Truth Unveiled by Time

In 1646 Rome watched Bernini's bell tower on the front of St Peter's being taken down. He had designed it for Pope Urban VIII, cracks had appeared in the facade below it, and the new pope, Innocent X, ordered it dismantled and turned to other architects. That same year Bernini began this statue, for nobody but himself. The plan was a pair of figures, Truth being uncovered by Time, a way of saying that his name would be cleared. Only Truth was ever carved. She sits on a rock, smiling, holding up a sun with a face in her right hand, her left foot resting on a globe. Within a couple of years Bernini was back in favour, too busy with papal work to finish the second figure, and after his death his heirs sold the block meant for Time. In his will he tied the statue to the family, passing it from eldest son to eldest son, and forbade its sale. It stayed with his descendants until 1924, when they placed it on deposit here.