Gian Lorenzo Bernini

"Bernini" redirects here. For the fashion company, see Bernini (fashion). For other people named Bernini,
see Bernini (surname). Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian pronunciation: [dan lorntso bernini];
also Gianlorenzo or Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor
and architect.[1] While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was the leading sculptor of his age,
credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture.[2] As one scholar has commented,
"What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose
name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was
inordinately powerful...."[3] In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the
theater: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), also designing stage sets and
theatrical machinery, as well as a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors,
and even coaches. As architect and city planner, he designed both secular buildings and churches and
chapels, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public
fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for
funerals and festivals.
Bernini possessed the ability to depict dramatic narratives with characters showing intense psychological
states, but also to organize large-scale sculptural works that convey a magnificent grandeur.[4] His skill in
manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo, far
outshining other sculptors of his generation, including his rivals, Franois Duquesnoy and Alessandro
Algardi. 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 art historian Irving Lavin the "unity of the visual arts". [5] In
addition, a deeply religious man (at least later in life),[6] working in Counter Reformation Rome, Bernini
used light both as an important theatrical and metaphorical device in his religious settings, often using
hidden light sources that could intensify the focus of religious worship [7] 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, following his death, under Bernini. Later on, however, they were in competition for
commissions, and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and Borromini. [8][9] Despite the
arguably greater architectural inventiveness of Borromini and Cortona, Bernini's artistic pre-eminence,
particularly during the reigns of popes Urban VIII (162344) and Alexander VII (165565), meant he was
able to secure the most important commissions in the Rome of his day, the various massive
embellishment projects of the newly finished St. Peter's Basilica, completed under Pope Paul V with the
addition of Maderno's nave and facade and finally re-consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on 18 November
1626, after 150 years of planning and building. Bernini's design of the Piazza San Pietro in front of the
Basilica is one of his most innovative and successful architectural designs. Within the basilica he is also
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 chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the right nave, and the
decoration (floor, walls and arches) of the new nave.
During his long career, Bernini received numerous important commissions, many of which were
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, "It 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."[10] 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 favor 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. The art historian Howard Hibbard concludes that, during
the seventeenth century, "there were no sculptors or architects comparable to Bernini". [11]