Gian Lorenzo Bernini

birth 7 Dec. 1598, Napoli (Italy)death 28 Nov. 1680, Rome (Italy)

Italian architect, sculptor and painter

Early lifeGiovanni Lorenzo Bernini (December 7, 1598 – November 28, 1680) was a pre-eminent Baroque sculptor and architect of 17th Century Rome.

Bernini was born in Naples to a Mannerist sculptor, Pietro Bernini, originally from Florence. At the age of seven he accompanied his father to Rome, where his father was involved in several high profile projects. There as a boy, his skill was soon noticed by the painter Annibale Carracci and by Pope Paul V, and Bernini gained the patronage exclusively under Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the pope's nephew. His first works were inspired by antique Hellenistic sculpture.

Rise to master sculptor• Under the patronage of the Cardinal Borghese, young Bernini rapidly

rose to prominence as a sculptor. Among the early works for the cardinal were decorative pieces for the garden 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 age of twenty-two years, he 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 Ascanius (1619)- The Rape of Proserpina, (1621-22)- Apollo and Daphne (1622-25) - David (1623-24)

The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter

and a Faun(1615)

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.

Damned Soul(1619)

Blessed Soul(1619)

Bust of Pope Paul V(c. 1617)

Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius(1618-19)

white marbleheight 86 5/8" (220 cm)Galleria Borghese, Rome

The group sculpture represents Aeneas fleeing from the burning city of Troy bearing his elderly father Anchises on his shoulders, and his son Ascanius carrying the sacred fire of the hearth, while Anchises holds the penates family household gods. The twenty-one-year old Bernini, still influenced by his father Pietro's late 16th century tower-shaped compositions, executed this group around 1618 and 1620, though many experts believe that this is mainly his father's work.

The Rape of Proserpina(1621-22)

It depicts Proserpina being seized and taken to the underworld by Pluto.The twisted contrapposto or figura serpentinata pose is reminiscent of Mannerism, and allows the simultaneous depiction of the abduction (as seen from the left, with Pluto striding to grasp her), the arrival in the underworld (as seen from the front, he appears triumphantly bearing his trophy in his arms) and her prayer to her mother Ceres to return to the real world 6 months a year (as seen from the right one, with Proserpina's tears, the wind blowing her hair, and Cerberus barking). Pushing against Pluto's face Proserpina's hand creases his skin, while his fingers sink into the flesh of his victim. Proserpina’s lips are slightly opened, as if she were screaming and begging for help. Upon closer examination, one would notice the delicately crafted marble tears that look as though they are literally dripping down her face.

Bernini's principal patron Scipione Borghese funded it but then gave it to Cardinal Ludovisi in 1622, who took it to his villa. It remained there until 1908, when the Italian state purchased it and returned it to the Galleria Borghese.

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 Ovid'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 virginity, who, in addition, had been struck by Eros with a lead arrow which immunized her from 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 beauty 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.

Apollo and Daphne (1622-25)

David (1623-24)

Life-size marble sculpture (170 cm)

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. It was completed in the course of seven months from 1623 to 1624.

The subject of the work is the biblical David, about to throw the stone that will bring down Goliath, which will allow David to behead him. Relating to earlier works on the same theme, it is also revolutionary in its implied movement and its psychological depth.

Mature sculptural outputBernini'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 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.

Ecstasy of Saint Theresa(1647-52)

Central marble group of a sculpture complex in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. It is one of the sculptural masterpieces of High Roman Baroque.

Equestrian Statue of Constantine

(1670)

In 1669 Pope Clement IX was succeeded by Clement CostantinoX Altieri. During his pontificate the Scala Regia (Royal Staircase) was inaugurated; at the foot of the staircase is a statue of Constantine, in the moment he had the vision of the Cross: he is marvelled and surprised and his feelings are mirrored and expanded by the position of the horse he is riding. In the background fabric blown by the wind gives spatial depth to the whole picture.

Scala Regia, Vatican City(1663-66)

A flight of steps in the Vatican City which 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. Peter's Basilica, and restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1663 to 1666.

The site for the stairs, a comparatively narrow slither of land between church and palace, is awkwardly shaped with irregular converging walls. Bernini used a number of typically theatrical, baroque effects in order to exalt this entry point into Vatican. The staircase proper takes the form of a barrel-vaulted colonnade that necessarily becomes narrower at the end of the vista, exaggerating the distance. Above the arch at the beginning of this vista is the coat of arms of Alexander VII, flanked by two sculpted angels.

Finally at the base of the stairs, he placed his equestrian statue of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.

Pope Clement IX later installed a sculpture of Charlemagne in the opposite portico of St. Peter's Basilica as a pendant to that of Constantine.

Angel(1667)

Angel made with son Paolo, originally destined for the Ponte Sant’Angelo, but now in church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in Rome.

Paris, 1665

At the end of April 1665, at the height of his fame and powers, he traveled to Paris, remaining there until November. 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 reply to the repeated requests for his works by King Louis XIV. Here Bernini presented some (ultimately rejected) designs for the east front of the Louvre; his adventurous concave-convex facades were discarded in favor of the more stern and classic proposals of native Claude Perrault. Bernini soon lost favor at the French court, for he praised the art and architecture of Italy at the expense of 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.

Bust of Louis XIV(1665)

ArchitectureBernini's architectural conceits include the piazza and colonnades of St Peter's. He planned several Roman palaces: Palazzo Barberini (from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini); Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio); and Palazzo Chigi.

Bernini's first architectural project was the magnificent bronze St. Peter's baldachin (1624-1633), the canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica, and the façade for the church of Santa Bibiana (1624). In 1629, before the Baldacchino was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. He was given the commission for the Basilica's tomb of the Barberini Pope. However, due to political reasons and miscalculations in the design of bell-towers for St. Peter's, Bernini fell generally out of favor during the Pamphili papacy of Innocent X. Never wholly without patronage, Bernini again regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his design of the colonnade and piazza in front of St. Peter's. The Scala Regia entrance to the Vatican and the Chair of Saint Peter (Cathedra Petri), in the apse of St. Peter's, are also some of his masterpieces.

Bernini did not build many churches from scratch, preferring instead to concentrate on the embellishment of pre-existing structures. He fulfilled three commissions in the field; his stature allowed him the freedom to design the structure and decorate the interiors in coherent designs. Best known is the small oval baroque church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale which includes the statue of St. Andrew the Apostle soaring high above the aedicule framing the high altar. Bernini also designed churches in Castel Gandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova) and Ariccia (Santa Maria Assunta).

Bernini was also hired by Louis XIV from June to November 1665 to build the colonnade of the Louvre in Paris (where he met Paul Fréart de Chantelou, who kept a Journal of the meeting), but was ultimately turned down in favor of French architect Claude Perrault, signalling the waning influence of Italian art in France. Perrault's final design did, however, include Bernini's feature of a flat roof behind a Palladian balustrade.

Piazza and Colonnades of St Peter'sRome

(1656-67)

Palazzo BarberiniRome

1625-33 (Bernini, from 1630)

Palazzo Montecitorio,formerly Palazzo Ludovisi

Rome (1650-55)

Palazzo ChigiRome

(1664-72)

St. Peter's Baldachin St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome

(1624-1633)bronze

Tomb of Pope Urban VIIISt. Peter’s Basilica, Rome

(1627-47)

Cathedra Petri St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome

(1657-66)

Sant'Andrea al QuirinaleRome

(1658-71)

Church of San Tommaso da VillanovaCastel Gandolfo

(1658-61)

Church of Santa Maria AssuntaAriccia

(1663-65)

Fountains in Rome

True to the decorative dynamism of Baroque, Roman fountains, part public works and part Papal monuments, were among his most gifted creations. Bernini's fountains are the Fountain of the Triton and the Barberini Fountain (Fontana delle api). The Fountain of the Four Rivers (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.

Public fountains in Rome served multiple purposes: first, they were highly needed sources of water for neighbors in the centuries prior to home plumbing. Second, they were monuments to the papal patrons.

Triton FountainPzza. Barberini, Rome

(1642–43)

Bernini's baroque Triton Fountain (Italian Fontana del Tritone) is located in Piazza Barberini, Rome, near the entrance to the Palazzo Barberini (now housing the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica), which Bernini helped redesign for his patron Maffeo Barberini, who had become pope as Urban VIII. It is a few blocks from Borromini's San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. In the fountain, which Bernini executed of travertine in 1642–43, an over-lifesize muscular Triton, a minor sea god of ancient Greco-Roman legend, is depicted as a merman kneeling on an opened scallop shell. He throws back his head to raise a conch to his lips: from it a jet of water spurts, formerly rising dramatically higher than it does today. The fountain has a base of four dolphins that entwine the papal tiara with crossed keys and the heraldic Barberini bees in their scaly tails. The Tritone, first of Bernini's fountains, was erected to provide water from the Acqua Felice aqueduct, which Urban had restored, in a dramatic celebration. It was Bernini's last major commission from his great patron, who died in 1644.

At the Triton Fountain, Urban and Bernini brought a garden feature familiar from villas decisively to a public, wholly urban setting for the first time. All the previous fountains of Rome had been passive basins for the reception of public water or had garden settings in the suburban villas.

Fountain of the Four RiversPiazza Navona, Rome

(1651)

• The Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi ("Fountain of the Four Rivers") is a fountain in Rome, Italy, located in the Piazza Navona. It is a masterpiece of Gianlorenzo Bernini's, and emblematic of the dynamic and dramatic effects sought by high Baroque artists. It was erected in 1651 in front of the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone, and yards from the Pamphilj Palace belonging to this fountain's patron, Innocent X (1644-1655). It was built at the base of the Obelisk of DomitianBernini's design was selected in competition.

• This fountain means to depict allegories for the four great rivers in the four continents recognized by the Renaissance geographers: the Nile in Africa, Ganges in Asia, Danube in Europe, and Río de la Plata in America. Each has animals and plants that further carry forth the identification, and each carries a certain number of allegories and metaphors with it.

Barberini Fountain(Fontana delle api)

Pzza Barberini, Rome(1644)

The Fontana delle Api, or Fountain of the Bees, is a fountain located in the Piazza Barberini in Rome where the piazza meets Via Sistina. The sculptor Bernini completed the fountain in April 1644. It consists of a marble bi-valve shell with three bees of the same material resting on it. The fountain was intended to be a watering trough for horses. An inscription on the shell reads "Urban VIII Pont. Max., having built a fountain for the public ornamentation of the City, also built this little fountain to be of service to private citizens. In the year 1644, XXI of his pontificate." The "public ornamentation" referred to in the inscription is the Triton Fountain, or Fontana Del Tritone, which Bernini had completed the year before.

Marble portraitureBernini also revolutionized marble busts, lending glamorous dynamism to once 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. The portrait of his alleged mistress, Costanza Bonarelli, does not portray divinity or royalty; but a woman in a moment of disheveled privacy, captured in conversation or surprise.

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.

Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya

Santa Maria di Monserrato, Rome

(c. 1621)

marble life-size

Bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese

(1632)

marbleheight 78 cmGalleria Borghese, Rome

Bust of Costanza Bonarelli(c. 1635)

marbleheight 72 cm

Bust of Cardinal RichelieuLouvre Museum, Paris

(1641)

white marbleheight 83 cm

Bust of Francesco I d'EsteGalleria Estense, Modena

(1650-51)

marble height 107 cm

Bust of Charles I of Englandc. 1675

copy

lead (original in marble)height 66 cm

This important piece is one of only three versions known to be in existence, taken from a marble bust by Gianlorenzo Bernini which was destroyed in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698. Although the sculptor of this bust is undetermined, one suggested possibility is John Bushnell (1636-1701) who trained in Italy before returning to England in 1668/69, and in 1671 created a statue of Charles I in Purbeck stone, which is also thought to be based on Bernini's bust.

Other worksAnother of Bernini's sculptures is known affectionately as Bernini's Chick by the Roman people. It is located in the Piazza della Minerva, in front of the church Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted an ancient Egyptian obelisk to be erected in the piazza and commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk. The sculpture of an elephant was finally created in 1667 by one of Bernini's students, Ercole Ferrata. One of the most interesting features of this elephant is its 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. Bernini sculpted the animal 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 artisan friends, as a final salute and last word.

Bernini worked along with Ercole Ferrata to created a much admired fountain for the Lisbon Palace of the Portuguese nobleman 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, great Library and rich art collection of the Counts of Ericeira were destroyed along most of central Lisbon due to the great earthquake of 1755.

The death of his constant patron Urban VIII in 1644 released a horde of Bernini's rivals and marked a change in his career, but Innocent X set him back to work on the extended nave of St Peter's and commissioned the Four Rivers fountain in Piazza Navona. At the time of Innocent's death in 1655 Bernini was the aribiter of public taste in Rome. 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, and Francois Duquesnoy. Among his rivals in architecture was Francesco Borromini; in sculpture, Alessandro Algardi.

Two years after his death, Queen Christina of Sweden, then living in Rome, commissioned Filippo Baldinucci to write his biography, (translated in 1996 as The life of Bernini).

Selected worksSculpture * Bust of Giovanni Battista Santoni (c. 1612) - Marble, life-size, Santa Prassede, Rome * Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (1614-1615) - Marble, 66 x 108 cm, Contini Bonacossi

Collection, Florence * The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun (1615) - Marble, Galleria

Borghese, Rome * St. Sebastian (c. 1617) - Marble, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid * A Faun Teased by Children (1616-1617) - Marble, height 132,1 cm, Metropolitan

Museum of Art, New York * Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1618-1619) - Marble, height 220 cm, Galleria

Borghese, Rome * Damned Soul (1619) - Palazzo di Spagna, Rome * Blessed Soul (1619) - Palazzo di Spagna, Rome * Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) - Marble, height 243 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome * St. Peter's Baldachin (1624) - Bronze, partly gilt, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City * Charity with Four Children (1627-1628) - Terracotta, height 39 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei

Vaticani, Vatican * David (1623-1624) - Marble, height 170 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome * Fontana della Barcaccia (1627-1628) - Marble, Piazza di Spagna, Rome * Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya (c. 1621) - Marble, life-size, Santa Maria di

Monserrato, Rome * Neptune and Triton (1620) - Marble, height 182,2 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum,

London * The Rape of Proserpina (1621-1622) - Marble, height 295 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome

* Fontana del Tritone (1624-1643) - Travertine, over life-size, Piazza Barberini, Rome * Tomb of Pope Urban VIII (1627-1647) - Golden bronze and marble, figures larger than

life-size, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City * Bust of Thomas Baker (1638) - Marble, height 81,6 cm, Victoria and Albert Museum,

London * Bust of Costanza Bonarelli (c. 1635) - Marble, height 70 cm, Museo Nazionale del

Bargello, Florence * Charity with Two Children (1634) - Terracotta, height 41.6 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei

Vaticani, Vatican City * Saint Longinus (1631-1638) - Marble, height 450 cm, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City * Bust of Scipione Borghese (1632) - Marble, height 78 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome * Bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1632) - Marble, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican

City * Bust of Pope Urban VIII (1632-1633) - Bronze, height 100 cm, Museo Sacro, Musei

Vaticani, Vatican City * Bust of Cardinal Armand de Richelieu (1640-1641) - Marble, Musée du Louvre, Paris * Memorial to Maria Raggi (1643) - Gilt bronze and coloured marble, Santa Maria sopra

Minerva, Rome * Truth (1645-1652) - Marble, height 280 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome * Bust of Pope Leo X (1647) Palazzo Doria Pamphilij, Rome * Ecstasy of St Theresa (1647-1652) - Marble, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della

Vittoria, Rome * Loggia of the Founders (1647-1652) Marble, Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della

Vittoria, Rome * Bust of Urban VIII - Marble, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City

* Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (1648-1651) - Travertine and marble, Piazza Navona, Rome * Corpus (sculpture) (1650) - Bronze, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. * Daniel and the Lion (1650) - Marble, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome * Francesco I d'Este (1650-1651) - Marble, height 107 cm, Galleria Estense, Modena * Fountain of the Moor (1653-1654) - Marble, Piazza Navona, 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 Pietro, Vatican City * Throne of Saint Peter (1657-1666) - Marble, bronze, white and golden stucco, Basilica

di San Pietro, Rome * Statue of Saint Augustine (1657-1666) - Bronze, Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City * Constantine (1663-1670) - Marble with painted stucco drapery, Scala Regia, Vatican

Palace, Rome * Standing Angel with Scroll (1667-1668) - Clay, terracotta, height: 29,2 cm, Fogg Art

Museum, Cambridge * Angel with the Crown of Thorns (1667-1669) - Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle

Fratte, Rome * Angel with the Superscription (1667-1669) - Marble, over life-size, Sant'Andrea delle

Fratte, Rome * Elephant of Minerva (1667-1669) - Marble, Piazza di Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome * Bust of Gabriele Fonseca (1668-1675) - Marble, over life-size, San Lorenzo in Lucina,

Rome

* Equestrian Statue of King Louis XIV (1669-1670) - Terracotta, height 76 cm, Galleria

Borghese, Rome * Bust of Louis XIV (1665) - Marble, height 80 cm, Musée National de Versailles, Versailles * Herm of St. Stephen, King of Hungary - Bronze, Cathedral Treasury, Zagreb * Saint Jerome (1661-1663) - Marble, height 180 cm, Cappella Chigi, Duomo, Siena * Tomb of Pope Alexander VII (1671-1678) - Marble and gilded bronze, over life-size,

Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican City * Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1671-1674) - Marble, Cappella Altieri-Albertoni, San

Francesco a Ripa, 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, Pietro, 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, London

* Portrait of a Boy (c. 1638) - Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome * Self-Portrait as a Young Man (c. 1623) - Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome * Self-Portrait as a Mature Man (1630-1635) - Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome

Bernini is portrayed as a high ranking member of the secret organization Illuminati.

Sources:

• www.wikipedia.org• www.storiadellarte.com