Bernini, Pieraccini etc

Two interesting things came out of Dan Brown's books. One, the discovery that Paul Bettany does a much better deranged clergyman than Ewan MacGregor. Two, Bernini's sculptures came to my attention.

Sculpture, like most art forms, is not something I'm very familiar with (really, I hear you say?) but Bernini's work is both really interesting to look at and astonishingly lifelike. I visited the National Gallery of Scotland today to see its annual showing of The Turner collection, but it was this chap - fashioned by Bernini - that really caught my eye.

He is Monsignor Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, a sixteenth century Archbishop of Pisa.

But I feel like I know him, and not just because we hail from vaguely the same neck of the (Tuscan) woods. He's a bit Billy Connolly, a bit James Cosmo, and also reminds me quite a bit of a former colleague. He wouldn't look out of place as a bouncer outside a Port Glasgow nightclub.