending marriage, but Costanza was not "given back to her husband" until 7 April 1639, after she wrote a pleading letter to the governor of the house.
119:. On 28 February, the marriage contract was signed between Costanza, her father Leonardo and her husband Matteo. The dowry was fixed at 289 scudi. Costanza was 18 years old and Matteo 28; they settled at the foot of the
111:('the spinster of Viterbo'), she was promised a second dowry of 26 scudi and 44 baiocchi from the Gonfalone Confraternity. Costanza then married the sculptor, restorer and art dealer Matteo Bonarelli (or Bonucelli) from
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203:, commissioned by the Sicilian nobleman Fabrizio Valguarnera in 1630. In 1665, when Bernini was in Paris, he recognised the painting in the palace of the
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After returning to her husband, Costanza pursued a successful business as a merchant and art dealer, including during the pontificate of the
Sienese
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in the basilica. Costanza was approximately 22 when
Bernini, a bachelor in his late thirties, began an adulterous affair with her. His
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that will she stipulated that all descendants with the last name
Piccolomini could inherit her property.
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She died on 3 December 1662. She was not buried with her husband in the crypt of their parish of
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320:"Slashed with a knife: the tender sculpture that hides a shocking but common crime against women"
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In summer 1638, Bernini discovered that
Costanza was having an affair with his younger brother
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Matteo
Bonareli was employed in Bernini's workshop. In 1636 he was paid for three marble
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and suggested that it be hung lower for better viewing. Richelieu sold the painting to
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may have been started in 1636; it was finished by
October 1637, when Bernini's friend
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Costanza
Piccolomini Bonarelli is the subject of a biography by Sarah McPhee,
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has called "the sexiest invitation in the history of European sculpture".
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60:
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47:, was an Italian noblewoman, merchant and art dealer, descended from a
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99:(the equivalent of annual rent for a modestly sized house) from the
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139:; the following year, he assisted Bernini with the mausoleum of
444:, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011,
103:, funded by Giambattista Borghese, brother of the late Pope
243:, published in 2012. A novelised version of her life,
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Bernini's Beloved: A Portrait of Costanza Piccolomini
115:, on 16 February 1632 in Rome, in his parish of
51:. She was the mistress of the sculptor and architect
422:, New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 2012,
75:Costanza was born around 1614, daughter of Lorenzo
247:by Rachel Blackmore, is forthcoming in 2024.
231:, but in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
79:, a member of a minor branch of an important
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39:(c. 1614 – 3 December 1662), also known as
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91:, 15 August 1628, Costanza received a
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211:the same year, and it is now in the
500:17th-century Italian businesspeople
495:17th-century Italian businesswomen
306:Schama, "When stone came to life".
229:Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi
123:in what is now Vicolo Scanderbeg.
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438:The Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
351:McPhee, pp. 149–50, 320–21, 325.
535:Burials at Santa Maria Maggiore
16:Italian noblewoman and merchant
45:Costanza Piccolomini Bonucelli
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490:17th-century Italian nobility
59:of her, now exhibited at the
55:, who in the 1630s created a
165:. He attacked Luigi with a
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146:Bust of Costanza Bonarelli
101:Confraternity of San Rocco
25:Bust of Costanza Bonarelli
460:"When stone came to life"
127:Relationship with Bernini
209:King Louis XIV of France
540:Italian artists' models
71:Early life and marriage
550:17th-century merchants
515:Italian art collectors
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405:Mormando, pp. 296–97.
177:, the nephew of Pope
117:San Lorenzo in Lucina
109:la zitella da Viterbo
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485:House of Piccolomini
480:Gian Lorenzo Bernini
466:, 16 September 2006.
191:Alessandro VII Chigi
171:Santa Maria Maggiore
137:St. Peter's Basilica
107:. In 1630, named as
53:Gian Lorenzo Bernini
49:Sienese noble family
30:Gian Lorenzo Bernini
520:People from Viterbo
505:Italian art dealers
396:McPhee, pp. 154–55.
281:McPhee, pp. 326–27.
263:McPhee, pp. 150–52.
175:Francesco Barberini
378:McPhee, pp. 82–85.
318:Rachel Blackmore,
41:Costanza Bonucelli
37:Costanza Bonarelli
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545:Italian merchants
510:Women art dealers
342:Mormando, p. 297.
241:Bernini's Beloved
205:Duke of Richelieu
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442:Domenico Bernini
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530:1662 deaths
525:1614 births
95:of 45
77:Piccolomini
474:Categories
219:Last years
185:Art dealer
179:Urban VIII
245:Costanza
235:In media
65:Florence
61:Bargello
436:, tr.,
167:crowbar
81:Sienese
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213:Louvre
105:Paul V
251:Notes
163:Luigi
133:putti
113:Lucca
97:scudi
93:dowry
446:ISBN
424:ISBN
135:for
57:bust
440:by
199:by
87:On
63:in
43:or
28:by
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
