Truth Unveiled By Time: An Art Analysis

An Analysis of Bernini’s Works

To view the sculpture: https://www.wikiart.org/en/gian-lorenzo-bernini/truth-unveiled-by-time

Gian Lorenzo Bernini is one of the most renowned sculptors in the world. Due to his extreme talent and skill to mold one of the hardest stones into flowing silk and smooth skin, he had a distinct style that explored the themes of human pleasure and sexuality in his pieces – religious or otherwise.

Bernini (1598-1680) sculpted during the Baroque movement, characterized – partly due to his works – as a movement of exaggerated motion where pieces were meant to evoke a sense of surprise and awe. The use of light and space was also especially important during this movement when the manipulation of both was a large determinant of an artist’s success. 

When I first discovered Bernini, I, too, was enthralled by his talent, making something as unyielding as marble so buttery and malleable to the naked eye. Seeing each Bernini piece felt as though I could reach out and touch the flesh of someone real rather than a cole stone- it was phenomenal. While his pieces were largely religious or depicted Gods, each had a mortal touch. He displayed his subjects in forms of pleasure that were unique to humans, as well as choosing moments of complete dynamism in which to sculpt them. For example, in Truth Unveiled by Time, Bernini chose to capture the exact moment where Truth has almost completely been unveiled by time (not completed) to convey the scene’s motion and emphasize the piece’s purpose.

truth unveiled by time

While Bernini is known most popularly for his piece The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, perhaps the piece which fascinated me the most was Truth Unveiled by Time – or what was his revenge piece. 

Truth Unveiled By Time was created in response to Bernini’s critics of his inability to construct the two towers in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini was commissioned to create those towers by Pope Urban, who ordered them to be destroyed once they were discovered to have cracks due to faulty foundations. Bernini quickly fell out of the public’s favor after this failure and set to work creating this sculpture with the intent that with time his critics would be silenced and the truth of his works would be unveiled. 

an in-depth analysis

It is quite obvious to see, of course, that Bernini never quite completed the sculpture as Father Time isn’t depicted. It is hypothesized that he never finished it, mainly due to him quickly regaining fame and seeing no need for its completion. However, he did desire to have the sculpture done, with Father Time included according to his plans, as late as 1665, when he started it around 1645. In it, nonetheless, we see the female personification of Truth being unveiled – a surprising act on its own due to the conservative beliefs surrounding women’s chastity at the time. 

Another quality in his depiction of this female to note is that she doesn’t exactly ‘fit’ ideal standards of beauty – possessing elongated legs and an upturned nose which weren’t common for women at the time to be depicted as having. While some people attribute Truth to be modeled after a wealthy patron of Bernini’s, others claim it to go back to Bernini’s desire to add human characteristics to abstract and godly forms such as Truth or in his other sculptured – Grecian deities. Personally, I believe that Bernini chose to sculpt Truth like that for the second reason because he wanted an aspect of relatability in a concept not often explored by artists. 

Characteristic of Bernini’s style, the ‘unveiling’ of Truth is overtly sexual, with her expression of pleasure as well as spread legs – which did cause controversy at the time… for obvious reasons…

Something inexplicable about Truth Unveiled by Time intrigues me. Maybe it is the way that Truth is positioned or the passion of Bernini’s emotions which can be felt in the sculpture – how angered does a man have to be to turn to such a piece as revenge?

Even something of the floating veil of the unfinished Time is appealing to the eye – as if Time was always meant to be an invisible and incomplete figment of the piece. 

Unfortunately, Bernini never finished the piece despite his aforementioned desire to, resulting in it being passed in his will to the firstborn descendant. However, much like the rest of Bernini’s works, Truth Unveiled by Time is still hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces to come out of the Baroque period and is both a source of intrigue and envy to millions. 

where to view

Truth Unveiled by Time is now available to view at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

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