The Abduction of Proserpine is a sculptural group in white Carrara marble, made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed between 1621 and 1622 and exhibited in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. The subject is linked to the theme of the cycle of the seasons and represent the abduction of the young and beautiful Proserpina, daughter of Jupiter and Ceres (goddess of fertility and harvest), by the god Pluto, the terrible King of the Underworld. Infatuated with the goddess, while she is busy gathering flowers in a field near the lake of Pergusa (Enna - Sicily), Pluto abducts her carrying her into the darkest recesses of the earth.The mother of the girl, Ceres, left the fields, causing a severe famine. Thus she forces Jupiter to intercede with Pluto to allow the youngster to return to her for six months a year, favouring the abundance of the crops while, for the remaining months of the year, the winter ones, would remain with Pluto in Hades. Bernini represents the culminating moment of the action and offers the observer the maximum of pathos. The emotions of the characters are in fact perfectly represented and readable through the gesture and expressiveness of the faces. Pluto is distinguished by its regal attributes (the crown and the scepter), is a victorious god, proud and triumphant with the face outlined by the hair and beard. He is looking at the girl greedily, with a lust suggested by the lines of shadow and the eyes, deeply carved by the artist. His body, powerful and virile, has a musculature that highlights the strength of the god. Behind him Cerberus, the ferocious guardian of Hades, checks that no one hinders his master's path, turning his three heads in all directions. Proserpina, however, is caught in the moment when is shouting a desperate invocation to her mother and his face, furrowed by a tear, accentuates despair while trying in every way to escape. He struggles in vain to escape the erotic fury of Pluto pushing his left hand on the face of the god, who, instead, holds it hard, literally sinking his fingers into the woman's thigh and side. And it is precisely in this detail that the realism of this sculptural group touches the peak of virtuosity: the fingers of the god that literally sink into the thigh and side of Proserpina, not only mark and enhance the softness and fullness of the flesh of the goddess.
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