Unpublished documents on the lost Aldobrandini ‘St. Sebastian’ by the young Gian Lorenzo Bernini
In the early decades of the seventeenth century fierce competition developed between the aristocratic collectors of Rome not only to enrich their own collections, but also to demonstrate how abreast they were with the latest developments in art and with the young talents then emerging.
The main protagonists of this rivalry were the Borghese and the Aldobrandini. To the patronage of a member of the latter family, Pietro Aldobrandini, we owe a youthful work of Bernini, hitherto unknown and unfortunately lost. But the note of payment for a ‘St. Sebastian’, commissioned from the young Bernini in 1618 and destined for the new Palazzo Aldobrandini on the Corso, has now been found in the family archive in Frascati.
The date 1618 is very important. It provides valuable evidence to distinguish, in the work of the precocious artist, the works he produced in partnership with his father (we may cite the Aldobrandini ‘Seasons’ and ‘Satyr teased by Putti’, and the Borghese ‘Flora and Priapus’, all dating to 1616) from those produced in his own right, as an independent artist, in the years 1615–1618. But these latter can only be identified on stylistic grounds, since, given the fact that Gian Lorenzo was still below age, they are found in the documents as commissioned from and paid to his father (the ‘Goat Amalthea’ of 1615; the ‘Martyrdom of St. Lawrence’ of 1617; and the Barberini–Thyssen ‘Martyrdom of St. Sebastian’ of 1617)
The document of 1618 relating to the Aldobrandini ‘St. Sebastian’ not only testifies to a lost work, but is also important because it is the first known work paid directly to Gian Lorenzo, who reached his majority in this year and thus emancipated himself from his father’s guardianship.
On the death of Pietro Aldobrandini, the statue passed into the hands of his sister Olimpia senior and transferred to the villa di Magnanapoli where it is mentioned in inventories down to 1710.
