Background
Mr. Bernini was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in present-day Italy, on December 7, 1598. Born to Angelica Galante and the Florentine sculptor Pietro Bernini, who moved to Rome in 1604, he was the sixth of their thirteen children.
Bernini's self-portraits.
Mr. Bernini was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in present-day Italy, on December 7, 1598. Born to Angelica Galante and the Florentine sculptor Pietro Bernini, who moved to Rome in 1604, he was the sixth of their thirteen children.
Gian Bernini was taught his first art lessons by his father, and made such great progress, that he made and completed a successful angel's head in marble at the tender age of 10. When he moved to Rome with his father in 1608, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini attracted attention due to his well-developed artistic talent at such a young age, and attended a masterclass, where he produced a number of busts.
In his youth Mr. Bernini made the customary studies of the work of Raphael and Michelangelo. But Hellenistic sculpture and Roman sculpture in the Hellenistic tradition were to influence his development far more, and it was largely from these ancient sources that he drew the powerfully dynamic and fluid style that was to characterize his mature work.
Not long after Mr. Bernini's father moved from Naples to Rome, he began working on the sculpture of the Pauline Chapel, the enormous addition to Santa Maria Maggiore built for the reigning pope, Paul V. This commission gave the elder Bernini an opportunity to introduce his son, who was a child prodigy, to the Pope and the Pope's favorite nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The cardinal, a man of vast wealth with a real passion for art, was to become Mr. Bernini's first important patron.
Contemporary painting as well, by Caravaggio, the Carracci, and Guido Reni, was to play a role in his stylistic formation. Under the rule of the Barberini pope, Urban VIII (1623-1644), Gian Bernini dominated the artistic scene in Rome. His commissions were so large that he had to draw into his studio most of the sculptors then working in Rome. From this time on, Mr. Bernini's bigger works were usually executed by assistants, working from his designs and under his close supervision. With Urban's successor, Innocent X, Bernini's fortunes changed. Finding the papal treasury empty and the purses of his predecessor's family filled beyond their wildest dreams, the new pope drove the Barberini from Rome and rejected everyone, Bernini included, who had belonged to their circle. At the same time sculptors and architects who had been envious of Gian Bernini's fabulous success rushed to attack him on trumped-up charges that the lofty bell tower Mr. Bernini had erected on the facade of St. Peter's was pulled down. But his trials were short-lived. He was soon back in favor, hard at work for Innocent X, who had found it impossible to find another artist with half Gian Bernini's talent. For the rest of his life each succeeding pope sought his services.
Sculptural Style of Mr. Bernini's early work for Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the most spectacular is the life-size marble group Apollo and Daphne (1622-1624). Gian Bernini was totally baroque in his choice of the monument of maximum drama: a split second of climax in the midst of movement and change.
For Pope Urban VIII Gian Bernini created the Triton Fountain (1642-1643) in the square where the Barberini had their palace. Though the fountain is architectural in scale, it remains sculptural in concept. In general, in all Bernini's fountains the movement of the water increases the sense of movement inherent in the sculpture. It contributes a still further dimension with its sound: water falling, splashing, breaking, dripping, and gurgling as it drains away. During the reign of Innocent X, when Mr. Bernini was temporarily in disgrace, he created the Cornaro Chapel in the small Roman church of Santa Maria della Vittoria (1644-1655).
The high baroque portrait, which Bernini invented, is exemplified in the bust of Francesco d'Este (1650 - 1651). Always the mood is momentary, here conveyed by the sharply turned head and focused eyes. Often the lips are slightly parted, as if the sitter were about to speak. Elements surrounding the face serve to indicate social position. The large marble Angel with Crown of Thorns that Mr. Bernini carved in the years 1667-1669 shows his late style. The statue was conceived as part of a large group of figures, each holding a symbol of the Passion of Christ. The angel's face is pained, but in these late works it is the drapery that becomes the major vehicle for the emotions. The expressive intensity of works such as this reflects Mr. Bernini's own deepening mysticism at the end of his life.
As an architect, Bernini was less radical than as a sculptor and more concerned with the monumental heritage of imperial Rome. For the plan of Santa Andrea al Quirinale in Rome (1658-1670) he went back to the Pantheon with its alternating chapels that ring a circular dome. But Bernini changed the circular plan to an oval one to make the space more active, and he added an enclosed area for the high altar where the light pours down from a window. The interior is inlaid with the richest colored marbles and is accented with architectural ornament of such refinement that the effect is often compared to a jewel box.
Gian Bernini's crowning achievement in architecture was St. Peter's Square in Rome (1656 - 1667). The section nearest the church is a trapezoid, but the main part of the square is an enormous oval partially enclosed by two semicircular colonnades. The square provides a monumental entrance to St. Peter's and a place where crowds, up to half a million at a time, gather to receive the pope's blessing. Mr. Bernini is known to have visualized the square symbolically as arms reaching out to embrace a multitude of the faithful. Architecturally the idea of freestanding colonnades that contain the space of a circular square was Mr. Bernini's invention, but the inspiration went back to imperial Rome. Apart from the row of statues on the balustrade, Gian Bernini's square has little ornament. The travertine columns are severely simple, unfluted Tuscan Doric.
During Gian Bernini's later years the spiritual content of his art deepened. In 1665, when he was an old man, Mr. Bernini was called to France. The idea was to have the world's most famous artist, Gian Bernini, serve the world's most powerful monarch, Louis XIV. The architect was to build a royal palace, a new and grander Louvre, for the King. Bernini's trip from Rome to Paris was like the triumphal procession of a great lord. But less than 6 months after he arrived, he was ready to go home, disillusioned by court intrigue and his lack of sympathy for almost anything French. In Paris he considered himself surrounded by cultural barbarians. His designs for the Louvre were never carried out.
Back in Rome, Mr. Bernini's creative imagination remained undiminished even into old age, though as his strength failed him he depended more and more on assistants to carry out his designs.
Gian Bernini excelled in every sculptural genre (portraiture, tomb sculpture, religious and mythological representations). He acquired the title of being the ultimate successor of Michelangelo with his superior sculpting abilities. He received much criticism from the neoclassical community of Baroque art, but even today, he has remained as one of the leading icons in the field of Roman Baroque architecture. Bernini's known to be the master of such masterpieces as: Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius; Rape of Proserpine; Apollo and Daphne; David; Elephant and Obelisk; portrait of Costanza Bonarelli, etc.
Mr. Bernini enjoyed an almost princely acclaim, and received the Cross of the Order of Christ, moreover, he was a favorite of all Popes reigning during his lifetime. The pope himself and the Swedish Queen Christine, who stayed in Rome at the time, often visited him in his apartment with their court. It was considered to be an honor to own one of his works, so the aristocracy all over Europe were keen to have one of his pieces.
With his buildings, Bernini left a decisive mark on the cityscape of Rome. Alongside his sculptures and architectural work, Bernini produced over 150 paintings depicting biblical and secular stories and the world of mythology - pictures, which can now be admired in various collections, particularly in Italy.
Portrait of a Boy
St. Jerome
Portrait of a Young Man
Self Portrait as a Young Man
Portrait of a Man with a Moustache (Supposed Self Portrait)
Self-Portrait
Saint Andrew and Saint Thomas
Portrait of a Young Man (Self-Portrait)
Self-Portrait as a Mature Man
Portrait of a Man with a Moustache
Pope Urban VIII
David with the Head of Goliath
The Angel of the Crown of Thorns
Bust of Camilla Barberini nee Barbadori
Time Arrested by Death
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius
Cardinal Scipione Borghese
Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by Children
Constantine the Great
The Throne of Saint Peter
Bust of Costanza Buonarelli
Altar Cross
St. Agnese
Equestrian Statue of King Louis XIV
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
Mathilde of Tuscany Sun
Saint Jerome
The Four Rivers Fountain
Apollo and Daphne
Angel with the Inscription of I.N.R.I.
Portrait Bust of Pedro de Foix Montoya
The Ecstasy of St. Teresa
Truth Unveiled by Time
Charity Tomb of Urban VIII
The Emperor Constantine
Rape of Proserpine
Memorial Bust of Gabriele Fonseca
St. Longinus
The Blessed Lodovica Albertoni
Neptune and Triton
Medusa
Charles I, King of England
St. Augustine
Daniel and the Lion
Sepulchre of Matilda the Great Countess
Portrait Bust of Cardinal Richelieu
Torso of Neptune
Habakkuk and the Angel
St. Bibiana
Standing Angel with Scroll
Bust of Pope Urban VIII
Bust of Pope Gregory XV
Bernini was a true Roman Catholic and he visited Church for the mass every day along with communion which happened twice a week. Many of the works created by Bernini also depicted Bernini’s faith in his religion and it was used as propaganda to spread his faith in Roman Catholic Church. Under the guidance of his close friend and religious counselor Father Gian Paolo Oliva, the head of the Jesuit order, he made intensive studies of the writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola and carried out the spiritual exercises the saint prescribed.
Quotations:
"What we have is given by God and to teach it to others is to return it to him."
"Three things are needed for success in painting and sculpture: to see beauty when young and accustom oneself to it, to work hard, and to obtain good advice."
"There are two devices which can help the sculptor to judge his work: one is not to see it for a while. The other... is to look at his work through spectacles which will change its color and magnify or diminish it, so as to disguise it somehow to his eye, and make it look as though it were the work of another."
Quotes from others about the person
John Evelyn: "Bernini ... gave a public opera wherein he painted the scenes, cut the statues, invented the engines, composed the music, writ the comedy, and built the theatre."
In May 1639, at age forty-one, Mr. Bernini wed a twenty-two-year-old Roman woman, Caterina Tezio, who bore him eleven children, including youngest son Domenico Bernini, who would later be his first biographer.
