The Other Englishman: Bernini’s Bust of Thomas Baker (1638) Open Access

Abstract

During the 1630s, Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted the effigies of two Englishmen. The first was of King Charles I who desired a portrait bust from the greatest sculptor in Rome. The second was of Thomas Baker who was an avid art collector from the provincial English town of Fressingfield. In the narrative of Bernini’s international patrons, the bust of Thomas Baker often serves as an interesting anecdote to the story of the Charles commission. However, Mr. Baker’s bust is the only surviving Bernini portrait of an English patron. In this paper, I argue that the bust of Thomas Baker is critical to understanding this important moment in Bernini’s career. Bernini created the portraits of Charles I and of Thomas Baker as a means of demonstrating his talents to an English audience that often sat for painted portraits, but infrequently commissioned portrait busts. By repositioning the Baker bust in the larger context of Bernini’s English patrons, I argue not only for the bust’s importance in the sculptor’s oeuvre, but also for the idea that the bust of Thomas Baker serves as a key to understanding the larger impact of Bernini’s sculpture in England.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction.....................1

Historiography of Bernini’s Bust of Thomas Baker...................4

Charles I: The Lost Portrait....................8

Thomas Baker: The Surviving Portrait.........................16

Henrietta Maria: The Unrealized Portrait.........................24

Bernini’s Busts in an English Context.............................27

Conclusion.....................29

Bibliography...........................31

Illustrations..............................35

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Art History
Degree	M.A.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Art History
Keyword	Bernini
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Sarah McPhee, Emory University
Committee Members	Walter Melion, Emory University Eric Varner, Emory University

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