''Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen'' are two sculptures by the Italian artist

Gianlorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (, ; ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor ...

. They sit in the

Chigi Chapel The Chigi Chapel or Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto () is the second chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It is the only religious building of Raphael which has been preserved in its near ori ...

of Siena Cathedral. The statues were commissioned as part of the chapel by the then–pope Alexander VII (Fabio Chigi). Work began on the sculptures in 1661 and they were delivered from Rome to Siena in 1663. Bernini was paid 2,128 scudi for his work, although he probably received considerable assistance in their creation.Rudolf Wittkower, ''Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque'', 1997 (4th ed.), p.282 Within the chapel, there are a further two sculptures by artists from Bernini's workshop - a

St Catherine of Siena Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), known as Catherine of Siena, was an Italian mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. Canonized in 1461, ...

Ercole Ferrata Ercole Ferrata (1610 – 10 July 1686) was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque. Biography A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants. When hi ...

and a St Bernard of Siena by

Antonio Raggi Antonio Raggi (1624–1686), also called ''Antonio Lombardo'', was a sculptor of the Roman Baroque, originating from today's Ticino. Biography He was born in Vico Morcote on the Lake Lugano. His mentor in Rome for nearly three decades was Gian ...

. The chapel as a whole was designed by Bernini. Scholars have emphasised the mystical experience being undergone by the figures.

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unit ...

documents the "intensification of the visionary quality" in the statues, both figures engaged not in the physical world around them, but absorbed in their own spiritual spaces.

Howard Hibbard Benjamin Howard Hibbard, Jr. (May 23, 1928 – October 29, 1984) was an American art historian and educator. Hibbard was Professor of Italian Baroque Art at Columbia University. Career A native of Madison, Hibbard was born to Margaret and Benja ...

continues this line of argument, demonstrating how the figures break out of the niches which are supposed to contain them—further evidence of how Jerome and Mary Magdalen are not constrained by the earthly world but responding to something higher.Howard Hibbard, "Bernini", 1990 (2nd ed.), pps. 191-5 A preparatory drawing for the Mary Magdalen exists at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts, while there is preparatory sculpture of Jerome's head in th
Fogg Art Museum
of Harvard University.

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* {{Gian Lorenzo Bernini Cultural depictions of Jerome Marble sculptures in Italy Sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini Sculptures of men in Italy Sculptures of saints Sculptures of women in Italy Sculptures of Mary Magdalene Statues in Italy

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