Gianlorenzo Bernini
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
born Dec. 7, 1598, Naples, Kingdom of Naples [Italy]
died Nov. 28, 1680, Rome, Papal States
Italian artist who was perhaps the greatest sculptor of the 17th
century and an outstanding architect as well. Bernini created the
Baroque style of sculpture and developed it to such an extent that
other artists are of only minor importance in a discussion of that
style.
Early years.
Bernini's career began under his father, Pietro Bernini, a
Florentine sculptor of some talent who ultimately moved to Rome. The
young prodigy worked so diligently that he earned the praise of the
painter Annibale Carracci and the patronage of Pope Paul V and soon
established himself as a wholly independent sculptor. He was
strongly influenced by his close study of the antique Greek and
Roman marbles in the Vatican, and he also had an intimate knowledge
of High Renaissance painting of the early 16th century. His study of
Michelangelo is revealed in the “St. Sebastian” (c. 1617), carved
for Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who was later Pope Urban VIII and
Bernini's greatest patron.
Bernini's early works attracted the attention of Cardinal Scipione
Borghese, a member of the reigning papal family. Under his
patronage, Bernini carved his first important life-size sculptural
groups. The series shows Bernini's progression from the almost
haphazard single view of “Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius Fleeing
Troy” (1619; Borghese Gallery, Rome) to strong frontality in “Pluto
and Proserpina” (1621–22; Borghese Gallery) and then to the
hallucinatory vision of “Apollo and Daphne” (1622–24; Borghese
Gallery), which was intended to be viewed from one spot as if it
were a relief. In his “David” (1623–24; Borghese Gallery), Bernini
depicts the figure casting a stone at an unseen adversary. Several
portrait busts that Bernini executed during this period, including
that of Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1623–24), show a new awareness
of the relationship between head and body and display an ability to
depict fleeting facial expressions with acute realism. These marble
works show an unparalleled virtuosity in carving that obdurate
material to achieve the delicate effects usually found only in
bronze sculptures. Bernini's sensual awareness of the surface
textures of skin and hair and his novel sense of shading broke with
the tradition of Michelangelo and marked the emergence of a new
period in the history of Western sculpture.
Patronage of Urban VIII.
With the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623–44), Bernini entereda
period of enormous productivity and artistic development. Urban VIII
urged his protégé to paint and to practice architecture. His first
architectural work was the remodeled Church of Santa Bibiana in
Rome. At the same time, Bernini was commissioned to build a symbolic
structure over the tomb of St. Peter in St. Peter's Basilica in
Rome. The result is the famous immense gilt-bronze baldachin
executed between 1624 and 1633. Its twisted columns derive from the
early Christian columns that had been used in the altar screen of
Old St. Peter's. Bernini's most original contribution to the final
work is the upper framework of crowning volutes flanked by four
angels that supports the orb and cross. The baldachin is perfectly
proportioned to its setting, and one hardly realizes that it is as
tall as a four-story building. Its lively outline moving upward to
the triumphant crown, its dark colour heightened with burning gold,
give it the character of a living organism. An unprecedented fusion
of sculpture and architecture, the baldachin is the first truly
Baroque monument. It ultimately formed the centre of a programmatic
decoration designed by Bernini for the interior of St. Peter's.
Bernini next supervised the decoration of the four piers supporting
the dome of St. Peter's with colossal statues, though only one of
the latter, “St. Longinus,” was designed by him. He also made a
series of portrait busts of Urban VIII, but the first bust to
achieve the quality of his earlier portraits is that of his great
patron, Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1632; Borghese Gallery). The
cardinal is shown in the act of speaking and moving, and the action
is caught at a moment that seems to reveal all the characteristic
qualities of the subject.
Bernini's architectural duties increased after the death of Carlo
Maderno in 1629, when Bernini became architect of St. Peter's and of
the Palazzo Barberini. By this time he was not only executing works
himself but also having to rely on assistance from others as the
number of his commissions grew. He was successful in organizing his
studio and planning his work so that sculptures and ornamentations
produced by a team actually seem to be all of a piece. Bernini's
work, then and always, was also shaped by his fervent Roman
Catholicism (he attended mass every day and took communion twice a
week). He would agree with the formulations of the Council of Trent
(1545–63) that the purpose of religious art was to teach and inspire
the faithful and to serve as propaganda for the Roman Catholic
church. Religious art should always be intelligible and realistic,
and, above all, it should serve as an emotional stimulus to piety.
The development of Bernini's religious art was largely determined by
his conscientious efforts to conform to those principles.
Under Urban VIII Bernini began to produce new and different kinds of
monuments—tombs and fountains. The tomb of Urban VIII (1628–47; St.
Peter's, Rome) shows the pope seated with his arm raised in a
commanding gesture, while below him are two white marble figures
representing the Virtues. Bernini also designed a revolutionary
series of small tomb memorials, of which the most impressive is that
of Maria Raggi (1643). But his fountains are his most obvious
contribution to the city of Rome. The Triton Fountain in the Piazza
Barberini (1642–43) is a dramatic transformation of a Roman
architectonic fountain—the superposed basins of the traditional
geometric piazza fountain appearing to have come alive. Four
dolphins raise a huge shell supporting the sea god, who blows water
upward out of a conch.
Bernini's early architectural projects, however, were not invariably
successful. In 1637 he began to erect campaniles, or bell towers,
over the facade of St. Peter's. But, in 1646, when their weight
began to crack the building, they were pulled down, and Bernini was
temporarily disgraced.
Patronage of Innocent X and Alexander VII.
Bernini's most spectacular public monuments date from themid-1640s
to the 1660s. The Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome's Piazza
Navona (1648–51) supports an ancient Egyptian obelisk over a
hollowed-out rock, surmounted by four marble figures symbolizing
four major rivers of the world. This fountain is one of his most
spectacular works.
The greatest single example of Bernini's mature art is the Cornaro
Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, in Rome, which completes the
evolution begun early in his career. The chapel, commissioned by
Cardinal Federigo Cornaro, is in a shallow transept in the small
church. Its focal point is his sculpture of “The Ecstasy of St.
Teresa” (1645–52), a depiction of a mystical experience of the great
Spanish Carmelite reformer Teresa of Ávila. In representing Teresa's
vision, during which an angel pierced her heart with a fiery arrow
of divine love, Bernini followed Teresa's own description of the
event. The sculptured group, showing the transported saint swooning
in the void, covered by cascading drapery, is revealed in celestial
light within a niche over the altar, where the architectural and
decorative elements are richly joined and articulated. At left and
right, in spaces resembling opera boxes, numerous members of the
Cornaro family are found in spirited postures of conversation,
reading, or prayer. The Cornaro Chapel carries Bernini's ideal of a
three-dimensional picture to its apex. The figures of St. Teresa and
the angel are sculptured in white marble, but the viewer cannot tell
whether they are in the round or merely in high relief. The natural
daylight that falls on the figures from a hidden source above and
behind them is part of the group, as are the gilt rays behind. “The
Ecstasy of St. Teresa” is not sculpture in the conventional sense.
Instead, it is a framed pictorial scene made up of sculpture,
painting, and light that also includes the worshiperin a religious
drama.
In his later years, the growing desire to control the environments
of his statuary led Bernini to concentrate more and more on
architecture. Of the churches he designed after completing the
Cornaro Chapel, the most impressive is that of Sant'Andrea al
Quirinale (1658–70) in Rome, with its dramatic high altar, soaring
dome, and unconventionally sited oval plan. But Bernini's greatest
architectural achievement is the colonnade enclosing the piazza
before St. Peter's Basilica. The chief function of the large space
was to hold the crowd that gathered for the papal benediction on
Easter and other special occasions. Bernini planned a huge oval
attached to the church by a trapezoidal forecourt—forms that he
compared to the encircling arms of the mother church. The
freestanding colonnades were a novel solution to the need for a
penetrable enclosure. The piazza guides the visitor toward the
church and counterbalances the overly wide facade of St. Peter's.
Bernini's oval encloses a space centred on the Vatican obelisk,
which had been moved before the church by Sixtus Vin 1586. Bernini
moved an older fountain by Maderno into the long axis of the piazza
and built a twin on the other side to make a scenographic whole. The
analogies to Bernini's oval plan of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale are
fascinating, as are the differences in meaning and function.
Bernini's most spectacular religious decoration is the Throne of St.
Peter, or the Cathedra Petri (1657–66), a gilt-bronze cover for the
medieval wooden throne (cathedra) of the pope. Bernini's task was
not only to make a decorative cover for the chair but also to create
a meaningful goal in the apse of St. Peter's for the pilgrim's
journey through the great church. The seat is seemingly supported by
four imposing bronze figures representing theological doctors of the
early church: Saints Ambrose, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, and
Augustine. Above, a golden glory of angels on clouds and rays of
light emanates from the Dove of the Holy Spirit, which is painted on
an oval window. The cathedra was produced about the same time as the
piazza, and the contrast between these two works shows Bernini's
versatility. Both works were done for the Chigi pope, Alexander VII
(1655–67), who was one of Bernini's greatest patrons. The tomb that
Bernini designed for Alexander VII (1671–78; St. Peter's) was
largely executed by his pupils.
In addition to his large works, Bernini continued to produce a few
portrait busts. The first of these, of Francesco I d'Este, duke of
Modena (1650–51; Este Gallery and Museum, Modena), culminates his
revolution in portraiture. Much of the freedom and spontaneity of
the bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese is kept, but it is united
with a heroic pomp and grandiose movement that portray the ideals of
the Baroque age as much as the man.
Trip to France.
Bernini went to Paris in 1665, in what washis only prolonged absence
from Rome. The trip was made in response to invitations that for
many years had been extended to him by King Louis XIV, and the
purpose was the design of a new French royal residence. By this
time, Berniniwas so famous that crowds lined the streets of each
city along the route to watch him pass. His initial reception in
Paris was equally triumphant, but he soon offended his sensitive
hosts by imperiously praising the art and architecture of Italy at
the expense of that of France. His statements made him unpopular at
the French court and were to some degree responsible for the
rejection of his designs for the Louvre. The only relic of Bernini's
visit to France is his great bust of Louis XIV, a linear, vertical,
and stable portrait, in which the Sun King gazes out with godlike
authority. The image set a standard for royal portraits that lasted
100 years.
Later years.
Bernini's late works in sculpture are inevitably overshadowed by his
grandiose projects for St. Peter's, but a few of them are of
outstanding interest. For the Chigi Chapel in the Church of Santa
Maria del Popolo in Rome, he carved two groups, “Daniel in the
Lions' Den” and “Habakkuk and the Angel” (1655–61). These works show
the beginnings of his late style: elongation of the body, expressive
gesture, and simplified yet emphatic emotional expression. The same
characteristics are already found in the figures supporting the
Throne of St. Peter and culminate in the moving “Angels” for the
Sant'Angelo Bridge in Rome, which Bernini redecorated with the help
of assistants between 1667 and 1671. Pope Clement IX (1667–69) so
prized the “Angels” carved by Bernini that they were never set up on
the bridge and are now in the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in
Rome.
The redecorated Sant'Angelo Bridge leading across the Tiber forms an
introduction to the Vatican, and Bernini's other works—the piazza,
Scala Regia, and the baldachin and cathedra within St. Peter's—form
progressively more powerful expressions of papal power to support
and inspire Roman Catholic pilgrims to the site. Bernini completed
one more decoration in St. Peter's in his last years: the altar of
the Santissimo Sacramento Chapel (1673–74). The pliant, human
adoration of the angels contrasts with the timeless architecture of
the bronze tabernacle that they flank and typifies Bernini's late
style. In his last years he seems to have found the inexorable laws
of architecture a consoling antithesis to the transitory human
state.
Bernini's greatest late work is the simple Altieri Chapel in San
Francesco a Ripa (c. 1674) in Rome. The relatively deep space above
the altar reveals a statue representing the death of the Blessed
Ludovica Albertoni. Bernini consciously separated architecture,
sculpture, and painting for different roles, reversing the process
that culminated in the Cornaro Chapel. In that sense, the Altieri
Chapel is more traditional, a variation on his church interiors of
the preceding years. Instead of filling the arched opening, the
sculpted figure of Ludovica lies at the bottom of a large volume of
space, and is illuminated by a heavenly light that plays on the
drapery gathered over her recumbent figure. Her hands weakly
clutching her breast make explicit her painful death.
Bernini died at the age of 81, after having served eight popes, and
when he died he was widely considered not only Europe's greatest
artist but also one of its greatest men. He was the last of Italy's
remarkable series of universal geniuses, and the Baroque style he
helped create was the last Italian style to become an international
standard. His death marked the end of Italy's artistic hegemony in
Europe. The style he evolved was carried on for two more generations
in various parts of Europe by the architects Mattia de' Rossi and
Carlo Fontana in Rome, J.B. Fischer von Erlach in Austria, and the
brothers Cosmas and Egid Quirin Asam in Bavaria, among others.
Howard Hibbard
