Home > Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Bernini was born in Naples and accompanied his father Pietro Bernini , a well known Mannerist sculptor himself, to Rome. His first works were inspired by Hellenistic sculpture that had been brought to Rome in imperial times. Among these early works are "The Goat Amalthea Nursing the Infant Zeus and a Young Satyr" (redated 1609, Galleria Borghese, Rome) and several allegorical busts such as the Damned Soul and Blessed Soul (ca 1619Events May 13 Dutch statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is executed in The Hague after having been accused of treason. July 30 In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time., Palazzo di Spagna, Rome). In the 1620s he came to maturity with the bust of Pope Paul VPaul V ne Camillo Borghese (Rome, September 17, 1550 January 28, 1621) was Pope from May 16, 1605 until his death. He was born as Camillo Borghese into the noble Borghese family of Siena which had recently fled to Rome, and ROMANUS appears in mostof his i (1620), the "Abduction of Proserpina" ( 1621Events February 9 Gregory XV is elected pope. February 17 Miles Standish is appointed as first commander of Plymouth Colony March 22 The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony sign a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. March 16 Samoset, a Mohegan, visits- 1622Events January 1 In the Gregorian calendar, January 1 is declared as the first day of the year, instead of March 25. February 8 King James I of England disbands the English Parliament. March 22 In the Jamestown massacre, Algonquian Indians kill 347 Englis, Galleria Borghese, Rome), the David (1623 - 24, illustration below left), and Apollo and Daphne (1624-25).

His first architectural project was the magnificent bronze baldachinA baldachin is a canopy over an altar, throne, or doorway, usually to fill the apse. A classical example is Bernini's in St. Peter's Basilica. ( 1624Events The Netherlands establish a trading colony at Kaohsiung on Taiwan. Thirty Walloon families settle in the New Netherland colony. Oslo is destroyed by fire. When rebuilt by Christian IV, it would be renamed Christiania. Claudio Monteverdi publishes T - 1633Events February 13 Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. March 1 Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu. Galileo Galilei is forced to recant his heliocentric views.), the canopyA canopy is an overhead roof or structure that provides shade or other shelter. In ecology, a canopy is the overhead shade and layers of foliage provided by trees and shrubs in forests and woodlands. A canopy may have many layers or may only be a single l over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica [1], and the façade for the church of Santa Bibiana ( 1624- 1626), Rome. 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 tombs of Pope Urban VIII ( 1628- 1647 [2] and, years later, Pope Alexander VII Chigi 1671- 1678 [3]. The Chair of Saint Peter (Cathedra Petri) 1657- 1666), in the apse of St. Peter's [4], is one of his masterpieces.

Among his other best-known sculptures: the " Ecstasy of St Teresa" ( 1645- 1652, in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome), and the earlier commissions of " Apollo and Daphne", and the " David" at the Borghese Gallery.

Bernini depicts David (illustration, right) in motion, in contrast to the famous statue of David by Michelangelo in which the character is preparing for action. The twisted torso and furrowed brow of Bernini's "David" is symptomatic of the baroque's interest in dynamic movement over High Renaissance stasis. Michelangelo expresses David's whole heroic nature; Bernini captures the heroic moment. The white marble sculpture, which brought Bernini his first fame, was commissioned from the twenty-five year old Bernini by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, his great patron.

Bernini's architecture is as famous as his sculpture: Besides his most famous work, the piazza and colonnades of St Peter's he planned several famous palaces: Palazzo Barberini (from 1630); Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio, 1650); and Palazzo Chigi ( 1664), all in Rome. In 1665, at the height of his fame and powers, he made a voyage to Paris to present Louis XIV with (rejected) designs for the east front of the Louvre; it was executed in more classicising taste by Claude Perrault).

And he designed some famous churches, though the facade of St Peter's is not his (see Carlo Maderno ). One of the small baroque churches in Rome presents an ensemble of Bernini's work: Bernini was responsible not only for the architecture at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale but also the enormous statue of St. Andrew the Apostle over the high altar. In papal villages near Rome, Bernine desined churches for Castel Gandolfo and in Ariccia .

The first of Bernini's fountains was the Fountain of the triton (1640). His most famous fountain, the spectacular Fountain of the Four Rivers (Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi) ( 1648- 1651) [5] in the Piazza Navona, Rome, is also a source of anecdotes about his rivalry with Francesco Borromini (whose Sant'Agnese in Agone church faces the fountain): one of the Bernini's river gods, it was said, cowers in terror at the unsteady-looking facade of Sant'Agnese.

Also to remember: portrait busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese [6] ( 1632, Galleria Borghese) and Louis XIV ( 1665, Chateau of Versailles).

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 Bernini was the aribiter of public taste in Rome. He died in Rome in 1680.

Bernini's works are featured in Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons as markers and Altars of Science .