Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Encyclopedia
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Naples
, 7 December 1598 – Rome, 28 November 1680) was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect. In addition he painted, wrote plays, and designed metalwork and stage sets.
A student of Classical sculpture
, Bernini possessed the unique ability to capture, in marble
, the essence of a narrative moment with a dramatic naturalistic realism which was almost shocking. This ensured that he effectively became the successor of Michelangelo
, far outshining other sculptors of his generation, including his rival, Alessandro Algardi
. His talent extended beyond the confines of his sculpture to consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesise sculpture, painting and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the art historian, Irving Lavin, the ‘unity of the visual arts’. A deeply religious man, working in Counter Reformation Rome, Bernini used light as an important metaphorical device in the perception of his religious settings; often it was hidden light sources that could intensify the focus of religious worship, or enhance the dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.
Bernini was also a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture
along with his contemporaries, the architect, Francesco Borromini
and the painter and architect, Pietro da Cortona
. Early in their careers they had all worked at the same time at the Palazzo Barberini
, initially under Carlo Maderno
and on his death, under Bernini. Later on, however, they were in competition for commissions and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and Borromini. Despite the arguably greater architectural inventiveness of Borromini and Cortona, Bernini’s artistic pre-eminence, particularly during the reigns of popes Urban VIII (1623–44) and Alexander VII (1655–1665), meant he was able to secure the most important commission in Rome of the day, St. Peter's Basilica
. His design of the Piazza San Pietro in front of the Basilica is one of his most innovative and successful architectural designs.
During his long career, Bernini received many important commissions, many associated with the papacy. At an early age, he came to the attention of the papal nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and in 1621, at the age of only twenty three, he was knighted by Pope Gregory XV. Following his accession to the papacy, Urban VIII is reported to have said, "Your luck is great to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini Pope, Cavaliere; but ours is much greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate". Although he did not fare so well during the reign of Innocent X, under Alexander VII, he once again regained pre-eminent artistic domination and continued to be held in high regard by Clement IX.
Bernini and other artists fell from favour in later neoclassical
criticism of the Baroque
. It is only from the late nineteenth century that art historical scholarship, in seeking an understanding of artistic output in the cultural context in which it was produced, has come to recognise Bernini’s achievements and restore his artistic reputation.
Bernini was born in Naples
to a Mannerist
sculptor, Pietro Bernini
, originally from Florence
, and Angelica Galante, a Neapolitan. At the age of seven he accompanied his father to Rome, where Pietro was involved in several high profile projects. There, as a boy, Gianlorenzo's skill was soon noticed by the painter Annibale Carracci
and by Pope Paul V
, and he soon gained the important patronage of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the papal nephew. His first works were inspired by antique Hellenistic sculpture.
Under the patronage of the Cardinal Borghese, the young Bernini rapidly rose to prominence as a sculptor. Among the early works for the cardinal were decorative pieces for the garden of the Villa Borghese
such as "The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Zeus and a Faun", and several allegorical busts
such as the "Damned Soul" and "Blessed Soul". By the time he was twenty-two, he had completed the bust of Pope Paul V. Scipione's collection in situ at the Borghese gallery chronicles his secular sculptures, with a series of masterpieces:
Bernini's sculptural output was immense and varied. Among his other well-known sculptures: the "Ecstasy of St. Theresa", in the Cornaro Chapel (see Bernini's Cornaro chapel: the complete work of art found in the Baroque
section), Santa Maria della Vittoria
, and the now-hidden "Constantine", at the base of the Scala Regia
(which he designed). He was given the commission for the tomb of the Barberini Pope in St Peters. He helped design the Ponte Sant'Angelo
, sculpting two of the angels, soon replaced by copies by his own hand, while the others were made by his pupils based on his designs.
At the end of April 1665, at the height of his fame and powers, he travelled to Paris, where he remained until November; he met Paul Fréart de Chantelou
who kept a Journal of Bernini's visit. Bernini's international popularity was such that on his walks in Paris the streets were lined with admiring crowds. This trip, encouraged by Father Oliva, general of the Jesuits, was a response to the repeated requests for his works by King Louis XIV
. Here Bernini presented some designs for the east front of the Louvre
. which were ultimately rejected. He soon lost favor at the French court as he praised the art and architecture of Italy over that of France; he said that a painting by Guido Reni
was worth more than all of Paris. The sole work remaining from his time in Paris is a bust
of Louis XIV, which set the standard for royal portraiture for a century.
and colonnades in front of St Peter's
and the interior decoration of the Basilica. Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini
from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio)(started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi
(now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi) (started 1664).
His first architectural projects were the façade and refurbishment of the church of Santa Bibiana
(1624–6) and the St. Peter's baldachin
(1624–1633), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica
. In 1629, and before the Baldacchino was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. However, due to political reasons and miscalculations in his design of the bell-towers for St. Peter's, of which only one was completed and then subsequently torn down, Bernini fell out of favor during the Pamphili
papacy of Innocent X. Never wholly without patronage, Bernini then regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII
Chigi
, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade
in front of St. Peter's. Further significant works by Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia
, (1663–6) the monumental grand stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace and the Cathedra Petri
, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's.
Bernini did not build many churches from scratch, rather his efforts were concentrated on pre-existing structures, and in particular St. Peter's. He fulfilled three commissions for new churches; his stature allowed him the freedom to design the structure and decorate the interiors in a consistent manner. Best known is the small oval baroque church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
, a work which Bernini's son, Domenico, reports his father was very pleased with. Bernini also designed churches in Castelgandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova, 1658–61) and Ariccia
(Santa Maria Assunta, 1662-4).
When Bernini was invited to Paris in 1665 to prepare works for Louis XIV, he presented designs for the east facade of the Louvre Palace but his projects were ultimately turned down in favour of the more stern and classic proposals of the French doctor and amateur architect Claude Perrault
, signalling the waning influence of Italian artistic hegemony in France. Bernini's projects were essentially rooted in the Italian Baroque urbanist tradition of relating public buildings to their settings, often leading to innovative architectural expression in urban spaces like piazze or squares. However, by this time, the French absolutist monarchy now preferred the classicising monumental severity of Perrault's facade, no doubt with the added political bonus that it been designed by a Frenchman. The final version did, however, include Bernini's feature of a flat roof behind a Palladian balustrade.
In 1639, Bernini bought property on the corner of the via Mercede and the via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. On this site he built himself a palace, the Palazzo Bernini, at what are now Nos 11 and 12 via della Mercede. He lived at No. 11 but this was extensively changed in the nineteenth century. It has been noted how very galling it must have been for Bernini to witness through the windows of his dwelling, the construction of the tower and dome of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
by his rival, Borromini, and also the demolition of the chapel that he, Bernini, had designed at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide to see it replaced by Borromini's chapel.
s that were both public works and papal monuments. His fountains include the Fountain of the Triton
or Fontana del Tritone and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the Fontana delle Api
. The Fountain of the Four Rivers or Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
in the Piazza Navona
is a masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory. An oft-repeated, but false, anecdote tells that one of the Bernini's river gods defers his gaze in disapproval of the facade of Sant'Agnese in Agone
(designed by the talented, but less politically successful, rival Francesco Borromini
). However, the fountain was built several years before the façade of the church was completed.
Bernini was also the author of the statue of the Moor in La Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona (1653).
Bernini also revolutionized marble busts, lending glamorous dynamism and animation to the stony stillness of portraiture. Starting with the immediate pose, leaning out of the frame, of bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya at Santa Maria di Monserrato
, Rome. The once-gregarious Cardinal Scipione Borghese
, in his bust is frozen in conversation.
His most famous portrait is that of Costanza Bonarelli (c. 1637). It does not portray divinity or royalty, but a woman in a moment of disheveled privacy. Bernini had an affair with Costanza, who was the wife of one of Bernini's assistants. When Bernini suspected Costanza to be involved with his brother, he badly beat him and ordered a servant to slash her face with a razor. Pope Urban VIII intervened on his behalf and he was fined.
Bernini also gained royal commissions from outside Italy, for subjects such as Louis XIV
, Cardinal Richelieu, Francesco I d'Este
, Charles I of England
and Henrietta Maria
. The last two were produced in Italy from portraits made by Van Dyck (now in the royal collection), though Bernini preferred to produce portraits from life – the bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698 and that of Henrietta Maria was not undertaken due to the outbreak of the English Civil War
.
The Elephant and Obelisk
, affectionately known as Bernini's Chick by the Roman people, is located in the Piazza della Minerva and in front of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
. Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted an ancient Egyptian obelisk
to be erected in the piazza
and in 1665 he commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk. The sculpture of an elephant bearing the obelisk on its back was created by one of Bernini's students, Ercole Ferrata
and finished in 1667. An inscription on the base aligns the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Roman goddess Minerva with the Virgin Mary who the church is dedicated to. A popular anecdote concerns the elephant's smile. To find out why it is smiling, the viewer must head around to the rear end of the animal and to see that its muscles are tensed and its tail is shifted to the left as if it were defecating. The animal's rear is pointed directly at the office of Father Domenico Paglia, a Dominican friar, who was one of the main antagonists of Bernini and his artist friends, as a final salute and last word.
Bernini worked along with Ercole Ferrata
to create a much admired fountain for the Lisbon palace of the Portuguese nobleman, the Count of Ericeira. For the same patron he also created a series of paintings with the battles of Louis XIV as subject. These works were lost as the palace, its great library and the rich art collection of the Counts of Ericeira, were destroyed along with most of central Lisbon as a result of the great earthquake of 1755.
The death of his patron Urban VIII in 1644 and the election of the Pamphilj pope, Innocent X, initially marked a downturn in Bernini's career and released a series of opportunities for Bernini's rivals. However, within several years, Innocent reinstated him at St Peter's to work on the extended nave
and commissioned the Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona. At the time of Innocent's death in 1655, Bernini was the arbiter of public artistic taste in Rome. His artistic ascendency continued under Alexander VII.
He died in Rome in 1680, and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
.
Among the many who worked under his supervision were Luigi Bernini, Stefano Speranza, Giuliano Finelli
, Andrea Bolgi
, Filippo Parodi
, Giacomo Antonio Fancelli
, Lazzaro Morelli
, Francesco Baratta Nicodemus Tessin, and Francois Duquesnoy
. Among his rivals in architecture were Francesco Borromini
and Pietro da Cortona
; in sculpture, Alessandro Algardi
.
, then living in Rome, commissioned Filippo Baldinucci
to write his biography which was published in Florence in 1682. In fact, the latest, documented research shows that it was Bernini's sons (specifically eldest son, Mons. Pietro Filippo) who commissioned the biography from Baldinucci sometime in the late 1670s, with the intent of publishing it while their father was still alive and in order to counter the great decline of Bernini's reputation in Rome with a stridently apologetic, mythologizing biography. The newest research has also uncovered the fact that not only that Queen Christina did not commission nor pay for the Baldinucci biography (she lent her name as patron in order to camouflage the true origins of the biography) but also that Baldinucci's narrative derives to a very great extent (with much word-for-word borrowing) from the biography of Bernini composed by the artist's youngest son, Domenico, in the late 1670s (which was only published, in revised form, in 1713). Hence, Domenico's biography, though published later than Baldinucci's, represents the earlier and more important full-length biographical source of Bernini's life, even though it idealizes many of the facts.
, and soon proved a precocious infant prodigy. His work was immediately sought after by major collectors.
di Andrea Bacchi ... [et al.] ; [traduzione, Antonio Fazzini,
Laura Melosi per NTL, Firenze].
Firenze : Firenze musei : Giunti, 2009.
Bernini and the birth of Baroque portrait sculpture / edited by
Andrea Bacchi, Catherine Hess, and Jennifer Montagu, with the
assistance of Anne-Lise Desmas ; with contributions by Andrea
Bacchi ... [et al.].
Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum ; Ottawa : National Gallery of
Canada, c2008.
Petersson, Robert T. (Robert Torsten)
The art of ecstasy: Teresa, Bernini, and Crashaw / [by] Robert T.
Petersson.
London : Routledge & K. Paul, 1970.
Ferrari, Oreste.
Bernini / Oreste Ferrari.
Firenze : Giunti Gruppo, 1991.
Bernini / presentazione di Anna Coliva.
Milano : Rizzoli, 2005.
Petersson, Robert T. (Robert Torsten)
Bernini and the excesses of art / Robert T. Petersson.
Florence : M&M, Maschietto editore, 2002.
Lavin, Irving, 1927-
Bernini and the unity of the visual arts / by Irving Lavin.
New York : [Published for] Pierpont Morgan Library [by] Oxford
University Press, c1980.
Gould, Cecil Hilton Monk, 1918-
Bernini in France : an episode in seventeenth-century history /
Cecil Gould.
London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.
Fraschetti, Stanislao, 1875-1902.
Il Bernini : la sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo / Stanislao
con prefazione di Adolfo Venturi.
Milano : U.Hoepli, 1900.
Fagiolo Dell'Arco, Maurizio, 1939-
Bernini : una introduzione al gran teatro del barocco / [di]
Maurizio e Marcello Fagiolo dell'Arco.
Roma : M. Bulzoni, 1967.
Bernini's biographies : critical essays / edited by Maarten
Delbeke, Evonne Levy, and Steven F. Ostrow.
University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press,
c2006.
Wittkower, Rudolf.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini : the sculptor of the Roman Baroque / Rudolf
Wittkower.
London : Phaidon Press ; New York : distributed by Garden City
Books, 1955.
Gianlorenzo Bernini : new aspects of his art and thought : a
commemorative volume / edited by Irving Lavin.
University Park, Pa. : Published for the College Art Association
of America by Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985.
Chantelou, Paul Fréart de, 1609-1694.
Journal du voyage en France du cavalier Bernin. English.
Diary of the cavaliere Bernini's visit to France / Paul Fréart de
Chantelou ; edited, and with an introduction, by Anthony
Blunt ; annotated by George C. Bauer ; translated by Margery
Corbett.
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1985.
Baldinucci, Filippo, 1625-1696.
The life of Bernini / Translated from the Italian by Catherine
Enggass. Foreword by Robert Enggass.
University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966.
L'ultimo Bernini (1665-1680) : nuovi argomenti, documenti e
immagini / a cura di Valentino Martinelli ; testi di Letizia
Lanzetta ... [et al.].
Roma : Quasar, c1996.
Lavin, Irving, 1927-
Visible spirit : the art of Gianlorenzo Bernini / by Irving
Lavin.
London : Pindar Press, 2007.
Baldinucci, Filippo, 1625-1696.
Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino : scvltore, architetto, e
pittore / scritta da Filippo Baldinvcci.
Firenze : Stamperia di V. Vangelisti, 1682.
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, 7 December 1598 – Rome, 28 November 1680) was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect. In addition he painted, wrote plays, and designed metalwork and stage sets.
A student of Classical sculpture
Classical sculpture
Classical sculpture refers to the forms of sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as well as the Hellenized and Romanized civilizations under their rule or influence from about 500 BC to fall of Rome in AD 476. It also refers stylistically to modern sculptures done in a classical style....
, Bernini possessed the unique ability to capture, in marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
, the essence of a narrative moment with a dramatic naturalistic realism which was almost shocking. This ensured that he effectively became the successor of Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
, far outshining other sculptors of his generation, including his rival, Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was the major rival of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.-Early years:...
. His talent extended beyond the confines of his sculpture to consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesise sculpture, painting and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the art historian, Irving Lavin, the ‘unity of the visual arts’. A deeply religious man, working in Counter Reformation Rome, Bernini used light as an important metaphorical device in the perception of his religious settings; often it was hidden light sources that could intensify the focus of religious worship, or enhance the dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.
Bernini was also a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
along with his contemporaries, the architect, Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
and the painter and architect, Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...
. Early in their careers they had all worked at the same time at the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...
, initially under Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque...
and on his death, under Bernini. Later on, however, they were in competition for commissions and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and Borromini. Despite the arguably greater architectural inventiveness of Borromini and Cortona, Bernini’s artistic pre-eminence, particularly during the reigns of popes Urban VIII (1623–44) and Alexander VII (1655–1665), meant he was able to secure the most important commission in Rome of the day, St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
. His design of the Piazza San Pietro in front of the Basilica is one of his most innovative and successful architectural designs.
During his long career, Bernini received many important commissions, many associated with the papacy. At an early age, he came to the attention of the papal nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, and in 1621, at the age of only twenty three, he was knighted by Pope Gregory XV. Following his accession to the papacy, Urban VIII is reported to have said, "Your luck is great to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini Pope, Cavaliere; but ours is much greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate". Although he did not fare so well during the reign of Innocent X, under Alexander VII, he once again regained pre-eminent artistic domination and continued to be held in high regard by Clement IX.
Bernini and other artists fell from favour in later neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
criticism of the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
. It is only from the late nineteenth century that art historical scholarship, in seeking an understanding of artistic output in the cultural context in which it was produced, has come to recognise Bernini’s achievements and restore his artistic reputation.
Early life
The most important primary source for the life of Bernini is the biography written by his youngest son, Domenico, entitled Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, published in 1713.Bernini was born in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
to a Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
sculptor, Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
, originally from Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and Angelica Galante, a Neapolitan. At the age of seven he accompanied his father to Rome, where Pietro was involved in several high profile projects. There, as a boy, Gianlorenzo's skill was soon noticed by the painter Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
and by Pope Paul V
Pope Paul V
-Theology:Paul met with Galileo Galilei in 1616 after Cardinal Bellarmine had, on his orders, warned Galileo not to hold or defend the heliocentric ideas of Copernicus. Whether there was also an order not to teach those ideas in any way has been a matter for controversy...
, and he soon gained the important patronage of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the papal nephew. His first works were inspired by antique Hellenistic sculpture.
Rise to master sculptor
Villa Borghese
Villa Borghese may refer to:*The Villa Borghese Pinciana , the villa built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio , developing sketches by Scipione Borghese, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa, at the edge of Rome, and to house his art collection.**The Galleria...
such as "The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Zeus and a Faun", and several allegorical busts
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
such as the "Damned Soul" and "Blessed Soul". By the time he was twenty-two, he had completed the bust of Pope Paul V. Scipione's collection in situ at the Borghese gallery chronicles his secular sculptures, with a series of masterpieces:
- "Aeneas, Anchises, and AscaniusAeneas, Anchises, and AscaniusAeneas, Anchises and Ascanius is a sculpture by the Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1619. It is housed in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. It depicts Anchises being carried by Aeneas, and Ascanius following them....
" (1619) depicts three ages of man from various viewpoints, borrowing from a figure in a RaphaelRaphaelRaffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
fresco. In The Aeneid, Aeneas flees the burning city of Troy, carrying his father and his son at his heels. His father holds the household gods and his son holds the eternal flame. Aeneas is the founder of LatiumLatiumLazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
, later Italy, and the father of the Romans. The sculpture is in a very Mannerist upwards spiral. - "The Rape of ProserpinaThe Rape of Proserpina (Bernini)The Rape of Proserpina is a large baroque marble sculptural group by Bernini executed between 1621 and 1622. Bernini was only 23 years old at its completion...
", (1621–22) recalls GiambolognaGiambolognaGiambologna, born as Jean Boulogne, incorrectly known as Giovanni da Bologna and Giovanni Bologna , was a sculptor, known for his marble and bronze statuary in a late Renaissance or Mannerist style.- Biography :...
's Mannerist "Rape of the Sabine Women", and displays a masterful attention to detail, including the abductor "dimpling" the woman's marble skin. - "Apollo and DaphneApollo and Daphne (Bernini)Apollo and Daphne is a baroque life-sized marble sculpture by Italian Gian Lorenzo Bernini housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.It depicts the climax of the story of Daphne and Phoebus in Ovid's Metamorphoses...
" (1622–25) has been widely admired since Bernini's time; along with the subsequent sculpture of David it represents the introduction of a new sculptural aesthetic. It depicts the most dramatic and dynamic moment in one of OvidOvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's stories in his Metamorphoses. In the story, Apollo, the god of light, scolded Eros, the god of love, for playing with adult weapons. In retribution, Eros wounded Apollo with a golden arrow that induced him to fall madly in love at the sight of Daphne, a water nymph sworn to perpetual virginityVirginityVirginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
, who, in addition, had been struck by Eros with a lead arrow which caused her to harshly spurn Apollo's advances. The sculpture depicts the moment when Apollo finally captures Daphne, yet she has implored her father, the river god, to destroy her beautyBeautyBeauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...
and repel Apollo's advances by transforming her into a laurel tree. This statue succeeds at various levels: it depicts the event and also represents an elaborate conceit of sculpture. This sculpture tracks the metamorphoses as a representation in stone of a person changing into lifeless vegetation; in other words, while a sculptor's art is to change inanimate stone into animated narrative, this sculpture narrates the opposite, the moment a woman becomes a tree. - "DavidDavid (Bernini)David is a life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture was part of a commission to decorate the villa of Bernini's patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese – the Galleria Borghese – where it still resides...
" (1623–24) like the "Apollo and Daphne", was a revolutionary sculpture for its time. Both depict movement in a way not previously attempted in stone. The biblical youth is taut and poised to rocket his projectile. Famous "David"s sculpted by Bernini's Florentine predecessors had portrayed the static moment before and after the event; Michelangelo portrayed David prior to his battle with Goliath, to intimate the psychological fortitude necessary for attempting such a gargantuan task; the contemplative intensity of Michelangelo's "David"David (Michelangelo)David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence...
or the haughty effeteness of DonatelloDavid (Donatello)David is the name of two statues by Italian early Renaissance sculptor Donatello.- The biblical text :The story of David and Goliath comes from 1 Samuel 17. The Israelites are fighting the Philistines, whose best warrior - Goliath - repeatedly offers to meet the Israelites' best warrior in...
's and Verrocchio'sAndrea del VerrocchioAndrea del Verrocchio , born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was an Italian sculptor, goldsmith and painter who worked at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence in the early renaissance. Few paintings are attributed to him with certainty, but a number of important painters were...
"David"s are all, nonetheless, portraying moments of stasis. The twisted torso, furrowed forehead, and granite grimace of Bernini's "David" epitomize BaroqueBaroqueThe Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
fixation with dynamic movement and emotion over High RenaissanceRenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
stasis and classical severity. Michelangelo expressed David's psychological fortitude, preparing for battle; Bernini captures the moment when he becomes a hero.
Mature sculptural output
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
section), Santa Maria della Vittoria
Santa Maria della Vittoria
Santa Maria della Vittoria is a roman catholic titular church and minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa....
, and the now-hidden "Constantine", at the base of the Scala Regia
Scala Regia (Vatican)
The Scala Regia is a flight of steps in the Vatican City and is part of the formal entrance to the Vatican. It was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in the early 16th century, to connect the Vatican Palace to St...
(which he designed). He was given the commission for the tomb of the Barberini Pope in St Peters. He helped design the Ponte Sant'Angelo
Ponte Sant'Angelo
Ponte Sant'Angelo, once the Aelian Bridge or Pons Aelius, meaning the Bridge of Hadrian, is a Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber, from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant'Angelo...
, sculpting two of the angels, soon replaced by copies by his own hand, while the others were made by his pupils based on his designs.
At the end of April 1665, at the height of his fame and powers, he travelled to Paris, where he remained until November; he met Paul Fréart de Chantelou
Paul Fréart de Chantelou
Paul Fréart de Chantelou was a French collector. He patronised and encouraged major artists of his era, in particular Nicolas Poussin and Gian Lorenzo Bernini .-Chantelou and Poussin:...
who kept a Journal of Bernini's visit. Bernini's international popularity was such that on his walks in Paris the streets were lined with admiring crowds. This trip, encouraged by Father Oliva, general of the Jesuits, was a response to the repeated requests for his works by King Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. Here Bernini presented some designs for the east front of the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
. which were ultimately rejected. He soon lost favor at the French court as he praised the art and architecture of Italy over that of France; he said that a painting by Guido Reni
Guido Reni
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
was worth more than all of Paris. The sole work remaining from his time in Paris is a bust
Bust of Louis XIV (Bernini)
The Bust of Louis XIV is a marble portrait by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. It was created in the year 1665 during Bernini's visit to Paris. It has been called the “grandest piece of portraiture of the baroque age” -Commissioning:...
of Louis XIV, which set the standard for royal portraiture for a century.
Architecture
Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors. He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. Amongst his most well known works are the Piazza San Pietro (1656–67), the piazzaPiazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
and colonnades in front of St Peter's
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
and the interior decoration of the Basilica. Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini
Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome, facing the piazza of the same name in Rione Trevi and is home to the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.-History:...
from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio)(started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi
Palazzo Chigi
The Palazzo Chigi is a palace or noble residence in Rome, overlooking the Piazza Colonna and the Via del Corso. It was begun in 1562 by Giacomo della Porta and completed by Carlo Maderno in 1580 for the Aldobrandini family. In 1659 it was purchased by the Chigi family. It was then remodelled by...
(now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi) (started 1664).
His first architectural projects were the façade and refurbishment of the church of Santa Bibiana
Santa Bibiana
Santa Bibiana is a small church in Rome, devoted to St Bibiana. It was initially built by Pope Simplicius, and consecrated in 467. The church was restored by Pope Honorius III in 1224....
(1624–6) and the St. Peter's baldachin
St. Peter's baldachin
Saint Peter's baldachin is a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium or baldachin, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome...
(1624–1633), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
. In 1629, and before the Baldacchino was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. However, due to political reasons and miscalculations in his design of the bell-towers for St. Peter's, of which only one was completed and then subsequently torn down, Bernini fell out of favor during the Pamphili
Pamphili
The Pamphili are one of the papal families deeply entrenched in Roman Catholic Church, Roman and Italian politics of the 16th and 17th centuries ....
papacy of Innocent X. Never wholly without patronage, Bernini then regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from 7 April 1655, until his death.- Early life :Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi and a great-nephew of Pope Paul V , he was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from...
Chigi
Chigi
Chigi may refer to:* Chigi , a crossbreed between a Welsh Corgi and a chihuahua * House of Chigi, a Roman princely family* Chigi , an element in Japanese architecture...
, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade
Colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....
in front of St. Peter's. Further significant works by Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia
Scala Regia
Scala Regia is a term referring to a number of majestic entrance staircases, including:* The Scala Regia of the Vatican, a flight of steps designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to connect the Vatican Palace to St...
, (1663–6) the monumental grand stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace and the Cathedra Petri
Chair of Saint Peter
The Chair of Saint Peter is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica, enclosed in a gilt bronze casing that was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed 1647-53....
, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's.
Bernini did not build many churches from scratch, rather his efforts were concentrated on pre-existing structures, and in particular St. Peter's. He fulfilled three commissions for new churches; his stature allowed him the freedom to design the structure and decorate the interiors in a consistent manner. Best known is the small oval baroque church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
The Church of Saint Andrew's at the Quirinal is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, built for of the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill....
, a work which Bernini's son, Domenico, reports his father was very pleased with. Bernini also designed churches in Castelgandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova, 1658–61) and Ariccia
Ariccia
Ariccia is a town and comune in the Province of Rome, central Italy. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio region and could be considered an extension of Rome's southeastern suburbs...
(Santa Maria Assunta, 1662-4).
When Bernini was invited to Paris in 1665 to prepare works for Louis XIV, he presented designs for the east facade of the Louvre Palace but his projects were ultimately turned down in favour of the more stern and classic proposals of the French doctor and amateur architect Claude Perrault
Claude Perrault
Claude Perrault is best known as the architect of the eastern range of the Louvre Palace in Paris , but he also achieved success as a physician and anatomist, and as an author, who wrote treatises on physics and natural history.Perrault was born and died in Paris...
, signalling the waning influence of Italian artistic hegemony in France. Bernini's projects were essentially rooted in the Italian Baroque urbanist tradition of relating public buildings to their settings, often leading to innovative architectural expression in urban spaces like piazze or squares. However, by this time, the French absolutist monarchy now preferred the classicising monumental severity of Perrault's facade, no doubt with the added political bonus that it been designed by a Frenchman. The final version did, however, include Bernini's feature of a flat roof behind a Palladian balustrade.
In 1639, Bernini bought property on the corner of the via Mercede and the via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. On this site he built himself a palace, the Palazzo Bernini, at what are now Nos 11 and 12 via della Mercede. He lived at No. 11 but this was extensively changed in the nineteenth century. It has been noted how very galling it must have been for Bernini to witness through the windows of his dwelling, the construction of the tower and dome of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Sant'Andrea delle Fratte
Sant'Andrea delle Fratte is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis is Ennio Antonelli....
by his rival, Borromini, and also the demolition of the chapel that he, Bernini, had designed at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide to see it replaced by Borromini's chapel.
Fountains in Rome
True to the decorative dynamism of Baroque, among Bernini's most gifted creations were his Roman fountainFountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
s that were both public works and papal monuments. His fountains include the Fountain of the Triton
Triton Fountain
The Triton Fountain is a seventeenth century fountain in Rome, by the well-known Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini...
or Fontana del Tritone and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the Fontana delle Api
Fontana delle Api
The Fontana delle Api is a fountain located in the Piazza Barberini in Rome where the piazza meets Via Sistina. It was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini completed in the April 1644....
. The Fountain of the Four Rivers or Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi
The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or "Fountain of the Four Rivers" is a fountain in Rome, Italy, located in the urban square of the Piazza Navona...
in the Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
is a masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory. An oft-repeated, but false, anecdote tells that one of the Bernini's river gods defers his gaze in disapproval of the facade of Sant'Agnese in Agone
Sant'Agnese in Agone
Sant'Agnese in Agone is a seventeenth century Baroque church in Rome, Italy. It faces onto the Piazza Navona, one of the main urban spaces in the historic centre of the city and the site where the Early Christian Saint Agnes was martyred in the ancient Stadium of Domitian.The rebuilding of the...
(designed by the talented, but less politically successful, rival Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
). However, the fountain was built several years before the façade of the church was completed.
Marble portraiture
Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli
The Spanish National Church of Santiago and Montserrat, known as Church of Holy Mary in Monserrat of the Spaniards is a Roman Catholic titulus church and National Church in Rome of Spain, dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat. The current Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S...
, Rome. The once-gregarious Cardinal Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese was an Italian Cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini...
, in his bust is frozen in conversation.
His most famous portrait is that of Costanza Bonarelli (c. 1637). It does not portray divinity or royalty, but a woman in a moment of disheveled privacy. Bernini had an affair with Costanza, who was the wife of one of Bernini's assistants. When Bernini suspected Costanza to be involved with his brother, he badly beat him and ordered a servant to slash her face with a razor. Pope Urban VIII intervened on his behalf and he was fined.
Bernini also gained royal commissions from outside Italy, for subjects such as Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
, Cardinal Richelieu, Francesco I d'Este
Francesco I d'Este
Francesco I d'Este was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son of Alfonso III d'Este, he became reigning duke after his father's abdication.-Biography:...
, Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
and Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France
Henrietta Maria of France ; was the Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I...
. The last two were produced in Italy from portraits made by Van Dyck (now in the royal collection), though Bernini preferred to produce portraits from life – the bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698 and that of Henrietta Maria was not undertaken due to the outbreak of the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
.
Other works
Elephant and Obelisk
The Elephant and Obelisk is a sculpture designed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. The elephant was probably executed by his assistant Ercole Ferrata; the Egyptian obelisk was uncovered during nearby excavations...
, affectionately known as Bernini's Chick by the Roman people, is located in the Piazza della Minerva and in front of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Santa Maria sopra Minerva
The Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
. Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted an ancient Egyptian obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
to be erected in the piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
and in 1665 he commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk. The sculpture of an elephant bearing the obelisk on its back was created by one of Bernini's students, Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.-Biography:A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants...
and finished in 1667. An inscription on the base aligns the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Roman goddess Minerva with the Virgin Mary who the church is dedicated to. A popular anecdote concerns the elephant's smile. To find out why it is smiling, the viewer must head around to the rear end of the animal and to see that its muscles are tensed and its tail is shifted to the left as if it were defecating. The animal's rear is pointed directly at the office of Father Domenico Paglia, a Dominican friar, who was one of the main antagonists of Bernini and his artist friends, as a final salute and last word.
Bernini worked along with Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata
Ercole Ferrata was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.-Biography:A native of Pellio Inferiore, near Como, Ferrata initially apprenticed with Alessandro Algardi, and became one of his prime assistants...
to create a much admired fountain for the Lisbon palace of the Portuguese nobleman, the Count of Ericeira. For the same patron he also created a series of paintings with the battles of Louis XIV as subject. These works were lost as the palace, its great library and the rich art collection of the Counts of Ericeira, were destroyed along with most of central Lisbon as a result of the great earthquake of 1755.
The death of his patron Urban VIII in 1644 and the election of the Pamphilj pope, Innocent X, initially marked a downturn in Bernini's career and released a series of opportunities for Bernini's rivals. However, within several years, Innocent reinstated him at St Peter's to work on the extended nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and commissioned the Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona. At the time of Innocent's death in 1655, Bernini was the arbiter of public artistic taste in Rome. His artistic ascendency continued under Alexander VII.
He died in Rome in 1680, and was buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
The Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major , known also by other names, is the largest Roman Catholic Marian church in Rome, Italy.There are other churches in Rome dedicated to Mary, such as Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, but the greater size of the...
.
Among the many who worked under his supervision were Luigi Bernini, Stefano Speranza, Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli was an Italian Baroque sculptor who emerged from the workshop of Bernini.He was born in Carrara to a family of marble masons in a town associated with mining of the stone, and he initially trained with Michelangelo Naccherino...
, Andrea Bolgi
Andrea Bolgi
Andrea Bolgi was an Italian sculptor responsible for several statues in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Towards the end of his life he moved to Naples, where he sculpted portrait busts.-Early life:...
, Filippo Parodi
Filippo Parodi
Filippo Parodi was an Italian sculptor of the Baroque period, "Genoa's first and greatest native Baroque sculptor".-Biography:...
, Giacomo Antonio Fancelli
Giacomo Antonio Fancelli
Giacomo Antonio Fancelli was an Italian sculptor in stone and stucco of the Baroque era. He was the brother of Cosimo Fancelli and a pupil of Bernini...
, Lazzaro Morelli
Lazzaro Morelli
Lazzaro Morelli was an Italian sculptor of the Baroque period. Born in Ascoli Piceno, the son of the Florentine sculptor Fulgenzio Morelli, who also trained Lazzaro's cousin, the artist Giuseppe Giosafatti...
, Francesco Baratta Nicodemus Tessin, and Francois Duquesnoy
François Duquesnoy
François Duquesnoy was a Baroque sculptor in Rome. His more idealized representations are often contrasted with the emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows greater affinity to Algardi's sculptures....
. Among his rivals in architecture were Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
and Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona
Pietro da Cortona, by the name of Pietro Berrettini, born Pietro Berrettini da Cortona, was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and also one of the key architects in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important decorator...
; in sculpture, Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was the major rival of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.-Early years:...
.
The first biographies of Bernini
Until the late twentieth century, it was universally believed that two years after his death, Queen Christina of SwedenChristina of Sweden
Christina , later adopted the name Christina Alexandra, was Queen regnant of Swedes, Goths and Vandals, Grand Princess of Finland, and Duchess of Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and Karelia, from 1633 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora...
, then living in Rome, commissioned Filippo Baldinucci
Filippo Baldinucci
Filippo Baldinucci was an Italian art historian and biographer.-Life:Baldinucci is considered among the most significant Florentine biographers/historians of the artists and the arts of the Baroque period...
to write his biography which was published in Florence in 1682. In fact, the latest, documented research shows that it was Bernini's sons (specifically eldest son, Mons. Pietro Filippo) who commissioned the biography from Baldinucci sometime in the late 1670s, with the intent of publishing it while their father was still alive and in order to counter the great decline of Bernini's reputation in Rome with a stridently apologetic, mythologizing biography. The newest research has also uncovered the fact that not only that Queen Christina did not commission nor pay for the Baldinucci biography (she lent her name as patron in order to camouflage the true origins of the biography) but also that Baldinucci's narrative derives to a very great extent (with much word-for-word borrowing) from the biography of Bernini composed by the artist's youngest son, Domenico, in the late 1670s (which was only published, in revised form, in 1713). Hence, Domenico's biography, though published later than Baldinucci's, represents the earlier and more important full-length biographical source of Bernini's life, even though it idealizes many of the facts.
Sculpture
- Bust of Giovanni Battista SantoniBust of Giovanni Battista SantoniThe Bust of Giovanni Battisti Santoni is an early work by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. It forms part of a tomb for Santoni, who was majordomo to Pope Sixtus V from 1590 to 1592. Executed between 1613 and 1616, the work remains in its original setting in the church of Santa Prassede in...
(c. 1612) - Marble, life-size, Santa PrassedeSanta PrassedeThe Basilica of Saint Praxedes , commonly known in Italian as Santa Prassede, is an ancient titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, located near the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major...
, Rome - "Martyrdom of St. LawrenceMartyrdom of St. Lawrence (Bernini)The Martyrdom of St Lawrence is an early sculpture by the Italian baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It depicts the saint at moment of his supposed martyrdom, being burnt alive on a gridiron. According to Bernini's biographer Filippo Baldinucci, the sculpture was completed when Bernini was 15...
" (1617) - Marble, 66 x 108 cm, Contini Bonacossi Collection, Galleria degli Uffizi, FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.... - "The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a FaunThe Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a FaunThe Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun is an early sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Produced in 1615, it is now in the Borghese Collection at the Galleria Borghese. It shows Amalthea as a goat, the infant god Jupiter and an infant Faun....
" (1615) - Marble, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - "St. SebastianSt. Sebastian (Bernini)St. Sebastian is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. Executed in 1617-8, it features the Christian martyr St Sebastian pinned to a tree, his flesh filled with arrows. The sculpture is part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, and is currently shown in Madrid....
" (c. 1617) - Marble, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid - "A Faun Teased by Children" (1616–1617) - Marble, height 132,1 cm, Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York - "Aeneas, Anchises, and AscaniusAeneas, Anchises, and AscaniusAeneas, Anchises and Ascanius is a sculpture by the Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1619. It is housed in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. It depicts Anchises being carried by Aeneas, and Ascanius following them....
" (1618–1619) - Marble, height 220 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - "Damned Soul" (1619) - Palazzo di Spagna, Rome
- "Blessed Soul" (1619) - Palazzo di Spagna, Rome
- "Apollo and DaphneApollo and Daphne (Bernini)Apollo and Daphne is a baroque life-sized marble sculpture by Italian Gian Lorenzo Bernini housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome.It depicts the climax of the story of Daphne and Phoebus in Ovid's Metamorphoses...
" (1622–1625) - Marble, height 243 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - St. Peter's BaldachinSt. Peter's baldachinSaint Peter's baldachin is a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium or baldachin, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, Rome, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome...
(1624) - Bronze, partly gilt, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - "Charity with Four ChildrenCharity with Four Children (Bernini)Charity with Four Children is a sculpture by the 17th century Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is housed in the Vatican Museum of Rome....
" (1627–1628) - Terracotta, height 39 cm, Museo SacroVatican MuseumsThe Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
, Musei Vaticani, Vatican - "DavidDavid (Bernini)David is a life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture was part of a commission to decorate the villa of Bernini's patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese – the Galleria Borghese – where it still resides...
" (1623–1624) - Marble, height 170 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Fontana della Barcaccia (1627–1628) - Marble, Piazza di Spagna, Rome
- Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix MontoyaBust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix MontoyaThe bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya is a sculpted portrait by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. Executed in 1621-22, it sits within a larger tomb created for Montoya, a Spanish lawyer working in Rome...
(c. 1621) - Marble, life-size, Santa Maria di Monserrato, Rome - "Neptune and TritonNeptune and Triton (Bernini)Neptune and Triton is an early sculpture by the 17th century Italian sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It is housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London dated c. 1620-22...
" (1620) - Marble, height 182,2 cm, Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London - "The Rape of ProserpinaThe Rape of Proserpina (Bernini)The Rape of Proserpina is a large baroque marble sculptural group by Bernini executed between 1621 and 1622. Bernini was only 23 years old at its completion...
" (1621–1622) - Marble, height 295 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Fontana del Tritone (1624–1643) - Travertine, over life-size, Piazza BarberiniPiazza BarberiniPiazza Barberini is a large piazza in the centro storico or city center of Rome, Italy and situated on the Quirinal Hill. It was created in the 16th century but many of the surrounding buildings have subsequently been rebuilt....
, Rome - Tomb of Pope Urban VIII (1627–1647) - Golden bronze and marble, figures larger than life-size, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - Bust of Thomas BakerBust of Thomas Baker (Bernini)The Bust of Thomas Baker is a 1638 marble portrait sculpture created by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini, with much of the bust undertaken by a pupil of Bernini, probably Andrea Bolgi. Rudolf Wittkower, Bernini, the Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, 1997 , p.259 It is currently held in the...
(1638) - Marble, height 81,6 cm, Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London - Bust of Costanza BonarelliBust of Costanza BonarelliThe Bust of Costanza Bonarelli is a marble portrait sculpture by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. Bernini fell violently in love with Costanza, whose husband Matteo Bonarelli was employed in Bernini's workshop. It seems to have been created in the 1630s. The sculpture is in the Bargello...
(c. 1635) - Marble, height 70 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, FlorenceFlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.... - "Charity with Two Children" (1634) - Terracotta, height 41.6 cm, Museo SacroVatican MuseumsThe Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City - "Saint LonginusSaint Longinus (Bernini)Saint Longinus is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. Completed in 1638, the marble sculpture sits in the north-eastern niche in the crossing of St Peter's in the Vatican City.-Preparatory Studies:...
" (1631–1638) - Marble, height 450 cm, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - Two Busts of Scipione Borghese (Bernini)Two Busts of Scipione Borghese (Bernini)The Two Busts of Scipione Borghese are marble portraits executed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini, in 1632. Cardinal Scipione Borghese was the nephew of Pope Paul V, and had commissioned other works from Bernini in the 1620s...
(1632) - Marble, height 78 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Bust of Pope Urban VIII (1632–1633) - Bronze, height 100 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei Vaticani, Vatican CityVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
- Bust of Cardinal Armand de Richelieu (1640–1641) - Marble, Musée du LouvreLouvreThe Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, Paris - Memorial to Maria RaggiMemorial to Maria Raggi (Bernini)The Memorial to Maria Raggi is a sculptural monument designed and executed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini, between 1647 and 1653. The monument is attached to a pillar in a nave of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.-Maria Raggi:...
(between 1647-53) - Gilt bronze and coloured marble, Santa Maria sopra MinervaSanta Maria sopra MinervaThe Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
, Rome - "Truth" (1645–1652) - Marble, height 280 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Bust of Pope Leo X (1647), Palazzo Doria Pamphilij, Rome
- "Ecstasy of St. Theresa" (1647–1652) - Marble, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della VittoriaSanta Maria della VittoriaSanta Maria della Vittoria is a roman catholic titular church and minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa....
, Rome - Loggia of the FoundersSanta Maria della VittoriaSanta Maria della Vittoria is a roman catholic titular church and minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa....
(1647–1652) Marble, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della VittoriaSanta Maria della VittoriaSanta Maria della Vittoria is a roman catholic titular church and minor basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary located in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa....
, Rome - Bust of Urban VIII - Marble, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - Fontana dei Quattro FiumiFontana dei Quattro FiumiThe Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or "Fountain of the Four Rivers" is a fountain in Rome, Italy, located in the urban square of the Piazza Navona...
(1648–1651) - Travertine and marble, Piazza NavonaPiazza NavonaPiazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
, Rome - Corpus (sculpture)Corpus (sculpture)A sculpture of the body of Christ by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini sculpted it from bronze in 1650 and held onto it in his private collection for 25 years....
(1650) - Bronze, Art Gallery of OntarioArt Gallery of OntarioUnder the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada. - "Daniel and the Lion" (1650) - Marble, Santa Maria del PopoloSanta Maria del PopoloSanta Maria del Popolo is an Augustinian church located in Rome, Italy.It stands to the north side of the Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares in the city. The Piazza is situated between the ancient Porta Flaminia and the park of the Pincio...
, Rome - Francesco I d'EsteFrancesco I d'Este (Bernini)The bust of Francesco I d'Este is a marble portrait bust by the Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. It was completed in 1652. It is in the Museo Estense, Modena, Italy....
(1650–1651) - Marble, height 107 cm, Galleria EstenseGalleria EstenseThe Galleria Estense or Estense Gallery is an art museum in Modena, with mainly Italian and Spanish paintings from the 14th to the 18th century, formed around the collection of the House of Este, rulers of Modena . It is located on the upper floor of the Palazzo dei Musei, on the St. Augustine...
, ModenaModenaModena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.... - Fountain of the Moor (1653–1654) - Marble, Piazza NavonaPiazza NavonaPiazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
, Rome - "Constantine" (1654–1670) - Marble, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican City
- "Daniel and the Lion" (1655) - Terracotta, height 41.6 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City
- "Habakkuk and the Angel" (1655) - Terracotta, height 52 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei Vaticani, Vatican City
- Altar Cross (1657–1661) - Gilt bronze corpus on bronze cross, height: corpus 43 cm, cross 185 cm, Treasury of San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - Throne of Saint Peter (1657–1666) - Marble, bronze, white and golden stucco, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Rome - Statue of Saint Augustine (1657–1666) - Bronze, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - "Constantine" (1663–1670) - Marble with painted stucco drapery, Scala RegiaScala RegiaScala Regia is a term referring to a number of majestic entrance staircases, including:* The Scala Regia of the Vatican, a flight of steps designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to connect the Vatican Palace to St...
, Vatican Palace, Rome - "Standing Angel with Scroll" (1667–1668) - Clay, terracotta, height: 29,2 cm, Fogg Art MuseumFogg Art MuseumThe Fogg Museum, opened to the public in 1896, is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums....
, CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the... - "Angel with the Crown of ThornsAngel with the Crown of Thorns"Angel with the Crown of Thorns" is a statue by G.L. Bernini commissioned by Pope Clement IX, now in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in Rome, Italy. The statue was started in 1667 and completed in 1669....
" (1667–1669) - Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle FratteSant'Andrea delle FratteSant'Andrea delle Fratte is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis is Ennio Antonelli....
, Rome - "Angel with the Superscription" (1667–1669) - Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle FratteSant'Andrea delle FratteSant'Andrea delle Fratte is a 17th-century basilica church in Rome, Italy, dedicated to St. Andrew. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Hortis is Ennio Antonelli....
, Rome - "Elephant and ObeliskElephant and ObeliskThe Elephant and Obelisk is a sculpture designed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. The elephant was probably executed by his assistant Ercole Ferrata; the Egyptian obelisk was uncovered during nearby excavations...
" (erected 1667) - Marble, Piazza di Santa Maria sopra MinervaSanta Maria sopra MinervaThe Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
, Rome - Bust of Gabriele Fonseca (1668–1675) - Marble, over life-size, San Lorenzo in LucinaSan Lorenzo in LucinaThe Church of St Lawrence's at Lucina is a Roman Catholic parish and titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, dedicated to Saint Lawrence, Roman deacon and martyr. The name Lucina comes from the Roman matron owner of the house on which the church was built.The current Cardinal Priest of...
, Rome - Equestrian Statue of King Louis XIV (1669–1670) - Terracotta, height 76 cm, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Bust of Louis XIVBust of Louis XIV (Bernini)The Bust of Louis XIV is a marble portrait by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. It was created in the year 1665 during Bernini's visit to Paris. It has been called the “grandest piece of portraiture of the baroque age” -Commissioning:...
(1665) - White marble, height 105 cm, salon de Diane, Musée National de VersaillesPalace of VersaillesThe Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
, Versailles - "Herm of St. Stephen, King of Hungary" - Bronze, Cathedral Treasury, ZagrebZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
- "Saint Jerome" (1661–1663) - Marble, height 180 cm, Cappella Chigi, DuomoDuomo di SienaThe Cathedral of Siena , dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church and now to Santa Maria Assunta , is a medieval church in Siena, central Italy....
, SienaSienaSiena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
- Tomb of Pope Alexander VIITomb of Pope Alexander VIIThe tomb of Alexander VII is a sculptural monument designed and partially executed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. It is in the basilica of St Peter's in the Vatican City....
(1671–1678) - Marble and gilded bronze, over life-size, Basilica di San PietroSt. Peter's BasilicaThe Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
, Vatican City - "Blessed Ludovica AlbertoniBeata Ludovica AlbertoniThe "Beata Ludovica Albertoni" is a funerary monument in the specially designed Altieri Chapel in the church of San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, Rome, Italy....
" (1671–1674) - Marble, Cappella Altieri-Albertoni, San Francesco a RipaSan Francesco a RipaSan Francesco a Ripa is a church in Rome, Italy. It is dedicated to Francis of Assisi because the adjacent convent accommodated him, while the term Ripa refers to the nearby river-edge of the Tiber.-History:...
, Rome
Paintings
Bernini's activity as a painter was a sideline which he did mainly in his youth. Despite this his work reveals a sure and brilliant hand, free from any trace of pedantry. He studied in Rome under his father, PietroPietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
, and soon proved a precocious infant prodigy. His work was immediately sought after by major collectors.
- Saint Andrew and Saint Thomas (c. 1627) - Oil on canvas, 59 x 76 cm, National Gallery, LondonNational Gallery, LondonThe National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
- Portrait of a Boy (c. 1638) - Oil on canvas, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Self-Portrait as a Young Man (c. 1623) - Oil on canvas, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome - Self-Portrait as a Mature Man (1630–1635) - Oil on canvas, Galleria BorgheseGalleria BorgheseThe Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. It is a building that was from the first integral with its gardens, nowadays considered quite separately by tourists as the Villa Borghese gardens...
, Rome
Further Reading
I marmi vivi : Bernini e la nascita del ritratto barocco / a curadi Andrea Bacchi ... [et al.] ; [traduzione, Antonio Fazzini,
Laura Melosi per NTL, Firenze].
Firenze : Firenze musei : Giunti, 2009.
Bernini and the birth of Baroque portrait sculpture / edited by
Andrea Bacchi, Catherine Hess, and Jennifer Montagu, with the
assistance of Anne-Lise Desmas ; with contributions by Andrea
Bacchi ... [et al.].
Los Angeles : J. Paul Getty Museum ; Ottawa : National Gallery of
Canada, c2008.
Petersson, Robert T. (Robert Torsten)
The art of ecstasy: Teresa, Bernini, and Crashaw / [by] Robert T.
Petersson.
London : Routledge & K. Paul, 1970.
Ferrari, Oreste.
Bernini / Oreste Ferrari.
Firenze : Giunti Gruppo, 1991.
Bernini / presentazione di Anna Coliva.
Milano : Rizzoli, 2005.
Petersson, Robert T. (Robert Torsten)
Bernini and the excesses of art / Robert T. Petersson.
Florence : M&M, Maschietto editore, 2002.
Lavin, Irving, 1927-
Bernini and the unity of the visual arts / by Irving Lavin.
New York : [Published for] Pierpont Morgan Library [by] Oxford
University Press, c1980.
Gould, Cecil Hilton Monk, 1918-
Bernini in France : an episode in seventeenth-century history /
Cecil Gould.
London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.
Fraschetti, Stanislao, 1875-1902.
Il Bernini : la sua vita, la sua opera, il suo tempo / Stanislao
con prefazione di Adolfo Venturi.
Milano : U.Hoepli, 1900.
Fagiolo Dell'Arco, Maurizio, 1939-
Bernini : una introduzione al gran teatro del barocco / [di]
Maurizio e Marcello Fagiolo dell'Arco.
Roma : M. Bulzoni, 1967.
Bernini's biographies : critical essays / edited by Maarten
Delbeke, Evonne Levy, and Steven F. Ostrow.
University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press,
c2006.
Wittkower, Rudolf.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini : the sculptor of the Roman Baroque / Rudolf
Wittkower.
London : Phaidon Press ; New York : distributed by Garden City
Books, 1955.
Gianlorenzo Bernini : new aspects of his art and thought : a
commemorative volume / edited by Irving Lavin.
University Park, Pa. : Published for the College Art Association
of America by Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985.
Chantelou, Paul Fréart de, 1609-1694.
Journal du voyage en France du cavalier Bernin. English.
Diary of the cavaliere Bernini's visit to France / Paul Fréart de
Chantelou ; edited, and with an introduction, by Anthony
Blunt ; annotated by George C. Bauer ; translated by Margery
Corbett.
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1985.
Baldinucci, Filippo, 1625-1696.
The life of Bernini / Translated from the Italian by Catherine
Enggass. Foreword by Robert Enggass.
University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966.
L'ultimo Bernini (1665-1680) : nuovi argomenti, documenti e
immagini / a cura di Valentino Martinelli ; testi di Letizia
Lanzetta ... [et al.].
Roma : Quasar, c1996.
Lavin, Irving, 1927-
Visible spirit : the art of Gianlorenzo Bernini / by Irving
Lavin.
London : Pindar Press, 2007.
Baldinucci, Filippo, 1625-1696.
Vita del cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino : scvltore, architetto, e
pittore / scritta da Filippo Baldinvcci.
Firenze : Stamperia di V. Vangelisti, 1682.
External links
- Checklist of Bernini's architecture and sculpture in Rome
- Excerpts from The life of the Cavaliers Bernini
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the "A World History of Art"
- Extract on Bernini from Simon SchamaSimon SchamaSimon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
's The Power of Art - Photographs of Bernini's Santa Maria Assunta
- smARThistory: Ecstacy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
- Virtual tour of Rome visiting Bernini's key works