The Myth and the Mattress: Replications and Installations of the Borghese Sleeping Hermaphrodite

Abstract

The Borghese Sleeping Hermaphrodite largely exists in art historical scholarship within Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s career because of the hyper realistic marble mattress and pillow he created for the intersexual deity to rest upon. Bernini’s additions to the work reimagined the ancient figure in a domestic setting and amplified tactile nature of the work. The subsequent replications of the sculpture continued to maintain this collaboration between the early modern and ancient sculptors, while adjusting and reframing the iconography to accommodate its increasingly conservative audience throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Examining the evolvement in the display of the Borghese Sleeping Hermaphrodite and tracing its replications provides an opportunity to unpack perceptions of gender and nudity in early modern Europe, and how the result influences contemporary curation and artistic practices.