Bernini's Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius and the founding of Rome

Anthony: Bernini was only 20 years old when he sculpted his Aeneas and Anchises and Ascanius It was his very first major mythological commission for his premier patron, the mega wealthy, mega powerful Cardinal Scipion Borghese. But to truly understand why the sculpture is so legendary, we have to look at the epic story it depicts, the artist mind of a young Bernini. And the surprising political propaganda hidden beneath the surface that ties the Borghese to Venus, the fall of Troy, and the founding of Rome. Troy is falling, the city is burning, enemy soldiers are pouring through the gates, and chaos reigns. This is the iconic climax, straight out of Book Two of Virgil's Aeneid. Bernini freezes three specific figures in time, three generations of a single family fleeing the destruction. Aeneas, the strong Trojan warrior, standing at the center, his muscles straining as he lifts his father. Anchises Aeneas's elderly, Paralyzed father perched high on his son's shoulders. In his hands, he clutches a vessel containing ancestral ashes and small statues of the sacred household gods of Troy. Ascanius, Aeneas's young son, wearing a Phrygian cap, trailing closely behind and carrying the sacred eternal hearth fire of Vesta. What you're looking at is literally childhood, adulthood, and old age bound together in a desperate escape. They are leaving their destroyed homeland to fulfill a divine destiny, founding the noble lineage that would one day lead to Rome. lineage that would one day lead to Rome. Where did Aeneas even come from? Long before Virgil wrote about him, Aeneas popped up in Homer's Iliad as a Trojan hero, second only to Hector. He was the son of a mortal man Anchises and the goddess of love herself, Aphrodite or Venus. In the Iliad, the gods repeatedly step in to save Aeneas' life. Poseidon even prophecies that Aeneas and his descendants are fated to survive and rule. Aeneas doesn't appear in Homer's Odyssey at all. Because his journey branched entirely away from the Greeks. Fast forward to twenty nine BC. The Roman Emperor Augustus commissions the poet Virgil to write the ultimate national epic, the Aeneid. Augustus needed a grand narrative to unite Rome after decades of bloody civil war. Virgil took Homer's surviving Trojan hero and crafted a 12-book epic story tracking Aeneas' seven-year wandering across the Mediterranean. Complete with attacks by harpies, a tragic romance with Queen Dido of Carthage, a journey to the underworld, and a brutal war in Latium. And here's how Aeneas connects to Romulus in Remus. Aeneas doesn't found Rome himself. He marries Princess Lavinia and builds the town of Lavinium. His son, Ascanius, goes on to found Alba Longa. Centuries later, their direct descendant, Rhea Sylvia gives birth to Romulus and Remus. This bridged a massive 400-year chronological gap between the fall of Troy and the founding of Rome, giving Rome a dual divine heritage: the peaceful love of Venus through Aeneas and the war spirit of Mars through Romulus and Remus. Now, let's jump back to 1618 and stand in front of 20 year old Bernini's marble masterpiece. Even though Bernini was young and still heavily influenced by his father, the mannerist sculptor Pietro Bernini, his technical skill was already staggering. Look closely at the marble. Bernini carved three distinct types of flesh the smooth, soft skin of young Ascanius the firm, flexed muscle of Aeneas under load, and the The sagging, wrinkled skin and prominent veins of the old man Anchises Taking cues from mannerist masters like Gian Bologna Bernini creates a vertical, column-like composition. Your eyes are pulled in a spiral up from Little Ascanius at the base, through Aeneas, straight to Anchises, lifting the household gods to the sky. The pose of Aeneas borrows heavily from Michelangelo's Risen Christ, while the group's dynamic composition pulls inspiration from Raphael's famous Vatican fresco, The Fire in the Borgo. Both of these amazing works of art will be featured in upcoming episodes on Armchair Italy. Why did Cardinal Scipion Barghese want this specific statue in his villa? It wasn't just because he loved Roman mythology, it was pure, brilliant political messaging. Pietas. To Romans, pietas meant duty, devotion, and sacrifice to gods, family, and state. Aeneas, carrying his father and gods, was the supreme symbol of pietas. Carrying ancient Trojan gods to Italy mirrored the idea that ultimate spiritual and political authority had passed directly from the ancient world into Papal Rome. Like several prominent aristocratic Roman families attempting to solidify their elite standing, the Borghese traced their mythological ancestry back to Aeneas, the Trojan hero and son of Venus. This divine connection was a major theme in the family's art patronage across centuries. Bernini's Aeneas Anchises and Ascanius prominently highlights Aeneas, the lineage bridge to Venus, as a centerpiece of the family's collection. Canova's Venus Victrix, covered in a previous episode on Armchair Italy, when Prince Camillo Borghese commissioned neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova to carve a portrait of his wife, Pauline Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon, she was depicted semi-nude as Venus Victrix. This choice directly leaned into the Borghese family's mythical claim of descent from the goddess. These statues affirm to the world that the Barghese themselves descend from Venus and Aeneas and claim to be founding members of Rome itself. As a side note, and I have no proof, I believe the arrangement of the statues in the Borghese align with the history in the first salon and sculpture from Venus being chosen by Paris as the fairest as Venus Victrix, to the fall of Troy, and Aeneas escaping with his father and son and the gods of Troy, along with the flame, That ultimately becomes the Vestal Flame of Rome. So you have the story from start to finish. Talk about layered art history. A twenty year old prodigy takes a one thousand six hundred year old myth, wraps it in Michelangelo level marble craftsmanship, and turns it into a secret homage to the Borghese, the founding of Rome, the fall of Troy, and a lineage to Venus. That's a lot. Next time you're in Rome, head over to the Galleria Borghese and stand before Bernini's Aeneas Anchises and Ascanius, and remember the epic journey that brought them there. Thanks for listening. Ciao.