Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius

Galleria Borghese, Room VI Visitors racing between the famous three often skip this one, which is a shame, because it shows where Bernini started. Made in 1618 and 1619 for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, it stacks three generations fleeing burning Troy: Aeneas carries his old father on his shoulder, and the small boy Ascanius at his side helps prop up the group. Compare the slack, aging skin of Anchises with the firm young body beneath him, and you can see a sculptor barely twenty already working out the contrasts he would push much further a few years later.