Brief%20biography

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Brief biography

• The baroque sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo
  Bernini was born in 1598 in Naples, son of the
  Tuscan sculptor Pietro Bernini. In 1605 the
  family moved to Rome. As a boy, Gian Lorenzo
  worked as assistant to his less talented father.
• Bernini's first patron was the nephew of Pope
  Paul V, Cardinal Scipio Borghese, for whom he
  executed the four famous sculpture groups in the
  Borghese Gallery David, Aeneas with Anchises and
  Ascanius, Apollo and Daphne, and the Rape of
  Proserpina. Subsequently he worked for Pope Urban
  VIII (Maffeo Barberini), designing and executing
  the bronze canopy over the high altar of St.
  Peter's.
• In 1644 Urban VIII was succeeded by Innocence X
  (Pamphilij) and for a time Bernini fell out of
  favor. During this period the sculptor began to
  work on the group "Time uncovers Truth", now in
  the Borghese Gallery, (presumably a reference to
  his own position), and obtained some private
  commissions. But with his design for the Fountain
  of the Rivers in Piazza Navona, he regained papal
  patronage, and from then on he worked chiefly for
  the Vatican. The cathedra in the apse of St.
  Peter's and the layout of the square in front of
  the basilica date from this period.

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Baroque

• The period in art history from about 1600 to
  about 1750. In this sense the term covers a wide
  range of styles and artists. In painting and
  sculpture there were three main forms of Baroque
  (1) sumptuous display, a style associated with
  the Catholic Counter Reformation and the
  absolutist courts of Europe (Bernini, Rubens)
  (2) dramatic realism (Caravaggio) and (3)
  everyday realism, a development seen in
  particular in Holland (Rembrandt, Vermeer). In
  architecture, there was an emphasis on
  expressiveness and grandeur, achieved through
  scale, the dramatic use of light and shadow, and
  increasingly elaborate decoration. In a more
  limited sense the term Baroque often refers to
  the first of these categories.

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Fontana del Tritone Travertine, over
life-sizePiazza Barberini, Rome1624-43

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Fontana del Tritone

• Saint Peter's throne is the last of Bernini's
  large monuments designed for the San Pietro. This
  completes and crowns his forty years long work in
  the decoration of the interior of the main church
  of the Roman Catholics. The throne symbolizes the
  power of the Pope. Bernini created an optical and
  artistic unity of the throne and the baldachin
  erected above the tomb of Saint Peter. The light
  coming from a natural source (the window of the
  apsis) is part of the composition, similarly than
  in two other great Bernini compositions, in the
  Saint Therese group, and in the tomb Ludovica
  Albertoni.
• This composition became the prototype of the
  Baroque glories to be found in large numbers in
  European churches.

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Fountain of the Four Rivers1648-51Travertine
and marblePiazza Navona, Rome
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The Fountain of the Four Rivers

• This fountain was executed by a large group of
  coworkers under the supervision of Bernini. It is
  debated whether he sculpted personally the rocks,
  the palmtree, the lion and the horse, but it is
  generally accepted that his contribution was
  limited to the final phase of the work. From the
  remaining sketches it is unambigous that the idea
  and design are Bernini's. This composition
  preceded and prepared the great composition of
  Saint Peter's throne in the San Pietro.
• The fountain represents the four continents and
  their rivers, the obelisk in the center is the
  symbol of Christ and the triumphing Roman
  Catholic Church over the whole world. The figure
  of Nile, sculpted by Jacopo Antonio Fancelli,
  represents Africa the Danube, by Antonio Raggi,
  Europe the Ganges, by Claude Poussin, Asia and
  the Plate, by Francesco Baratta, the Americas,
  discovered a century and a half earlier.

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The Ecstasy of Saint Therese1647-52Marble,
height 350 cmCappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della
Vittoria, Rome
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The Ecstasy of Saint Therese

• Bernini tackles a theme, as old as the tradition
  of images the female principal transmuted by the
  action of the male principal. The two figures are
  situated in space with a subtle displacement of
  their bodies. Almost indescribable is the gesture
  of the angel-satyr, shown as he draws the dart
  from the female body, caught in momentary
  abeyance before it falls back. The figures are
  brought to life before our eyes. The centre of
  gravity of the complex mass of marble is
  shifting the saint is sinking down (her symbolic
  foot emerging), and the young satyr moves into
  the forefront. The focal point of the whole is in
  that flame-tipped arrow so vividly described by
  St Teresa of Avila in her spiritual
  autobiography.

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The Throne of Saint Peter1657-66Marble, bronze,
white and golden stuccoSan Pietro, Rome
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The Throne of Saint Peter

• Saint Peter's throne is the last of Bernini's
  large monuments designed for the San Pietro. This
  completes and crowns his forty years long work in
  the decoration of the interior of the main church
  of the Roman Catholics. The throne symbolizes the
  power of the Pope. Bernini created an optical and
  artistic unity of the throne and the baldachin
  erected above the tomb of Saint Peter. The light
  coming from a natural source (the window of the
  apsis) is part of the composition, similarly than
  in two other great Bernini compositions, in the
  Saint Therese group, and in the tomb Ludovica
  Albertoni.
• This composition became the prototype of the
  Baroque glories to be found in large numbers in
  European churches.

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Tomb of Pope Alexander (Chigi) VII1671-78Marble
and gilded bronze, over life-sizeBasilica di San
Pietro, Vatican
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Tomb of Pope Alexander (Chigi) VII

• This is the second monumental papal tomb in the
  San Pietro made by Bernini. It was commissioned
  by the Pope and executed after his death in 1667
  by a large group of sculptors headed by Bernini.
• The composition is similar to that of the other
  (Urban VIII) tomb, however, there some
  differences. In contrast with the dominant figure
  of the Pope on the Urban tomb, the Pope here is a
  simple kneeling figure without any sign of his
  office. Instead of two there are four allegoric
  figures, Charity, Prudence, Justice and Truth.
  Below, there is a (real) door symbolizing the
  Gate of Death, from which a sand-glass holding
  skeleton (the Death) raises the heavy drapery.

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Tomb of Pope Urban VIII (Basilica di San Pietro,
Vatican) Golden bronze and marble, figures larger
than life-size (1627-47)
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Trip to France

• Bernini went to Paris in 1665, in what was his
  only prolonged absence from Rome. The trip was
  made in response to invitations that for many
  years had been extended to him by King Louis XIV,
  and the purpose was the design of a new French
  royal residence. By this time, Bernini was so
  famous that crowds lined the streets of each city
  along the route to watch him pass. His initial
  reception in Paris was equally triumphant, but he
  soon offended his sensitive hosts by imperiously
  praising the art and architecture of Italy at the
  expense of that of France. His statements made
  him unpopular at the French court and were to
  some degree responsible for the rejection of his
  designs for the Louvre. The only relic of
  Bernini's visit to France is his great bust of
  Louis XIV, a linear, vertical, and stable
  portrait, in which the Sun King gazes out with
  godlike authority. The image set a standard for
  royal portraits that lasted 100 years.

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Epilogue

• Bernini died at the age of 81, after having
  served eight popes, and when he died he was
  widely considered not only Europe's greatest
  artist but also one of its greatest men. He was
  the last of Italy's remarkable series of
  universal geniuses, and the Baroque style he
  helped create was the last Italian style to
  become an international standard. His death
  marked the end of Italy's artistic hegemony in
  Europe. The style he evolved was carried on for
  two more generations in various parts of Europe
  by the architects Mattia de' Rossi and Carlo
  Fontana in Rome, J.B. Fischer von Erlach in
  Austria, and the brothers Cosmas and Egid Quirin
  Asam in Bavaria, among others.