The Rape of Proserpina

Bernini completed this The Rape of Proserpina in 1622, depicting Pluto abducting Proserpina to the underworld. The god's fingers press into her soft flesh with such realism that viewers often reach out instinctively. No photograph captures how Bernini made cold marble appear as yielding skin.

Proserpina struggles against her captor, tears streaming down her face. Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Hades, barks at her feet. Cardinal Scipione Borghese commissioned the work when Bernini was just 23. The sculpture demonstrates Baroque dynamism: bodies twist, emotions explode, and the stone seems to move. It remains in the Borghese Gallery, one of the most visited sculptures in Rome.