No blushes as historic statues return to their naked beauty

A PAIR of nude statues by the famous sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini have been stripped of their underwear and restored to their former voluptuous glory.

The marble statues of Charity and Truth were covered in bronze corsets in the 19th century to hide their feminine attributes from prying eyes and to avoid offending the delicate sensibilities of church-goers.

The Baroque sculptures have now finally been restored to their original state as part of a renovation project of the De Sylva Chapel, part of the Sant’Isidoro Church near Piazza Barberini in Rome.

The restoration , organised by Rome’s cultural heritage office, not only de-robed the statues but also brought to light a beautiful fresco of flying cherubs, which had been covered in a thick crust of paint and wax.

Experts believe the painting was also designed by Bernini, but was created by his close associate, Giacinto Gimignani.

The practice of covering ‘indecent’ art from an earlier period was common during the 19th century, as evidenced by the ubiquitous fig leaves slapped over the breasts and genitalia of countless statues.

Baroque art, which fell out of fashion in the mid-1700s, was a particularly popular target. With its rhetorical poses and elaborate decoration, it was often criticised by later generations, who not only considered it bad, but also morally corrupt.

It was only in the mid- 20th century that the attitude towards the Baroque began to change and Bernini’s work received the recognition it enjoys today. Most critics now credit Bernini with revolutionising his art, creating some of the world’s best-recognised statuary, such as the Triton fountain in Rome’s Piazza Barberini and Apollo and Daphne in the Italian capital’s Galleria Borghese.

The newly restored statue of Charity apparently refers to the legend of a Roman girl whose father was dying of starvation in prison. She is said to have saved him by feeding him milk from her own breasts.

Bernini, born in 1598, spent his formative years learning his craft from his father, Pietro, a Florentine sculptor and artist.

The family moved to Rome and, by the age of 20, Bernini had come to the attention of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, under whose patronage he carved his first important life-sized sculptures.

The allegorical statues of Charity and Truth were commissioned in 1662 by a Portuguese knight, Rodrigo De Sylva, in an attempt to bring the Vatican closer to Portugal.