Sculpture, Art Styles & Periods, Individual Architects & Buildings, Architectural Time Periods & Styles, European Art

Bernini: His Life and His Rome

Name: Bernini: His Life and His Rome
Author: Franco Mormando
ISBN: 9780226055237

by Franco Mormando

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Overview

Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was the last of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. And his artistic vision remains palpably present today, through the countless statues, fountains, and buildings that transformed Rome into the Baroque theater that continues to enthrall tourists today.It is perhaps not surprising that this artist who defined the Baroque should have a personal life that itself was, well, baroque. As Franco Mormando’s dazzling biography reveals, Bernini was a man driven by many passions, possessed of an explosive temper and a hearty sex drive, and he lived a life as dramatic as any of his creations. Drawing on archival sources, letters, diaries, and—with a suitable skepticism—a hagiographic account written by Bernini’s son (who portrays his father as a paragon of virtue and piety), Mormando leads us through Bernini’s many feuds and love affairs, scandals and sins. He sets Bernini’s raucous life against a vivid backdrop of Baroque Rome, bustling and wealthy, and peopled by churchmen and bureaucrats, popes and politicians, schemes and secrets.The result is a seductively readable biography, stuffed with stories and teeming with life—as wild and unforgettable as Bernini’s art. No one who has been bewitched by the Baroque should miss it.

Synopsis

Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was the last of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. And his artistic vision remains palpably present today, through the countless statues, fountains, and buildings that transformed Rome into the Baroque theater that continues to enthrall tourists today. It is perhaps not surprising that this artist who defined the Baroque should have a personal life that itself was, well, baroque. As Franco Mormando’s dazzling biography reveals, Bernini was a man driven by many passions, possessed of an explosive temper and a hearty sex drive, and he lived a life as dramatic as any of his creations. Drawing on archival sources, letters, diaries, and—with a suitable skepticism—a hagiographic account written by Bernini’s son (who portrays his father as a paragon of virtue and piety), Mormando leads us through Bernini’s many feuds and love affairs, scandals and sins. He sets Bernini’s raucous life against a vivid backdrop of Baroque Rome, bustling and wealthy, and peopled by churchmen and bureaucrats, popes and politicians, schemes and secrets. The result is a seductively readable biography, stuffed with stories and teeming with life—as wild and unforgettable as Bernini’s art. No one who has been bewitched by the Baroque should miss it.

About the Author, Franco Mormando

Franco Mormando is associate professor of Italian at Boston College and the author of several books.

Reviews

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

In one of the few biographies of Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini since his death in 1680, Boston College Italian professor Mormando constructs a comprehensive, extraordinarily vivid portrait of the sculptor known as “the Michelangelo of his age.” A child prodigy compulsive about creative achievement, Bernini was, in Mormando’s estimation, a superbly technically skilled sculptor who possessed rare psychological insight into the human and mythological subjects he portrayed. Mormando traces Bernini’s work for his first chief patron, Pope Urban VIII, detailing Bernini’s power struggles with rival Borromini; the critical receptions of and controversies surrounding major commissions such as the baldacchino at St. Peter’s and sexually charged Saint Teresa in Ecstasy; his monumental work for Pope Alexander VII; and the tumultuous period in the court of Louis XIV. Swiftly paced and buoyantly written, this richly sourced work places Bernini within the dynamic, criminal, superstitious, and sensual city that was baroque Rome; Mormando examines Bernini’s work and artistic place within the baroque in far less depth. Of great interest to general readers seeking a well-researched, highly readable portrait of the sculptor and those interested in the cultural history of baroque Rome. 43 b&w illus. (Nov.)

starred review - Booklist

"By adopting the manner of a lecturer—teasingly mentioning things to come, employing the first-person plural as a teacher, roping students into his intellectual questing, throwing in some slang now and then, and without neglecting scholarship (this is a history of papal Rome as much as a biography)—Mormando gives us a succulent reading experience. Quanto e dolce."

The�Tablet (UK)

"Such a publishing landmark by a lauded historian of the period is an event."

Digital Journal

— Jonathan Farrell

The Tablet (UK)

"Such a publishing landmark by a lauded historian of the period is an event."

Ingrid Rowland

"Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one artist whose life was every bit as dramatic, sensual, and emotional as his art. Franco Mormando's sympathetic, intimate biography moves as fast as its hyperactive subject, taking us on a whirlwind ride through the glittering courts of papal Rome and the Paris of the Sun King, Louis XIV. From its shocking beginning to its perfect ending, the book is sheer unmitigated delight."

John Crowley

"There are a few artists to whom the label 'faultless' applies, and the top of that list is Bernini, architect, showman and sculptor. Franco Mormando's book shows him in full as a man for the first time, and he is as pleasing, as sweet, as interestingly ambiguous as his amazing oeuvre. This is a wonderful book to have at last."

Pamela Jones

“Franco Mormando’s fascinating book is a welcome addition to the Bernini literature. It is both a biography of the artist and a portrait of Roman Baroque culture. Though written for a general audience, it reveals an impressive command of the specialist scholarship—in art history, literature, and history. Mormando wears his learning lightly, writing with animation, carefully pacing his anecdotes, and making the whole as entertaining as it is informative.”

Library Journal

Mormando (Italian, Boston Coll.) provides enough salacious details of the scandal-ridden life of baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini to keep readers turning pages in this engaging, well-researched biography. He worked for a parade of popes in Rome and received commissions from Rome's leading families: the Barbarini, Pamphilj, Chigi, and Borghese. His outsized ego, which prompted his mother to write a letter to the pope pleading for the pontiff to reign her son in, plagued him throughout his life: not only maiming a mistress who had been unfaithful to him, but also making impolitic remarks about Louis XIV and Paris while living as the king's guest in France. Still, Bernini managed to create some of the world's most enduring artworks, including his statues St. Theresa in Ecstasy, David, Apollo and Daphne, and the Piazza Navona's Fountain of the Four Rivers, as well as the baldacchino and interior design of St. Peter's and the colonnade of its majestic piazza, among his many monumental achievements. VERDICT Mormando's extensive research and documentation not only will satisfy scholars and students of art history, especially baroque aficionados, but this biography will also appeal to general readers.—Ellen Bates, New York