Explore the Creation of this artwork.
The creation of the bust is incredibly well documented, thanks to efforts of the French diarist Paul Fréart de Chantelou,  a steward at the court of Louis XIV, who befriended Bernini during his time in Paris.The bust took just over three months to carve. According to Chantelou's diary the process of selecting suitable marble blocks took several days to accomplish. While searching for a suitable block of marble to create the bust there was some discussion with members of the court about whether or not Bernini would make a full body statue or a bust. Once potential blocks of marble had been selected, Bernini began by taking drawings (none of which survive) and small clay models of the king. However, it seems that once he had done this initial work, Bernini chose to work only during sittings with the king.  His pupil, Giulio Cartari, began work on carving down the chosen block of marble (and would later do much of the drapery work), and then Bernini took over, taking forty days to complete the work. He had hoped to have twenty sittings with the king during the final carving process, but in fact there were thirteen of around one hour each. The bust is modeled heavily after an earlier bust that Bernini made almost a decade prior of Francesco d'Este, the duke of Modena, and other than the fact that Louis' cloak was slightly longer horizontally a person would not be able to tell that one was of higher nobility.Bernini's son and biographer, Domenico Bernini, noted the artistic arguments of his father as to why the King agreed to sit for such a length of time, explaining that the artist preferred to work from Truth (i.e. real life) rather than rely on the unnecessary imaginative extras that would creep into working from sketches. Equally, Bernini wanted to see the king, as he did many of this other sitters, not remaining immobile, but sitting and talking in such as way that Bernini could capture all his  characteristics. Such an approach, with Bernini wishing to capture the figure in physical and psychological motion, was a common element of Bernini’s work: “mere resemblance is inadequate. One must express what goes on in the heads of heroes,” Bernini is recorded as saying. Bernini also observed the king in other locations - playing tennis, resting after lunch, or simply walking around court.Filippo Baldinucci (biographer of artists/art historian) records numerous events that advertise Bernini’s supposed influence on French culture, including one incident where Bernini’s rearranged the King’s hair to give greater exposure to the King’s brow - the new style was apparently followed by all at the French court, and became known as the Bernini modification. Contemporary art historians are sceptical of this however; Jeanne Zarucchi claims that the alteration was deliberate, altering the shape of the King's head in an unflattering manner.
Paul Fréart de Chantelou Louis XIV Filippo Baldinucci Paris Domenico Bernini