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Home , Domenico Bernini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Longinus (Bernini), The Rape of Proserpina

FREE BERNINI: THE SCULPTOR OF THE ROMAN PDF

Rudolf Wittkower | 320 pages | 26 Sep 1997 | Phaidon Press Ltd | 9780714837154 | English | London, United Kingdom - Wikipedia

He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches. As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and , especially elaborate public and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures in stucco and wood for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelofar outshining other sculptors of his generation. His talent extended beyond the confines of sculpture to a consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesize sculpture, painting, and architecture into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the late art historian the "unity of the visual arts". Bernini was born in in to Angelica Galante, a neapolitan woman, and Mannerist sculptor Pietro Berninioriginally from . He was the sixth of their thirteen children. He was "recognized as a prodigy when he was only eight years old, [and] he was consistently encouraged by his father, Pietro. Several extant works, dating Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque —, are by general scholarly consensus, collaborative efforts by both father and son: they include the Faun Teased by Putti c. Bernini was therefore presented before Pope Paul V, curious to see if the stories about Gian Lorenzo's talent were true. The boy improvised a sketch of Saint Paul for the marveling pope, and this was the beginning of the pope's attention on this young talent. Once he was brought to , he rarely left its walls, except much against his will for a five-month stay in Paris in the service of King Louis XIV and brief trips to nearby towns including Civitavecchia, Tivoli and Castelgandolfomostly for work-related reasons. Bernini's works are therefore often characterized as perfect expressions of the spirit of Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque assertive, triumphal but self-defensive Counter Roman . Certainly Bernini was a man of his times and deeply religious at least later in life[13] but he and his artistic production should not be reduced simply to instruments of the papacy and its political-doctrinal programs, an impression that is at times communicated by the works of the three most eminent Bernini scholars of the previous generation, Rudolf WittkowerHoward Hibbardand Irving Lavin. Under the patronage of the extravagantly wealthy and most powerful Cardinal , the young Bernini rapidly rose to prominence as a sculptor. Among his early works for the cardinal were decorative pieces for the garden of the Villa Borghesesuch as The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun. This marble sculpture executed sometime before is generally considered by scholars to be the earliest work executed entirely by Bernini himself. Paul Getty Museum. Bernini's reputation, however, was definitively established by four masterpieces, executed between andall now displayed in the in Rome. To the art historian these four works— Aeneas, Anchises, and AscaniusThe Rape of Proserpina —22Apollo and —and —24 —"inaugurated a new era in the history of European sculpture". Bernini's early sculpture groups and portraits manifest "a command of the human form in motion and a technical sophistication rivalled only by the greatest sculptors of classical antiquity. Unlike done by his predecessors, these focus on specific points of narrative tension in the stories they are trying to tell: Aeneas and his family fleeing the burning Troy; the instant that finally grasps the hunted ; the precise moment that sees his beloved Daphne begin her transformation into a tree. They are transitory but dramatic powerful moments in each story. Bernini's David is another stirring example of this. 's motionless, idealized David shows the subject holding a rock in one hand and a sling in the other, contemplating the battle; similarly immobile versions by other Renaissance artists, including Donatello's, show the subject Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque his triumph after the battle with Goliath. Bernini illustrates David during his active combat with the giant, as he twists his body to catapult toward Goliath. To emphasize these moments, and to ensure that they were appreciated by the viewer, Bernini designed the sculptures with a specific viewpoint in mind. Their original placements within the Villa Borghese were against walls so that the viewers' first view was the dramatic moment of the narrative. The result of such an approach is to invest the sculptures with greater psychological energy. The viewer finds it easier to gauge the state of mind of the characters and therefore understands the larger story at work: Daphne's wide open mouth in fear and astonishment, David biting his lip in determined concentration, or Proserpina desperately struggling to free herself. In addition to portraying psychological realism, they show a greater concern for representing physical details. The tousled hair of Pluto, the pliant flesh of Proserpina, or the forest of leaves beginning to envelop Daphne all demonstrate Bernini's exactitude and delight for representing complex real world textures in marble form. Beginning inwith the ascent of his friend and former tutor, Cardinal Maffeo Barberinito the papal as Pope Urban VIII, Bernini enjoyed near monopolistic patronage from the Barberini pope and family. The new Pope Urban is reported to have remarked, Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque is a great fortune for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini made pope, but our fortune is even greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate. His horizons rapidly and widely broadened: he was not just producing sculpture for private residences, but playing Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque most significant artistic and engineering role on the city stage, as sculptor, architect, and urban planner. To great protest from older, experienced master architects, he, with virtually no architectural training to his name, was appointed Chief Architect of St Peter's inupon the death of . From then on, Bernini's work and artistic vision would be placed at the symbolic heart of Rome. Bernini's artistic pre-eminence, particularly during the reign of pope Urban VIII — and again under Pope Alexander VII —meant he was able to secure the most important commissions in the Rome of his day, namely, the various massive embellishment projects of the newly finished St. Within the basilica he was responsible for the Baldacchino, the decoration of the four piers under the cupola, the Cathedra Petri or Chair of St. Peter in the apse, the tomb monument of Matilda of Tuscany, the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the right nave, and the decoration floor, walls and arches of the new nave. The St Peter's Baldacchino immediately became the visual centerpiece of the new St. In the basilica, Bernini also began work on the tomb for Urban VIII, completed only after Urban's death inone in a long, distinguished series of tombs and funerary monuments for which Bernini is famous and a traditional genre upon which his influence left an enduring mark, often copied by subsequent artists. Peter's Basilica, represents, according to Erwin Panofsky, the very pinnacle of European , whose creative inventiveness subsequent artists could not hope to surpass. Despite this engagement with public architecture, Bernini was still able to produce artworks that showed the gradual refinement of his portrait technique. A number of Bernini's sculptures show the continual evolution of his ability to capture the utterly Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque personal characteristics that he saw in his sitters. This included a number of busts of Urban VIII himself, the family bust of Francesco Barberini or most notably, the Two Busts of Scipione Borghese —the second of Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque had been rapidly created by Bernini once a flaw had been found in the marble of the first. To Rudolf Wittkower the "beholder feels that in the twinkle of an eye not only might the expression and attitude change but also the folds of the casually arranged mantle". Portraits in marble include that of Costanza Bonarelli executed aroundunusual in its more personal, intimate nature in fact, it would appear to be the first fully finished marble portrait of a non-aristocratic woman by a major artist in European history. Bernini had an affair with Costanza, who was the wife of one of his assistants. When Bernini then suspected Costanza of involvement with his brother, he badly beat him and ordered a servant to slash her face with a razor. Beginning in the late s, now known in Europe as one of the most accomplished portraitists in marble, Bernini also began to receive royal commissions from outside Rome, for subjects such as of France, Francesco I d'Este the powerful Duke of , Charles I of England and his wife, Queen . The sculpture of Charles I was produced in Rome from a triple portrait oil on canvas executed by Van Dyckthat survives today in the British . The bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of though its design is known through contemporary copies and drawings and that of Henrietta Maria was not undertaken due to the outbreak of the English Civil War. Work by Bernini included the aforementioned Baldacchino and the St . Ineager to finally finish the exterior of St. Peter's, Pope Urban ordered Bernini to design and build the two long-intended bell towers for its facade: the foundations of the two towers had already been designed and constructed namely, the last bays at either extremity of the facade by Carlo Maderno architect of the nave and the facade decades earlier. Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque the first tower was finished incracks began to appear in the facade but, curiously enough, work continued on the second tower and the first storey was completed. Despite the presence of the cracks, work only stopped in July once the papal treasury had been exhausted by the disastrous War of Castro. With the death of Pope Urban and the ascent to power Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque Barberini-enemy inPope Innocent X Pamphilj, Bernini's enemies especially Borromini raised a great alarm over the cracks, predicting a disaster for the whole basilica and placing the blame entirely on Bernini. The subsequent investigations, in fact, revealed the cause of the cracks as Maderno's defective foundations and not Bernini's elaborate design, an exoneration later confirmed by the meticulous investigation conducted in under Pope Innocent XI. Nonetheless, Bernini's opponents in Rome succeeded in seriously damaging the reputation of Urban's artist and in persuading the pope to order in February the complete demolition of both towers, to Bernini's great humiliation and indeed financial detriment. After this, one of the rare failures of his career, Bernini retreated into himself: according to his son, Domenico. Bernini did not entirely lose patronage, not even of the pope. Innocent X maintained Bernini in all of the official roles given to him by Urban. Under Bernini's design and direction, work continued on decorating the massive new but entirely unadorned nave of St. Peter's, with the addition of an elaborate multi-colored marble flooring, marble facing on the walls and pilasters, and scores of stuccoed statues and reliefs. It is not without reason that Pope Alexander VII once quipped, 'if one were to remove from Saint Peter's everything that had been made by the Cavalier Bernini, that temple would be stripped bare. If there had been doubts over Bernini's position as Rome's preeminent artist, the success of the Four Rivers Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque removed them. Bernini continued to receive commissions from and other senior members of Rome's clergy and aristocracy, as well as from exalted patrons outside of Rome, such as Francesco d'Este. In such an environment, Bernini's artistic style flourished. New types of funerary monument were designed, such as the seemingly floating medallion, hovering in Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque air as it were, for the deceased nun Maria Raggiwhile chapels he designed, such as the Raimondi Chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorioillustrated how Bernini could use hidden lighting to help suggest divine intervention within the narratives he was depicting. The Cornaro Chapel showcased Bernini's ability to integrate sculpture, architecture, fresco, stucco, and lighting into "a marvelous whole" bel compostoto use early biographer 's term to describe his approach to architecture and thus create what scholar Irving Lavin has called the "unified work of art". The central focus of the Cornaro Chapel is the ecstasy of the Spanish nun and saint-mystic, Teresa of Avila. On either side of the chapel the artist places in what can only strike the viewer as theater boxesportraits in relief of various members of the Cornaro family — the Venetian family memorialized in the chapel, including Cardinal Federico Cornaro who commissioned the chapel from Bernini — who are in animated conversation among themselves, Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque about the event taking place before them. The result is a complex but subtly orchestrated architectural environment providing the spiritual context a heavenly setting with a hidden source of light that suggests to viewers the ultimate nature of Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque miraculous event. It was an artistic tour de force that incorporates all of the multiple forms of visual art and technique that Bernini had at his disposal, including hidden lighting, Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque gilded beams, recessive architectural space, secret lens, and over twenty diverse types of colored marble: these all combine to create the final artwork—"a perfected, highly dramatic and deeply satisfying seamless ensemble". Upon his accession to the Chair of St Peter, Pope Alexander VII Chigi — began to implement his extremely ambitious plan to transform Rome into a magnificent world capital by means of systematic, bold and costly urban planning. In so doing, he brought to fruition the long, slow recreation of the urban glory of Rome—the "renovatio Romae"—that had begun in the fifteenth century under the Renaissance popes. Alexander immediately commissioned large-scale architectural changes in the city, for example connecting new and existing buildings by opening up streets and piazzas. Bernini's career showed a greater focus on designing buildings and their immediate surroundings during this pontificate, as there were far greater opportunities. Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque creations during this period include the piazza leading to St Peter's. In a Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque broad, unstructured space, he created two massive semi-circular colonnades, each row of which was formed of four white columns. This resulted in an oval shape that formed an inclusive arena within which any gathering of citizens, pilgrims and visitors could witness the appearance of the pope—either Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque he appeared on the loggia on the facade of St Peter's or on balconies on the neighbouring Vatican palaces. Often likened to two arms reaching out from the church to embrace the waiting crowd, Bernini's Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque extended the symbolic greatness of the Vatican area, creating an "exhilarating expanse" that was, architecturally, an "unequivocal success". Elsewhere within the Vatican, Bernini created systematic rearrangements and majestic embellishment of either empty or aesthetically undistinguished space that exist as he designed them to the present day and have become indelible icons of the Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque of the papal precincts. Within the hitherto unadorned apse of the basilica, the Cathedra Petrithe symbolic throne of St Peter, was rearranged as a monumental gilded bronze extravagance that matched the Baldacchino created earlier in the century. Bernini's complete reconstruction of the Scala Regiathe stately papal stairway between St. Peters's and the Vatican Palace, was slightly less ostentatious in appearance but still taxed Bernini's creative powers employing, for example, clever tricks of optical illusion to create a seemingly uniform, totally functional, but nonetheless regally impressive stairway to connect two irregular buildings within an even more irregular space. Not all works during this era were on such a large scale. Indeed, the commission Bernini received to build the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale for the Jesuits was relatively modest in physical size though great in its interior chromatic splendorwhich Bernini executed Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque free of charge. Sant'Andrea shared with the St. Peter's piazza—unlike the complex geometries of his rival —a focus on basic geometric shapes, circles and ovals to create spiritually intense buildings. Sculptural decoration was never eliminated, but its use was more minimal. He also designed the church of Santa Maria dell'Assunzione in the town of with its circular outline, rounded dome and three-arched portico. At the end of AprilBernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque still considered the most important artist in Rome, if indeed not in all of Europe, Bernini was forced by political pressure from both the French court and Pope Alexander VII to travel to Paris to work for King Louis XIV, who required an architect to complete work on the royal palace of the . Bernini would remain in Paris until mid-October. Bernini's popularity was such that on his walks in Paris the streets were lined with admiring crowds. But things soon turned sour. It is often stated in the scholarship on Bernini that his Louvre designs were turned Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque because Louis and his financial advisor Jean-Baptiste Colbert considered them too Italianate or too Baroque in style. The explicit reasons for the rejections were utilitarian, namely, on the level of physical security and comfort e. - Wikipedia

Gian Lorenzo Berniniborn December 7,Naples, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]—died November 28,Rome, Papal StatesItalian artist who was perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 17th century and an outstanding architect as well. Bernini created the Baroque style of sculpture and developed it to such Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque extent that other artists are of only minor importance in a discussion of that style. Bernini is also known for his outstanding architectural works. The young prodigy worked so diligently that he earned the praise of the painter and the patronage of Pope Paul V and soon established himself as a wholly independent sculptor. He was strongly influenced by his close study of the antique Greek and Roman marbles in the Vaticanand he also had an intimate knowledge of High Renaissance painting of the early 16th century. His study of Michelangelo is revealed in the St. Sebastian c. Under his patronage, Bernini carved his first important life-size sculptural groups. In his David —24Bernini depicts the figure casting a stone at an unseen adversary. Several portrait busts that Bernini executed during this period, including that of Robert Cardinal Bellarmine —24show a new awareness of the relationship between head and body and display an ability to depict fleeting facial expressions with acute realism. These marble works show an unparalleled virtuosity in carving that obdurate material to achieve the delicate effects usually found only in bronze sculptures. Article Contents. Home Visual Arts Architecture. Print print Print. Table Of Contents. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback External Websites. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque article requires login. External Websites. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Author of Bernini and others. See Article History. Top Questions. In the Borghese Gallery, Rome. Load Next Page. Gian Lorenzo Bernini | Italian artist | Britannica

The following is a list of works of sculpture, architecture, and painting by the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 18 January Avery, Charles Bernini: Genius of the Baroque. London: Thames and Hudson. The Life of Bernini. The Life of Giano Lorenzo Bernini. Roman . New Haven: Yale University Press. Bernini: His Life and His Rome. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. London: Phaidon Press. Rome: Fratelli Palombi Editori. Gian Lorenzo Bernini works. Alden Weir Rogier van der Weyden. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Height 44 cm Bust of Giovanni Battista Santoni. A Faun Teased by Children. Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York. Height cm 52 in. Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence. . Thyssen-Bornemisza MuseumMadrid. Under life-size. Bust of Giovanni Vigevano. Santa Maria sopra MinervaRome. Height 35 cm 14 in. Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius. Victoria and Albert MuseumLondon. Height cm 72 in. The Rape of Proserpina. . Length cm 67 in. National Museum of RomeRome. Bust of Pope Gregory XV. Art Gallery of OntarioToronto. Height 64 cm 25 in. Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya. Santa Maria di MonserratoRome. Bust of Cardinal Escoubleau de Sourdis. Bust of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmine. Isola di San MicheleVenice. Bust of Alessandro Peretti di Montalto. KunsthalleHamburg. Bust of Carlo Antonio del Pozzo. National Galleries of ScotlandEdinburgh. Height 82 cm 32 in. Self- Portrait as a Young Man. Apollo and Daphne. Height cm 96 in. Bust of Antonio Cepparelli. San Giovanni dei FiorentiniRome. of CanadaOttawa. Saint Bibiana. Peter's Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque. Peter's BasilicaVatican City. Height 20 Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque 66 ftcolumns. Two Angels in Sant'Agostino. Basilica of Sant'AgostinoRome. Bust of Francesco Barberini. National Gallery of ArtWashington, D. Height 80 cm 31 in. Statens Museum for KunstCopenhagen. Height 60 cm 24 in. Saint Andrew and Saint Thomas. . Agostino Valier Pietro Valier. Palazzo dei ConservatoriRome. Self-Portrait as a Mature Man. . Height cm in. Charity with Four Children. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte AnticaRome. Two Busts of Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque Scipione Borghese. Height 78 cm 31 in Height 78 cm 31 in. Fontana del Tritone. Tomb of Countess Matilda of Tuscany. Over life-size. Bust of Costanza Bonarelli. Museo Nazionale del BargelloFlorence. Height 72 cm 28 in. Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque Orsini-OdescalchiBracciano. Santa Maria in AracoeliRome. Bust of Thomas Baker. Portrait of a Boy. Bust of Cardinal Richilieu. Memorial to Alessandro Valtrini. San Lorenzo in DamasoRome. Memorial to Ippolito Merenda. Memorial to Maria Raggi. Life-size portrait. Santa Maria NuovaRome. San Pietro in MontorioRome.