Is Giani Bernini A Luxury Brand? 126 Most Correct Answers

Long before he became the most celebrated artist of the 17th-century Baroque movement, 13-year-old Gian Lorenzo Bernini stunned Italy when he created a bust of surgeon Antonio Coppola. It was among Bernini’s earliest psychologically penetrating busts – and if you believe the artist’s own words, it was hardly the first he made. He claimed to have first attempted to create “talking resemblances” when he was eight, but there’s good reason to doubt that – Bernini was quite the fabulist. Whatever the case, audiences were stunned by the Coppola sculpture.

In the decades that followed, Bernini proved again and again that he was a master sculptor. Working at a time when painting was still the premier artistic medium, Bernini proved his skill at bringing bronze and marble to life. His skill made him a favorite of the Roman elite and the creations he produced for them have stood the test of time and are among the most important works of art to be seen in the city.

Below is a look at five of Bernini’s most famous works.

If you love designer fashion, you must know these luxury handbag brands.

After all, purses aren’t just any accessory, they can just be the accessory.

Whether you’re looking for an investment or just browsing the market for stylish bags to add to your collection, this list of the best designer handbags has you covered.

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton is arguably one of the most famous and recognized luxury handbag brands. And they produce so much more than just fashion accessories.

What you may not know is that Louis Vuitton got its start in 1854. But it wasn’t handbags that catapulted the French luxury fashion house to stardom; it was their making of suitcases.

Back then, most travelers used suitcases with rounded tops, which also meant you couldn’t stack them on top of each other. So Vuitton created a lightweight flat-top suitcase that quickly gained popularity.

The French fashion house today produces a range of luxury goods including designer handbags, ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories.

Iconic Louis Vuitton bags

Louis Vuitton still produces some of the finest designer bags today. The Louis Vuitton Neverfull is one of the brand’s most popular bags. And yes, it seems like everyone has one! This super lightweight tote bag is available in a variety of colors and prints in three sizes.

If tote bags aren’t your thing, consider the Speedy bag, another of Louis Vuitton’s most iconic handbags.

RELATED: The best Louis Vuitton Neverfull alternatives

Christian Dior

Christian Dior, or simply Dior, was founded by Christian Dior in 1946. The brand is steeped in history and has been known for its luxurious and feminine designs ever since.

Dior first rose to prominence with the “New Look” collection, which was first launched in February 1947. It was a defining moment that redefined post-war women’s fashion and invited women to embrace luxury, femininity and elegance after years of war attire.

Iconic bags by Christian Dior

The Lady Dior is probably Dior’s most famous handbag. Princess Diana popularized the bag as it was rumored to be her favorite. It first appeared in 1995 and remains iconic.

Another popular Dior handbag that is easily recognizable is the Dior saddlebags, which have recently come back into fashion

chanels

The iconic Chanel logo, consisting of the interlocking Cs (designed by Coco Chanel herself in 1925) and quilted leather, make Chanel handbags some of the most recognizable in the world.

Founded in 1909 by Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, the French designer created a brand associated with elegance and sophistication, and her trademark is the iconic quilting pattern on her handbag designs.

Coco Chanel was a true innovator and her designs have stood the test of time. The luxurious materials and attention to detail set the brand apart from the competition. Chanel is also one of the more expensive handbag brands and is a popular choice for those looking for an investment piece.

Iconic Chanel bags

The Chanel 2.55 Classic Flap Bag is the most iconic Chanel bag designed by Coco Chanel herself. The 2.55 is named for its February 1955 release date.

These days, it comes in many unique designs and material combinations, so finding one that suits your style shouldn’t be too hard!

prada

One of the most recognizable fashion brands in the world (thanks to the movie The Devil Wears Prada starring Meryl Streep), Prada needs no introduction.

Founded in 1913 by brothers Mario and Martino Prada, the brand began as a leather goods company. However, Prada only started producing women’s clothing and accessories in the late 80’s and soon became its main focus.

Prada is best known for its portability, functionality and durability. Crafted from saffiano leather and nylon, Prada bags often feature simple, clean shapes that will last a lifetime.

Iconic Prada bags

The Galleria bag is Prada’s most iconic bag. It is a structured zip-top bag with round handles and gold-tone hardware. Its shape is reminiscent of the medicine bags popular in the 1950s and makes it an instant classic. The Galleria is available in three sizes.

The Prada Nylon Bag from 2005 is also a well-known luxury handbag that quickly gained cult status. It has been relaunched and is back in fashion.

Gucci

Founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Italy, Gucci has been synonymous with high-end luxury fashion ever since. Gucci is also known for its creative advertising campaigns, which often feature some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

Even today, Gucci is one of the most coveted fashion brands and its handbags are among the most coveted in the world.

Iconic Gucci bags

Named after Jackie Kennedy, the Jackie is one of Gucci’s most recognizable bags and features a curved crescent shape and buckle closure. The newly updated version includes a detachable leather shoulder strap, giving you the option of wearing it as a crossbody bag. It’s also available in a variety of colors and fabrics, from light pastels to winter corduroy.

Another of the most popular styles is the Dionysus bag, easily recognizable due to its distinctive tiger head closure and elegant chain strap details.

Hermes

Hèrmes was founded by Thierry Hèrmes in 1837 and is known for its high-quality leather goods. But did you know that Hermes was originally a harness workshop, making wrought iron harnesses and bridles for the horse-drawn carriage trade?

The first Hèrmes leather bag was made in 1900 to allow riders to carry saddles. The brand introduced the first handbags for women when Thierry Hèrmes’ grandson created a smaller version of the original saddlebag for his wife when she complained that she couldn’t find a handbag to her liking.

The uniqueness of Hèrmes as a brand lies in its focus on craftsmanship and quality. Most of the brand’s bags are sewn by hand.

Because of its focus on quality and craftsmanship, Hermes has a reputation for being one of the most exclusive and expensive luxury brands in fashion.

Iconic Hermes bags

Hermes handbags are among the most iconic in the world. The most famous handbags include the Hermes Birkin and the Hermes Kelly Bag, named after Jane Birkin and Grace Kelly respectively. These bags are status symbols with hefty price tags easily fetching over $10,000 for each bag. The exotic skins used and limited availability make these luxury wallets rare and expensive to purchase.

Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta was founded by Italian entrepreneurs Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro. The name means “Venetian shop” in Italian and is not the name of a founder as many might think!

Bottega Veneta is known for his signature leather weaving technique, called intrecciato, and for his use of colour, shades such as purple, green and red are often used in his collections. The bright colors paired with the intrecciato weave make for a visually stunning range of handbags of superb craftsmanship.

Iconic bags by Bottega Veneta

Simplicity defines one of Bottega Veneta’s most iconic handbags, the Cabat Tote. This simple, square, unlined tote is woven with the brand’s signature intrecciato pattern, resulting in a seamless bag. Each bag is handwoven and takes about two days to make. Its understated style makes it perfect for everyday use or a work bag.

Alexander McQueen

The youngest brand on this list, Alexander McQueen, was founded in 1992 by designer Alexander McQueen. The brand is known for its daring and unique designs, which often push the boundaries of traditional fashion.

An iconic feature of Alexander McQueen handbags is their bold and eye-catching designs. Additionally, many of the brand’s bags are adorned with intricate details and unique embellishments, often featuring the brand’s signature skull embellishment.

Alexander McQueen has become a favorite among celebrities and fashionistas around the world, and her handbags are often seen on the red carpet.

Iconic Alexander McQueen bags

Featured on the arms of celebrities such as Gwen Stefani, Zoe Saldana and Kate Beckinsale, the Heroine bag is one of Alexander McQueen’s most iconic bags. It’s a structured bag with a roomy interior, perfect for everyday use or as a work bag. The Heroine bag is available in neutral leather tones and bold prints and colors.

Saint Laurent

The Yves Saint Laurent brand, now just Saint Laurent, was founded in 1961 by the eponymous designer, who was only 21 years old. Saint Laurent quickly established himself as the master of French couture with its unique and innovative designs.

Saint Laurent is still considered one of the most renowned designer brands in the world today. Saint Laurent focuses on classic and modern styles that appeal to a wide range of women.

Iconic Saint Laurent bags

The Saint Laurent Loulou line is one of the brand’s most recognizable designs, characterized by its quilted texture, slightly puffy appearance and YSL logo on the flap.

It also comes in multiple size, texture, and hardware options (and is a personal favorite!). It’s a great bag if you’re looking for a luxurious shoulder bag that will elegantly transition from day to night.

RELATED: Saint Laurent Loulou Review

fendi

Adele and Edoardo Fendi founded the fashion house Fendi in Rome in 1925. They started out making fur coats and accessories, and the brand still focuses on luxury materials like fur, leather, and silk.

One thing that makes Fendi unique is its approach to design. They often combine different textures and materials in unexpected ways, resulting in some eye-catching handbags.

Iconic Fendi bags

The baguette is the most iconic of the brand’s handbag design portfolio. It is a small shoulder bag that first appeared in 1997 and was named after the French bread because of its curved shape.

The bag has been spotted on the arms of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker and comes in a variety of colors and materials. In fact, you’ll probably recognize it as one of Carrie Bradshaw’s favorite bags in Sex and the City.

Valentino

Valentino Garavani founded Valentino in 1960. The Valentino brand has a unique jet-setting aesthetic that emphasizes the marriage of innovation and tradition.

Valentino was one of the first designers to use celebrities on the catwalk. His most famous clients include Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco and Elizabeth Taylor.

Iconic Valentino bags

The Rockstud bag is one of the brand’s most popular designs. It’s made from soft leather and has stud detailing that gives it a slightly edgy look. The Rockstud bag is available in different styles and colors.

Celine

The CELINE brand was founded in 1945 by Celine Vipiana. She started the brand as a bespoke children’s shoe company, but it eventually grew into one of the most recognized and respected fashion brands in the world.

What makes CELINE unique is the focus on simplicity and elegance. The brand doesn’t follow trends; Instead, they craft timeless designs that stand the test of time. CELINE bags are also very distinctive in style.

Iconic CELINE bags

The Luggage Tote is one of CELINE’s most iconic bags. Its structured yet unconventional shape gives it a high recognition value. This material combination of smooth calfskin with a lambskin lining ensures you don’t have to worry about ripping or tearing.

Burberry

The Burberry brand has a long and rich history that began in 1856 when Thomas Burberry opened his first shop in Basingstoke, England. Originally designed for soldiers in World War I, the brand’s trench coat is still famous today for its timeless style and functionality.

An outstanding feature of Burberry is the combination of tradition and innovation in its designs. The company uses the same check pattern that was created by Thomas Burberry over 160 years ago, but also incorporates new technologies and fabrics into its designs.

Iconic Burberry bags

Burberry’s new “It-Bag” is the Olympia that is sure to shape the fashion world.

Anything featuring the Burberry “Classic Check” plaid is pretty iconic too. Whether you’re looking for a Burberry scarf or bag with the signature Classic Check, it’s a standout pattern that any fashionista will recognize.

Balenciaga

Of the designers on this list, the only one originally from Spain is self-taught couturier Cristobal Balenciaga. When he founded his first fashion house in San Sebastian in 1917, the Spanish Civil War prompted him to move to Paris in 1935, where Balenciaga is still based today.

Balenciaga is best known for revolutionizing women’s fashion in the mid-20th century with innovative designs such as the 1957 sack dress.

Iconic Balenciaga bags

The Balenciaga City Bag, sometimes referred to as a motorcycle bag, is Balenciaga’s most iconic design and an easily recognizable designer handbag.

Created in 2001 when most “It” bags were structured and rigid, the motorcycle bag was original with its loose and soft silhouette with dangling zippers and braided handles.

Dolce & Gabbana

In 1985, Dolce & Gabbana had humble beginnings with its first runway show in Milan. Their first show was completely self-funded and they didn’t have enough money to hire models, so they asked their friends to come and model for the show!

But success soon followed as the collection was a hit and they haven’t lost momentum since. The Dolce & Gabbana brand combines Italian craftsmanship with southern Mediterranean sensuality. This is reflected in the luxurious materials and intricate details used in their designs.

Iconic Dolce & Gabbana bags

Dolce & Gabbana’s Miss Sicily bag is one of their most iconic. The bag is a structured shoulder bag with top handles and a detachable and adjustable leather strap, allowing you to wear it in multiple ways. This bag comes in a variety of colors and styles and has five size options from micro to large.

Salvatore Ferragamo

Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, the founder of the Ferragamo brand, was born in Italy in 1898 and founded his own company in 1927, which became known for his innovative creations and high-quality craftsmanship.

Originally known for making luxury shoes, Ferragamo started making handbags in 1949. Ferragamo is known for its quality construction. Each bag features exclusive handcrafted details and techniques in the brand’s workshop in Florence, Italy.

Iconic bags by Salvatore Ferragamo

One of the most popular Ferragamo bags is the Ginny bag, a stylish shoulder bag perfect for everyday use. Minimalist in style, the Ginny also features gold-tone hardware and a chain strap, making it a perfect day-to-night bag.

Balmain

Pierre Balmain, a contemporary of Christian Dior, founded Balmain in 1945. The Balmain brand has always been about dressing women for success. It’s not about being flashy or over the top, it’s about creating looks that make women feel confident and beautiful. This focus on elegant simplicity has made Balmain iconic over the years.

Fun Fact: Balmain was nominated for a 1980 Tony Award for Best Costume Design for a Musical entitled Happy New Year.

Iconic Balmain bags

The Balmain 1945 collection celebrates the aesthetic of founder Pierre Balmain. It’s a collection of eight different bags that reflect his design ethos of simple lines with impeccable attention to detail.

Although not a handbag, the Balmain blazer is another iconic Balmain piece in the fashion world. This classic blazer is tailored to perfection and features large gold buttons making it a recognizable yet timeless piece.

RELATED: 7 fashion investments every woman in her 30s should be making

It’s your turn

What is your favorite luxury handbag brand? Do you have a favorite designer that matches your personal style? Let me know and share with your fellow readers in the comments below!

A guide to 10 of the most expensive handbag brands and some of their most iconic, lavish pieces. The stuff of dreams!

The beauty of the handbag industry is the variety of pieces available to suit every taste, purpose and budget. From the high street to high-end fashion houses, experimentation with colours, materials, precious metals, jewels and sizes is common and as a result there is something for everyone from functionality to finesse. Amidst these delights, as with all luxury items, are pieces that take it to the next level and command next-level prices accordingly.

Handbag Clinic takes you through some of the most notorious handbag brands, the most expensive pieces they’ve ever produced and why they charge some of the huge sums that have been exchanged. Whether purchased at auction, straight from the designer, or loaned to famous names, here’s our list of some of the most coveted and coveted handbags in the world that you’ll fall in love with!

#10: Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs is a ubiquitous name in fashion accessories and notorious for quality, so their signature Carolyn Crocodile handbag had to be number 10 on our list. Although they have more accessible and affordable lines and do not appear to be exclusive, this piece proves that they can compete with big global names not only on price but also in outstanding quality and rarity.

This handbag costs an estimated £21,000 ($30,000) and is crafted from patent crocodile leather, available in a quilted blue or purple pattern reminiscent of tie-dye, guiding the chosen color through a variety of different tints and hues on each individual panel around you achieve an unforgettable effect. You won’t see anything like this again.

Above: Marc Jacobs Carolyn Crocodile in purple. Source: Luxos.com

#9: Fendi

First launched over 70 years ago in 1938, the Selleria handbag is an icon around which Italian fashion giant Fendi has shaped its brand image. These beauties are made to order from sable and chinchilla leather (two of the most expensive and elusive skins out there) and can take up to 4 months to be made by master Italian artisans.

Above: Fendi’s ‘Selleria’ handbag in stylish silver. Source: Pinterest

Priced at £26,500 ($38,000), the handbag not only exudes luxury and sophistication with a sublime finish, it’s one of the few bags on our list that’s actually large enough for everyday use and has all your accessories comfortably in its Splendor can accommodate soft fur. Tempting to say the least for any handbag lover.

Check out our range of authentic pre-owned Fendi bags at cheaper prices!

#8: Hilde Palladino

Hilde Palladino is a Norwegian designer who creates some of the most unique handbags in the world. By popular demand, the “Gadino” is classified as one of the most impressive purses in the world. The limited edition bag is made from white crocodile leather with 39 diamonds set on the lavish white gold clasps.

Above: Palladino’s “Gadino”. Source: Smartsuwal.com

At a cool £27,000 ($38,470), it’s actually quite reasonable in the context of this piece. Palladino sells their bags in high-end boutiques around the world like Harvey Nichols, but keeps them incredibly limited in production to keep them exciting and only for the lucky few.

No. 7: Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton is known for pushing boundaries with extravagant one-off collections and groundbreaking concepts that have transformed the fashion landscape throughout their history. With a brand image that’s typically clean, clinical and recognizable, nothing on this list compares to their Tribute Patchwork bag for innovative design.

Including a multitude of different iconic Louis Vuitton styles stitched together, only 20 of these Frankenstein-esque collectibles have ever been produced, retailing for £29,000 ($42,000) each. Opinion was divided upon release in 2007, with some sectors dubbing it ‘the world’s ugliest handbag’, but unsurprisingly they all sold out quickly. For the sheer attention to detail and homage to some fantastic styles, Louis Vuitton needs to be recognized for their boldness on this occasion.

Above: Beauty or Beast? Louis Vuitton’s ‘Tribute Patchwork’ has raised some eyebrows. Source: Financesonline.co.uk

If your bag budget doesn’t stretch, why not see if we have a cheaper used Louis Vuitton bag for sale.

#6: Saint Laurent

Established in 1961, Saint Laurent is a brand notorious for modern minimalism and Parisian monochromatic fashion, creating ready-to-wear clothing and a range of accessories in which handbags play a prominent role. Under the creative direction of Hedi Slimane, simplicity in its purest form with perfect execution and superior materials seems to be YSL’s way, and their leather Sac De Jour is a prime example of this mantra.

Crafted from sumptuous alligator leather, there’s no saying this handbag is sublime and never goes out of style: exactly what founder Yves Saint Laurent wanted. Priced at £20,500 (€26,500), it sits at the ‘cheaper’ end of this list but retains an understated luxury that rivals the more excessive pieces on this list. Maybe one day!

Above: The definition of elegance? Saint Laurent’s “Sac de Jour”

Browse our range of used Saint Laurent handbags.

#5: Chanels

A mainstay in the handbag world, if you ask any collector or enthusiast, Chanel won’t be far off their mind. Aside from their classic, lavish retail collections, they have some of the most beautiful and coveted bespoke pieces the world has ever seen.

Chanel’s Diamond Forever handbag is a piece that immediately springs to mind. With only 13 diamonds created worldwide in 2007, the handbag boasts 334 diamonds totaling an extraordinary 3.56 carats, 18k white gold hardware and a white alligator body. The £183,000 ($261,000) price tag for this masterpiece firmly places the bag among the most coveted handbags ever produced.

Above: Diamonds are forever with this Chanel showstopper. Source: Styledemocracy.com

For something a little less bling, the Chanel Croc Biarritz, an oversized tote bag crafted entirely from exotic black crocodile leather, is another notable release from the French powerhouse that’s a little more subtle. Only 8 were produced and the sleek design means an incredibly durable everyday fashion piece, but for £30,000 ($43,150) you’d expect it!

Browse our range of used Chanel handbags.

#4: Hermes

Hermes Birkin’s are notoriously hard to come by and therefore command staggering sums of money and this trend is not ending. A Birkin currently holds the record for the most expensive bag ever sold at auction – a pink exotic crocodile skin embellished with diamonds that sold at Christies in Hong Kong for a whopping £155,000 ($221,844). Also, the previous auction record was a Birkin, set in 2011 when a red Birkin with diamond backings sold for £143,000 ($203,150) at Heritage Auctions in New York.

These aftermarket auction prices are extreme, but they’re nothing compared to selling their collaboration pieces with renowned designers. In 2012, Hermes unveiled a solid gold piece by designer Pierre Hardy that took two years to make and retailed for $1.9 million. A platinum Hermes Birkin by Ginza Tanaka, adorned with more than 2,000 diamonds, including large pearl pear diamonds, is also valued at US$1.9 million (about £1.3 million).

Above: Pierre Hardy’s collaborative Hermes Birkin: worth its weight in gold… and then some. Source: Fashionmagazine.com

Shop our range of Hermes handbags.

#3: Lana Marks

A favorite of Helen Mirren, the Queen Cleopatra is one of the more understated and sophisticated pieces we’ve included in our list. With a metallic silver alligator skin making up the entire frame, the decorative metalwork surrounding the clasp includes an impressive 1500 fully cut and faceted black and white diamonds, set in an 18k gold bezel.

Above: Helen Mirren clutches her Queen Cleopatra at an evening wear event. Source: Bagbliss.com

The bags are said to be so exclusive that Marks only lets one high-profile star a year (since 2004) with the piece, which is valued at around £175,000 ($250,000). It’s unknown if A-listers actually own the piece, or if it’s just on loan for red carpet events.

#2: Judith Lieber

Famed for their extravagant designs, most notably their Cupcake Minaudiere accessory featured in the film Sex & The City, Lieber pieces are as pricey as they are recognizable. The exclusivity of only 4 boutiques in India, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia is an element Lieber is known for.

One particular piece that made headlines and captured the imagination of handbag fanatics worldwide is the one-of-a-kind Precious Rose handbag, a piece so ornate it would look better in a gallery than on an arm. The £64,000 ($92,000) decorated rose has an incredible 1016 diamonds totaling 42.56 carats, 1169 pink sapphires and 800 tourmalines. This evening bag has to sparkle!

Above: A work of art, could you imagine wearing Liebes Rose? Source: Bagbliss.com

#1: House of Mouwad

Mouwad’s 1001 Nights Diamond Purse, established in 2011, holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive handbag in history, taking ten artisans more than 8,800 hours to create. The heart-shaped bag is currently valued at an astronomical and frankly ludicrous £1.65 million ($2.35 million).

With a diamond embellished finish utilizing a variety of precious metals, Mouwad’s record breaker is certainly a sight to behold and another on our list that is likely more beautiful than functional. Imagine leaving it in a bar or having a leak inside! It’s the stuff of nightmares. We suspect this handbag was never intended for a specific purpose and was meant to be featured in an art gallery somewhere (and rightly so).

We love it with all our hearts (but we’ll wait a while before we can afford one!). Source: Dailymailonline

Looking for something more in your price range?

If none of these astronomical prices are within your budget, Handbag Clinic may have something suitable in our retail stores! We stock a wide range of quality designer pieces to suit all tastes and budgets and can even source one for you to your specifications. View our collection of used designer handbags.

American luxury fashion house based in New York City, New York

Coach logo in modern style

Coach’s logo on their products

Coach New York, commonly known as Coach, is an American luxury fashion house specializing in leather goods such as handbags, luggage, accessories and ready-to-wear. Stuart Vevers has been Executive Creative Director since 2014.

It is the principal subsidiary of Tapestry, Inc., formerly known as Coach, Inc.

history [edit]

190 Post Street in San Francisco, CA

King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, PA

Coach was founded in 1941 as a family-run workshop in a loft on 34th Street in Manhattan[5][6] with six leatherworkers who handcrafted wallets and wallets.[7] In 1946 Miles Cahn and his wife Lillian joined the company.[8] Miles and Lillian Cahn were owners of a leather handbag factory and were knowledgeable about leather work and business.[7]

By 1950, Cahn had taken over the company. In the early years, Cahn noticed the distinctive properties and qualities of the leather used to make baseball gloves. With wear and use, the leather in a glove has become softer and more supple. In an attempt to mimic this process, Cahn devised a method of processing the leather to make it stronger, softer, and more flexible. Since the leather took the color very well, this process also produced a richer, deeper color in the leather.[9] Shortly after Cahn developed this new process, Lillian Cahn Miles suggested that the company complement the factory’s men’s accessories business with women’s leather handbags.[7] The “sturdy cowhide bags were an instant hit.”[7] Miles and Lillian Cahn bought the company in 1961 through a leveraged buyout.[7]

In 1961, Cahn hired Bonnie Cashin, a sportswear pioneer, to design handbags for Coach.[7] Cashin “revolutionized product design” and worked as a creative mind for Coach from 1962 to 1974.[7] Cashin introduced the inclusion of side pockets, purses, and lighter colors (as opposed to the usual browns and tans) in the products. Cashin also designed matching shoes, pens, key chains and glasses[7] and added hardware to both her clothes and accessories – most notably the silver toggle that became Coach’s trademark – and explained that she was inspired by a reminder to fasten quickly inspired by the shoes on top of her convertible sports car.

Richard Rose joined Coach in 1965 and is responsible for making Coach a household name after introducing the product to department stores in the United States and abroad.

In 1979, Lewis Frankfort joined the company as vice president of business development. During this time, Coach had sales of $6 million and products were distributed through domestic wholesale channels, primarily in the Northeastern United States.[8] Mr. Rose, then Executive Vice President of Sales, oversaw Frankfort before retiring from his position with the company in 1995.

In 1981, the company opened its first directly operated retail location on Madison Avenue in midtown Manhattan.

1985: Sale to Sara Lee[ edit ]

In 1985, the Cahns decided to sell Coach Leatherware after deciding “to dedicate more time to their growing goat farm and cheese production business called Coach Farm in Gallatinville, New York, which they established in 1983.” Coach was then sold to Sara Lee Corporation for an alleged $30 million. Lew Frankfort succeeded Cahn as President.[7]

Sara Lee structured Coach under his Hanes Group branch of branded subsidiaries.[7] In early 1986, the company opened new boutiques at Macy’s Stores in New York City and San Francisco. More Coach stores were under construction, and similar boutiques were due to open in other major department stores later that year. By November 1986, the company operated 12 stores as well as nearly 50 boutiques in major department stores.

Sara Lee Corporation first divested from Coach by selling 19.5% of its Coach stock in Coach’s IPO in October 2000, followed by distribution of its remaining stock to Sara Lee shareholders in an exchange offer in April 2001. [11]

1996: Reed Krakoff directs design [ edit ]

In 1996, Lew Frankfort was appointed Chairman and CEO of Coach. The following year, under Frankfort’s leadership, Coach hired Reed Krakoff, whose creative and commercial instinct aimed to make Coach products functional, lightweight, and stylish.[5] Krakoff’s design transformed Coach from the relatively small company it was in 1985 into the globally recognized brand it is today.[5][12]

On June 1, 2000, the company changed its name to Coach, Inc.[13]

In February 2013, Coach named Victor Luis as President and Chief Commercial Officer and announced he would become Chief Executive Officer in January 2014, with Lew Frankfort continuing as Executive Chairman. In 2013, Coach had $5 billion in revenue and approximately 1,000 directly operated locations worldwide including North America, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea and Europe.[2]

In 2014, the company announced Stuart Vevers as the new executive creative director, replacing Reed Krakoff.[15] During 2014, Coach also announced that Lew Frankfort would be stepping down as executive chairman after his term expired in November 2014.

In January 2015, Coach agreed to purchase shoemaker Stuart Weitzman for up to $574 million in cash.[17] That same year, Coach also launched Coach 1941, “a new, higher-priced line focused on ready-to-wear.”[18] Coach celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2016 by announcing its partnership with Selena Gomez.[19 ][ 20]

In July 2017, Coach bought Kate Spade for $2.4 billion.[21] Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. had previously expressed interest in buying Kate Spade.[22] On October 10, 2017, Victor Luis (CEO) announced that Coach Inc would be rebranded and rebranded to Tapestry Inc. on October 31. The company’s NYSE ticker symbol changed from COH to TPR effective October 31, 2017.[23] As of 2019, Coach has eliminated the use of fur from its collection.[24]

In September 2019, Coach appointed Jide J. Zeitlin, chairman of the board, as the new CEO of Tapestry, Inc., replacing former chief executive officer Victor Luis.[25] Zeitlin resigned in July 2020 following allegations of personal misconduct.[26]

In 2019, it was announced that a float depicting Coach’s house mascot, Rexy the Dinosaur, would be featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, making the brand the first luxury fashion label to have a float in the parade Has.

In November 2019, Jennifer Lopez became the company’s new global face.[28] As of 2019, Coach has 986 stores worldwide.[29]

In 2020, Coach was rebranded again. Like many brands during the COVID-19 pandemic, Coach began to focus on its digital platform.

In 2021 the house celebrated its 80th anniversary.

Corporate affairs[ edit ]

Coach wallet with the signature C monogram.

leadership [edit]

Lewis Frankfort has been with Coach for over 30 years.[30] In 1995 he was appointed Chairman and CEO and in 2014 Executive Chairman. In 2000 he oversaw Coach’s transition to a public company listed on the NYSE and in 2011 became the first American issuer to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Victor Luis was named Chief Executive Officer of Coach, Inc. in January 2014.[31] Prior to his appointment and as of February 2013, he was President and Chief Commercial Officer of Coach, Inc. and a member of Coach’s Board of Directors.

Luis has been a member of Coach’s executive team since joining the company in 2006, has held several international management positions and has led Coach’s expansion in Asia.[31] Most recently, he was President of the International Group, responsible for Coach’s operations outside of North America. Previously, he was President of Coach Retail International, where he oversaw the company’s directly operated businesses in China (Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland), Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, and President and CEO of Coach China and Coach Japan. Luis originally joined Coach as President and CEO of Coach Japan, Inc.

Before joining Coach, Luis was President and Chief Executive Officer of Baccarat, Inc., the French luxury brand’s leading North American company, from 2002 to 2006.[32] Earlier in his career, Luis held marketing and sales positions within the Moët-Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Group.

Stuart Vevers joined Coach in the fall of 2013 as Executive Creative Director. Vevers came to Coach from Loewe, where he had been Creative Director since 2008.[33] Prior to Loewe, he was creative director at Mulberry from 2005 to 2008. He began his career at Calvin Klein and has held creative positions at Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton. In 2006, Vevers won the British Fashion Council’s Accessory Designer of the Year award.

Jide J. Zeitlin, Chairman of the Board, was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tapestry in September 2019. Prior to his retirement in 2020, Zeitlin was responsible for the execution of the company’s strategic agenda and financial performance. Mr. Zeitlin was elected to Tapestry’s board of directors in June 2006 and has served as chairman since November 2014.[25]

Operations [edit]

Coach House in Midtown Manhattan (2019)

As of 2013, there were approximately 1,000 Coach stores in North America. Coach has also established a strong presence in the US through Coach boutiques located in select department and specialty stores.[11]

Coinciding with its 75th anniversary in 2016, Coach opened Coach House, a 20,000-square-foot retail space in Midtown Manhattan.[34]

Today, Coach’s headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan on 34th Street on the site of their former factory lofts. In August 2016, the company completed the sale and leaseback portion of its 10 Hudson Yards office building — its headquarters. Coach received $707 million before transaction costs.[35]

In 1999, Coach launched its online store at www.coach.com.[36]

The Coach Foundation[edit]

The Coach Foundation was established in 2008 to support organizations that “empower” and educate women and children around the world.[37]

References[ edit ]

Coordinates:

Guess has pulled one of its handbags from the shelves after social media users criticized the company for coming up with a design resembling the iconic tote bags from the Telfar brand owned by Black.

Telfar, the unisex fashion label launched in 2005 by Queens, New York-based black designer Telfar Clemens, exploded in popularity last year when Oprah named his tote bag one of her favorite things for 2020. Worn by everyone from Solange Knowles to Dua Lipa, the vegan leather bag comes in three sizes, a variety of colors, and features its iconic circular “T” at the center.

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When Signal Brands, Guess’s handbag licensor, released a handbag called the G-Logo Tote that featured the same shape, double straps, and a circular logo in the center, fashion lovers were quick to take to social media to take the brand up for allegedly “copied” the Telfar design.

“To see a lot of people outraged that Guess copied Telfar’s bags and designs and good! Be outraged! But also bring that same energy when small businesses copy and benefit from others!” said one person on Twitter.

Another person tweeted: “I guess copying the Telfar bag style, the shape, the logo, the colors and how they even photographed the bag shows that it was by no means unintentional. Black rage sells and brands are reaping the rewards because when was that? Last time people even talked about Guess like that.”

Other Telfar loyalists said the label’s tote is more than just a handbag. “What the conjecture didn’t realize is that a big reason people go crazy for Telfar is the ethos and community behind the brand,” said one Twitter user.

On Monday, Guess announced that it had “voluntarily” decided to pull its G-logo tote bags from the shelves.

“Signal Brands, the handbag licensee of Guess, Inc., has voluntarily stopped selling its G-logo tote bags. Some on social media have compared the tote bags to Telfar Global’s shopping bags. Signal Brands does not want to place any obstacles in the way of Telfar Global’s success and has therefore independently decided to stop selling the G-logo tote bags,” said Signal Brands, Guess handbag licensee, in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

According to a New York Times article, Clemens, 36, and his Telfar business partner Babak Radboy have known about Guess’ G-logo bag since February 2021, but chose not to make a public statement. They told their outlet that they “weren’t afraid of it — and we didn’t want to draw attention to it.” Clemens and Radboy also wanted to avoid litigation against Guess and Signal Brands because they saw it as a major financial drain, the business partners told The New York Times.

In a statement shared with PEOPLE, a Telfar representative said: “We think it is really meaningful to have achieved this very gracious outcome without us having to say or do anything. It sends a message that sometimes real power comes from people and from love. We love the power of our people.”

Aside from sharing the New York Times story on his Instagram page, Telfar hasn’t addressed the copycat handbag on social media. However, Radboy told the outlet that he and Clemens are grateful for the public support that led to Guess’s decision to pull the bag.

“I can’t paint the way they want and they know it. Of course they will say that I should be practical and try to paint the way they want. Well I’ll tell you a secret. I’ve tried and I’ve tried very hard, but I can’t. I can not do it! And that’s why I’m just a little crazy.

“There are two means that can help the sculptor to judge his work: one is not to see it for a while. The other… is looking at his work through glasses that change color and zoom in or out to somehow disguise it for his eye and make it look like someone else’s work.

Summary of Baroque art and architecture

In 1527 Europe, religious dominance had the power to direct and influence the content and climate of society’s artistic production. Back then, a backlash against the conservative Protestant Reformation was being forced by the Catholic Church to restore its importance and size within society. Artists followed suit, reviving Renaissance ideals of beauty and infusing the art, music, and architecture of the era with a revived nod to classicism, reinforced by a new exuberant extravagance and a taste for the ornate. Coined as Baroque, this highly ornamented style was notable for its innovative techniques and details, bringing a lush new visual language to a relatively debilitated period for art.

The Baroque spread across Europe, mainly led by the Pope in Rome and Catholic rulers in Italy, France, Spain and Flanders. It was spread more widely by powerful religious orders through their extensive network of monasteries and monasteries. The style quickly spread to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria and southern Germany.

Key Ideas and Achievements

The Baroque brought images back into the public domain for religious worship, after they had been banned for their glorification of the ethereal and ideal. The movement’s leaders declared that art should be easily understood and strongly felt by common people, with the effect of encouraging piety and reverence for the Church.

Baroque churches became a central example of Catholicism’s animated emphasis on glory, with their designs that included a large central space with a dome or cupola high overhead, allowing light to illuminate the space below. The dome was one of the central symbolic features of Baroque architecture, which clarified the union of heaven and earth. Extremely intricate interiors full of ornaments conveyed the feeling of being completely immersed in a sublime and sacred space.

The defining characteristics of the Baroque style were: real or implied movement, an attempt to represent infinity, an emphasis on light and its effects, and a focus on the theatrical. A number of techniques were introduced or further developed by Baroque artists to achieve these effects, including quadro riportato (frescoes containing the illusion of being made up of a series of framed paintings), quadrature (ceiling painting), and trompe l’oeil techniques. This allowed for a blurring of the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture that was characteristic of the movement.

(frescoes containing the illusion of being composed of a series of framed paintings), (ceiling painting) and techniques. This allowed for a blurring of the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and architecture that was characteristic of the movement. The Baroque ushered in a new era for European sculpture, led largely by the work of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which emphasized sensual richness, dramatic realism, intense emotion and movement. Figures took on a new meaning in Baroque sculpture, often spiraling outward from a central vortex into the surrounding space to be seen from multiple perspectives in the round.

The use of chiaroscuro, where the treatment of light and dark in an artwork helped create dramatic tension, was a key component in Baroque artworks. It was further developed by the Baroque master Caravaggio into tenebrisme, which used intensification of contrast in dark atmospheric scenes to emphasize certain elements.

Works of art and artists of Baroque art and architecture

progress of art

1599-1600 The vocation of St. Matthew Artist: Caravaggio This work shows a dark tavern in which a number of men in period clothing have turned to face Christ with his right arm resting on St. Matthew shows. The light, which creates a diagonal following Christ’s gesture, highlights the men’s facial expressions and gestures, giving a sense of the dramatic arrival of the divine. The figures are realistically portrayed, their heavily muscled calves and thighs in mid-motion. The man at the end of the table has slumped and is counting coins.

This work was one of three paintings commissioned by the artist to depict characteristic moments in the life of Saint Matthew. Through the use of chiaroscuro, the intense contrast of light and dark, the work displays the direct realism and intense sense of psychological drama that characterized Caravaggio’s work. His technique was to use ordinary people as models and paint them directly, skipping the drawing phase, and as a result, as art curator Letizia Treves said, he “made these biblical stories so alive that he could place them in his own time.” brought – and he includes you so that you don’t just watch passively. Even today, you don’t have to know the story… to feel drawn into the drama.”

By the early 1600s, well-known artists such as Rubens, Velázquez, Rembrandt and the Caravaggists across Europe were heavily influenced by Caravaggio’s style. He also influenced lesser-known artists such as Dirck van Baburen, Gerrit van Honthorst and Valentin de Boulogne. By the end of the century his work fell into oblivion, supplanted by an increasing emphasis on classicism, and was only revived in the mid-20th century with a major exhibition in Milan in 1951. His work became influential again, for example via photographer David LaChappelle, artist Mat Collishaw and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. Scorsese said of his work, “You get halfway into the scene and you’re immersed in it… It was like modern staging in film: it was so powerful and direct.” Oil on canvas – San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome c. 1622-25 Le debarquement de barquement de Marie de Médicis au port de Marseille le 3 November Artist: Peter Paul Rubens This painting shows the arrival of the Queen of France Marie de’ Medici, dressed in shining silver, accompanied by the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and the Duchess of Mantua disembarking on a red parapet. A soldier in a blue cloak patterned with golden lilies to symbolize France opens his arms to greet them. Above her, a mythological winged figure representing Fame with two trumpets announces her arrival to marry King Henry IV. The diagonal of the red parapet emanating from the ship’s golden prow creates a sense of movement and also divides the painting into two distinct worlds; the elegant and refined world of nobility above and the classic mythological scene below. Three Greek Naiads, goddesses of the sea who ensured safe travels, fill the lower frame. To their left, Neptune with a gray beard stretches out his arm to calm the sea, while next to him the god Fortune leans on the boat and steers it. These mythological figures lend grandeur and allegorical importance to the Queen’s arrival, but at the same time the three naked Naiads overshadow the event with their dynamic sensuality.

Combining a richness of story and allegory with depictions of characteristic moments in scenes of visual exuberance, Rubens’s masterful compositions were much sought after by the nobility. The unabashed sensuality of his full-length female nudes was also innovative and so distinctive that they are still referred to as “Rubenesques”. As art critic Mark Hudson wrote, “He imported to northern Europe the proto-Baroque painting of Titian and Michelangelo and the somber realism of Caravaggio and fused them into a physically gargantuan, sensually laden, triumphantly Catholic art.”

This was one of 24 paintings commissioned by Marie de’ Medici in 1621, after the assassination of her husband Henry IV, to create a cycle that would commemorate her life. She may also have been motivated to represent her rightful position, as tensions between the ruling parties in France and a ‘foreign’ queen had led to her banishment from court in 1617. Rubens, the most celebrated painter in Northern Europe, was drawn to the commission as it gave him permission to explore a secular subject and one that he could inform with allegorical and mythological treatments. Art historian Roger Avermaete wrote of the work: “He surrounded her [Marie de’ Medici] with such a profusion of accessories that at every moment she was almost pushed into the background. Consider, for example, the disembarkation in Marseille, where everyone has eyes only for the voluptuous naiads, to the detriment of the queen, who is welcomed with open arms by France.

Ruben’s work influenced artists such as Velázquez and informed the Rococo artists who followed, including Antoine Watteau and Francois Boucher. He also influenced Eugène Delacroix, Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso. Although less well known, his landscapes also influenced J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and Thomas Gainsborough. As Mark Hudson wrote: “From Rembrandt, Watteau and Delacroix to Cézanne and Picasso, the Rubenesque sensibility runs strong and deep through Western art.” Oil on canvas – Musée du Louvre, Paris c. 1620-21 Judith and Holofernes Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi This dynamic painting depicts the biblical story of the pious widow Judith and her servant Abra beheading the struggling Assyrian general Holofernes. When Holofernes besieged their city and threatened to destroy it, Judith adorned herself and went to meet him on the pretext of offering information. Intending to seduce her, he invited her to his tent for supper, but, as the Bible says, was “so enchanted by her that he drank far more wine than on any other day in his life.” Judith took a sword, beheaded him, and returned to town with his head in a basket, where she was hailed as a heroine. In contrast to traditional depictions, which emphasized Judith’s beauty and delicacy and portrayed Abra as an observing witness, this work innovatively emphasizes the strength of the women, whose facial expressions convey determined determination as they work together, sleeves rolled up, to accomplish a difficult but necessary task to fulfill. The intense physicality and violence of the depiction, as art historian Esperança Camara wrote, “still fills viewers with disgust and awe at the skill of the artist who so convincingly turned paint into blood.”

This particular theme was popular in Renaissance Florence, as seen in Donatello’s statue Judith and Holofernes (1460). In the Baroque period it was identified with the Militant Church, an expression of the victory of Christianity. But Gentileschi’s portrayal acquired a unique immediacy because it was marked by a personal traumatic experience. She portrayed herself as Judith and Holofernes resembles the artist Agostino Tassi, her art teacher who raped her. In 1612 he was tried (although it was Gentileschi who was tortured to establish their veracity), found guilty and spent eight months in prison before being pardoned early in his sentence. Although he had previously been convicted of rape and suspected of murdering his wife, Tassi benefited from both the gender privileges of the time and the protection afforded artists by powerful patrons. Pope Innocent X said, “Tassi is the only one of these artists who has never let me down,” he said, because he never pretended to be a man of honor. As art critic Jonathan Jones wrote, she “communicated a powerful personal vision” that “fought against the masculine violence that dominated the world in which she lived”. Perhaps her work was later hidden because of this intense personal vision. In the 1700s it was considered “too violent”. In her day, as Jones wrote, “the visceral power of her paintings made her one of the most celebrated artists in Europe”. Feminist artists, including Judy Chicago and the Guerrilla Girls in the 1970s, then rediscovered their work. Oil on canvas – Uffizi Gallery, Florence 1624-33 Canopy Artist: Gian Lorenzo Bernini Pope Urban VII’s Barberini family commissioned this canopy, or ceremonial canopy, for the site of St. Peter’s Tomb in Vatican City. It consists of four spiraling Solomonic columns spiraling upwards towards four monumental angels gathered beneath a gleaming golden cross resting on an orb, a classic symbol of the triumph of Christianity. Named after the ancient Temple of Solomon, the dynamic energy of the columns metaphorically connects the past with the present to convey the Church’s enduring authority. It creates a dramatic and awe-inspiring effect that towers over the high altar. Through the innovative combination of sculpture and architecture, the structure meditates between the vast size of the basilica and the human size of the assembled faithful, while framing and opening the view of the Chair of St. Peter, also designed by Bernini.

Bernini’s elaboration of surfaces with symbolic details was seminal for the emphasis on the ornate in the High Baroque. The pedestals or marble bases are carved into eight coats of arms and show the Barberini coat of arms with bees, a tiara with the keys of St. Peter, a satyr’s head and a woman’s head. The woman’s facial expressions change dramatically, being replaced by the face of an angel in the final socket, leading a number of scholars to have dubbed it the “birth sequence”. Higher on the columns, olive and laurel motifs, small putti hunting bees and the occasional lizard proliferate, generating both organic vitality and symbolic meaning. These details are so closely observed and realistic that the legend spread that Bernini covered a live lizard to cast it.

In his Montage and Architecture (1940), the great filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein described the sequence as “one of the most spectacular compositions by this great master Bernini”, with the coat of arms as “eight shots, eight montage sequences of a whole montage scenario. ” Bronze, gilded, marble – St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome 1642 The Night Watch Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn This painting depicts a militia company (basically a Civil Guard unit) preparing to move out to protect the city. The use of light and Shadow focuses on the figure of Captain Frans Banning in black and his lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, wearing the shimmering yellow of victory.To Banning’s left, a single girl in bright cloth may symbolize the enterprise.Her belt contains two clues: a pistol and the claws of a dead chicken representing the Clauweniers, or the Dutch name for this company of harquebusiers (men with long guns).The facial expression conveys a sense of dynamic anticipation and gestures of society: a man is beating a drum on the right, but no one seems to be paying attention ; another clumsily tries to load his musket; and a man wearing a helmet Oak Leaves has just fired his own. As a result, Rembrandt captures the group’s comedic, rollicking, single-minded and individualistic humanity.

The militia company of the III. District commissioned the group portrait in 1639 for exhibition in the new Kloveniersdoelen (Musketeer Assembly Hall). Rembrandt’s play accomplished the traditional depiction of each individual but compositionally presented something new; As the art critic Maaike Dirkx wrote: “Rembrandt did something quite different: in his Night Watch the focus of attention is not on the sitters but on the action, and where other images of the Citizen Guard are static, he is all about movement.”

Although Rembrandt’s career declined in later life and his work was generally forgotten, his work was rediscovered in the 19th century and he influenced a number of artists including Auguste Rodin, Max Liebermann and Vincent van Gogh. This painting is now one of the best known paintings in the world and enjoys an ongoing cultural presence brought on by the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Luc Godard’s film Passion, The Night Watch (1982) and Peter Greenaway’s film Nightwatching (2007). Oil on canvas – Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 1648 Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba Artist: Claude Lorrain This work depicts an imaginary and idealized city imbued with a sense of quiet grandeur, enhanced by the poetic emphasis on light. It refers to the biblical story of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem, but mainly focuses on the landscape with the sun and its rays cutting the canvas vertically. Classical buildings frame both sides of the view, creating a strong sense of composition informed by precise linear perspective. The pillars on the left reflect the ship’s masthead, which is intersected by its diagonals of sail and bow. On the right, the pillars of the building draw the viewer’s attention to the group surrounding the Queen descending to a launch boat.

Claude innovatively chose the moment of the Queen’s departure rather than the traditional depiction of her meeting with King Solomon, which enabled him to focus on a harbor scene, a subject he had pioneered. His innovative explorations of light made him the best-known landscape painter of his time. Although French, he was educated in Rome and went on to work in the city for well-known patrons, including the Duc de Bouillon, a general in the papal army who commissioned this work as part of a pair depicting happy biblical scenes. The other painting, Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (1648), takes the landscape itself as its subject, since the only reference to the biblical story is a small inscription on a tree, painted in the idealized Pastoral.

Claude’s work influenced J.M.W. Turner painting Dido Building Carthage (aka The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire) (1815) and reproduced that painting. Turner felt this was so important to his work that his will originally demanded that it be buried wrapped in the canvas. He later amended his will to require that the painting be shown alongside his painting Sun Rising through Vapor, Fishermen Cleaning and Selling Fish (1807), along with Claude’s pair of paintings. Oil on canvas – The National Gallery, London 1647-1652 Ecstasy of Saint Teresa Artist: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini The colorful interior of Bernini’s Cornaro Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria is richly decorated. In it on the right we see a statue of Saint Teresa in a state of ecstasy. Above her left, a male angel smiles down at her, holding the spear he is about to thrust into her heart. The marble appears to swirl and fall, emphasizing Teresa’s swoon, while the sculpture is illuminated by a beam of golden light from above.

Saint Teresa of Avila was canonized in 1622. To depict their mystical encounter, Bernini followed the autobiographical account of the Spanish nun in The Life of Teresa of Jesus (1515-82). He radically transformed a spiritual vision into a sensual and physical image, as art critic Irving Lavin observed, the work “becomes a point of contact between earth and sky, between matter and spirit”.

Part of Bernini’s innovative strategy was to position the main characters of the narrative in a lively theatrical setting. The sculptures are illuminated in the background, while the richly colored framing columns and niches transport the nun and angel into a separate, otherworldly space. Theater boxes visible on the left and right with life-size sculptures of the Cornaro family in lively conversation reinforce the effect. The contrast of the human figures in white marble with the colored marble of the frames subtly conveys an underlying identification between the vision of the saint and the vision of the papal family. As the art historian Rudolf Wittkower wrote: “Despite the pictorial character of the overall design, which Bernini distinguished between different degrees of reality, the members of the Cornaro chapel seem to be as alive as ourselves. They belong to our space and our world. The supernatural event of Teresa’s vision is elevated to a sphere of its own, separated from that of the viewer primarily by the isolating canopy and heavenly light.

Other well-known mystics described spiritual union with God in physical, even sensual, terms, and Bernini’s interpretation emphasized the sensual through the positioning of the saint’s body and facial expression, leading his biographer Franco Mormando to write: “Certainly no other artist in the Reproducing the scene before or after Bernini also dared to alter the saint’s appearance. This innovative blend of spirituality and sensuality made his works influential, but his greatest innovation was the combination of painting, sculpture, and architecture to create a unified environment, so that the viewer literally steps into the embodiment of their artistic vision. Marble, stucco, paint – Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome 1656 Las Meninas Artist: Diego Velázquez This iconic painting, which translates to ‘ladies of honour’, depicts a sumptuous scene depicting the five-year-old Infanta Margarita, heiress to the Spanish throne, is surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting and other servants in Velazquez’s spacious painting studio. She is the daughter of King Philip IV, whose court painter Velazquez was, and his second wife, Mariana of Austria. The large painting, seven feet by ten feet, also shows Velazquez himself standing behind a large canvas on the left. The greatly foreshortened wall on the right has three tiers of artwork that help establish the space. More than half of the space around the figures is dim, dark and empty. The royal couple is shown reflected in a mirror on the back wall. Two court gnomes and a large dog linger in the lower right corner. Behind the dwarfs, two women, a nun and a lady’s guard, converse, while the Queen’s quartermaster can be seen on the stairs in the background, in front of an open, sunlit door.

Technically, the work is a testament to Velazquez’s brilliant composition. Here he employed keen observation to create compelling portraits, but the real focus of the work, which uses real space, mirror space and pictorial space, is its almost modern play with perception itself. He used the strategic placement of his subjects, to create multiple visual planes and diagonals that draw attention to different areas of the space in a balanced way. We are made not only to witness the activity in the room, but also to think about what is outside the scope of what we can see.

Considered one of Velazquez’s most celebrated masterpieces, Las Meninas represents the sum total of a career of genius, intelligence and technical mastery. Even 300 years later, it is hailed by artists and viewers alike as a pioneering example of the art of painting. Velazquez’s influence lingered into the 21st century, and Édouard Manet called him the “painter of painters”. Picasso’s 58 paintings in his Las Meninas series (1957) reinterpret the Spanish artist’s work, and Dalí painted his Velázquez painting of the Infanta Margarita with the lights and shadows of his own fame (1958). Oil on canvas – Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid 1638-77 Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Artist: Francesco Borromini This facade of the Church of San Carlo in Rome innovatively uses convex and concave bays to create an undulating effect. On the lower level, the two outer bays are concave while the center is convex, emphasizing the importance of the entrance. Smaller columns frame niches filled with carved scenes and figures, creating a sense of elaborate depth. A cluster of three statues representing Saint Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of the church, and Saints John of Matha and Saint Felix of Valois, who were also part of the Trinitarian Order founded by Borromeo, preside over the central portal. Four tall columns create a contrasting vertical energy, rising to a curved entablature from which the four upper columns continue to another curved but sectioned entablature. A large oval in the center of the upper entablature, supported by two asymmetrically placed angels, emphasizes the curvilinear course of the structure.

Borromini’s interior was equally innovative, as his plan employed a complex interweaving of zones: an undulating lower zone, a middle zone in a traditional Greek cross, and an oval dome that seemed to float above the interior. Rather than depicting images, the dome had a complex but symmetrical geometric pattern that combined uneven hexagons, Greek crosses, and circles with octagonal shapes. At its base, clear windows let natural sunlight into the building, and the oculus was also clear glass, as the light unified the space with a predominantly white interior.

The site was challenging as the church was on the corner of a crossroads and had an adjoining cloister on one side, which the architect also designed. Cardinal Francesco Barberini commissioned the church in 1634 and it was the architect’s first major commission, although due to various financial difficulties and changes of patronage it was not completed until after the architect’s death. As the art critic Olivier Bernier wrote: “Based… on geometry… in his handling of form, volume and light… his buildings, though unmistakably of their century, often have a startlingly modern look. Constantly playing with rounded shapes – concave and convex cylinders are used extensively – Borromini gives his facades an amazing animation without ever relying on mere decoration.” Marble, Stone – Rome, Italy 1685-1694 Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius Artist: Andrea Pozzo This fresco shows the triumph of Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, left of center in his gray cassock, stretching out towards Christ holding a cross in the center.All the light in the fresco is from Christ, as indicated by both the gold, both the swirling center and the gradually darkening color palette in the figures further away.The ray then breaks up into four diagonal rays, representing the light of Christianity reaching the four continents of the world and symbolizing the missionary work of the Jesuits. Also depicted are many biblical warriors with their enemies, including David and Goliath, Jael and Sisera, Samson and the Philistines, and Judith and Holofernes. This innovative choice of subject reflected the militant Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation and the apostolic zeal of the Jesuits, who saw themselves as “fighters” of the faith.

Pozzo, a brother in the Jesuit order, said his intention was to visually embody Christ’s statement, “I have come to send fire upon the earth,” and St. Ignatius’ instruction to his order, “Go and set fire to all things.” The work is an innovative masterpiece of squaring, as the viewer in the nave looking up would see a high dome, when in reality the ceiling of the church was flat. To achieve this effect, the artist used extreme foreshortening, painted architectural motifs, and austere perspective while emphasizing dramatic swirling movement. A metal disc has been placed in the floor of the nave, marking the spot where the viewer should stand in order to see the work in full effect, as the artist said: “To fool the eyes you need a certain fixed point”.

The rich colors, swirling curtains and excited gestures convey the feeling of a very passionate crowd in a vast space. The work became a standard for ceiling paintings in Jesuit churches across Europe, as art historian Filippo Camerota wrote, its “perspectival inventions represent the art of squaring at the highest level of spatial perception.” Fresco – Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Campus Martius, Rome

Beginnings of Baroque art and architecture

The term: baroque

The origin of the term Baroque is somewhat ambiguous. Many scholars believe it was derived from the Portuguese barrocco, meaning an imperfect or irregularly shaped pearl. And some, like the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thought it derived from the Italian barocco, a term used in the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in formal logic. In increasing usage, the term originally carried negative connotations, the artworks within its cadres were seen as bizarre and at times ostentatious. But in Heinrich Wölfflin’s 1888 Renaissance und Barock (1888) the term was officially used as a simple description to denote the distinct artistic style.

The Counter-Reformation

Rather than having a single initial moment, the late 16th-century Baroque period brought together a series of innovative developments as it was influenced by the distinct and rival painting styles of Caravaggio, the Bolognese school led by Annibale Carracci, and the architecture of Giacomo Della Porta. Crucial to the intensity and reach of the movement was the patronage of the Catholic Church against the Reformation.

After the sack of Rome in 1527 and in an effort to counteract growing Protestantism, the Counter-Reformation sought to restore the authority of the Church. 1545 called Pope Paul III. the First Council of Trent, which brought together ecclesiastical dignitaries and theologians to establish the doctrine and condemn contemporary heresies. The Council held 25 sessions under the leadership of Pope Paul III until 1563. and his successors, Pope Julius III, such as the Immaculate Conception, the Annunciation and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which were reserved exclusively for Catholic dogma to reposition the Church’s importance in the public eye. However, these guidelines also meant that artists could be held accountable if a church official found their works depicting religious subjects offensive. One of the earliest examples occurred when the Venetian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese was brought before the Inquisition to defend his Last Supper (1573), for which he was accused of including “crooks, drunken Germans, midgets, and other such oddities”. to have. When the play was renamed The Feast in the House of Levi, alluding to a gospel setting in which sinners were present, the work was deemed acceptable.

The Protestant Reformation opposed the use of imagery for religious worship, but the Counter-Reformation argued that such art had a didactic purpose and called for a new mode of visual representation, simple but dramatic, realistic in depiction, and clear in narrative be . The leaders of the movement declared that art should be easily understood and strongly felt by ordinary people, with the effect of promoting piety and an awesome sense of the church. While the church and its dignitaries have been important patrons of the arts since the Gothic period, a new form of patronage was purposefully promoted across Europe. New religious orders that were part of the reform movement, such as the Jesuits, the Capuchins and the Discalced Carmelites, were officially encouraged to become important patrons of the arts. This new baroque style spread across Europe and was mainly supported by the Catholic Church led by the Pope in Rome and Catholic rulers in Italy, France, Spain and Flanders. It was spread more widely by powerful religious orders through their extensive network of monasteries and monasteries.

Giacomo Della Porta

Architect Giacomo Della Porta came from a family of Italian sculptors and was a student and later collaborator of Michelangelo and Rome’s leading Mannerist architect, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola. He worked with Barozzi on the construction of the Church of the Gesù (1584) and, after the older man’s death in 1573, completed the project with a reinterpreted design. Its facade reduced the number of architectural elements while grouping the elements that were left around the entrance. As a result, the facade conveyed a sense of dynamic tension that the visitor would feel before being enveloped by the vastness of the interior. Although the architect’s façade was relatively simple compared to the much more ornate Baroque churches that followed, the church established the Baroque style and became the model for Jesuit churches around the world well into the 20th century.

Bolognese school

In painting, the works of the anti-Mannerist Bolognese school, led by Annibale Carracci, were the first to be promoted as part of the Counter-Reformation. Carracci, along with his brother Agostino and Ludovico, their cousin, had founded the Accademia dei Desiderosi, a small art academy that emphasized the earlier Renaissance’s aesthetic ideals of proportion, the use of figure drawing, and precise observation to bring realistic but heroic figures into emotional more convincing way to create scenes. His work caught the attention of the well-known patron of the arts, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, who called him to Rome and commissioned him to paint the gallery ceiling of the Palazzo Farnese to celebrate the cardinal’s brother’s wedding.

The resulting ceiling fresco Loves of the Gods (1597-1601) influenced the Baroque movement, when Carracci pioneered the quadro riportato technique, framing each scene as if it were an easel painting arranged on the ceiling. He also used quadratura, or painting illusionistic architectural features, as seen in his painted atlas figures and classical male nudes resembling sculptures. The work influenced Giovanni Lanfranco, Guercino, Pietro de Cortona, Carlo Maratta and Andrea Pozzo, all of whom became well-known quadrature and trompe l’oeil ceiling painters. Carracci also had a notable influence on future landscape and history painting, as seen in the works of French painters Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, and in the French Baroque style.

Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio, known simply as Caravaggio, has sometimes been referred to as the “father of Baroque painting” for his pioneering approach. Trained in Milan in the prevailing Mannerist style, he quickly developed his own technique using chiaroscuro, dramatic contrasts of chiaroscuro and tenebrism, intensifying the contrast to dark atmospheric scenes, with some elements brightly illuminated as if by a spotlight. Such was his mastery of tenebrism, meaning ‘dark, mysterious’, that he has often been credited with inventing the technique. His radical realism, in which he painted his subjects as they actually were, with all their flaws, was equally innovative and made his works controversial, as was his penchant for disturbing subject matter.

Caravaggio became Rome’s most celebrated artist with his paintings of the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) and the Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600), which he commissioned for the Contarelli Chapel. He subsequently received a large number of religious commissions, although some of them, including his Conversion of Saint Paul (1600-1601) and Death of the Virgin (1601-1606), were later rejected by patrons who found his realism too shocking. Nevertheless, his work became so influential that subsequent generations who adopted his style were called Caravaggisti or Tenebrosi. His work influenced many great Baroque painters including Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Jose Ribiera and Rembrandt van Rijn.

high baroque

Characterized by grandeur and an emphasis on movement and drama, the High Baroque began around 1625 and lasted until about 1700. Gian Lorenzo Bernini led and dominated the era, defining the Baroque style in sculpture. His patron, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Rome, and Bernini’s early sculptures were created for the cardinal’s Borghese palace. Works like his The Rape of Proserpina (1621-22) and his Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) emphasized dramatic realism, intense emotion and movement, and as the art historian Rudolf Wittkower wrote, they ” ushered in a new era in the history of art a European sculpture.”

When Cardinal Scipione Borghese later became Pope Urban VIII, Bernini also became Rome’s most important architect, as evidenced by his appointment as chief architect of St. Peter’s in 1629. His canopy and colonnade he designed around St. Peter’s Square (1656-1667) exemplifies the High Baroque style in architecture. As the art historian Maria Grazia Bernardini wrote, he was “the great, most important protagonist of Baroque art, the one who was able to create undisputed masterpieces, interpreting in an original and brilliant way and giving to the city the new spiritual sensations of the time To give Rome a whole new face and to unify the [artistic] language of the time.”

Bernini’s main rival in architecture was Francesco Borromini, whose Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1624-1646) used undulating walls, an oval tower and a radically innovative oval design for the church under an oval dome. The quadratura and trompe-l’oeil ceiling painting also became a well-known feature of the High Baroque and was exemplified by Giovanni Battista Gaull’s The Triumph of the Name of Jesus in the Church of Gesù (1669-1683) and Andrea Pozzo’s Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius (1688- 1694), both in Rome. Pozzo is also the author of Perspectiva Pictorium et Architectorum (Rules and Examples of Correct Perspective for Painters and Architects). It was published in two volumes, first in 1693, then in 1698, and influenced artists and architects across Europe well into the 19th century.

Baroque Art and Architecture: Concepts, Styles and Trends

Spanish Baroque

Spanish Baroque was known for its distinctive style as a somber and sometimes even somber mood prevailed in Spanish culture. The Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648), in which the Spanish tried unsuccessfully to retain control of the Netherlands, and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604), in which the Spanish Armada attempting to invade England was defeated emptied Spanish finances and created an economic crisis. At the same time, Catholicism was taught the severity of the Inquisition. In architecture, the size and wealth of the church was emphasized as the Jesuits, an order known both for its intellectual espousal of the Counter-Reformation and for its Christian proselytization, developed an extreme use of ornament to achieve religious glory emphasize. An early known example was Pedro de la Torre’s (1642-1669) Chapel of San Isidro, which combined an ornate exterior with a simple interior that used lighting effects to convey a sense of religious mystery. The emphasis on Baroque decoration became even more dominant, as can be seen in Fernando de Casa Novos Obradoiro (1738-1750) or the facade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostelo. The facade had influence throughout Europe and the Spanish colonies in Latin America as the cathedral, a revered place of pilgrimage for centuries, was the most famous church in Spain.

Gilded altarpieces were a well-known element of Spanish Baroque architecture, as seen in José Benito Churriguer’s Altarpiece for the Church of San Esteban, Salamanca (1693), which employed spiral columns and extensive use of gold in an extremely elaborate finish. The resulting style, which emphasizes a moving surface, was called “Entallador” and was adopted throughout Spain and Latin America.

In contrast to the architectural emphasis on Catholic grandeur, Spanish Baroque painting emphasized the limitations and suffering of human existence. Known for its focus on realism based on precise observation, it was less interested in theatrical effects than in a compelling sense of human drama. Caravaggio was an early influence on artists such as Francisco Ribalta and Jusepe Ribera, although most Spanish artists took chiaroscuro and tenebrism as a starting point and developed their own style. Ribera’s later work emphasized a layer of silver tones overlaid with warm gold tones, as seen in his The Holy Family with Saint Catherine (1648).

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo developed the Estilo Vaporiso, or vapor style, which used a delicate palette, soft contours, and a veil effect of silver or gold light. His works were both religious subjects, such as The Immaculate Conception (1678), and genre paintings, in which he often depicted street people, as in The Young Beggar (1645). His work was very popular for its elegance and sentimentality, and he co-founded the Seville Academy of Fine Arts in 1660. After his death, Juan de Valdes Leal became the leading painter of Seville, although his work focused on the dramatic such as The End of Worldly Glory (1672), an allegory of death, which made his work something of a precursor to Romanticism. Francisco de Zurbaran has been nicknamed “the Spanish Caravaggio” for his religious themes such as The House of Nazareth (1630), although his compositions were more austere and restrained, often centering on a lone ascetic figure.

The leading painter of the Spanish Baroque was Diego Velázquez, whose work spanned a range of subjects: genre works such as Old Woman Frying Eggs (1618); historical paintings of contemporary events such as The Surrender of Breda (1634-1634); religious works such as Christ Crucified (1632); well-known portraits such as Portrait of Innocent X (1650) and Las Meninas (1656); and one of the few Spanish nudes, The Rokeby Venus (1644-1648), a subject discouraged in Catholic Spain. While beginning tenebrism, he developed his own masterful technique, using a relatively simple color palette but emphasizing tonalities and varied brushwork.

French Baroque and French Classicism

The architecture was the dominant expression of the French Baroque style. Called classicism in France, it rejected the ornate in favor of geometric proportions and less ornate facades. While Louis XIV invited Bernini to France in 1661 to submit a design for his Palace of Versailles, the king instead opted for the classic design by Louis Le Vau, with Charles Le Brun as decorator. As director of the Gobelins tapestries, Le Brun’s work gained influence across Europe. The Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) (1678-1686) at Versailles included Le Brun’s paintings and became the standard for royal French interiors. Similarly, the gardens, arranged in geometric grids to reflect and emphasize the architecture, were another notable element of Versailles.

In painting, too, French artists moved towards a more classical restraint. Claude Lorrain, known simply as Claude, and Nicolas Poussin were the most important French painters, although both were active in Rome. Claude’s work emphasized landscape and the effects of light, and his subjects, whether religious or classical, were only the work’s occasion, not its focus. While Poussin began painting in the Baroque style, by the mid-1930s he had begun to develop his own style, as works such as his Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice (1650-1651) conveyed a calm rationality that influenced the later development of Neoclassicism would have .

Other French artists, notably Georges de la Tour, were influenced by Caravaggio’s tenebrism but turned away from dramatic action and effect. Painting primarily religious subjects, he innovatively explored the nocturnal light, employing geometric compositions and simplified forms to convey a calm and reflective spirituality. La Tour’s work was influential in its day, as King Louis XIII, Henry II of Lorraine and Cardinal Richelieu were patrons of his work. Genre painters such as the Le Nain brothers also made innovative use of the Baroque style. Louis, Antoine and Mathieu Le Nain collaborated on most of their works, and their genre scenes emphasized the realism of daily work, as seen in their works The Blacksmith at His Forge (c. 1639) and Peasants’ Meal (1642).

Russian Baroque

Russian Baroque is also called Petrine Baroque, named in honor of Peter the Great, who promoted the style in the rebuilding of St. Petersburg when he proclaimed it the new Russian capital in 1712. He had been inspired by the French Baroque after his 1697-1698 visit to Versailles and the Castles of Fontainebleau. The Menshikov Palace (1711-1727) became a notable early example of Russian Baroque. Architects such as Andreas Schluter, Gottfried Schadel and Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond were leading architects of the style. After the death of Peter the Great the style continued but more luxuriously and ornate as designed by the leading architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. The style was then named Elizabethan Baroque in honor of Empress Elizabeth Petrovona and famous examples were Smolny Cathedral (1748-1764) and the Winter Palace (1754-1762).

Flemish Baroque painting

Painting was the distinctive component of Flemish Baroque, and its particular character arose from historical and cultural forces. In 1585, Spanish Catholic troops recaptured Antwerp in Flanders, or what is now Belgium, and the Catholic region was split off from the Protestant Dutch Republic. As a result, Flemish artists painted Counter-Reformation religious subjects as well as landscapes, still lifes, and genre works that still drew on the Northern European tradition.

Peter Paul Rubens led the development of Flemish Baroque painting. His High Baroque style, known for its rich colour, sensual exuberance and movement, influenced both his religious painting, such as in The Descent from the Cross (1614), and his non-religious subjects, such as The Judgment of Paris (1636). His female nudes of mythological and biblical women were particularly well known and influential as they combined sensuality with a complexity of allegory and allusion. Rubens’ best-known pupil was Anthony van Dyck, who later became famous primarily for his portraits, which were characterized by courtly elegance. In 1630 he became court painter to the Princess of Orange, in 1630 he was knighted due to royal connections to the English court painter and in 1632 by Charles I, King of England. Flemish artists also painted genre scenes, e.g. and the best known were Adriaen Brouwer, Jacob Jordaens and David Teniers the Younger.

The Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age was the only example of the Baroque style used in a Protestant area and, as a result, took a very different approach in both architecture and painting. The Dutch Golden Age began around 1648 with the end of the Thirty Years’ War when the Dutch Republic, which had seceded from Spain in 1588, finally gained independence. In the following decades, the republic, driven by its dominance in world trade, became an economic powerhouse with an emerging middle class. Dutch Baroque architecture drew primarily on the works of the Venetian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (often referred to as Dutch Palladianism), while retaining some Gothic elements to create an understated monumental style. Dutch painting emphasized scenes of daily life, worldly subjects, and pioneered landscape, still life, and genre painting. Religious subjects were most commonly depicted in printmaking to illustrate biblical texts. At the same time, some leading Dutch artists, including Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer and Salomon van Ruysdael, were painting in the Baroque style with chiaroscuro and tenebrism. This can be seen in Rembrandt’s Night Watch (1642).

Later developments – After Baroque art and architecture

With the advent of the Rococo in Paris around 1720, the Baroque period came to an end. Some scholars refer to the Rococo as “Late Baroque”, but it took on a very light-hearted and fun style indebted to court life. Nonetheless, Baroque artists continued to be influential in the Rococo period, with Rubens influencing Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

When the rococo was followed by the neoclassical style within fifty years, many baroque artists were forgotten and overlooked. Rubens and Rembrandt were rediscovered in the 19th century when Rubens influenced the Romantics Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix and Rembrandt influenced the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Claude’s landscape paintings influenced J.M.W. Turner and Velázquez was a major influence on Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon.

Caravaggio was also rediscovered, but not until the mid-20th century, and his work has subsequently influenced photographers, filmmakers, and artists. A revival of interest in Bernini’s architectural work is noted by a number of contemporary architects, including I. M. Pei, Richard Meier and Frank Gehry. Gehry called him “one of my biggest influences”. Similarly, contemporary artists such as Jenny Saville, Lisa Yuskavage and John Currin reflect the enduring impact of the works of Rembrandt and Rubens.

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Here is my guide to the Bernini Trail in Rome. No artist shaped 17th-century Rome more than Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He worked under nine popes and left an indelible mark on the city.

In this travel guide I’ll give you an overview of Bernini’s fascinating life and tell you where to find his great artworks and sculptures in Rome.

You will find Bernini’s art in Rome’s beautiful churches, squares, best museums and secret palaces.

Piazza Navona, a central square in Rome with a Bernini fountain

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the greatest sculptor of the Baroque period. The Baroque period was characterized by exuberance, excess, movement, intensity and formal splendor.

The term baroque means “misshapen pearl” in Italian. This is the art of Bernini in a nutshell – sensual and impressive.

Not your typical idealized and distant sculpture stuck on a pedestal. Bernini’s works are dramatic and full of movement and immediacy, sometimes like shock theater in the round.

Described as the “animator of marble”, Bernini left his artistic mark all over Rome. He helped define the city you see today. His works are among the main attractions of Rome.

Bernini was a child prodigy and a genius. Like Michelangelo before him, Bernini possessed an all-encompassing virtuosity. And he was productive for decades, a fevered workaholic who rarely turned down an assignment.

Bernini did not limit himself to sculpture, although he is best known for this medium. Bernini was also a painter, architect, playwright and stage manager.

He excelled in every form of sculpture – portrait busts, mythological sculptures, religious groupings, public fountains and tombs.

Bernini, Triton Fountain, 1642 — on the Piazza Barberini

In this guide I’ll take you on a tour of Bernini’s masterpieces in Rome. Some of them are in the most beautiful museums in Rome.

Others are free to see in public squares and churches. If you enjoy traveling with a theme, a Bernini pilgrimage is one of the most unique things to do in Rome.

A Short Biography: Who Was Gian Lorenzo Bernini?

Before we find out where to see Bernini’s art in Rome, let’s learn more about the life of this revered artist.

1. Early life

Bernini was born in Naples in 1598. His father Pietro was a sculptor. Bernini was in his studio when he was only 5 years old and showed great promise early on.

Legend has it that Bernini created his first significant sculpture, The Goat Amalthea, when he was just 8 years old. This attribution may have been Bernini exaggerating the facts to polish his legacy. Art historians believe the table sculpture dates from his early youth.

Bernini, The Goat Amalthea, 1609-15 – in the Galleria Borghese

Still, a group sculpture in the round at an early age is an absurdly demanding work. When Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII) saw it, he branded Bernini the “next Michelangelo”. This tidbit could also have come from Bernini himself. Invented or not, the “prediction” has come true.

Bernini came to Rome at the age of 7 and almost never left. When he was older, in order to appear more sophisticated, Bernini told people that he was from Florence and not from rough Naples. He became a Roman chauvinist and despised France and other artistic centers.

Bernini was mostly a charmer. Unlike Michelangelo, he was the perfect courtier to a succession of popes. He was made for the ambitious pursuit of fame.

Bernini was charismatic, popular, witty, handsome and a devout Catholic. He had a hot temper, but largely channeled the “heat of the heart” into his art.

Bernini had friends in high places. Orders flowed in. His early patron was Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V.

The sculptures commissioned by Borghese established Bernini’s reputation as a master carver in his twenties. Bernini subsequently worked for a series of 8 popes.

Bernini, Self-Portrait at the Age of 35, 1630-35 – in the Galleria Borghese

2. Bernini, a mad womanizer

For decades, Bernini had a reputation as a womanizer. He was single until he was 41.

But during his bachelorhood around 1636, Bernini met Costanza Bonarelli. She was the beautiful and educated wife of one of his assistants, Matteo Bonarelli. She would literally drive Bernini insane – the only instance where an otherwise cautious Bernini has been sidetracked from the fast track to success.

Bernini became obsessed with Costanza and the two began an affair. How they met is unclear. She might have modeled for him.

It’s also unclear if Costanza’s relationship was purely voluntary, although it was reported as passionate. Seeing Bernini’s interest, Matteo may have pimped his wife or sanctioned the affair to win Bernini’s favor.

One of Bernini’s finest portrait sculptures is a marble bust of Costanza. She looks uniquely youthful and passionate.

She is slightly disheveled, lips parted and blouse open. As if the couple had just ended an amorous encounter.

The bust is now in the Bargello Museum in Florence, which specializes in sculpture. It is considered a perfect example of a ‘talking image’ of Bernini – a bust where Bernini’s subject is caught in action rather than just posing.

Back then, only aristocrats were immortalized in marble. Also, artists usually did not create expensive and informal marble busts just for themselves. It was probably a sign of Bernini’s deep love

Angel designed by Bernini on the Bridge of Angels

But the love affair came to a tragic end. Bernini heard rumors that Costanza might have another lover, possibly his brother Luigi. He was insanely jealous.

Bernini falsely told Luigi and Costanza that he was leaving town. Instead, he stood outside Luigi’s house late at night to spy on her. To his horror, he saw Costanza kissing his brother Luigi goodbye.

In a murderous rage, Bernini chased Luigi across Rome and beat him with an iron bar. He broke Luigi’s ribs and had him exiled to Bologna.

Bernini sent a servant to slash Costanza’s face with a razor blade. She was also briefly imprisoned in an institute for unruly women.

What was Bernini’s punishment for this cruel event? Little. Pope Urban VIII, a Bernini fanboy, told Bernini he was sentenced to marry and settle down.

Bernini, Portrait as a Young Man, 1623

Bernini received a beautiful Italian heiress of his choice, Caterina Tezio. Apparently he never got lost again.

The couple was married 34 years and had 11 children. However, none of his children inherited an ounce of Bernini’s amazing talent.

Even after his marriage, Bernini kept Costanza’s bust in his studio for three years. He eventually gave it to the Medici family in Florence (perhaps at his wife’s urging). But Bernini kept a double portrait he created for the rest of his life.

At his death, someone from his family cut the double portrait in two. Half with Costanza is lost. Scholars do not know which of Bernini’s self-portraits may have been part of the double portrait.

There is a memory of the torrid affair that you can still see today. In St. Peter’s Square, Bernini carved a heart in the purple marble in the center of the square.

The heart is cut in two, indicating a broken heart. It is near the Marble Slab of the Wind to the left of the Obelisk when facing the Basilica.

Close-up of Bernini’s broken heart. Photo S. Balmaekers

3. Bernini’s rivalry with Borromini

Bernini had a sharp rivalry with fellow architect Giovanni Borromini. They often competed for the same jobs. Their conflict was legendary. Most of the time, Bernini prevailed and was the darling of the popes.

In terms of personality, Bernini and Borromini were opposites. Unlike the charming Bernini, Borromini was an intense and competitive loner. He was angry and short-tempered. Eventually, at the age of 67, he committed suicide with a sword.

READ: Guide to Palazzo Spada and Borromini Perspective Gallery

The two arch-enemies bickered like children. They did not work happily together on the Palazzo Barberini and St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini thought big. But Borromini worked with the precision of a jeweler.

A legendary example of their animus is the feud over the Piazza di Spagna. Borromini was working on a palace (a commission he stole from Bernini) opposite Bernini’s house.

Borromoni sculpted donkey ears pointing to Borromini. In response, Bernini sculpted a penis pointing at Borromini’s building. Both sculptures were later removed.

Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in front of the façade of Borromini’s Sant’Agnese Church

4. Bernini’s later career

Later in his career, Bernini had less time for his ‘talking’ busts and portraits (which he didn’t let his workshop artists touch). He was busy with many papal commissions.

He focused primarily on architecture, particularly the grandiose projects for St. Peter’s Basilica, which will be discussed below.

Bernini died in 1680 at the age of 81, a very long life for that time. He was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

At his death, Bernini was widely regarded as Europe’s greatest artist. Along with Caravaggio, Bernini left a lasting mark on one of the longest periods in art history. He was the last of a line of Italian artistic geniuses that marked the end of Italian supremacy in the art world.

Borghese Gallery

Guided tours in Rome

There are no guided tours exclusively with Bernini. However, you can book a small group tour of the Galleria Borghese, which houses his most famous works. Or you can opt for a private tour of the museum.

If you’re not taking a guided tour of the Borghese, you can only visit it by pre-booking a time-slot ticket.

You can also book guided tours with Bernini and other artists. On this 2-hour guided tour you can walk in the footsteps of Bernini, Borromini and Michelangelo.

Or book a private walking tour through the works of Bernini and Caravaggio.

Bernini, David, 1622

The best places to find Bernini’s art in Rome

Let’s follow in Bernini’s footsteps in Rome and discover his most famous pieces. Find Bernini’s most famous artworks in Rome and Vatican City here.

1. Borghese Gallery

The Galleria Borghese is undoubtedly the best place in Rome to see Bernini’s most exquisite works. It houses some of Bernini’s most spectacular sculptures – David, Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Persephone. He graduated in his 20s. They are more pagan than his later religious sculptures.

Bernini’s David appears like an Olympic athlete in whirling motion. His feet are wide apart and he pivots to gain maximum momentum for his shot at Goliath. The intensity of his gaze and his energy are palpable. You can feel his determination.

David’s face is Bernini’s. A mirror was held up to Bernini while he was chiselling.

Bernini’s David is often compared and contrasted with Michelangelo’s Renaissance David statue. While Michelangelo’s sculpture is calm and serene, Bernini’s David is charged with emotion and in attack mode.

Berini, Apollo and Daphne, 1625

The graceful Apollo and Daphne is my absolute favorite among Bernini’s sculptures. It was inspired by a passage in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which a mischievous Cupid rules.

Apollo is struck by Cupid’s golden arrow. Overcome with lust, he chases after Daphne. But Daphne was simultaneously struck by a lead arrow of disgust. She yells to her father, a river god, for help. He turns her into a laurel tree.

Bernini captures the moment of transformation, with the couple’s arms and legs moving in space and Daphne partially transforming into a tree. The details are so good that the sculpture looks real and not just mythological. Bernini transforms hard, cold marble into yielding flesh, fluttering leaves and tangled curls.

Newly renovated and cleaned, the sculpture is immaculate. And his subject remains relevant – a starving man who doesn’t take no for an answer.

Bernini, The Rape of Persephone, 1621-22

The Rape of Persephone was created when Bernini was only 24 years old. The spinning Contropposto sculpture is a tour de force of action and emotion.

Bernini addresses the classic story of the abduction of Persephone from Roman mythology. Pluto, king of the underworld, falls passionately in love with Persephone (aka Proserpina).

He kidnaps her by force. Bernini captures the climatic moment in visceral, lifelike detail.

In the heartbreaking sculpture, Pluto grasps a weeping Persephone. Terrified, she struggles to free herself from her abuser.

You can see indentations in Persephone’s leg from Pluto’s firm grip. Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog, sits barking at Pluto’s leg, fangs bared.

Detail where the marble looks so real you can see indentations on Persephone’s thigh

Alongside these three epic sculptures, the Galleria Borghese is packed with Bernini masterpieces. You can also check out these Bernini pieces:

Portrait of a Boy (1638)

Self-portrait (2 versions, 1623, 1630-35)

Portrait of Urban VIII (1632)

Bust of Cardinal Borghese (2 versions, 1632)

Bust of Pope Paul V (1618-20)

The Goat Amalthea (1609-15)

Truth Revealed Through Time (1646-52)

Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius fleeing Troy (1618-19)

Bernini, Medusa, around 1630

2. Capitoline Museums

The Capitoline Museums are packed with masterpieces from antiquity to the Renaissance. The museums are particularly rich in sculpture, especially Greco-Roman sculpture. Of course, the museum owns some Bernini works.

Bernini’s most famous piece there is his Medusa, a bust of the serpent-headed Gorgon with a petrifying glow from Greek myth.

It is located under a Murano glass chandelier in the Hall of the Geese. In the sculpture, Bernini captures Medusa’s agony as she realizes her fate.

According to the poet Ovid, Medusa was known for her loveliness. But when Poseidon raped her in the Temple of Athena, Athena was upset. She transformed Medusa’s magnificent mane of hair into snakes – a symbol of female anger.

Bernini, marble statue of Pope Urban VII

In this way, Medusa’s enemies were stunned with fear and turned to stone. Medusa became both a beautiful victim and a monstrous villain employed by Perseus.

In Bernini’s rendition of the myth, Medusa is shown alive and in the moment of transformation. Medusa fearfully peers into an invisible mirror. (Bernini liked moments of metamorphosis.)

The second Bernini piece in the Capitoline Museums is the monumental statue of Urban VIII, a frequent Bernini motif.

The statue is in the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatti, a large frescoed room. It is opposite a statue of Bernini’s rival Algardi, the statue of Innocent X.

READ: Guide to the Capitoline Museums

The Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona

3. Piazza Navona

The Piazza Navona is dominated by the beautiful Four Rivers Fountain, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. It was designed by Bernini for Pope Innocent X. But Bernini almost didn’t get the job.

Bernini had many rivals. Some had the ear of the new pope, Pope Innocent X, who succeeded Urban VIII. Her influence was strong. When Innocent X commissioned designs for the fountain from leading architects in Rome, he ruled out Bernini.

One of Bernini’s allies, Nicole Ludovisi, persuaded Bernini to make a model anyway. Ludovisi then exhibited it in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, through which the Pope passed every day.

As expected, when the Pope saw the model, he was in ecstasy. He remarked: “Anyone who does not wish to use Bernini’s designs must be careful not to see them.”

another view of the Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona

This is how Bernini won the competition for the fountain. Inside you will see four muscular statues representing the river gods. There is a lot going on.

The gods represent the four great rivers of the world: the Danube, the Ganges, the Rio del Plato and the Nile. They gather around an Egyptian obelisk.

The fountain is decorated with palm trees and animals. A dove representing the Doria Pamphilj family sits on the obelisk.

The fountain faces the Church of Sant’Agnese designed by Borromini. Bernini lost the commission for the church to Borromini. According to legend, Bernini expressed his contempt for Borromini’s project through his fountain.

Nil hides his face from the sight of the church. The god of the Rio del Plata has raised his hands as if to protect himself in case Borromini’s church collapses.

It’s a good story, but it’s only apocryphal. The fountain was completed in front of the church.

Leaky Boat Fountain at the foot of the Spanish Steps

4. Spanish Steps

At the foot of the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spoagna you will find Bernini’s Barcaccia or the Leaky Boat fountain.

Urban VIII commissioned it as part of his initiative to place a fountain in every public square in Rome. Bernini worked on it with his father Pietro.

The unusual fountain was inspired by a boat that was washed onto the piazza during one of Rome’s floods. The fountain was intended to supply the Romans with pure drinking water.

So it wasn’t just decorative. It was restored in 2014 and is therefore bright white.

Aerial view of St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City

5. St. Peter’s Square

St. Peter’s Square is one of the most famous landmarks in Italy. The square is dominated by the largest church in the world, St. Peter’s Basilica.

In 1656, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to build a vast square worthy of a basilica. Bernini created an elliptical square with two semicircular colonnades composed of four rows of Doric columns.

The colonnades represent a pair of outstretched and embracing arms welcoming pilgrims into the basilica. Standing on the foci (marble slabs) near the fountain designed by Carlo Maderno, the columns line up perfectly.

On the balustrade at the top of the columns are 140 statues of saints, martyrs and popes made by Bernini’s workshop. In the center is an Egyptian obelisk brought to Rome by Caligula around AD 37.

The paving stones of the square are cobblestone and travertine marble. They radiate out from the central hub of the obelisk. The square is a magnificent access point to the basilica.

Bernini’s Baldachin in St. Peter’s Basilica, 1623-34

6. St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the most ornate churches in the world. It is filled with works of art by the greatest artists of the time. Bernini either carved or designed many of the works in St. Peter’s Basilica, including:

Canopy (1623-34)

Tomb of Urban VIII (1647)

Monument to Alexander VII (1672-78))

Constantine on horseback (1662-68)

St Longinus (1629)

Chair of St. Peter (1640)

Altar of the Chapel of the Santissimo Sacramento (1673-74)

Funerary monument for Countess Matilda (1633)

The canopy is the most famous piece commissioned by Urban VIII. It is an ornate and curved bronze canopy that covers the high altar. The bronze is so dark it looks like wood. At the top there are four large angels in each corner.

Bernini’s St. Longinus statue

The canopy sits just below the dome of St. Peter and just above St. Peter’s tomb. It was meant to indicate the vastness of God’s (and the Barberini Pope’s) creation. To create the play, Bernini recruited his father Pietro and brother Luigi as assistants.

Urban VIII claimed that bronze for the canopy was stolen from the portico of the ancient pantheon. The population protested, saying: “What the barbarians did not do before, the Barberini are now doing.”

In reality, the stolen bronze was used for cannonballs and the bronze imported from Venice for the canopy.

Urban VIII’s tomb was commissioned by the Pope himself. Carved in white marble, the Pope wears the papal tiara (a triple crown), his arm extended in blessing. The Charity figure is possibly a portrait of Costanza.

Bernini, Chair of St. Peter, 1653

The (fairly revised) chair of St. Peter is in the apse near the front of the basilica. Bernini’s sculpture glorifies the chair as a symbol of power.

The chair levitates and is received (but not supported) by four aristocrats. Above the chair is a light oculus with cherubs and the Holy Spirit at its center.

But perhaps the most impressive of Bernini’s St. Peter sculptures is the Chigi Tomb. The Tomb of Alexander VII is one of Bernini’s last works. It stands in a large niche like a free-standing monument.

The Pope stands at the head and prays, surrounded by four virtues – charity, truth, prudence and justice. The focal point is a gilded bronze statue of the Angel of Death.

The angel’s head and face are draped in jasper curtains. He holds a memento mori, an hourglass symbolizing death.

Plaster casts by Bernini in the Vatican Pinacoteca

7. Vatican Pinacoteca

The Vatican Pinacoteca is the art gallery of the Vatican Museums. It houses plaster casts from 16567 that Bernini used to create the massive bronze sculpture of St. Peter’s Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The busts are of St. John and St. Athanasius. They are about 4 feet tall.

The angels are 8 feet tall. They look massive in the museum and very small on the basilica sculpture.

Bernini, Bust of Innocent X, 1650

8. Doria Pamphilj

The Doria Pamphilj is an exquisite gallery in Rome. It has one of the finest privately owned art collections with many depictions of Pope Innocent X, a member of the family.

READ: Secret Palace Museums in Rome

In his early years, Innocent X acquired a reputation as an upright if taciturn pope. But later he became unpredictable, impatient and grumpy. He was a notoriously ugly man. People described him as deformed and vulgar.

Bernini softens this depiction in his bust, idealizing the majesty of the papacy. Bernini portrays a dynamic Innocent X looking up. His eyebrows are slightly raised, giving him an air of indifference. The white marble suggests purity.

the ornate church of Santa Maria Della Vittoria

9. Santa Maria Della Vittoria, 1645-52

This church houses one of Bernini’s most dramatic and startling sculptures, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, in the Cornaro Chapel.

It depicts the moment when an angel pierces the heart of Saint Teresa with the golden arrow of divine love. St. Teresa was not your average saint. She was a Spanish nun who had mystical full-body visions.

The daring sculpture is a complex ensemble, Bernini’s stagecraft at the height of his maximalist ethos. The sculpture hovers above it in a raised niche.

Saint Teresa is on a cloud with golden rays of light pouring down on the moment of intense emotions. Along the walls of the chapel, members of the Cornaro family gather in “theatre boxes” to witness the divine moment.

Bernini, Santa Maria della Vittoria, 1645-52

But is it divine? A swooning Saint Teresa has her mouth open in delight. Her head tilts back. Art historians have noted that Teresa resembles even Bernini’s love Costanza.

Scholars disagree on the exact nature of the saint’s “ecstasy.” Some believe the image is frankly erotic and depicts a sexual experience.

Others think it only reflects divine passion. Bernini probably knew exactly what he was doing and created a potent cocktail of piety and eroticism to tap into the human experience.

In my opinion, the sculpture is exaggerated. Others love the play because it breaks down the barrier between spectator and audience. Bernini himself was proud of it, calling it “the least thing I’ve ever done”.

Bernini sculpture in Piazza della Minerva

10. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

Before entering the church, look at the “Bernini Elephant” in the center of Piazza della Minerva. It’s an eccentric piece.

It consists of an Egyptian obelisk on the back of an elephant. Bernini designed the oddity and it was sculpted by one of his assistants.

According to legend, Bernini took liberties with the position of the elephant. He deliberately sculpted the smiling elephant with its tail held to the side.

The elephant appears about to leave behind a “present” aimed at the home of a Bernini rival. Baroque Rome… you have to love it.

Bernini, Monument to Maria Raggi, 1647

Inside the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva you will find some more Bernini sculptures. The best is the monument to Maria Raggi, a nun who performed miracles.

It is very unique with wavy flowing curtains of gold marble and bronze. The sculpture is attached to a pillar along the nave of the church, in a funerary style that was revolutionary at the time.

Bernini’s Bee Fountain in Piazza Barberini, 1644

11. Piazza Barberini & Palazzo Barberini

Two of Bernini’s fountains grace the Piazza Barberini, home to one of Rome’s hidden gems, the Palazzo Barberini Museum. They are the Triton Fountain and the Bee Fountain.

The 1642 Triton Fountain was Bernini’s last public commission from Urban VIII. It was the first time a decorative public fountain had been featured in a European city centre.

The bee fountain is a tribute to the Barberini family. It’s a giant shell with three bees drinking from the gargoyles. Bees were the symbol of the Barberini family.

Bernini, Portrait of Urban VIII, 1632-33 (in the Palazzo Barberini)

Unfortunately, the fountain was destroyed by greedy gatherers who cut off the stone bees. The fountain was removed in 1880 and a copy of the original Bernini fountain was dedicated in 1916.

In the Palazzo Barberini itself you will find Bernini’s portrait of Urban VIII. In the bust, Bernini does his usual emotional work.

It’s all in the details – the unshaven hair on the Pope’s chin, the deeply incised irises, the detailed eyebrows and the shape of his eyes. Bernini gives the impression of life as if the Pope were standing in front of you.

Bernini, Blessed Ludovico Albertoni, 1671-74

12. Church of San Francesco a Ripa

This secret Trastevere church houses one of Bernini’s greatest late works, the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni. It is in the Altieri Chapel in the deep room above an altar. It looks like a counterpart to Bernini’s St. Teresa.

Like Saint Teresa, Blessed Ludovica portrays a nun in the ecstasy of communion with God. For centuries, it has been considered carnal by naughty observers.

The sculpture undoubtedly has a palpable erotic energy. Ludovica’s hand is on her chest and her head is thrown back.

It may seem strange that Bernini was praised for a sexual portrayal of a religious moment. But in the baroque, the connection between the carnal and the spiritual was considered perfectly normal.

the Angel’s Bridge, which leads to the Castel Sant’Angelo

13. Ponte Sant’Angelo

The magnificent Castel Sant’Angelo Bridge is the most beautiful bridge in Rome. It is the main route from Rome to Vatican City.

The bridge dates back to 138 AD and was built by Emperor Hadrian. To put an exclamation mark on the bridge, Pope Clemens IX. 1688 Bernini to decorate them with angels.

Bernini designed 10 fluttering sculptures popularly known as “breezy maniacs”. 2 of the 10 Bernini carved themselves, The Angel with the Scroll and The Angel with the Crowned Throne.

The Pope considered Bernini’s originals too precious to be exposed to the elements. So the sculptures that line the bridge today are copies.

Bernini, The Angel with the Crown of Thorns, 1668

14. Basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte

This 17th-century basilica is dedicated to Saint Andrew. Here you will find two of Bernini’s original angels. It is right on Via Veneto, not far from Piazza Barberini.

They are located on the sides of the presbytery, which is a part of the church reserved for the clergy. You can see the angel with the crown of thorns and the angel with the scroll.

Bernini’s blessed soul Bernini’s damned soul

15. Palazzo di Spagna

The Palazzo di Spagna is located at the foot of the Spanish Steps. The palace houses the Spanish embassy. The palace features two Bernini sculptures, Damned Soul and Blessed Soul.

Bernini created Damned Soul when he was only 20 years old. The bust shows a man screaming in pain with a distorted face. Some believe it is a self-portrait, with Bernini piercing himself in front of a mirror to faithfully reproduce the tortured face.

It is a classic example of how Bernini produces art that reflects intense emotions. Such a facial representation had never been produced before. Busts like these paved the way for artists to experiment with depicting the human body.

Unlike the damned soul, the blessed soul is a vision of sweetness and inner beauty. The bust shows a redeemed soul.

She raises her head and looks at the sky. Her parted lips and wide eyes convey the innocence that Gian Lorenzo wanted to capture.

Bernini sculptures in the Chigi Chapel from 1655-56

16. Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo

The Chigi Chapel is located in the beautiful Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. It is an impressive and unfortunately overlooked attraction in Rome. The church not only features sculptures by Bernini, but also paintings and frescoes by Caravaggio and Raphael.

For this chapel, between 1655 and 1661, Bernini carved two sculptural groups, Daniel in the lions’ den and Habakkuk and the angel.

These two sculptures show the beginning of Bernini’s late style, with somewhat more elongated figures characteristic of earlier Mannerism. Daniel is superior.

In it, a young Daniel stretches his arms to heaven and prays to escape the lion. The flowing folds are pure Bernini.

Bernini, Salvator Mundi, 1679

17. Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura

This church is home to Bernini’s very last work, Salvator Mundi, which was completed in 1679. It is a marble bust of Christ, the “Savior of the World”. Bernini called it his “darling”. Like the bust of Costanza, it was created out of love and devotion.

Bernini’s Salvator Mundi has an intriguing and complex story, much like Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Salvator Mundi. Bernini bequeathed the bust to his dear friend, Queen Christina of Sweden.

In return, she gave it to Pope Innocent XI. The bust was in the Pope’s family until 1773.

Then Salvator Mundi disappeared for 200 years. In 2001, a bust matching descriptions in the historical record was found in the monastery of San Sebastian in Rome. It was authenticated in the same year. However, its origin is still disputed to this day.

Santa Maria Maggiore

18. Santa Maria Maggiore

If you want to pay your respects to Bernini, his tomb is in the beautiful Santa Marie Maggiore in Rome’s Monti district. The church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The 18th-century exterior of the church gives no indication of the ancient treasures within. The church has a perfectly preserved Byzantine interior with 5th-century mosaics on both sides of the nave and 13th-century mosaics in the apse.

If you take a guided tour of the church, you’ll see a secret spiral staircase designed by Bernini. It is located in an apartment attached to the basilica. It is an architectural curiosity because there is no central support rail.

Bernini’s Spiral Staircase in Santa Maria Maggiore

In recent years, a portrait bust of Giovanni Frumenti has attracted the attention of Bernini experts. It was placed high up on the side wall of the baptistery, behind an iron gate.

Typical of Bernini’s busts, the personality of the sitter shines through. In 2016, art historian Steven F. Ostrow identified it as an autograph original, probably dating to 1615-17.

Bernini also contributed a baptismal font of Saint Cajetan holding the Holy Child.

Bernini is the only artist buried in a papal basilica. He has a simple tombstone with the inscription “Giovanni Lorenzi Bernini, glory of the arts and of the city, rests humbly here”.

Statue of St. Andrew designed by Bernini above the altar

19. Sant’Andrea al Quirinale

This church was designed by Bernini in 1658 and was known as the “Pearl of the Baroque”. Bernini used a vast order of architecture.

The entire body of the church is surrounded by huge pilasters. The entrance looks more like a huge gate than a church.

The interior has an oval shape. It is colorful because many different types of marble and stone have been used.

Above the high altar, Bernini designed and carved fictional figures and putti that appear to fall from the sky, illuminated from a window above. It’s a theater company.

The central painting in the altar is the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew. The painting is framed in the same marble as the pilasters that enclose the altar.

The dome above is of white stucco and gold. In the center is a dove representing the Holy Spirit. It is surrounded by white marble sculptures. Some of the figures appear to be looking down at us.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to the Bernini Trail in Rome. You may enjoy these other Rome travel guides and resources:

If you want to discover Bernini’s art in Rome, pin it for later.

“Bernini” redirects here. For other uses, see Bernini (disambiguation)

Italian sculptor and architect

Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini ( , , Italian: [ˈdʒan loˈrɛntso berˈniːni] ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; December 7, 1598 – November 28, 1680) was an Italian sculptor and architect. While he was a major figure in the world of architecture, he was above all the leading sculptor of his day credited with creating the Baroque sculptural style. As one scholar commented, “What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini can be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name can be immediately identified with a definite style and vision, and whose influence was extraordinarily powerful…”[1] Moreover, was he painter (mostly small oil paintings) and a man of the theater: he wrote, directed and acted plays (mostly carnival satires), for which he designed sets and theater machines. He also produced designs for a variety of decorative art objects, including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even carriages.

As an architect and town planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining architecture and sculpture, particularly elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments, and a whole range of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His great technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in working with marble ensured that he was considered a worthy successor to Michelangelo and far outshined other sculptors of his generation. His talent extended beyond the confines of sculpture to contemplating the environment in which it would be placed; His ability to bring sculpture, painting, and architecture together into a coherent conceptual and visual whole has been described by the late art historian Irving Lavin as “the unity of the visual arts”.[2]

Biography[edit]

youth [edit]

Bernini was born in Naples on December 7, 1598 to Angelica Galante, a Neapolitan woman, and the Mannerist sculptor Pietro Bernini, originally from Florence. He was the sixth of their thirteen children.[3] Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the definition of childhood genius. He was “recognized as a child prodigy when he was only eight years old, [and] he was consistently encouraged by his father Pietro. More precisely, it was Pope Paul V who, after first acknowledging the talent of the young Bernini, made the famous remark: “This child will be the Michelangelo of his age”, and later confirmed this prophecy to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (the future Pope Urban VIII.) repeated ) as Domenico Bernini reports in his biography of his father, who received a papal commission in 1606 (to contribute a marble relief in the Cappella Paolina of Santa Maria Maggiore) and so moved with his entire family from Naples to Rome and the education of his son Gian Lorenzo in earnest.

Several surviving works from around 1615–1620 are, by general scholarly consensus, joint efforts by father and son: these include The Faun Teased by Putti (c.1615, Metropolitan Museum, NYC), Boy with a Dragon (c.1616). –17, Getty Museum, Los Angeles), the Four Seasons by Aldobrandini (c.1620, private collection), and the recently discovered Bust of the Redeemer (1615–16, New York, private collection).[6] Sometime after the Bernini family arrived in Rome, word of the young Gian Lorenzo’s great talent got around and he soon attracted the attention of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, nephew of the incumbent Pope Paul V, who spoke of the young genius as his uncle. Bernini was therefore introduced to Pope Paul V to see if the stories of Gian Lorenzo’s talent were true. The boy improvised a sketch of Saint Paul for the amazed Pope, and this was the beginning of the Pope’s attention to this young talent.[7]

Once brought to Rome, 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 Castelgandolfo). mostly for professional reasons. Rome was Bernini’s city: “You were made for Rome,” Pope Urban VIII said to him, “and Rome for you.” In this world of 17th-century Rome and the international religio-political power that resided there, Bernini created his greatest Factories. Bernini’s works are therefore often characterized as perfect expressions of the spirit of the confident, triumphant but self-defending Counter-Reformation Roman Catholic Church. Certainly Bernini was a man of his time and deeply religious (at least later in life),[9] but he and his artistic output should not be reduced simply to instruments of the papacy and its political-doctrinal programs, an impression made at times when through the works of the three most important Bernini scholars of the previous generation, Rudolf Wittkower, Howard Hibbard and Irving Lavin.[10] As Tomaso Montanari’s recent revisionist monograph La libertà di Bernini (Turin: Einaudi, 2016) argues, and as Franco Mormando’s anti-hagiographical biography Bernini: His Life and His Rome (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011) illustrates, Bernini and his artistic vision maintained a measure of freedom from the thought and mores of Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism.

Partnership with Scipione Borghese[ edit ]

Under the patronage of the exceedingly wealthy and most powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the young Bernini rose rapidly as a sculptor. His early works for the cardinal included decorative pieces for the Villa Borghese garden, such as the goat Amalthea with the boy Jupiter and a faun. This marble sculpture (executed sometime before 1615) is generally considered by scholars to be the earliest work executed entirely by Bernini himself. Among Bernini’s earliest documented works is his collaboration with Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, commissioned by his father in February 1618, to create four marble putti for the Barberini family chapel in the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the contract providing for his son Gian Lorenzo to assist would execute the statues.[12] Also dating from 1618 is a letter from Maffeo Barberini in Rome to his brother Carlo in Florence, mentioning that he (Maffeo) was thinking of asking the young Gian Lorenzo to complete one of the incomplete statues left by Michelangelo, the owned by Michelangelo at the time were grand-nephews who Maffeo wanted to buy, a remarkable testament to the great ability that was already believed to be of the young Bernini.[13]

Although the commission to complete the Michelangelo statue was unsuccessful, shortly thereafter (1619) the young Bernini was commissioned to repair and complete a famous work of antiquity, the Sleeping Hermaphrodite, which belonged to Cardinal Scipione Borghese (Galleria Borghese, Rome) and later (ca. 1622) restored the so-called Ludovisi Ares (Palazzo Altemps, Rome).[14]

Also from this early period are the so-called Damned Soul and Blessed Soul of circa 1619, two small marble busts that may have been influenced by a series of prints by Pieter de Jode I or Karel van Mallery, but which were clearly in the inventory of their first documented owner , Fernando de Botinete y Acevedo, cataloged as representing a nymph and a satyr, a frequently paired duo in ancient sculpture (they were neither commissioned nor ever owned by Scipione Borghese, or, like most scholars, falsely claimed the Spanish cleric Pedro Foix Montoya).[15] At twenty-two, Bernini was considered talented enough to receive a commission for a papal portrait, the bust of Pope Paul V, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum.

However, Bernini’s reputation was definitively established by four masterpieces executed between 1619 and 1625, all of which are now on display in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. For the art historian Rudolf Wittkower these four works – Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (1619), The Rape of Proserpina (1621-22), Apollo and Daphne (1622-1625) and David (1623-24) – were “inaugurated”. new era in the history of European sculpture.” This view is echoed by other scholars such as Howard Hibbard, who proclaimed that throughout the 17th century “there were no sculptors or architects comparable to Bernini”. Bernini adapted classical greatness of Renaissance sculpture and the dynamic energy of the Mannerist period, and forged a new, distinctly Baroque conception for religious and historical sculpture, powerfully imbued with dramatic realism, stirring emotions, and dynamic, theatrical compositions. Bernini’s early sculptural groups and portraits manifest “a mastery of the human form in motion and a technical sophistication attained only by the greatest sculptors of classical antiquity.”[18] In addition, Bernini possessed the ability to depict highly dramatic narratives, with characters displaying an intense psychology of states, but also to large-formati ge to organize sculptural works that convey a great grandeur.

Unlike sculptures by his predecessors, these focus on specific narrative tensions in the stories they attempt to tell: Aeneas and his family fleeing burning Troy; the moment when Pluto finally seizes the hunted Persephone; just as Apollo sees his beloved Daphne begin her transformation into a tree. They are transitory but dramatic, powerful moments in every story. Bernini’s David is another moving example of this. Michelangelo’s motionless, idealized David shows the subject holding a stone in one hand and a slingshot in the other, contemplating the fight; similarly still versions by other Renaissance artists, including Donatello, show the subject in his triumph after battling Goliath. Bernini illustrates David during his active battle with the giant as he twists his body to catapult onto Goliath. To emphasize these moments and ensure they are appreciated by the viewer, Bernini designed the sculptures with a specific point of view, although he modeled them entirely in the round. Their original placements at Villa Borghese were on walls so that the viewer’s first glance was the dramatic moment of the narrative.[20]

The result of such an approach is that the sculptures are endowed with greater psychological energy. The viewer finds it easier to gauge the characters’ state of mind and therefore understands the larger story at work: Daphne’s mouth gaping in fear and amazement, David biting his lip in determination, or Proserpina struggling desperately to to break free. In addition to depicting psychological realism, they show a greater interest in depicting physical detail. The tousled hair of Pluto, the supple flesh of Proserpina, or the forest of leaves that begins to envelop Daphne demonstrate Bernini’s accuracy and delight in depicting complex real textures in marble form.[21]

Pontifical artist: the pontificate of Urban VIII [ edit ]

In 1621 Pope Paul V Borghese succeeded on the throne of St. Peter another admiring friend of Bernini, Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who became Pope Gregory XV. : Although his reign was very short (he died in 1623), Pope Gregory commissioned portraits of himself (both in marble and bronze) from Bernini. The Pope also bestowed on Bernini the honorary rank of “Cavalier”, the title by which the artist was usually referred to for the rest of his life. In 1623 came the accession to the papal throne of his aforementioned friend and former tutor, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, as Pope Urban VIII, and henceforth (until Urban’s death in 1644) Bernini enjoyed a near monopolistic patronage from the Barberini Pope and his family. The new Pope Urban is reported to have said: “It is very fortunate for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini proclaimed Pope, but our happiness is even greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate.”[22] Although he did not fare so well during the reign (1644–55) of Innocent X. Under Innocent’s successor, Alexander VII (reign 1655–67), Bernini again achieved outstanding artistic dominance, and in the ensuing pontificate continued to be held in high esteem by Clement IX. During his brief reign (1667–69).

Under the auspices of Urban VIII, Bernini’s horizons expanded rapidly and widely: not only did he produce sculptures for private residences, but he also played the most significant artistic (and technical) role on the city’s stage as a sculptor, architect and urban planner. His official appointments bear witness to this – “curator of the papal art collection, director of the papal foundry in Castel Sant’Angelo, commissioner of the fountains in Piazza Navona”. Such positions gave Bernini the opportunity to showcase his versatile skills around the city. Under much protest from older, more experienced master architects, he was appointed chief architect of St. Peter’s in 1629, with practically no architectural training, after the death of Carlo Maderno. From then on, Bernini’s work and artistic vision were placed in the symbolic heart of Rome.

Bernini’s artistic superiority under Urban VIII and Alexander VII meant he was able to secure the most important commissions in Rome of his day, namely the various massive beautification projects of the newly completed St. Peter’s Basilica, completed under Pope Paul V with the addition of Maderno’s nave and facade and finally the reconsecration by Pope Urban VIII on November 18, 1626 after 150 years of planning and construction. Within the basilica he was responsible for the Baldacchino, the decoration of the four pillars under the dome, the Cathedra Petri or Chair of St. Peter in the apse, the tomb of Matilda of Tuscany, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament on the right nave and the decoration (floor, walls and arches) of the new nave. The canopy of St. Peter immediately became the focal point of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. Bernini’s four-column creation, designed as a massive spiraling canopy of gilded bronze over the tomb of St. Peter, reached nearly 30 m (98 ft) above the ground and cost around 200,000 Roman scudi (about $8 million in Roman currency). early 21st century). century).[25] “Quite simply,” writes one art historian, “you’ve never seen anything like it.” Soon after St. Peter’s canopy, Bernini took over the embellishment of the four massive piers at the basilica’s crossing (i.e. the structures that support the dome), including the four colossal, theatrically dramatic statues, including the majestic St. Longinus by Bernini himself executed (the other three are by other contemporary sculptors François Duquesnoy, Francesco Mochi and Bernini’s pupil Andrea Bolgi).

In the basilica, Bernini also began work on the tomb for Urban VIII, which was not completed until after Urban’s death in 1644, one in a long, distinguished line of tombs and funerary monuments for which Bernini is famous and a traditional genre, on which his influence left a lasting mark, often copied by subsequent artists. Indeed, according to Erwin Panofsky, Bernini’s last and most original funerary monument, the tomb of Pope Alexander VII in St. Peter’s Basilica, represents the pinnacle of European funerary art whose creative ingenuity subsequent artists could not hope to surpass. 27] Bernini’s design of the Piazza San Pietro in front of the Basilica, begun and largely completed during the reign of Alexander VII, is one of his most innovative and successful architectural designs, transforming a formerly irregular, immature open space into an aesthetically unified, emotionally exciting and logistically efficient (for carriages and crowds), fully in harmony with the pre-existing buildings and adding to the grandeur of the basilica.

Bust of Armand, Cardinal de Richelieu (1640–1641) (1640–1641)

Despite this lively interest in large works of public architecture, Bernini was able to continue to devote himself to his sculpture, especially portraits in marble, but also large statues such as the life-size Saint Bibiana (1624, Church of Santa Bibiana, Rome). Bernini’s portraits demonstrate his increasing ability to capture the utterly unmistakable personal characteristics of his sitters, as well as his ability to achieve almost painterly effects in cool-white marble that render convincingly realistic the various surfaces involved: human flesh, hair, fabric of various types, metal, etc. These portraits included a number of busts of Urban VIII himself, the family bust of Francesco Barberini, and most notably the two busts of Scipione Borghese – the second of which had been quickly created by Bernini once an error had occurred in the marble of the first has been found. The ephemeral nature of Scipione’s facial expression is often noted by art historians, iconic of the Baroque concern for depicting fleeting movements in static artworks. For Rudolf Wittkower, “the viewer feels that not only expression and attitude change in the twinkling of an eye, but also the folds of the casually arranged coat”.

Other marble portraits from this period include that of Costanza Bonarelli (executed c.1637), which is unusual in its more personal, intimate nature. (At the time the portrait was sculpted, Bernini was having an affair with Costanza, the wife of one of his assistants, the sculptor Matteo.) Indeed, it appears to be the first marble portrait of a non-aristocratic woman by a major artist in European history.[29]

From the late 1630s, now known in Europe as one of the most accomplished portraitists in marble, Bernini also received royal commissions from outside Rome, for subjects such as Cardinal Richelieu of France, Francesco I d’Este, the powerful Duke of Modena, Charles I. of England and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. The sculpture of Charles I was made in Rome from a triple portrait (oil on canvas) by Van Dyck now preserved in the British Royal Collection. The bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire in 1698 (although its design is known from contemporary copies and drawings) and that of Henrietta Maria was not made because of the outbreak of the English Civil War.[30]

Temporary eclipse and resurgence under Innocent X

In 1644, with the death of Pope Urban, with whom Bernini was so closely associated, and the rise to power of Barberini’s bitter enemy, Pope Innocent X Pamphilj, Bernini’s career suffered a great, unprecedented darkness that would last four years. This had to do not only with Innocent’s anti-Barberini policies, but also with Bernini’s role in the disastrous project of the new bell towers for St. Peter’s, designed and supervised entirely by Bernini. The infamous Bell Tower affair would become the biggest failure of his career, both professionally and financially. In 1636, Pope Urban had ordered Bernini to design and build the two long-planned facade bell towers to finally complete the exterior of St. Peter’s Basilica: the foundations of the two towers had already been designed and built (namely the final bays on both ends of the facade) by Carlo Maderno (architect of the nave and facade) decades earlier. When the first tower was completed in 1641, cracks in the facade began to appear, but strangely, work on the second tower nevertheless continued and the first floor was completed. Despite the cracks, work did not stop until July 1642, after the papal treasury was exhausted by the devastating war of Castro. Knowing that Bernini could no longer rely on the protection of a benevolent pope, his enemies (especially Francesco Borromini) raised great alarm about the cracks, predicting disaster for the entire basilica and blaming Bernini. Subsequent investigations did in fact reveal the cause of the cracks as Maderno’s faulty foundations rather than Bernini’s elaborate design, an exoneration later corroborated by the meticulous investigation conducted in 1680 under Pope Innocent XI. was carried out.[32]

Nonetheless, Bernini’s opponents in Rome managed to seriously damage the reputation of Urban’s artist and persuaded Pope Innocent to order (in February 1646) the complete demolition of both towers, to Bernini’s great humiliation and even financial disadvantage (in the form of a substantial fine). ). for failure of work). After that, one of the rare failures of his career, Bernini withdrew into himself: so did his son Domenico. his later unfinished statue of 1647, Truth Unveiled by Time, was intended to be his self-consoling comment on the matter, expressing his belief that time would eventually reveal the actual truth behind the story and fully exonerate him as to what actually happened.

Although he received no personal commissions from Innocent or the Pamphilj family in the early years of the new papacy, Bernini did not lose his earlier positions granted to him by previous popes. Innocent X retained Bernini in all official roles bestowed upon him by Urban, including that of St Peter’s chief architect. Under Bernini’s design and direction, work continued on the decoration of the massive, recently completed but still utterly unadorned nave of St. Peter’s, with an ornate polychrome marble floor, marble paneling on the walls and pilasters, and numerous stucco statues and reliefs. It was not without reason that Pope Alexander VII once joked: “If everything that Cavalier Bernini had made were removed from St. Peter’s Basilica, this temple would be emptied.” In view of all his numerous and varied works within the basilica over several decades, Bernini has contributed indeed bears the lion’s share of responsibility for the final and enduring aesthetic appearance and emotional impact of St. Peter’s Basilica.[33] He was also allowed to continue working on Urban VIII’s tomb, despite Innocent’s dislike of the Barberini. A few months after Urban’s tomb was completed, Bernini, under controversial circumstances, won the Pamphilj commission for the prestigious Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona in 1648, marking the end of his disgrace and the beginning of another glorious chapter in his life.

If there had been doubts about Bernini’s position as Rome’s pre-eminent artist, they were finally removed by the unqualified success of the wonderfully delightful and technically ingenious Fountain of the Four Rivers, which features a heavy ancient obelisk placed over a cavity created by a cavernous rock formation Center of an ocean of exotic sea creatures. Bernini continued to receive commissions from Pope Innocent X and other high-ranking members of the Roman clergy and aristocracy, as well as from eminent patrons outside Rome, such as Francesco d’Este. Bernini’s boundless creativity quickly recovered from the humiliation of the bell tower and continued as before. Novel funerary monuments were designed, as illustrated in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva the apparently floating, as it were floating in the air medallion for the deceased nun Maria Raggi, or chapels designed by him such as the Raimondi chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, as Bernini was able to use hidden lighting to help suggest divine intervention in the narratives he was depicting.

One of Bernini’s most accomplished and famous works of this period was the Cornaro family chapel in the small Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. The Cornaro Chapel (inaugurated 1651) demonstrated Bernini’s ability to combine sculpture, architecture, fresco, stucco, and lighting into “a wondrous whole” (bel composto, to use the term used by early biographer Filippo Baldinucci to describe his approach to architecture ) to create what scholar Irving Lavin has called the “unified work of art”. The central focus of the Cornaro Chapel is the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, which depicts the so-called “transverbation” of the Spanish nun and saint-mystic Teresa of Avila.[35] Bernini presents the viewer with a theatrically vivid portrait in gleaming white marble of the swooning Teresa and the softly smiling angel, tenderly grasping the arrow that pierces the saint’s heart. On either side of the chapel, the artist places relief portraits of various members of the Cornaro family – the Venetian family commemorated in the chapel, including Cardinal Federico Cornaro, who commissioned the chapel from Bernini – who are chatting animatedly, presumably about the event taking place before them. The result is a complex but subtly orchestrated architectural setting that provides the spiritual context (a celestial backdrop with a hidden light source) that reminds viewers of the ultimate nature of this wondrous event.[36]

Nonetheless, during Bernini’s lifetime and in the centuries that followed to the present day, Bernini’s Saint Teresa has been accused of overstepping a line of decency by sexualizing the visual depiction of the saints’ experience to a degree that no artist before or after Bernini had dared to do: depicting her at an incredibly young chronological age, as an idealized delicate beauty, in a half prostrate position with her mouth open and her legs spread, her headscarf coming off, with her bare feet conspicuously flared (Discalced Carmelites, always wore sandals with heavy stockings out of modesty ) and the seraph “disrobed” her by (unnecessarily) parting her cloak in order to pierce her heart with his arrow.[37]

Decency aside, Bernini’s Teresa was still an artistic tour de force, incorporating every varied form of fine art and technique Bernini had at his disposal, including hidden lighting, thin gilded beams, recessive architectural spaces, secret lens, and more than twenty different kinds of colored marble: these all combine to create the final work of art – “a perfected, highly dramatic and deeply satisfying seamless ensemble”.

Embellishment of Rome under Alexander VII[edit]

Upon his accession to the throne, Pope Alexander VII Chigi (1655–1667) began to implement his highly ambitious plan to transform Rome into a magnificent world capital through systematic, bold (and costly) urban planning. In this way he brought about the long, slow restoration of Rome’s urban glory – the “renovatio Romae” – that had begun in the 15th century under the Renaissance popes. During the course of his pontificate, Alexander commissioned many large-scale architectural changes in the city – indeed some of the most significant in the city’s recent history and for years to come – and chose Bernini as his key collaborator (although other architects, notably Pietro da Cortona, were also involved). This marked the beginning of another extraordinarily fruitful and successful chapter in Bernini’s career.

Bernini Self-Portrait, c. 1665

One of Bernini’s main commissions during this period was the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. In a previously wide, irregular, and totally unstructured space, he created two massive semi-circular colonnades, each row formed by four white columns. The result was an oval shape that created an inclusive arena where every gathering of citizens, pilgrims and visitors could witness the Pope’s appearance – either as he appeared on the loggia on the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica or on the balconies of the neighboring Vatican palaces. Bernini’s creation, often compared to two arms stretching out from the church to embrace the waiting crowd, expanded the symbolic grandeur of the Vatican area and created an “intoxicating expanse” that was architecturally a “clear success.”[39 ]

Elsewhere in the Vatican, Bernini created systematic transformations and majestic embellishments of either empty or aesthetically unremarkable spaces that exist as he designed them to this day and have become indelible symbols of the splendor of the papal precincts. In the basilica’s hitherto unadorned apse, the Cathedra Petri, the symbolic throne of St. Peter, was rearranged as a monumental extravagance in gilded bronze to match the baldacchino created earlier in the century. Bernini’s complete reconstruction of the Scala Regia, the stately papal staircase between St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Palace, was somewhat less ostentatious in appearance, but still called for Bernini’s creative powers (through clever optical illusion tricks, for example) to create an apparent unity, entirely functional yet majestically impressive staircase to connect two irregular buildings in an even more irregular space.

Not all work during this period was of such a large scale. In fact, the commission Bernini received to build the church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale for the Jesuits was of relatively modest size (although magnificent in its inner chromatic splendor), which Bernini carried out entirely free of charge. Sant’Andrea shared with St. Peter’s Square – in contrast to the complex geometries of his rival Francesco Borromini – a focus on basic geometric shapes, circles and ovals, to create spiritually intense buildings. Likewise, Bernini moderated the presence of color and decoration in these buildings, drawing visitors’ attention to these simple forms that underpinned the building. He also designed the Church of Santa Maria dell’Assunzione in the town of Ariccia, with its circular plan, rounded dome and three-arched portico.

Visit to France and service to King Louis XIV[edit]

Bust of Louis XIV, 1665, 1665

In late April 1665, Bernini, still considered the most important artist in Rome, if not all of Europe, was forced by political pressure (both from the French court and from Pope Alexander VII) to travel to Paris to paint for King to work Louis XIV who needed an architect to complete the work on the royal palace of the Louvre. Bernini would remain in Paris until mid-October. Louis XIV commissioned a member of his court as Bernini’s translator, tourist guide and general attendant, Paul Fréart de Chantelou, who kept a diary of Bernini’s visit, which records much of Bernini’s behavior and utterances in Paris.[43] Writer Charles Perrault, who at the time was serving as an assistant to French Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, also gave first-hand accounts of Bernini’s visit.

Such was Bernini’s popularity that when he strolled around Paris, the streets were lined with admiring crowds. But things soon turned sour.[45] Bernini presented ready-made designs for the eastern front (i.e. the all-important main façade of the entire palace) of the Louvre, which were ultimately rejected, albeit not formally until 1667, well after his departure from Paris (actually the foundations already laid). for Bernini’s Louvre addition were dedicated in October 1665 in a lavish ceremony attended by both Bernini and King Ludwig). It is often said in the grant about Bernini that his Louvre designs were rejected because Louis and his financial adviser Jean-Baptiste Colbert felt they were too Italianate or too baroque. In fact, as Franco Mormando points out, “aesthetics are not mentioned in any of the . . . surviving memos” by Colbert or any of the artistic advisors at the French court. The explicit reasons for rejection were utilitarian, namely at the level of physical safety and comfort (e.g. latrines location).[47] It is also undisputed that there was an interpersonal conflict between Bernini and the young French king, in which each felt too little respect from the other. Although his design for the Louvre was not built, it spread throughout Europe through engraving and his direct influence can be seen in later stately residences such as Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire.

Other projects in Paris suffered a similar fate.[49] With the exception of Chantelou, Bernini failed to form significant friendships at the French court. His frequent negative comments on various aspects of French culture, especially art and architecture, did not go down well, especially when compared to his praise for the art and architecture of Italy (especially Rome); he said that a painting by Guido Reni, the Altarpiece of the Annunciation (then in the Carmelite Convent, now in the Louvre Museum), was “worth half the price of Paris alone”. The only work remaining from his Parisian period is the bust of Louis XIV, although he also contributed much to the execution of the marble relief Christ Child Playing with a Nail (now in the Louvre) by his son Paolo as a gift to the Queen of France. Back in Rome, Bernini created a monumental equestrian statue of Louis XIV; when it finally reached Paris (1685, five years after the artist’s death), the French king found it extremely repulsive and wished to destroy it; it was instead re-carved into a depiction of the ancient Roman hero Marcus Curtius.[51]

Later years and death

Bernini’s tomb in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore

Up to almost two weeks before his death as a result of a stroke, Bernini remained physically and mentally fit and active in his job. The pontificate of his old friend Clemens IX. was too short (just under two years) to accomplish more than Bernini’s dramatic renovation of the Ponte Sant’Angelo, while the artist under Clemens’s elaborate plan for a new apse for the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was drawn up amid public uproar over its expense and the associated destruction of ancient mosaics met an unpleasant end. The last two popes in Bernini’s life, Clement X and Innocent XI, were both not particularly close or sympathetic to Bernini and were not particularly interested in financing works of art and architecture, especially given the disastrous conditions of the papal treasury. Bernini’s most important commission, completed by him in just six months in 1674 under Clement X, was the statue of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, another nun mystic. The work, reminiscent of Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, is in the chapel dedicated to Ludovica, remodeled under Bernini’s supervision in the Trastevere Church of San Francesco in Ripa, whose facade was designed by Bernini’s pupil Mattia de’ Rossi.[52]

In the last two years of his life, Bernini also carved (allegedly for Queen Christina) the Bust of the Redeemer (Basilica San Sebastiano fuori le Mura, Rome) and oversaw the restoration of the historic Palazzo della Cancelleria, a direct commission from Pope Innocent XI. The latter commission is an excellent endorsement both of Bernini’s enduring professional reputation and of his good health of mind and body even in old age, as the Pope chose him for this prestigious and most difficult task over a multitude of talented younger architects who abounded in Rome exist, because, as his son Domenico points out, “the deterioration of the palace was so advanced that the danger of its imminent collapse was evident”.

Shortly after completing the latter project, Bernini died at his home on November 28, 1680, and was buried with little public fanfare in the simple, unadorned Bernini family tomb with his parents in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Although an elaborate funerary monument was once planned (documented by a single surviving sketch of ca. 1670 by the pupil Ludovico Gimignani), it was never built and Bernini remained in Rome without lasting public recognition of his life and career until 1898, when on the occasion On the occasion of his birthday, a simple commemorative plaque and a small bust were placed on the facade of his house in Via della Mercede, proclaiming: “Here lived and died Gianlorenzo Bernini, sovereign of art, to whom popes, princes and a multitude bowed in reverence the People.”

Personal life[edit]

In the 1630s Bernini had an affair with a married woman named Costanza (wife of his workshop assistant Matteo Bonucelli, also known as Bonarelli) and created a bust of her at the height of their romance (now in the Bargello, Florence). Costanza later had an affair with Bernini’s younger brother, Luigi, who was Bernini’s right-hand man in his studio. When Bernini found out about Costanza and his brother, in a fit of insane rage he chased Luigi through the streets of Rome and into the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, threatening his life. To punish his unfaithful lover, Bernini had a servant go to Costanza’s house, where the servant cut her face several times with a razor. The servant was later jailed while Costanza herself was jailed for adultery. Bernini himself was instead exonerated by the Pope, although he had committed a crime in ordering the face slitting.[54] Soon after, in May 1639, at the age of forty-one, by order of Pope Urban, Bernini married a twenty-two-year-old Roman woman, Caterina Tezio, in an arranged marriage. She bore him eleven children, including the youngest son Domenico Bernini, who would later become his first biographer.[55] After his never-repeated bouts of passion and bloody rage, and his subsequent marriage, Bernini turned more seriously to the practice of his faith, according to his early official biographers, while in 1670 brother Luigi was again to bring great grief and scandal to his family by the sodomite rape of a young Bernini boy Workshop assistants on the construction site of the Constantine monument in St. Peter’s Basilica.[56]

Architecture[ edit ]

Bernini’s architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors.[57] He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. His best-known works include the Piazza San Pietro (1656–67), the piazza and colonnades in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the interior of St. Peter’s Basilica. His secular works include a number of Roman palaces: after the death of Carlo Maderno, from 1630 he took charge of the construction of the Palazzo Barberini, on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio, begun 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi, begun 1664).

Canopy of St. Peter, 1624–1633, 1624–1633

His first architectural projects were the facade and renovation of the Church of Santa Bibiana (1624–26) and the Canopy of St. Peter (1624–33), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1629, and before the canopy of St. Peter’s was completed, Urban VIII put him in charge of all ongoing architectural work at St. Peter’s. However, Bernini fell out of favor during the papacy of Innocent X Pamphili: one reason was the pope’s animosity towards the Barberini and thus towards their clients, including Bernini. Another reason was the failure of the bell towers designed and built by Bernini for St. Peter’s, beginning during the reign of Urban VIII. The completed north tower and the only partially completed south tower were demolished by Innocent in 1646 because their excessive weight had caused cracks in the basilica’s facade and threatened further devastation. About the real seriousness of the situation (Bernini’s rival Borromini spread an extreme anti-Bernini catastrophe) and about the question of responsibility for the damage: who is to blame? Bernini? Pope Urban VIII forcing Bernini to design overly elaborate towers? The late architect of St. Peter, Carlo Maderno, who built the flimsy foundations for the towers? Official papal inquiries in 1680 actually fully exonerated Bernini while blaming Maderno. Never entirely without patronage during the Pamphili years, after Innocent’s death in 1655, Bernini regained an important role in the decoration of St. Peter’s with Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter’s. Other significant works by Bernini in the Vatican include the Scala Regia (1663–66), the monumental grand staircase entrance to the Vatican Palace, and the Cathedra Petri, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Chapel of the Most Holy in the nave.

View of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter’s Basilica

Bernini didn’t build many churches from scratch; Rather, his efforts focused on pre-existing structures such as the restored Church of Santa Bibiana, and especially St. Peter’s Basilica. He completed three commissions for new churches in Rome and nearby small towns. Best known is the small but ornate oval church of Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, built (from 1658) for the Jesuit novitiate and one of the rare works by his hand, used by Bernini’s son Domenico to report that his father was real and very pleased.[59] Bernini also designed churches in Castelgandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova, 1658–1661) and Ariccia (Santa Maria Assunta, 1662–1664) and was responsible for the remodeling of the Santuario della Madonna di Galloro (just outside Ariccia). furnish it with a majestic new facade.

Invited to Paris in 1665 to prepare work for Louis XIV, Bernini submitted designs for the east facade of the Louvre Palace, but his projects were ultimately rejected in favor of the more sober and classical proposals of a committee made up of three Frenchmen: Louis Le Vau , Charles Le Brun and the physician and amateur architect Claude Perrault[60], signaling the waning influence of Italian artistic hegemony in France. Essentially, Bernini’s projects were rooted in the Italian Baroque urban tradition of relating public buildings to their surroundings, often leading to innovative architectural expression in urban spaces such as piazzas or squares. By this time, however, the French absolutist monarchy favored the neoclassical monumental austerity of the Louvre facade, no doubt with the added political bonus that it had been designed by a Frenchman. However, the final version included Bernini’s feature of a flat roof behind a Palladian balustrade.

Private apartments[ edit ]

During his lifetime, Bernini lived in various residences throughout the city: the most important among them, a palazzo just opposite Santa Maria Maggiore and still existing at Via Liberiana 24 when his father was still alive; After his father’s death in 1629, Bernini moved the clan to the long-devastated Santa Marta neighborhood behind the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica, giving him more convenient access to the Vatican Foundry and to his work-atelier on Vatican grounds. In 1639 Bernini bought land on the corner of Via della Mercede and Via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. This gave him the distinction of being the only one of two artists (the other being Pietro da Cortona) to be the owner of his own large palatial (though not lavish) residence, also equipped with its own water supply. Bernini renovated and enlarged the existing palazzo on Via della Mercede, today Nos. 11 and 12. (The building is sometimes referred to as “Palazzo Bernini”, but this title refers more to the later and larger buildings of the Bernini family home in the Via del Corso, to which they moved in the early 19th century, now known as Palazzo Manfroni-Bernini.) Bernini lived at No. 11 (extensively remodeled in the 19th century), which housed his work studio as well as a large collection of works of art , his own and those of other artists.[61] It is believed that it must have been annoying for Bernini to witness through the windows of his apartment the construction of the tower and dome of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte by his rival Borromini and also the demolition of the chapel he, Bernini, had built drafted at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide to have it replaced by Borromini’s chapel.[62] However, the construction of Sant’Andrea was completed by Bernini’s close pupil Mattia de’ Rossi and contains (to this day) the marble originals of two of Bernini’s own angels executed by the master for the Ponte Sant’Angelo.

Fountain[ edit ]

True to the decorative dynamism of the Baroque, which loved the aesthetic pleasure and emotional joy afforded by the sight and sound of moving water, among Bernini’s most talented and celebrated creations were his Roman fountains, which were both useful public works and personal ones Monuments to their patrons were , papal or other. His first fountain, the ‘Barcaccia’ (commissioned 1627, completed 1629) at the foot of the Spanish Steps, deftly overcame a challenge faced by Bernini on several other fountain commissions, the low water pressure in many parts of Rome (Roman fountains were all propelled solely by gravity), creating a low-lying flatboat that could make optimal use of the small amount of water available. Another example is the long-dismantled fountain “Woman Drying Her Hair” that Bernini created for the no longer preserved Villa Barberini ai Bastioni on the edge of the Janiculum Hill overlooking St. Peter’s Basilica.[63] His other fountains include the Fountain of the Triton or Fontana del Tritone and the Barberini Fountain of the Bees, the Fontana delle Api.[64] The Fountain of the Four Rivers, or Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, in Piazza Navona is a heady masterpiece of spectacle and political allegory in which Bernini once again brilliantly overcome the problem of the piazza’s low water pressure, creating the illusion of an abundance of water was created reality did not exist. An often-repeated but false anecdote has it that one of the Bernini’s river gods casts his disapproving gaze at the facade of Sant’Agnese in Agone (designed by talented but politically less successful rival Francesco Borromini), impossible because the fountains became some Built years before the church’s facade was finished. Bernini was also the artist of the statue of the Moor in La Fontana del Moro in Piazza Navona (1653).

Bernini’s Triton Fountain is musically represented in the second section of Ottorino Respighi’s “Fountain of Rome”.

Funerary monuments and other works[edit]

Another important category of Bernini’s work was that of the funerary monument, a genre on which his distinctive new style had a decisive and lasting influence; This category includes his tombs for Popes Urban VIII and Alexander VII (both in St. Peter’s), Cardinal Domenico Pimental (Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, design only), and Matilda of Canossa (St. Peter’s). Related to the funerary monument is the funerary monument, of which Bernini executed several (most notably that of Maria Raggi [Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome], also of a very innovative style and lasting influence. [65] Among his smaller commissions, although from Mentioned by none of his earliest biographers, Baldinucci or Domenico Bernini, the elephant and obelisk is a sculpture near the Pantheon, in Piazza della Minerva, in front of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, as Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted a small ancient Egyptian obelisk (discovered under the piazza) was to be erected on the same site, and in 1665 he commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk: the sculpture of an elephant carrying the obelisk on its back was from one of Bernini’s students, Ercole Ferrata, based on a design by his master and completed in 1667. An inscription on the pedestal inscribed It refers to the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Roman goddess Minerva to the Virgin Mary, who is said to have supplanted these pagan goddesses and to whom the church is dedicated.66 A popular anecdote concerns the smile of the elephant. According to legend, to find out why it is smiling, the viewer must examine the animal’s posterior and find that its muscles are tense and its tail is shifted to the left, as if it is defecating. The rump of the animal points directly to one of the headquarters of the Dominican Order, which houses the offices of its inquisitors as well as the office of Father Giuseppe Paglia, a Dominican friar who was one of Bernini’s main opponents, as a final greeting and last word.[67]

Among his smaller commissions for non-Roman patrons or venues, in 1677 Bernini collaborated with Ercole Ferrata on the creation of a fountain for the Lisbon palace of the Portuguese nobleman, the Count of Ericeira: Bernini copied his earlier fountains and provided the design of the fountain, sculpted by Ferrata Neptune and four Tritons around a basin. The fountain has survived and has been outside the gardens of the Palacio Nacional de Queluz, several miles outside of Lisbon, since 1945.[68]

Paintings and drawings[edit]

Bernini would have studied painting as a normal part of his artistic training, begun at an early age under the tutelage of his father Pietro, in addition to further training in the studio of the Florentine painter Cigoli. His earliest activity as a painter was probably no more than a sporadic pastime, practiced mainly in his youth, until the mid-1620s, that is, until the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (r. 1623–1644), the Bernini ordered painting to be studied more seriously because the Pope wanted him to decorate St. Peter’s Loggia of Benediction. The latter commission was most likely never executed because the large-scale narrative compositions required were simply beyond Bernini’s skill as a painter. According to his early biographers Baldinucci and Domenico Bernini, Bernini completed at least 150 paintings, mostly in the decades of the 1620s and 30s, but at present there are no more than 35–40 surviving paintings that can be safely attributed to his hand. 69] The surviving works that are securely attributed are mostly portraits, viewed at close range and set against a blank background, with a confident, even brilliant painterly brushwork (similar to that of his Spanish contemporary Velasquez), free from any trace of pedantry, and a very limited palette of mostly warm, subdued colors with deep chiaroscuro. His work was immediately sought after by major collectors. Most notable among these surviving works are several vividly haunting self-portraits (all from the mid-1620s to early 1630s), notably that in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, purchased by Cardinal Leopoldo de’ Medici during Bernini’s lifetime. Bernini’s Apostles Andrew and Thomas in the London National Gallery is the only painting by the artist whose attribution, approximate date of execution (around 1625) and provenance (Barberini Collection, Rome) are known with certainty.[70]

About 350 of Bernini’s drawings still exist; but this represents a tiny percentage of the drawings he would have made in his lifetime; These include quick sketches for large sculptural or architectural commissions, presentation drawings given as gifts to his patrons and aristocratic friends, and exquisite fully completed portraits such as those of Agostino Mascardi (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris) and Scipione Borghese and Sisinio Poli (both in the Morgan Library in New York).[71]

Disciples, Associates, and Rivals[ edit ]

Among the many sculptors who worked under his supervision (although most were accomplished masters themselves) were Luigi Bernini, Stefano Speranza, Giuliano Finelli, Andrea Bolgi, Giacomo Antonio Fancelli, Lazzaro Morelli, Francesco Baratta, Ercole Ferrata and the Frenchman Niccolò Sale , Giovanni Antonio Mari, Antonio Raggi and Francois Duquesnoy. But his most trusted right-hand man in sculpture was Giulio Cartari, while in architecture it was Mattia de Rossi, both of whom traveled to Paris with Bernini to assist him there in his work for King Louis XIV. Other architect students include Giovanni Battista Contini and Carlo Fontana, while the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who visited Rome twice after Bernini’s death, was also heavily influenced by him.

Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona were among his rivals in architecture. At the beginning of their careers they had all worked at the Palazzo Barberini at the same time, first under Carlo Maderno and after his death under Bernini. However, they later competed for commissions and fierce rivalries developed, particularly between Bernini and Borromini.[72] In sculpture, Bernini competed with Alessandro Algardi and Francois Duquesnoy, but both died decades before Bernini (1654 and 1643 respectively), leaving Bernini virtually no sculptor of the same exalted status in Rome. Francesco Mochi can also be counted among Bernini’s important rivals, although he was not as accomplished in his art as Bernini, Algardi or Duquesnoy.

There were also a number of painters (the so-called “pittori berniniani”) who, under the close guidance of the master and sometimes to his designs, produced canvases and frescoes that were integral parts of Bernini’s larger multimedia works, such as churches and chapels: Carlo Pellegrini, Guido Ubaldo Abbatini, the French Guillaume Courtois (Guglielmo Cortese, known as “Il Borgognone”), Ludovico Gimignani and Giovanni Battista Gaulli (who, thanks to Bernini, obtained the precious commission of frescoing the vault of the Jesuit Mother Church of the Gesù by Bernini’s friend, the Superior General of the Jesuits, Gian Paolo Oliva). As far as Caravaggio is concerned, his name appears only once in all the voluminous Bernini sources, in the Chantelou diary, which records Bernini’s disparaging remark about him (especially his fortune teller, who had just arrived from Italy as a Pamphilj gift to King Louis XIV ). However, just how much Bernini really despised Caravaggio’s art is a matter of debate, with arguments being made for a strong Caravaggio influence on Bernini. Bernini would, of course, have heard much about Caravaggio and seen many of his works, not only because such contact was impossible to avoid in Rome at the time, but also because Caravaggio, during his lifetime, had attracted the benevolent attention of Bernini’s own early patrons. both the Borghese and the Barberini. Indeed, much like Caravaggio, Bernini used a theatrical light as an important aesthetic and metaphorical device in his religious settings, often using hidden sources of light that could intensify the focus of religious worship or enhance the dramatic moment of a sculptural narrative.[73]

First biographies[ edit ]

The most important primary source on Bernini’s life is the biography of his youngest son Domenico entitled Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, published in 1713 but not compiled until the last years of his father’s life (ca. 1675–80).[74] Filippo Baldinucci’s Life of Bernini was published in 1682, and a meticulous private diary, The Journal of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, was written by Frenchman Paul Fréart de Chantelou during the artist’s four-month stay from June to October 1665 in the court of King Louis XIV There is also a brief biographical narrative, The Vita Brevis of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, written by his eldest son, Monsignor Pietro Filippo Bernini, in the mid-1670s.[75]

By the end of the 20th century it was generally assumed that two years after Bernini’s death, Queen Christina of Sweden, then living in Rome, commissioned Filippo Baldinucci to write his biography, which was published in Florence in 1682.[76] However, recent research strongly suggests that it was in fact Bernini’s sons (and particularly the eldest son, Mons. Pietro Filippo) who commissioned the biography from Baldinucci sometime in the late 1670s with the intention of publishing it , while her father was still alive . Das würde bedeuten, dass erstens der Auftrag gar nicht von Königin Christina stammte, die sich lediglich als Schirmherrin benannt hätte (um zu verschleiern, dass die Biographie direkt von der Familie stammt) und zweitens Baldinuccis Erzählung weitgehend abgeleitet von irgendeiner Vorveröffentlichungsversion von Domenico Berninis viel längerer Biographie seines Vaters, wie durch die extrem große Menge an wörtlich wiederholtem Text belegt wird (anders gibt es keine andere Erklärung für die massive Menge an wörtlicher Wiederholung, und das ist bekannt Baldinucci kopierte routinemäßig wortgetreues Material für die Biografien seiner Künstler, das von Familie und Freunden seiner Untertanen geliefert wurde).[77] Als ausführlichster Bericht und der einzige, der direkt von einem Mitglied der unmittelbaren Familie des Künstlers stammt, stellt Domenicos Biographie, obwohl sie später als die von Baldinucci veröffentlicht wurde, die früheste und wichtigste biographische Quelle in voller Länge von Berninis Leben dar, obwohl es idealisiert sein Thema und tüncht eine Reihe weniger als schmeichelhafter Fakten über sein Leben und seine Persönlichkeit schön.

legacy [edit]

Wie ein Bernini-Gelehrter zusammenfasste: „Das vielleicht wichtigste Ergebnis aller [Bernini-] Studien und Forschungen der letzten Jahrzehnte war es, Bernini seinen Status als der große Hauptprotagonist der Barockkunst wiederherzustellen, der war in der Lage, unbestrittene Meisterwerke zu schaffen, die neuen spirituellen Empfindungen der Zeit auf originelle und geniale Weise zu interpretieren, der Stadt Rom ein völlig neues Gesicht zu geben und die [künstlerische] Sprache der Zeit zu vereinheitlichen.“[78] Wenige Künstler haben das äußere Erscheinungsbild und die emotionale Stimmung einer Stadt ebenso entscheidend beeinflusst wie Bernini Rom. Er behielt einen kontrollierenden Einfluss auf alle Aspekte seiner vielen und großen Aufträge und auf diejenigen, die ihm bei der Ausführung halfen, und konnte seine einzigartige und harmonisch einheitliche Vision über Jahrzehnte der Arbeit mit seinem langen und produktiven Leben verwirklichen[79]. Am Ende von Berninis Leben setzte eine entschiedene Reaktion gegen seine Art des extravaganten Barocks ein, Tatsache ist, dass Bildhauer und Architekten seine Werke noch mehrere Jahrzehnte lang studierten und von ihnen beeinflusst wurden (Nicola Salvis späterer Trevi-Brunnen [eingeweiht 1735 ] ist ein hervorragendes Beispiel für den anhaltenden postmortalen Einfluss Berninis auf die Landschaft der Stadt).[80]

Im 18. Jahrhundert gerieten Bernini und praktisch alle barocken Künstler in Ungnade in der neoklassizistischen Kritik des Barock, die sich vor allem gegen dessen angeblich extravagante (und damit illegitime) Abweichungen von den ursprünglichen, nüchternen Vorbildern der griechischen und römischen Antike richtete. Erst ab dem späten 19. Jahrhundert begann die kunsthistorische Wissenschaft, bei der Suche nach einem objektiveren Verständnis des künstlerischen Schaffens innerhalb des spezifischen kulturellen Kontexts, in dem es produziert wurde, ohne die a priori Vorurteile des Neoklassizismus, Berninis Errungenschaften anzuerkennen und begann langsam mit der Restaurierung seinen künstlerischen Ruf. Die Reaktion gegen Bernini und den zu sinnlichen (und daher “dekadenten”), zu emotional aufgeladenen Barock in der größeren Kultur (insbesondere in den nichtkatholischen Ländern Nordeuropas und insbesondere im viktorianischen England) blieb jedoch bis weit in Kraft des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (am bemerkenswertesten ist die öffentliche Verunglimpfung Berninis durch Francesco Milizia, Joshua Reynolds und Jacob Burkhardt). Die meisten der populären Rom-Touristenführer des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts ignorieren Bernini und sein Werk so gut wie oder behandeln es mit Verachtung, wie im Fall des Bestsellers Walks in Rome (22 Ausgaben zwischen 1871 und 1925) von Augustus J.C. Hare, der die Engel auf der Ponte Sant’Angelo als “Bernini’s Breezy Maniacs” beschreibt.

Aber jetzt im einundzwanzigsten Jahrhundert wurden Bernini und sein Barock mit Begeisterung restauriert, um sowohl Kritiker als auch Populär zu bevorzugen. Seit dem Jubiläumsjahr seiner Geburt 1998 haben zahlreiche Bernini-Ausstellungen auf der ganzen Welt, insbesondere in Europa und Nordamerika, zu allen Aspekten seines Schaffens stattgefunden und unser Wissen über sein Werk und seinen Einfluss erweitert. Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde Bernini in den 1980er und 1990er Jahren (bevor Italien auf den Euro umstellte) auf der Vorderseite der 50.000-Lire-Banknote der Banca d’Italia gedacht, wobei die Rückseite sein Reiterstandbild von Konstantin zeigte. Ein weiteres herausragendes Zeichen für Berninis anhaltenden Ruf war die Entscheidung des Architekten I. M. Pei, eine originalgetreue Kopie aus Blei seiner Reiterstatue von König Ludwig XIV. als einziges Zierelement in seine massive modernistische Neugestaltung des Eingangsplatzes zum Louvre-Museum einzufügen große Anerkennung im Jahr 1989 und mit der riesigen Louvre-Pyramide aus Glas. Im Jahr 2000 machte der Bestseller-Autor Dan Brown Bernini und mehrere seiner römischen Werke zum Kernstück seines Politthrillers Angels & Demons, während der britische Schriftsteller Iain Pears eine vermisste Bernini-Büste zum Kernstück seines meistverkauften Krimis machte. Die Bernini-Büste (2003).[81]

1976 wurde ein Krater in der Nähe des Südpols von Mercruy nach Bernini benannt.[82]

Ausgewählte Werke [ bearbeiten ]

sculpture[ edit ]

Büste von Jesus Christus von Gianlorenzo Bernini

Architektur und Brunnen [ bearbeiten ]

Painting[ edit ]

Gallery [ edit ]

Verdammte Seele

Gesegnete Seele

Büste von Antonio Cepparelli

Büste von Papst Urban VIII

Büste von Monsignore Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo

Selbstportrait

Neptun und Triton

Ekstase der heiligen Teresa. Terrakotta-Modell[84]

Kolonnade von St. Peter

Baldachin St. Peter

Ponte St. Angelo Engel

Fontana dei Quattrofiumi. Bronze.

References[ edit ]

Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet (1475–1564)

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Italian: [mikeˈlandʒelo di lodoˈviːko ˌbwɔnarˈrɔːti siˈmoːni]; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known simply as Michelangelo ([1]), was an Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect and poet. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work had a major impact on the development of Western art, particularly in relation to Renaissance notions of humanism and naturalism. Along with his rival and older contemporary Leonardo da Vinci, he is often considered a contender for the title of archetypal Renaissance man.[2] Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and memoirs, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century, and several scholars have described Michelangelo as the most accomplished artist of his day.[3][4]

He created two of his best-known works, the Pietà and the David, before he was thirty. Although he gave painting a low opinion, he also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Last Judgment on the altar wall. His design of the Laurentian Library pioneered Mannerist architecture.[5] At the age of 71 he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as architect of St. Peter’s Basilica. He changed the plan so that the western end was completed to his design, as was the dome, with some modifications, after his death.

Michelangelo was the first Western artist whose biography was published during his lifetime.[2] In fact, two biographies were published during his lifetime. One of them, by Giorgio Vasari, suggested that Michelangelo’s work surpassed that of any artist, living or dead, and was “supreme not only in one art but in all three”.[6]

Michelangelo was often called Il Divino (“the Divine”) during his lifetime.[7] His contemporaries often admired his terribilità – his ability to inspire awe in the viewers of his art. Attempts by subsequent artists to emulate Michelangelo’s passionate, highly personal style[8] contributed to the rise of Mannerism, a short-lived style and period in Western art after the High Renaissance.

life

Early Life, 1475–1488

Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475[a] in Caprese, now known as Caprese Michelangelo, a small town in the Valtiberina[9] near Arezzo in Tuscany.[10] His family had been petty bankers in Florence for several generations; but the bank failed and his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took up a government post in Caprese, where Michelangelo was born.[2] At the time of Michelangelo’s birth, his father was judicial administrator of the city and podestà or local administrator of Chiusi della Verna. Michelangelo’s mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena.[11] The Buonarrotis claimed descent from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa – a claim that remains unproven but believed by Michelangelo.[12]

A few months after Michelangelo’s birth, the family returned to Florence, where he had grown up. During his mother’s later prolonged illness and after her death in 1481 (when he was six), Michelangelo lived with a nanny and her husband, a stonemason, in the town of Settignano, where his father owned a marble quarry and a small farm. [11] There he discovered his love for marble. As Giorgio Vasari quotes him:

If there’s anything good about me, it’s because I was born in the subtle atmosphere of your land, Arezzo. Along with my wet nurse’s milk, I got the knack of using the chisel and hammer I use to make my figures.[10]

Teachings, 1488–1492

Madonna of the Stairs (1490–1492), Michelangelo’s earliest known marble work The (1490–1492), Michelangelo’s earliest known marble work

As a young boy, Michelangelo was sent to Florence to study grammar with the humanist Francesco da Urbino. [10] [13] [b] However, he showed no interest in his schooling, preferring to copy paintings from churches and seek the company of other painters.[13]

The city of Florence was then Italy’s greatest center of arts and learning.[14] Art was sponsored by the Signoria (the city council), the merchant guilds, and wealthy patrons such as the Medici and their bankers.[15] The Renaissance, a renewal of classical learning and the arts, had its first flowering in Florence.[14] In the early 15th century the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, after studying the remains of classical buildings in Rome, had created two churches, San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito, which embodied the classical prescriptions.[16] The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had worked for fifty years to create the north and east bronze doors of the Baptistery, which Michelangelo was to describe as “The Gates of Paradise.”[17] The outer niches of the church of Orsanmichele contained a gallery with works by the most famous sculptors of Florence: Donatello, Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio and Nanni di Banco.[15] The interiors of the older churches were covered with frescoes (mostly late medieval but also early Renaissance) begun by Giotto and continued by Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel, whose works Michelangelo studied and copied in drawings.[18 ]

During Michelangelo’s childhood, a team of painters from Florence had been summoned to the Vatican to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Among them was Domenico Ghirlandaio, a master of fresco painting, perspective, figure drawing, and portraiture, who had the largest workshop in Florence.[15] In 1488, at the age of 13, Michelangelo was apprenticed to Ghirlandaio.[19] The next year his father persuaded Ghirlandaio to pay Michelangelo as an artist, which was rare for a fourteen-year-old.[20] When Lorenzo de’ Medici, de facto ruler of Florence, asked Ghirlandaio in 1489 for his two best students, Ghirlandaio sent Michelangelo and Francesco Granacci.[21]

From 1490 to 1492, Michelangelo attended the Platonic Academy, a humanistic academy founded by the Medici. There his work and views were influenced by many of the most prominent philosophers and writers of the time, including Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano.[22] At this time Michelangelo created the reliefs “Madonna of the Steps” (1490-1492) and “Battle of the Centaurs” (1491-1492),[18] the latter on a theme suggested by Poliziano and commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici. [23] ] Michelangelo worked for a time with the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. When he was seventeen, another student, Pietro Torrigiano, struck him on the nose, causing the disfigurement prominent in Michelangelo’s portraits.[24]

Bologna, Florence and Rome, 1492–1499

Pietà, St. Peter’s (1498–99) , St. Peter’s (1498–99)

The death of Lorenzo de’ Medici on April 8, 1492 brought about a reversal of Michelangelo’s circumstances.[25] Michelangelo left the safety of the Medici court and returned to his father’s house. In the months that followed he carved a polychrome wooden crucifix (1493) as a gift to the prior of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito, which had allowed him to carry out some anatomical studies on the corpses from the church’s hospital.[26] This was the first of several instances during his career in which Michelangelo studied anatomy by dissecting cadavers.

Between 1493 and 1494 he bought a block of marble and carved a larger than life statue of Hercules which was sent to France and disappeared sometime in the 18th century. [23] [c] On January 20, 1494, after heavy snowfall, Lorenzo’s heir, Piero de Medici, commissioned a statue made of snow, and Michelangelo re-entered the Medici court.

In the same year, as a result of the rise of Savonarola, the Medici were expelled from Florence. Michelangelo left the city before the end of the political upheaval, moving to Venice and then to Bologna.[25] In Bologna he was commissioned to carve some of the last small figures for the completion of the sanctuary of St. Dominic in the church dedicated to this saint. At this time Michelangelo was studying the robust reliefs carved by Jacopo della Quercia around the main portal of the Basilica of St. Petronius, including the panel depicting the Creation of Eve, the composition of which would reappear on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[30] Towards the end of 1495 the political situation in Florence calmed down; The city, previously threatened by the French, was no longer in danger as Charles VIII had suffered defeats. Michelangelo returned to Florence but received no commissions from the new city government under Savonarola.[31] He returned to the service of the Medici.[32] During the half year he spent in Florence he worked on two small statues, an infant John the Baptist and a sleeping Cupid. According to Condivi, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, for whom Michelangelo had sculpted Saint John the Baptist, asked Michelangelo “to repair it so that it looked as if it had been buried” so that he could “send it to Rome.. . pass it off as an old work and … sell it much better.” Both Lorenzo and Michelangelo were unknowingly cheated of the true value of the piece by a middleman. Cardinal Raffaele Riario, to whom Lorenzo had sold it, found it to be a forgery, but was so impressed with the quality of the sculpture that he invited the artist to Rome.[33] [d] This apparent success in selling his sculpture abroad, as well as the conservative Florentine situation, may have encouraged Michelangelo to accept the prelate’s invitation.[32] Michelangelo arrived in Rome on June 25, 1496 [34] at the age of 21. On July 4 of the same year he began work on a commission for the banker Jacopo Galli for his garden, a larger-than-life statue of the Roman wine god Bacchus.[35]

In November 1497, the French ambassador to the Holy See, Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, commissioned him to carve a Pietà, a sculpture depicting the Virgin Mary mourning the body of Jesus. The subject, which is not part of the biblical narrative of the Crucifixion, was common in religious sculpture in medieval northern Europe and may have been very familiar to the cardinal.[36] The contract was signed in August of the following year. Michelangelo was 24 years old at the time of its completion.[36] It was soon recognized as one of the world’s greatest sculptural masterpieces, “a revelation of all the possibilities and powers of sculpture”. Vasari summed up contemporary opinion: “It is certainly a marvel that a shapeless block of stone could ever have been reduced to a perfection which nature can scarcely create in the flesh.”[37] It is now in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Florence, 1499-1505

Completed in 1504 by Michelangelo, the statue of David is one of the most famous works of the Renaissance. Completed in 1504 by Michelangelo, the painting is one of the most famous works of the Renaissance.

Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1499. The Republic changed after the fall of its leader, the anti-Renaissance priest Girolamo Savonarola, who was executed in 1498, and the rise of the gonfaloniere Piero Soderini. Michelangelo was asked by the consuls of the Guild of Wool to complete an unfinished project begun 40 years earlier by Agostino di Duccio: a colossal statue in Carrara marble depicting David as a symbol of Florentine liberty and placed on the pediment of the Florence Cathedral to be erected. 38] Michelangelo responded by completing his most famous work, the statue of David, in 1504. The masterpiece definitively established his reputation as a sculptor with exceptional technical skill and a strong symbolic imagination. A team of advisors including Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino Lippi, Pietro Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Antonio and Giuliano da Sangallo, Andrea della Robbia, Cosimo Rosselli, Davide Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo, Andrea Sansovino and Michelangelo’s dear friend Francesco Granacci , was convened to decide its placement, ultimately in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. It now stands in the Academia while a replica takes its place in the plaza.[39] At the same time that the David was placed, Michelangelo may have been involved in creating the sculptural profile on the facade of the Palazzo Vecchio known as the Importuno di Michelangelo. The hypothesis[40] as to the possible involvement of Michelangelo in the creation of the profile is based on the close resemblance of the latter to a profile drawn by the artist, datable to the beginning of the 16th century, now preserved in the Louvre.[41]

With the completion of the David came another order. In early 1504 Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint the Battle of Anghiari in the Council Chamber of the Palazzo Vecchio, depicting the battle between Florence and Milan in 1440. Michelangelo was then commissioned to paint the Battle of Cascina. The two paintings are very different: Leonardo shows soldiers fighting on horseback, while Michelangelo shows soldiers being ambushed while bathing in the river. Neither work was completed and both were lost forever when the chamber was renovated. Both works were greatly admired and copies survive, Leonardo’s work being copied by Rubens and Michelangelo’s by Bastiano da Sangallo.[42]

Also during this period Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a “Holy Family” as a gift for his wife Maddalena Strozzi. Known as the Doni Tondo, it hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in its magnificent original frame, which may have been designed by Michelangelo.[43][44] He may also have painted the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist known as the Manchester Madonna, now in the National Gallery, London.[45]

Tomb of Julius II, 1505–1545

In 1505 Michelangelo was invited back to Rome by the newly elected Pope Julius II and commissioned to construct the papal tomb, which would contain forty statues and be completed in five years.[46] Under the patronage of the Pope, Michelangelo experienced constant interruptions in his work at the tomb to attend to numerous other tasks.

The commission for the tomb forced the artist to leave Florence with his planned painting The Battle of Cascina unfinished.[47][48][49] By this time Michelangelo was established as an artist;[50] both he and Julius II had hot tempers and soon quarreled.[48][49] On April 17, 1506, Michelangelo secretly left Rome for Florence and stayed there until the Florentine government urged him to return to the Pope.[49]

Although Michelangelo worked on the tomb for 40 years, it was never completed to his satisfaction.[46] Located in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, it is best known for the central figure of Moses, completed in 1516.[51] Of the other statues intended for the tomb, two, known as the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave, are now in the Louvre.[46]

Sistine Chapel ceiling, 1505–1512

Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; The work took about four years to complete (1508–1512).

During the same period, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel[52] which took about four years to complete (1508–1512).[51] According to Condivi’s account, Bramante, who was working on the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica, refused Michelangelo’s commission for the Pope’s tomb and persuaded the Pope to commission him in a medium with which he was unfamiliar, lest he possibly fail the task.[53] Michelangelo was originally commissioned to paint the Twelve Apostles on the triangular pendentives supporting the ceiling and to cover the central part of the ceiling with ornaments.[54] Michelangelo persuaded Pope Julius II to give him a free hand and proposed a different and more complex scheme depicting the creation, the fall, the promise of salvation through the prophets, and the genealogy of Christ. The work is part of a larger scheme of decoration within the chapel that represents much of the teaching of the Catholic Church.[54]

The composition extends over 500 square meters of ceiling[55] and contains over 300 figures.[54] The focus is on nine episodes from the book of Genesis, divided into three groups: God’s creation of the earth; God’s creation of mankind and their fall from God’s grace; and finally the state of mankind as represented by Noah and his family. On the pendulums supporting the ceiling are painted twelve men and women prophesying the coming of Jesus, seven prophets of Israel and five Sibyls, prophetic women of the classical world.[54] The most famous paintings on the ceiling include the Creation of Adam, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, the Prophet Jeremiah and the Cumaean Sibyl.

Florence under the Medici Popes, 1513 – early 1534

In 1513 Pope Julius II died and was succeeded by Pope Leo X, second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici.[51] From 1513 to 1516 Pope Leo was on good terms with the surviving relatives of Pope Julius and encouraged Michelangelo to continue work on Julius’ tomb, but the families became enemies again in 1516 when Pope Leo attempted to seize the Duchy of Urbino from Julius’ nephew Francesco Conquer Maria I della Rovere.[56] Pope Leo then had Michelangelo stop work on the tomb and commissioned him to reconstruct and sculpt the facade of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. He spent three years creating drawings and models for the façade and attempted to open a new marble quarry in Pietrasanta specifically for the project. In 1520 the work was abruptly stopped by his financially strapped patrons before any real progress had been made. To this day, the basilica lacks a facade.[57]

In 1520 the Medici returned to Michelangelo with another grand proposal, this time for a family burial chapel in the Basilica of San Lorenzo.[51] For posterity, this project, which occupied the artist for much of the 1520s and 1530s, was more fully realized. Michelangelo used his own discretion to create the composition of the Medici Chapel, which houses the large tombs of two of the younger members of the Medici family, Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, and Lorenzo, his nephew. It also serves to commemorate their more illustrious predecessors, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, who are buried nearby. The tombs feature statues of the two Medici and allegorical figures representing night and day, and dusk and dawn. The chapel also contains Michelangelo’s Medici Madonna.[58] In 1976 a hidden corridor was discovered with drawings on the walls relating to the chapel itself.

Pope Leo X died in 1521 and was briefly ruled by the strict Adrian VI. and then succeeded as Pope Clement VII by his cousin Giulio Medici.[61] In 1524, Michelangelo received an architectural commission from the Medici Pope for the Laurentian Library in the Church of San Lorenzo.[51] He designed both the interior of the library itself and its vestibule, a building whose architectural forms are so dynamic that it is considered a forerunner of Baroque architecture. It was left to assistants to interpret his plans and carry out the construction. The library was only opened in 1571, the vestibule remained unfinished until 1904.[62]

In 1527 Florentine citizens, emboldened by the sack of Rome, threw out the Medici and restored the republic. A siege of the city ensued, and Michelangelo came to the aid of his beloved Florence by working on the city’s fortifications from 1528 to 1529. The city fell in 1530 and the Medici were restored to power.[51] Michelangelo fell out of favor with the young Alessandro Medici, who had been installed as the first Duke of Florence. Fearing for his life, he fled to Rome, leaving assistants to complete the Medici Chapel and the Laurentian Library. Despite Michelangelo’s support of the Republic and his opposition to Medici rule, he was welcomed by Pope Clement, who reinstated an allowance he had previously granted the artist and made a new treaty with him over the tomb of Pope Julius.

Rome, 1534-1546

In Rome, Michelangelo lived near the church of Santa Maria di Loreto. It was at this time that he met the poetess Vittoria Colonna, Margravine of Pescara, who would become one of his closest friends until her death in 1547.[64]

Shortly before his death in 1534, Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco of the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. His successor, Pope Paul III, was instrumental in Michelangelo beginning and completing the project on which he worked from 1534 to October 1541.[51] The fresco depicts the second coming of Christ and his judgment of souls. Michelangelo ignored the usual artistic conventions in depicting Jesus, showing him as a massive, muscular figure, youthful, beardless, and naked.[65] He is surrounded by saints, among whom Saint Bartholomew holds a drooping flayed skin bearing the likeness of Michelangelo. The dead rise from their graves to be sent either to heaven or to hell.[65]

Once completed, the depiction of Christ and the Virgin was considered sacrilegious, and Cardinal Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (ambassador of Mantua) lobbied for the fresco to be removed or censored, but the Pope resisted. At the Council of Trent, shortly before Michelangelo’s death in 1564, it was decided that the genitals should be covered, and Daniele da Volterra, an apprentice of Michelangelo, was commissioned to make the changes.[66] An uncensored copy of the original by Marcello Venusti is in the Museo Capodimonte in Naples.[67]

Michelangelo was working on a number of architectural projects at this time. They included a design for the Capitoline Hill with its trapezoidal piazza where the ancient bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius is exhibited. He designed the upper floor of the Farnese Palace and the interior of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in which he remodeled the vaulted interior of an ancient Roman bathhouse. Other architectural works include San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Sforza Chapel (Capella Sforza) in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and the Porta Pia.[68]

St. Peter’s Basilica, 1546–1564

While still working on the Last Judgment, Michelangelo received another commission for the Vatican. This was done for the painting of two large frescoes in the Cappella Paolina, depicting significant events in the lives of Rome’s two most important saints, the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Like the Last Judgment, these two works are complex compositions with a large number of figures.[69] They were completed in 1550. In the same year, Giorgio Vasari published his Vita, including a biography of Michelangelo.[70]

In 1546 Michelangelo was appointed architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.[51] The process of replacing the 4th-century Constantine basilica had been underway for fifty years, and by 1506 the foundations of Bramante’s plans had been laid. Successive architects had worked on it, but little progress had been made. Michelangelo was persuaded to take on the project. Returning to the concepts of Bramante, he developed his ideas for a centrally planned church, strengthening the structure both physically and visually.[71] The dome, which was not completed until after his death, was described by Banister Fletcher as “the greatest creation of the Renaissance”.[72]

As the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica progressed, there were concerns that Michelangelo would die before the dome was finished. However, once construction began on the lower part of the dome, the supporting ring, completion of the design was inevitable.

On December 7, 2007, a red chalk sketch for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica was discovered in the Vatican archives, possibly the last made by Michelangelo before his death. It is extremely rare as he destroyed his designs later in life. The sketch is a partial plan for one of the radial columns of St. Peter’s dome drum.[73]

Personal life

Believe

Michelangelo was a devout Catholic whose faith deepened towards the end of his life.[76] His poetry contains the following closing lines from what is known as Poem 285 (written in 1554): “Neither painting nor sculpture will be able to soothe my soul, which has now turned to that divine love which has opened its arms to the Cross for us pure. “[77][78]

personal habits

Michelangelo was celibate in his private life, once saying to his apprentice Ascanio Condivi, “However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man.”[79] Michelangelo’s bank accounts and numerous deeds of sale show that his net was worth about 50,000 gold ducats, more than many princes and dukes of his time.[80] Condivi said he was indifferent to food and drink, eating “more out of necessity than pleasure”[79] and “often slept in his clothes and … boots.”[79] His biographer Paolo Giovio says: “Its nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly filthy and deprived posterity of any student who might have followed him.”[81] This may not have affected him, however, as by nature he was a lonely and melancholic person , bizzarro e fantastico, a man who “withdrew from the society of men”.[82]

relationships and poetry

Whether Michelangelo had physical relationships cannot be said for certain (Condivi attributed a “monastic chastity” to him);[83] speculation about his sexuality is rooted in his poetry.[84] He wrote over three hundred sonnets and madrigals. The longest sequence, showing a deep romantic feeling, was written to the young Roman patrician Tommaso dei Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587), who was 23 when Michelangelo first met him in 1532, aged 57. 86] The Florentine Benedetto Varchi described Cavalieri fifteen years later as “incomparably beautiful”, with “graceful manners, such an excellent talent and such a charming demeanor that he actually deserved and still deserves to be loved the more the better.” is he known”. .[87] In his “Lives of Artists” Giorgio Vasari remarked: “But infinitely more than any other he loved M. Tommaso de’ Cavalieri, a Roman nobleman, for whom, as a young man and much inclined to these arts, he [ Michelangelo], to learn to draw, made many of the greatest drawings of divinely beautiful heads, drawn in black and red chalk; and then he drew for him a Ganymede raptured into heaven by Jupiter’s eagle, a Tityus with the vulture devouring his heart, the sun chariot falling in the Po with Phaëthon, and a Bacchanal of Children, all of which are exceedingly rare Things are, and drawings, which have never been seen.”[88] Scholars agree that Michelangelo was infatuated with Cavalieri.[89] The Poems to Cavalieri form the first great series of poems in a modern language, addressed by one man to another; They predate Shakespeare’s Sonnets for Fair Youth by 50 years:

I feel like a cold face lit by fire

It burns me from afar and stays ice cold;

A power I feel to fill two shapely arms

Who moves every scale without moving. — Michael Sullivan, translation

Cavalieri replied, “I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than you, never have I desired a friendship more than yours.” Cavalieri remained devoted to Michelangelo until his death.[90]

In 1542 Michelangelo met Cecchino dei Bracci, who died just a year later, inspiring Michelangelo to write 48 epitaphs. Some of the objects of Michelangelo’s affections and themes of his poetry took advantage of him: the model Febo di Poggio asked for money in response to a love poem, and a second model, Gherardo Perini, shamelessly stole from him ]

What some have interpreted as the apparently homoerotic nature of poetry was a source of uneasiness for later generations. Michelangelo’s great-nephew, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, published the poems in 1623 with the gender of the pronouns changed,[91] and it was not until John Addington Symonds translated them into English in 1893 that the original genders were restored. In modern times, some scholars insist that, despite the restoration of pronouns, they “represent an unemotional and elegant reinterpretation of Platonic dialogue, in which erotic poetry has been seen as an expression of refined sensibility”.

Late in his life Michelangelo had a great platonic love for the poetess and widow of noble family Vittoria Colonna, whom he met in Rome in 1536 or 1538, and who was then in her late forties. They wrote sonnets for each other and were in regular contact until their deaths. These sonnets deal primarily with the spiritual themes that occupied them.[92] Condivi recalls Michelangelo’s saying that his only regret in life was that he did not kiss the widow’s face like she kissed her hand.[64]

feuds with other artists

In a letter of late 1542, Michelangelo blamed the tensions between Julius II and himself on the envy of Bramante and Raphael, saying of the latter: “All that he had of art he got from me”. According to Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Michelangelo and Raphael met once: the former was alone while the latter was accompanied by several others. Michelangelo commented that he thought he had met the chief of police with such a gathering, and Raphael replied that he thought he had met an executioner since they were used to walking alone.[93]

Is working

Madonna and Child

The Steps Madonna is Michelangelo’s earliest known marble work. It is carved in low relief, a technique often employed by Donatello, the early 15th-century master sculptor, and others such as Desiderio da Settignano.[94] While the Madonna is shown in profile, the simplest aspect for a flat relief, the Child exhibits a twisting movement that would become characteristic of Michelangelo’s work. The 1502 Taddei Tondo shows the Christ Child frightened by a bullfinch, a symbol of the Crucifixion.[43] The lively form of the child was later adapted by Raphael in the Bridgewater Madonna. The Bruges Madonna was unlike other such statues at the time of its creation, depicting the Virgin proudly presenting her son. Here the Christ Child, held by his mother’s grasping hand, steps out into the world.[95] The Doni tondo, depicting the Holy Family, shares elements of all three previous works: the figured frieze in the background has the appearance of a bas-relief, while the circular shape and dynamic shapes are reminiscent of the Taddeo tondo. The turning movement of the Bruges Madonna is emphasized in the painting. The painting heralds the forms, movements, and colors that Michelangelo would use on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[43]

male figure

The Kneeling Angel is an early work, one of several created by Michelangelo as part of a major plan of decoration for the Arca di San Domenico in the church in Bologna dedicated to the saint. Several other artists had worked on the scheme, beginning with Nicola Pisano in the 13th century. At the end of the 15th century, the project was directed by Niccolò dell’Arca. An angel with a candlestick by Niccolò was already there.[96] Although the two angels form a pair, there is great contrast between the two works, one depicting a delicate child with flowing hair, dressed in deeply pleated Gothic robes, and Michelangelo’s depicting a robust and muscular youth with showing eagle wings, dressed in a classic style garment. Everything about Michelangelo’s Angels is dynamic.[97] Michelangelo’s Bacchus was a commission with a specific theme, the youthful god of wine. The sculpture has all the traditional attributes, a wreath of vines, a cup of wine and a deer, but Michelangelo brought a touch of reality to the subject by depicting him with bleary eyes, a swollen bladder and an attitude that suggests he is unstable on his is feet.[96] While the work is clearly inspired by classical sculpture, it is innovative for its rotating movement and strong three-dimensional quality that encourages the viewer to view it from every angle.[98]

In the so-called Dying Slave, Michelangelo again used the figure with pronounced contrapposto to suggest a specific human condition, in this case waking from sleep. With the rebellious slave, it is one of two such earlier figures for the tomb of Pope Julius II now in the Louvre that the sculptor has almost completed.[99] These two works were to have a profound influence on later sculpture through Rodin, who studied them in the Louvre.[100] The Atlas slave is one of the later figures for the tomb of Pope Julius. Known collectively as The Captives, the works each feature the character struggling to break free, as if breaking free from the shackles of the rock in which he is stuck. The works give a unique insight into the sculptural methods employed by Michelangelo and his way of revealing what he perceived in the rock.[101]

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted between 1508 and 1512.[51] The ceiling is a flat-topped barrel vault supported by twelve triangular pendentives rising between the chapel’s windows. The commission envisaged by Pope Julius II was to decorate the pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles.[102] Michelangelo, who was reluctant to accept the commission, persuaded the Pope to give him a free hand in the composition.[103] The resulting decorative scheme impressed his contemporaries and has since inspired other artists.[104] The scheme consists of nine panels illustrating episodes from the Book of Genesis set in an architectural frame. On the pendentives, Michelangelo replaced the suggested apostles with prophets and sibyls, heralding the coming of the Messiah.[103]

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–1512) (1508–1512)

Michelangelo began to paint the later episodes of the tale, the images containing local details and groups of figures, Noah’s drunkenness being the first of this group.[103] In the later compositions, painted after the original scaffolding had been removed, Michelangelo enlarged the figures.[103] One of the central images, The Creation of Adam, is one of the best known and most frequently reproduced works in art history. The last panel, showing the separation of light and dark, is stylistically the broadest and was painted in a single day. As a model for the Creator, Michelangelo depicted himself in the action of the ceiling painting.[103]

Supporting the smaller scenes, Michelangelo painted twenty youths, variously interpreted as angels, as muses, or simply as decoration. Michelangelo called them “ignudi”.[105] The figure reproduced can be seen in the context of the separation of light and darkness in the image above. In painting the ceiling, Michelangelo made studies for various figures, some of which, such as that for the Libyan Sibyl, have survived and demonstrate Michelangelo’s care for details such as hands and feet.[106] The prophet Jeremiah contemplating the fall of Jerusalem is a reflection of the artist himself.

Studies for the Libyan Sibyl

The Libyan Sibyl (1511)

The Prophet Jeremiah (1511)

ignodo

figure compositions

Michelangelo’s relief of the Battle of the Centaurs, created while still a youth in connection with the Medici Academy,[107] is an unusually complex relief, as it depicts a large number of figures engaged in fierce combat. Such a complex disorder of figures was rare in Florentine art, where it was usually found only in images depicting either the massacre of the innocent or the torments of hell. The relief treatment, in which some of the figures project boldly, may indicate Michelangelo’s familiarity with Roman sarcophagus reliefs from the collection of Lorenzo Medici and similar marble panels by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, as well as with the figurative compositions on Ghiberti’s Baptistery doors. [citation required]

The composition of the Battle of Cascina in its entirety is known only from copies[108] since, according to Vasari, the original cartoon was so admired that it deteriorated and eventually fell to pieces.[109] It reflects the earlier relief in the energy and variety of the figures,[110] with many different postures, and many viewed from behind as they face the approaching enemy and prepare for battle. [citation required]

In the Last Judgment it is said that Michelangelo was inspired by a fresco by Melozzo da Forlì in Rome’s Santi Apostoli. Melozzo had depicted characters from different angles, as if they were floating in the sky and being seen from below. Melozzo’s majestic figure of Christ with a windblown cloak shows a certain foreshortening of the figure, also used by Andrea Mantegna but not common in the frescoes of Florentine painters. In The Last Judgment, Michelangelo had the opportunity to depict figures either rising into the sky or falling and being dragged down on an unprecedented scale.

In the two frescoes in the Pauline Chapel, The Crucifixion of St. Peter and The Conversion of Saul, Michelangelo used the various groups of figures to convey a complex narrative. At Peter’s crucifixion, soldiers are busy digging a post hole and erecting the cross, while various people observe and discuss what is happening. A group of horrified women gather in the foreground while another group of Christians is led by a tall man to witness the events. In the right foreground, Michelangelo leaves the painting with an expression of disillusionment. [citation required]

Architecture

Among Michelangelo’s architectural commissions were a number that were not realised, notably the façade for Brunelleschi’s Church of San Lorenzo in Florence, for which Michelangelo had a wooden model made but which remains unfinished to this day. In the same church, Giulio de’ Medici (later Pope Clement VII) commissioned him to design the Medici Chapel and the tombs of Giuliano and Lorenzo Medici.[111] Pope Clement also commissioned the Laurentian Library, for which Michelangelo also designed the extraordinary vestibule with columns set into niches and a staircase which, according to Nikolaus Pevsner, seems to flow out of the library like a flow of lava, “… revealing the Mannerism in its most sublime architectural form.”[112]

In 1546 Michelangelo completed the highly complex egg-shaped design for the pavement of the Campidoglio and began designing an upper floor for the Farnese Palace. In 1547 he undertook the task of completing St. Peter’s Basilica, beginning to a design by Bramante and with several intermediate designs by several architects. Returning to Bramante’s design, Michelangelo retained the basic form and concepts, simplifying and strengthening the design to create a more dynamic and unified whole. Although the late 16th-century engraving depicts the dome as having a hemispherical profile, the dome of Michelangelo’s model is somewhat ovoid and the final product, as completed by Giacomo della Porta, is even more so.

last years

In old age, Michelangelo created a series of Pietàs in which he appears to be reflecting on mortality. They are heralded by the Victory, which may have been created for the tomb of Pope Julius II but remained unfinished. In this group, the youthful victor overcomes an older hooded figure with Michelangelo features.

Vittoria Colonna’s Pietà is a chalk drawing of a type known as a “presentation drawing” because it may have been a gift from an artist and was not necessarily a study for a painted work. In this image, Mary’s raised arms and hands indicate her prophetic role. The front view is reminiscent of Masaccio’s fresco of the Holy Trinity in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

In the Florentine Pietà, Michelangelo portrays himself again, this time as the aged Nicodemus lowering the body of Jesus from the cross into the arms of his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. Michelangelo smashed the left arm and leg of the Jesus figure. His student Tiberio Calcagni repaired the arm and drilled a hole to attach a spare leg that was later unattached. He also worked on the character of Mary Magdalene.[114][115]

The Rondanini Pietà, the last sculpture Michelangelo worked on (six days before his death), could never be completed because Michelangelo kept carving it away until the stone was no longer sufficient. The legs and a severed arm are left over from an earlier work. Sculpture still has an abstract quality that corresponds to 20th-century sculptural concepts.[116][117]

Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564 at the age of 88 (three weeks before his 89th birthday). His body was brought from Rome for burial in the Basilica of Santa Croce, fulfilling the Maestro’s last request to be buried in his beloved Florence.[118]

Michelangelo’s heir Leonardo Buonarroti commissioned Giorgio Vasari to design and build Michelangelo’s tomb, a monumental project that cost 770 scudi and took over 14 years to complete. Marble for the tomb was supplied by Cosimo I de’ Medici, Duke of Tuscany, who had also organized a state funeral in Florence in honor of Michelangelo.[119]

Self-Portrait of the Artist as Nicodemus

Statue of Victory (1534), Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

The Pietà by Vittoria Colonna (c. 1540)

The Rondanini Pietà (1552–1564)

In popular culture

movies

heritage

Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, Michelangelo is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance. Although their names are often quoted together, Michelangelo was 23 years younger than Leonardo and eight years older than Raphael. Because of his reclusiveness, he had little to do with either artist and outlived them both by more than forty years. Michelangelo took on only a few sculptors. He hired Francesco Granacci, who was his fellow student at the Medici Academy, and became one of several assistants on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[54] Michelangelo seems to have used assistants mainly for the more manual tasks of surface preparation and sanding paint. Nonetheless, his works were to have a major influence on painters, sculptors, and architects for many generations to come.

While Michelangelo’s David is the most famous male nude of all time and today graces cities around the world, perhaps some of his other works have had an even greater impact on the course of art. The sinuous forms and tensions of the Victory, the Bruges Madonna and the Medici Madonna make them the forerunners of Mannerist art. The unfinished giants for the tomb of Pope Julius II had a profound impact on late 19th and 20th century sculptors such as Rodin and Henry Moore.

Michelangelo’s foyer of the Laurentian Library was one of the earliest buildings to use classical forms in a plastic and expressive way. This dynamic quality would later find its greatest expression in Michelangelo’s centrally planned St. Peter’s Basilica, with its vast order, undulating cornice and upward-pointing pointed dome. The dome of St. Peter’s was to influence the construction of churches for many centuries, including Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as the civic domes of many public buildings and state capitals across America.

Artists directly influenced by Michelangelo include Raphael, whose monumental treatment of the figure in the School of Athens and The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple owes much to Michelangelo, and whose fresco of Isaiah in Sant’Agostino the Prophets the Elder mimics the master closely. [127] Other artists such as Pontormo drew on the snaking forms of the Last Judgment and the frescoes of the Capella Paolina.[128]

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was a work of unprecedented grandeur, both for its architectural forms, imitated by many Baroque ceiling painters, and for its wealth of inventiveness in studying the figures. Vasari wrote:

The work has proved to be a true beacon for our art, invaluable to all painters, bringing light back to a world plunged in darkness for centuries. Indeed, painters need no longer search for new inventions, novel settings, clothed figures, fresh expressions, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work contains every perfection possible under these headings.[109]

See also

references

Sources