We are again at the Borghese Gallery in Rome and among the works exhibited here we can find a very particular one. Titled "The Amalthea Goat" it is a highly refined marble statue made by a very young Bernini. I always stop here with my tourists in order to show you how a young but very talented boy is able to create wonders. Moreover the Borghese Gallery is the perfect place where you can get in touch with beauties created by masters. For a local tour guide like me to be here, at the Borghese Gallery, is always a sort of dream.

Imagine how probably it represents the first, true, creation of this young artist, who was still a bit unripe of course, but having surely talent! In fact, the work is dated to around 1615, when Bernini was just 17 years old. Here again there is no absolute perfection that the sculptor (and not only), will reach in the course of the years: the young Zeus' hairs, the child on the left that seems to play with the goat, are not excelled, because they are almost sketchy, as if the hand of them was still uncertain. But Bernini, even if he was very young, was already a talented and extraordinary artist. Try to see how he worked and used the marble: the dark wool of the goat seems to make a contrast with the very white marble above the shell that is used by the faun in order to drink. That liquid is milk, a way to symbolize the goat and the main element that is drunken by an infant as could be Zeus here. Despite this and despite their extraordinary beauty, striking as a very young sculptor, who came to Rome following his father, had the opportunity to avail themselves of the help of father and of the patronage of cardenal nephew, Scipione Borghese, a learned man and a lover of the arts. But what is the story that hide behind a goat and a small Zeus (supported by a satyr at the background)?

Zeus, as a child, was threatened by his own father, Chronos, who according to a prophecy would be dethroned by one of his sons. Accordingly he began to eat them all, one by one, after they have been conceived with his wife (and sister), Rea. She, however, had a particular piety to the small Zeus, so much so that she hid him in a forest, tended by Nymphs, satyrs and wild animals. As a goat, in fact. In its place, Rea gave as meal, to her husband, a stone completely bandaged and covered by a veil, designed to simulate a newborn baby. The large Titan Chronos ate the rock in a single bite, thinking ha was permanently escaping the danger described by the prophecy. Once grown, however, Zeus took revenge of his father and, especially, never forgot the goat that nursed and helped. For this reason, it was taken up into heaven and transformed into the constellation that we know today by the name of Capircorn!

Not only that, because to conclude, here there is another curiosity for you: if you notice, the left horn of the goat is mutilated, because of the lack of the last part. It is not an error of Bernini, because the artist followed him faithfully to the myth. In fact, one day, Zeus broke off a horn of the poor goat. He did not want to hurt her but just playing. We know, however, as the future King of the gods could be strong. The fact is that from what horn was born one of the symbols par excellence of wealth, abundance and prosperity: the Cornucopia! But it is not the only Bernini's masterpiece that is related to an ancent myth, a myth that became marble and beauty. Try to read here to discover another masterpiece realized by the master of the Baroque age here at the Borghese Gallery in Rome.