Funerary Monument of Pope Alexander VII

Private Tours of the Vatican Museums

Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII

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The funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII (r. 1655-67) was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and executed between 1671 and 1678.

​The monument is made up of six figures. At the apex Alexander VII, bare-headed, kneels in prayer. Below him are four female allegorical figures: in the foreground stand Charity and Truth, whose left foot rests on a globe; in the background are half-figures of Prudence and Justice. All five were carved out of white marble, while the sixth, Death, was cast in gilded bronze. 

Death is portrayed as a winged skeleton, bearing aloft an hour-glass; its head is shrouded in billowing drapery, a tour-de-force creation of travertine veneered with Sicilian jasper, the work of Gabriele Renzi.  

The monument was a collaboration between Bernini and his assistants, the latter doing most of the work under the close supervision of the master. 

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Funerary Monument of Pope Alexander VII (det.)

Funerary Monument of Pope Alexander VII (det.)

Allegory of Death