c. 1635
Marble, height 70 cm
Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
The most personal of Bernini's work. Costanza was the wife of Matteo Bonarelli, one of Bernini's pupils and coworkers. Bernini fell passionately in love with her. It is an exceptional sculpture breaking with the tradition of seventeenth century portrait sculpturing and previewing the style of the next century.
