Elefantino della Minerva (the Elephant of the Minerva, the small marble elephant sculpture in the Piazza della Minerva, behind the Pantheon, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1667 and executed by his collaborator Ercole Ferrata for Pope Alexander VII): the Bernini monument that carries the ancient Egyptian obelisk of Pharaoh Apries (589-570 BC, one of the 26th Dynasty pharaohs whose obelisks the Egyptian antiquity tradition produced in large numbers for the Sais-period temple complexes) on the elephant's back, the specific Bernini program (the elephant as the symbol of wisdom carrying the ancient wisdom of the East on its back, the specific Alexander VII inscription on the base: "Sapientis Aegypti insculptas obelisco figuras ab Elephante Belluarum fortissima gestari quam sit documentum, Intellige" (Understand what the elephant, strongest of beasts, carrying the Egyptian hieroglyphs inscribed on the obelisk teaches us: a solid mind supports solid wisdom).
The tail controversy: the specific Bernini-Dominicans controversy in the Elefantino's production: Bernini's original design had the elephant's tail curving freely to the left. The Dominican fathers of the adjacent Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church objected and insisted the tail be placed against the support (the small block of marble between the elephant's rear legs and the obelisk base that the Dominican intervention imposed): Bernini's specific reaction (the oral tradition, not documented) reportedly had him place the elephant's head turned toward the Dominicans' convent door as a final Baroque provocation, the elephant looking at the Dominicans in the specific direction that the head placement achieves.
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Elefantino: Bernini Design, Obelisk, and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
The Bernini Design and Execution
Elefantino production (the specific collaboration between Bernini (the designer) and Ercole Ferrata (the sculptor who executed the marble elephant from Bernini's terracotta model)): the elephant scale (the relatively modest size, approximately 2.5m tall, much smaller than the Bernini fountains of Piazza Navona and Piazza di Spagna) that makes the Elefantino the most intimate of Bernini's public works, the monument seen at eye level rather than looked up at: the specific Elefantino detail that rewards close attention (the wrinkled skin texture of the elephant's legs and trunk, the specific eye treatment (the large painted glass eyes that Ferrata incorporated into the marble to give the elephant the specific living quality that Bernini's animal sculptures characteristically achieved), and the particular pose (the specific forward-stepping pose that gives the Elefantino its sense of animated movement)).
Elefantino Di Piazza Della Minerva: tours & tickets
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See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (the Gothic church adjacent to the Elefantino, the only Gothic interior in Rome, built in the 13th-14th century on the site of an ancient Roman temple of Minerva (whose name the church adopted), housing the Fra Angelico Chapel (the specific Cappella di San Tommaso with the Fra Angelico frescoes, the 1449 commission from Pope Nicholas V that brought the Florentine friar to Rome to paint the specific Annunciation and scenes from the lives of Saints Stephen and Lawrence that are the only confirmed Fra Angelico works in Rome) and the Michelangelo Christ (the 1521 marble Christ the Redeemer, the specific Michelangelo commission from the Roman businessman Metello Vari for the specific church, the figure that Sebastiano del Piombo described in a letter to Michelangelo as "the most beautiful work in Rome") and the Carafa Chapel (the 15th-century Filippino Lippi frescoes, the most complete Renaissance fresco program in any Rome church beyond the Vatican)): open daily 7:00-19:00. Free admission.
Q&A: Elefantino di Piazza della Minerva
Why did Bernini put a marble elephant under the obelisk?
The specific Bernini iconographic logic (the elephant as wisdom carrier, not as exotic spectacle): the humanist tradition of the elephant as the symbol of wisdom and memory (the specific Renaissance emblem tradition, the elephant carrying an obelisk appearing in Francesco Colonna's "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili" (1499), the dreamlike allegorical novel whose specific elephant-obelisk illustration Bernini almost certainly knew and deliberately referenced in the 1667 commission): the elephant in the Bernini program is the ancient symbol of philosophical strength (the Stoic virtue of bearing the weight of learning without being crushed by it) supporting the Egyptian obelisk (the symbol of ancient revealed wisdom in the Hermetic tradition that the Renaissance Neo-Platonic philosophy had associated with Egypt): the combination (the philosophically solid elephant carrying the ancient wisdom on its back) is the Alexander VII motto made stone. The Elefantino isn't a decorative curiosity, it is a specific philosophical statement in Baroque visual language.
Internal Links
- Bernini Roma: L'Elefantino nel Programma
- Fra Angelico a Roma: La Cappella della Minerva
- Fotografare l'Elefantino: La Piccola Meraviglia
- Obelischi Roma: L'Elefantino e il Flaminio
- Piazza della Minerva in Inverno: L'Elefantino Senza Folla
- Roma Nascosta: I Segreti dell'Elefantino
- Santa Maria Sopra Minerva: Ingresso Gratuito
