Misplaced Pages

#461538

169-500: The book features twenty-nine sections, with glossy full-color illustrations, each focused on a specific piece. Artists detailed include Titian , Manet , Picasso , and Jackson Pollock among others. After its October 16, 2012 release, the book received positive reviews from publications such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal , while it also picked up more critical, negative reviews from publications such as The New York Times Book Review . While touching on

338-585: A 1962 silkscreen that replicates a photo of Marilyn Monroe over and over with image variations, and the work is lauded for strongly showing the "multiplicity of meanings" in the actress' life and legacy. The book additionally cites Eleanor Antin 's conceptual art project '100 Boots'. Paglia praises the work, writing that "boots, like their creator, are outsiders, eternal migrants questing for knowledge and experience." Composer John Adams in The New York Times Book Review published

507-657: A Dragon (c. 1616–17, Getty Museum , Los Angeles), the Aldobrandini Four Seasons (c. 1620, private collection), and the recently discovered Bust of the Savior (1615–16, New York, private collection). Sometime after the arrival of the Bernini family in Rome, word about the great talent of the boy Gian Lorenzo spread throughout the city and he soon caught the attention of Cardinal Scipione Borghese , nephew to

676-460: A Mirror '; she writes about the artistic changes it symbolizes as the strong brushwork and liberal use of paint allow for warm flesh tones, Titian creating "opulent nudes that thrust sexual display and fantasy" onto the viewer. Paglia next discusses Bronzino 's 'Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune', writing that as a work of the Mannerism movement it shows a "polished theatricality" arresting to

845-528: A Ripa , whose façade was designed by Bernini's disciple, Mattia de' Rossi . In his last two years, Bernini also carved (supposedly for Queen Christina ) the bust of the Savior (Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le Mura , Rome) and supervised the restoration of the historic Palazzo della Cancelleria , a direct commission from Pope Innocent XI. The latter commission is an outstanding confirmation of both Bernini's continuing professional reputation and good health of mind and body even in advanced old age, inasmuch as

1014-537: A bust of her (now in the Bargello, Florence) during the height of their romance. However, at some point, Costanza began at the same time an affair also 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 mad fury, he chased Luigi through the streets of Rome and into the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, almost ending his life. To punish his unfaithful mistress, Bernini had

1183-475: A coherent conceptual and visual whole has been termed by the late art historian Irving Lavin the "unity of the visual arts". Bernini was born on 7 December 1598 in Naples to Angelica Galante, a Neapolitan, and Mannerist sculptor Pietro Bernini , originally from Florence . He was the sixth of their thirteen children. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was "recognized as a prodigy when he was only eight years old, [and] he

1352-591: A commission for a papal portrait, the Bust of Pope Paul V , now in the J. Paul Getty Museum . Bernini's reputation, however, was definitively established by four masterpieces, executed between 1619 and 1625, all now displayed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. To 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)—"inaugurated

1521-408: A critical review of the book, viewing it as being "so agenda driven and so riddled with polemic asides that its potential to persuade is forever being compromised." Adams noted that the book avoided discussions of Giotto , Michelangelo , El Greco , Rembrandt , Vermeer , and van Gogh , which he criticized. He supported how Paglia "encourages us to read more closely and to look more imaginatively" at

1690-571: A famous work of antiquity, the Sleeping Hermaphroditus owned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese ( Galleria Borghese , Rome) and later (circa 1622) restored the so-called Ludovisi Ares ( Museo Nazionale Romano , Rome). Also dating to this early period are the so-called Damned Soul and Blessed Soul of circa 1619, two small marble busts which may have been influenced by a set of prints by Pieter de Jode I or Karel van Mallery , but which were in fact unambiguously catalogued in

1859-565: 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 work-related reasons. Rome was Bernini's city: "You are made for Rome," said Pope Urban VIII to him, "and Rome for you." It was in this world of 17th-century Rome and the international religious-political power which resided there that Bernini created his greatest works. Bernini's works are therefore often characterized as perfect expressions of

SECTION 10

#1732779640462

2028-468: A greater concern for representing physical details. The tousled hair of Pluto, the pliant flesh of Proserpina , or the forest of leaves beginning to envelop Daphne all demonstrate Bernini's exactitude and delight for representing complex real world textures in marble form. In 1621 Pope Paul V Borghese was succeeded on the throne of St. Peter by another admiring friend of Bernini's, Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who became Pope Gregory XV : although his reign

2197-505: A heavy ancient obelisk placed over a void created by a cavelike rock formation placed in the centre of an ocean of exotic sea creatures. Bernini continued to receive commissions from Pope Innocent X and other senior members of Rome's clergy and aristocracy, as well as from exalted patrons outside of Rome, such as Francesco d'Este . Recovering quickly from the humiliation of the bell towers, Bernini's boundless creativity continued as before. New types of funerary monument were designed, such as, in

2366-530: A late reference (1675) as a Bernini work by Joachim von Sandrart, a German visitor to Rome, an attribution that was given no credence until the twentieth century. Indeed, the official 2022 Catalogo generale (vol. 1, Sculture moderne , cat. 41) of the Galleria Borghese, edited by Anna Coliva (former director of the gallery) formally removes the attribution to Bernini completely, on the basis of both stylistic, technical, and historical (documentary) grounds. Instead, among Bernini's earliest and securely documented work

2535-588: A later variant was produced for Philip II, for whom Titian painted many of his most important mythological paintings. Although Michelangelo adjudged this piece deficient from the point of view of drawing, Titian and his studio produced several versions for other patrons. Another famous painting is Bacchus and Ariadne , depicting Theseus , whose ship is shown in the distance and who has just left Ariadne at Naxos, when Bacchus arrives, jumping from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs, and falling immediately in love with Ariadne. Bacchus raised her to heaven. Her constellation

2704-481: A magnificent world capital by means of systematic, bold (and costly) urban planning. In so doing, he brought to fruition the long, slow recreation of the urban glory of Rome—the deliberate campaign for the " renovatio Romae "—that had begun in the fifteenth century under the Renaissance popes. Over the course of his pontificate, Alexander commissioned many large-scale architectural changes in the city—indeed, some of

2873-521: A member of his court to serve as Bernini's translator, tourist guide, and overall companion, Paul Fréart de Chantelou , who kept a Journal of Bernini's visit that records much of Bernini's behaviour and utterances in Paris. The writer Charles Perrault , who was serving at this time as an assistant to the French Controller-General of Finances Jean-Baptiste Colbert , also provided a first-hand account of Bernini's visit. Bernini

3042-412: A minuscule percentage have survived from what must have been a great multitude. The single largest sub-group of his sculptural production is represented by his portrait busts (either free-standing or incorporated into larger funerary monuments), mostly of his papal patrons or other ecclesiastical personages, as well as those few secular potentates who could afford the extraordinary expense of commissioning

3211-484: A more extraordinary work, The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr (1530), formerly in the Dominican Church of San Zanipolo , and destroyed by an Austrian shell in 1867. Only copies and engravings of this proto- Baroque picture remain. It combined extreme violence and a landscape, mostly consisting of a great tree, that pressed into the scene and seems to accentuate the drama in a way that looks forward to

3380-464: A new conception of the traditional groups of donors and holy persons moving in aerial space, the plans and different degrees set in an architectural framework. Titian was then at the height of his fame, and towards 1521, following the production of a figure of St. Sebastian for the papal legate in Brescia (of which there are numerous replicas), purchasers pressed for his work. To this period belongs

3549-655: A new era in the history of European sculpture." It is a view repeated by other scholars, such as Howard Hibbard who proclaimed that, in all of the seventeenth century, "there were no sculptors or architects comparable to Bernini." Adapting the classical grandeur of Renaissance sculpture and the dynamic energy of the Mannerist period, Bernini forged a new, distinctly Baroque conception for religious and historical sculpture, powerfully imbued with dramatic realism, stirring emotion and dynamic, theatrical compositions. Bernini's early sculpture groups and portraits manifest "a command of

SECTION 20

#1732779640462

3718-857: A painter of some note in Venice. A fresco of Hercules on the Morosini Palace is said to have been one of Titian's earliest works. Others were the Bellini-esque so-called Gypsy Madonna in Vienna, and the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth (from the convent of Sant'Andrea), now in the Accademia , Venice. A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is an early portrait, painted around 1509 and described by Giorgio Vasari in 1568. Scholars long believed it depicted Ludovico Ariosto , but now think it

3887-678: A painter. The minor painter Sebastian Zuccato, whose sons became well-known mosaicists , and who may have been a family friend, arranged for the brothers to enter the studio of the elderly Gentile Bellini , from which they later transferred to that of his brother Giovanni Bellini . At that time the Bellinis, especially Giovanni, were the leading artists in the city. There Titian found a group of young men about his own age, among them Giovanni Palma da Serinalta, Lorenzo Lotto , Sebastiano Luciani , and Giorgio da Castelfranco, nicknamed Giorgione . Francesco Vecellio , Titian's older brother, later became

4056-577: A papal commission (to contribute a marble relief to the Cappella Paolina of Santa Maria Maggiore ) and so moved from Naples to Rome, taking his entire family with him and continuing in earnest the training of his son Gian Lorenzo. Several extant works, dating circa 1615–1620, are by general scholarly consensus, collaborative efforts by both father and son: they include the Faun Teased by Putti (c. 1615, Metropolitan Museum , NYC), Boy with

4225-737: A poor, incomplete copy at the Uffizi, and a mediocre engraving by Fontana. The Speech of the Marquis del Vasto (Madrid, 1541) was also partly destroyed by fire. But this period of the master's work is still represented by the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (Venice, 1539), one of his most popular canvasses, and by the Ecce Homo ( Vienna , 1541). Despite its loss, the painting had a great influence on Bolognese art and Rubens, both in

4394-408: A portrait from Bernini (e.g., King Louis XIV , 1665, Palace of Versailles). Other large groups are represented by his religious works – statues of Biblical figures, angels, saints of the church, the crucified Christ, etc. – and his mythological figures either free-standing (such as his earliest masterpieces in the Galleria Borghese, Rome) or serving as ornaments in his complex fountain designs (such as

4563-465: A purple drapery substituted for a landscape background changed, by its harmonious colouring, the whole meaning of the scene. From the beginning of his career, Titian was a masterful portrait-painter, in works like La Bella (Eleanora de Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, at the Pitti Palace ). He painted the likenesses of princes, or Doges, cardinals or monks, and artists or writers. "...no other painter

4732-403: A sculptor. He was trained from his earliest youth in that profession by his sculptor father, Pietro. The most recent and most comprehensive catalogue raisonné of his works of sculpture compiled by Maria Grazia Bernardini ( Bernini: Catalogo delle sculture ; Turin: Allemandi, 2022, 2 vols.) comprises 143 entries (not including those of debated attribution): they span Bernini's entire productive life,

4901-439: A semi-prostrate position with her mouth open and her legs splayed-apart, her wimple coming undone, with prominently displayed bare feet (Discalced Carmelites , for modesty, always wore sandals with heavy stockings) and with the seraph "undressing" her by (unnecessarily) parting her mantle to penetrate her heart with his arrow. Matters of decorum aside, Bernini's Teresa was still an artistic tour de force that incorporates all of

5070-464: A series of large mythological paintings known as the "poesie", mostly from Ovid , which scholars regard as among his greatest works. Thanks to the prudishness of Philip's successors, these were later mostly given as gifts, and only two remain in the Prado. Titian was producing religious works for Philip at the same time, some of which—the ones inside Ribeira Palace —are known to have been destroyed during

5239-756: A servant go to the house of Costanza, where the servant slashed her face several times with a razor. The servant was later jailed, while Costanza herself was jailed for adultery. Bernini himself was exonerated by the pope, even though he had committed a crime in ordering the face-slashing. Soon after, in May 1639, at age forty-one, Bernini wed a twenty-two-year-old Roman woman, Caterina Tezio, in an arranged marriage, under orders from Pope Urban. She had eleven children, including youngest son Domenico Bernini , who would later be his father's first biographer. After his never-repeated episode of stalking and disfigurement by proxy, in his subsequent marriage Bernini turned more sincerely to

Glittering Images - Misplaced Pages Continue

5408-570: A significant element of rivalry. Distinguishing between their work during this period remains a subject of scholarly controversy. A substantial number of attributions have moved from Giorgione to Titian in the 20th century, with little traffic the other way. One of the earliest known Titian works, Christ Carrying the Cross in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco , depicting the Ecce Homo scene,

5577-540: A substitute for paintings; and collaborated with Domenico Campagnola and others, who produced additional prints based on his paintings and drawings. Much later he provided drawings based on his paintings to Cornelis Cort from the Netherlands who engraved them. Martino Rota followed Cort from about 1558 to 1568. Titian employed an extensive array of pigments and it can be said that he availed himself of virtually all available pigments of his time. In addition to

5746-657: A supportive review by Michael S. Roth , an author and the president of Wesleyan University . He wrote, "Artists, questing outsiders, are still with us, still finding their way, making their way. Perhaps some of them will be inspired by the glittering images Camille Paglia offers here." Titian Artists Clergy Monarchs Popes Tiziano Vecellio ( Italian: [titˈtsjaːno veˈtʃɛlljo] ; c.  1488/90  – 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus , hence known in English as Titian ( / ˈ t ɪ ʃ ən / TISH -ən ),

5915-616: A traditional genre upon which his influence left an enduring mark, often copied by subsequent artists. Indeed, Bernini's final and most original tomb monument, the Tomb of Pope Alexander VII , in St. Peter's Basilica, represents, according to Erwin Panofsky , the very pinnacle of European funerary art, whose creative inventiveness subsequent artists could not hope to surpass. Despite this busy engagement with large works of public architecture, Bernini

6084-510: A whole series of temporary structures (in stucco and wood) for funerals and festivals. His broad technical versatility, boundless compositional inventiveness and sheer skill in manipulating marble ensured that he would be considered a worthy successor of Michelangelo , far outshining other sculptors of his generation. His talent extended beyond the confines of sculpture to a consideration of the setting in which it would be situated; his ability to synthesize sculpture, painting, and architecture into

6253-551: Is at Collontola, near Belluno. He visited Rome in 1546 and obtained the freedom of the city—his immediate predecessor in that honor having been Michelangelo in 1537. He could at the same time have succeeded the painter Sebastiano del Piombo in his lucrative office as holder of the piombo or Papal seal , and he was prepared to take Holy Orders for the purpose; but the project lapsed through his being summoned away from Venice in 1547 to paint Charles V and others in Augsburg . He

6422-454: Is considered a founder of the Venetian school of Italian Renaissance painting . During his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically, but he retained a lifelong interest in colour. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, they are renowned for their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone. The exact time or date of Titian's birth

6591-538: Is his collaboration on his father's commission of February 1618 from Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to create four marble putti for the Barberini family chapel in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle , the contract stipulating that his son Gian Lorenzo would assist in the execution of the statues. Also dating to 1618 is a letter by Maffeo Barberini in Rome to his brother Carlo in Florence, which mentions that he (Maffeo)

6760-531: Is known, in part, through the engravings of Fontana . After Giorgione's early death in 1510, Titian continued to paint Giorgionesque subjects for some time, though his style developed its own features, including bold and expressive brushwork. Titian's talent in fresco is shown in those he painted in 1511 at Padua in the Carmelite church and in the Scuola del Santo , some of which have been preserved, among them

6929-517: Is of Gerolamo Barbarigo. Rembrandt borrowed the composition for his self-portraits. Titian joined Giorgione as an assistant, but many contemporary critics already found Titian's work more impressive—for example, in exterior frescoes (now almost totally destroyed) that they collaborated on for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (state-warehouse for the German merchants). Their relationship evidently contained

Glittering Images - Misplaced Pages Continue

7098-478: Is often noted by art historians, as iconic of the Baroque concern for representing fleeting movement in static artworks. To Rudolf Wittkower the "beholder feels that in the twinkle of an eye not only might the expression and attitude change but also the folds of the casually arranged mantle". Other marble portraits in this period include that of Costanza Bonarelli unusual in its more personal, intimate nature. (At

7267-449: Is said) against the disparagement of some persons who caviled at the veteran's failing handicraft. Around 1560, Titian painted the oil on canvas Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria , a derivative on the motif of Madonna and Child . It is suggested that members of Titian's Venice workshop probably painted the curtain and Luke, because of the lower quality of those parts. He continued to accept commissions to

7436-538: Is shown in the sky. The painting belongs to a series commissioned from Bellini, Titian, and Dosso Dossi, for the Camerino d'Alabastro (Alabaster Room) in the Ducal Palace, Ferrara , by Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara , who in 1510 even tried to commission Michelangelo and Raphael . During the next period (1530–1550), Titian developed the style introduced by his dramatic Death of St. Peter Martyr . In 1538,

7605-620: Is the Bust of Louis XIV although he also contributed a great deal to the execution of the Christ Child Playing with a Nail marble relief (now in the Louvre) by his son Paolo as a gift to Queen Maria Theresa . Back in Rome, Bernini created a monumental equestrian statue of Louis XIV ; when it finally reached Paris (in 1685, five years after the artist's death), the French king found it extremely repugnant and wanted it destroyed; it

7774-418: Is the powerful, even "repellent" Flaying of Marsyas ( Kroměříž , Czech Republic ). Another violent masterpiece is Tarquin and Lucretia ( Cambridge , Fitzwilliam Museum ). For each problem he undertook, he furnished a new and more perfect formula. He never again equaled the emotion and tragedy of The Crowning with Thorns (Louvre); in the expression of the mysterious and the divine he never equaled

7943-415: Is to Bernini that is due the lion's share of responsibility for the final and enduring aesthetic appearance and emotional impact of St. Peter's. He was also allowed to continue to work on Urban VIII's tomb, despite Innocent's antipathy for the Barberini. A few months after completing Urban's tomb, in 1648 Bernini won (through furtive manoeuvring with the complicity of the pope's sister-in-law Donna Olimpia )

8112-421: Is uncertain. When he was an old man he claimed in a letter to Philip II, King of Spain , to have been born in 1474, but this seems most unlikely. Other writers contemporary to his old age give figures that would equate to birth dates between 1473 and after 1482. Most modern scholars believe a date between 1488 and 1490 is more likely, though his age at death being 99 had been accepted into the 20th century. He

8281-708: The Portrait of Pietro Aretino of the Pitti Palace, the Portrait of Isabella of Portugal (Madrid), and the series of Emperor Charles V of the same museum, the Charles V with a Greyhound (1533), and especially the Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (1548), an equestrian picture in a symphony of purples. This state portrait of Charles V (1548) at the Battle of Mühlberg established a new genre, that of

8450-799: The camerino of Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara , The Bacchanal of the Andrians and the Worship of Venus in the Museo del Prado and the Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23) in London , "perhaps the most brilliant productions of the neo-pagan culture or 'Alexandrianism' of the Renaissance , many times imitated but never surpassed even by Rubens himself." Finally this was the period when Titian composed

8619-849: The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake . The "poesie" series contained the following works: The poesie, except for The Death of Actaeon , were brought together for the first time in nearly 500 years in an exhibition in 2020 and 2021 that travelled from the National Gallery in London, to the Museo del Prado in Madrid, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where it closed on January 2, 2022. Another painting that apparently remained in his studio at his death, and has been much less well known until recent decades,

SECTION 50

#1732779640462

8788-671: The Dukes of Devonshire . Other projects in Paris suffered a similar fate, such as Bernini's plans for the Bourbon funerary chapel in the cathedral of Saint Denis and the main altar of the Church of Val de Grâce (done at the request of its patron the Queen Mother), as well as his idea for a fountain for Saint-Cloud, the estate of King Louis's brother, Philippe. With the exception of Chantelou, Bernini failed to forge significant friendships at

8957-518: The Jesuit church at Antwerp. At this time also, during his visit to Rome , the artist began a series of reclining Venuses: The Venus of Urbino of the Uffizi, Venus and Love at the same museum, Venus—and the Organ-Player , Madrid, which shows the influence of contact with ancient sculpture. Giorgione had already dealt with the subject in his Dresden picture, finished by Titian, but here

9126-553: The Madonna and Child, Carmelite Church of Saint Joseph, Paris). A further category contains those works commissioned from Bernini and fully credited to his workshop, but represent neither his direct design nor execution, only his signature stylistic inspiration (such as several of the angels on the Ponte Sant’ Angelo refurbished by Bernini, and all of the saints atop the two arms of the portico of Saint Peter's Square). In general,

9295-806: The Meeting at the Golden Gate , and three scenes ( Miracoli di sant'Antonio ) from the life of St. Anthony of Padua , The Miracle of the Jealous Husband, which depicts the Murder of a Young Woman by Her Husband , A Child Testifying to Its Mother's Innocence , and The Saint Healing the Young Man with a Broken Limb . The Resurrected Christ (Uffizi) also dates to 1511-1512. In 1512 Titian returned to Venice from Padua; in 1513 he obtained La Senseria (a profitable privilege much coveted by artists) in

9464-449: The Pietà that represented himself and his son Orazio, with a sibyl , before the Savior. He nearly finished this work, but differences arose regarding it, and he settled on being interred in his native Pieve. While the plague raged in Venice, Titian died on 27 August 1576. Depending on his unknown birthdate (see above), he was somewhere from his late eighties or even close to 100. Titian

9633-544: The Saint Longinus (1629–38, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome). The majority are in marble, with other works being in bronze (most notably his various papal portrait busts and the monumental statues adorning his Baldacchino (1624–33) and Cathedra Petri (1656–66) in St. Peter's Basilica. In virtually all cases, Bernini first produced numerous clay models as preparation for the final product; these models are now treasured as works of art in themselves, though, regrettably, only

9802-592: The ancient Egyptian funerary images of Queen Nefertari , a royal whose name means "the most beautiful of them all". Paglia refers to how the civilization "dreamed of conquering the terrors of death", and she notes how "Egyptian painted figures float in an abstract space that is neither here nor there", describing the visual power of this "eternal present" depicted. She then turns to the Cycladic statuettes carved by Bronze Age residents of several Aegean Sea islands, which feature "coolly geometric" designs unlike that of

9971-728: The ancient Greek ideals of "young male beauty" and the building of character through personal striving. She states how she finds the chariot racing athlete "grave and dignified" with his meditative expression, giving a "look that would become canonical for gods and heroes in the classic tradition". She goes on to write about the ' Porch of the Maidens ' in the Erechtheion in Athens, Greece , with columns carved into feminine shapes that she labels as "a remarkable display of female power" as "muscular strength" co-exists with womanly curves, and then

10140-540: The piazza and colonnades in front of St. Peter's Basilica and the interior decoration of the basilica. Among his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno , he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which he worked with Francesco Borromini ; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio , started 1650); and

10309-595: The "unified work of art". The central focus of the Cornaro Chapel is the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa , depicting the so-called "transverberation" of the Spanish nun and saint-mystic, Teresa of Avila. Bernini presents the spectator with a theatrically vivid portrait, in gleaming white marble, of the swooning Teresa and the quietly smiling angel, who delicately grips the arrow piercing the saint's heart. On either side of

SECTION 60

#1732779640462

10478-468: The Barberini pope and family. The new Pope Urban is reported to have remarked, "It is a great fortune for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal Maffeo Barberini made pope, but our fortune is even greater to have Cavalier Bernini alive in our pontificate." Although he did not fare as well during the reign (1644–55) of Innocent X , under Innocent's successor, Alexander VII (reigned 1655–67), Bernini once again gained pre-eminent artistic domination and continued in

10647-640: The Baroque. The artist simultaneously continued a series of small Madonnas , which he placed amid beautiful landscapes, in the manner of genre pictures or poetic pastorals. The Virgin with the Rabbit , in The Louvre , is the finished type of these pictures. Another work of the same period, also in the Louvre , is the Entombment . This was also the period of the three large and famous mythological scenes for

10816-428: The Bernini family's later and larger home on Via del Corso, to which they moved in the early nineteenth century, now known as the Palazzo Manfroni-Bernini.) Bernini lived at No. 11 (extensively remodelled in the 19th century), where his working studio was located, as well as a large collection of works of art, his own and those of other artists. It is imagined that it must have been galling for Bernini to witness through

10985-427: The Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva , the seemingly floating medallion, hovering in the air as it were, for the deceased nun Maria Raggi , while chapels he designed, such as the Raimondi Chapel in the church of San Pietro in Montorio , illustrated how Bernini could use hidden lighting to help suggest divine intervention within the narratives he was depicting and to add a dramatically theatrical "spotlight" to enhance

11154-429: The Empire, which for a painter was an exceptional honor. This appointment allowed him to gain royal patronage and work on prestigious commissions. As a matter of professional and worldly success, his position from about this time is regarded as equal only to that of Raphael , Michelangelo and, at a later date, Rubens . In 1540 he received a pension from d'Avalos, marquis del Vasto, and an annuity of 200 crowns (which

11323-423: The Fondaco dei Tedeschi. He became superintendent of the government works, especially charged with completing the paintings left unfinished by Giovanni Bellini in the hall of the great council in the ducal palace . He set up an atelier on the Grand Canal at S. Samuele, the precise site being now unknown. It was not until 1516, after the death of Giovanni Bellini, that he came into actual enjoyment of his patent. At

11492-456: The Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1647–51, Piazza Navona, Rome). Bernini's vast sculptural output can also be categorized according to the degree to which Bernini himself contributed to both the design and execution of the final product: to wit, some works are entirely of his own design and execution; others, of his design and partial but still substantial execution; while others of his design but with little or no actual execution by Bernini (such as

11661-456: The French court. His frequent negative comments on various aspects of French culture, especially its art and architecture, did not go down well, particularly in juxtaposition to his praise for the art and architecture of Italy (especially Rome); he said that a painting by Guido Reni , the Annunciation altarpiece (then in the Carmelite convent, now the Louvre Museum), was "alone worth half of Paris." The sole work remaining from his time in Paris

11830-410: The Hester Diamond collection in New York). Another small garden ornament work (in the Galleria Borghese since Bernini's lifetime), The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun , was from 1926 until 2022 generally considered by scholars to be the earliest work executed entirely by the young Bernini himself, despite the fact that it is never mentioned in any of the contemporary sources, except for

11999-512: The Jesuits, Venice; St. Jerome , Louvre; Crucifixion , Church of San Domenico, Ancona). Titian had engaged his daughter Lavinia, the beautiful girl whom he loved deeply and painted various times, to Cornelio Sarcinelli of Serravalle. She had succeeded her aunt Orsa, then deceased, as the manager of the household, which, with the lordly income that Titian made by this time, placed her on a corresponding footing. Lavinia's marriage to Cornelio took place in 1554. She died in childbirth in 1560. Titian

12168-525: The Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi , started 1664). His first architectural projects were the creation of the new façade and refurbishment of the interior of the church of Santa Bibiana (1624–26) and the St. Peter's Baldachin (1624–33), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's basilica. In 1629, and before the baldachin was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all

12337-666: The Pamphili years and never losing his status as "Architect of St. Peter's," after Innocent's death in 1655 Bernini regained a major role in the decoration of the basilica with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi , leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter's. Further significant works by Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia (1663–66), the monumental grand stairway entrance to

12506-463: The Pamphilj commission for the prestigious Four Rivers Fountain on Piazza Navona, marking the end of his disgrace and the beginning a yet another glorious chapter in his life. If there had been doubts over Bernini's position as Rome's preeminent artist, they were definitively removed by the unqualified success of the marvellously delightful and technically ingenious Four Rivers Fountain, featuring

12675-435: The Pamphilj family in the early years of the new papacy, Bernini did not lose his former positions granted to him by previous popes. Innocent X maintained Bernini in all of the official roles given to him by Urban, including his most prestigious one as "Architect of St. Peter's." Under Bernini's design and direction, work continued on decorating the massive, recently completed but still entirely unadorned nave of St. Peter's, with

12844-466: The Vatican Palace, was slightly less ostentatious in appearance but still taxed Bernini's creative powers (employing, for example, clever tricks of optical illusion) to create a seemingly uniform, totally functional, but nonetheless regally impressive stairway to connect two irregular buildings within an even more irregular space. Not all works during this era were on such a large scale. Indeed,

13013-463: The Venetian government, dissatisfied with Titian's neglect of his work for the ducal palace, ordered him to refund the money he had received, and Il Pordenone , his rival of recent years, was installed in his place. However, at the end of a year Pordenone died, and Titian, who meanwhile applied himself diligently to painting in the hall the Battle of Cadore , was reinstated. This major battle scene

13182-592: The addition of Maderno's nave and facade and finally re-consecrated by Pope Urban VIII on 18 November 1626, after 100 years of planning and building. Within the basilica he was responsible for the Baldacchino , the decoration of the four piers under the cupola, the Cathedra Petri or Chair of St. Peter in the apse, the Tomb of Countess Matilda of Tuscany , the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in

13351-500: The addition of elaborate multi-coloured marble flooring, marble facing on the walls and pilasters, and scores of stuccoed statues and reliefs. It is not without reason that Pope Alexander VII once quipped, 'If one were to remove from Saint Peter's everything that had been made by the Cavalier Bernini, that temple would be stripped bare.' Indeed, given all of his many and various works within the basilica over several decades, it

13520-575: The already constructed foundations for Bernini's Louvre addition were inaugurated in October 1665 in an elaborate ceremony, with both Bernini and King Louis in attendance). It is often stated in the scholarship on Bernini that his Louvre designs were turned down because Louis and his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert considered them too Italianate or too Baroque in style. In fact, as Franco Mormando points out, "aesthetics are never mentioned in any of [the] ... surviving memos" by Colbert or any of

13689-488: The anniversary of his birth, a simple plaque and small bust was affixed to the face of his home on the Via della Mercede, proclaiming "Here lived and died Gianlorenzo Bernini, a sovereign of art, before whom reverently bowed popes, princes, and a multitude of peoples." In the late 1630s, Bernini had an affair with a married woman named Costanza (wife of his workshop assistant, Matteo Bonucelli, also called Bonarelli) and sculpted

13858-459: The application and use of colour, exerted a profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance , but on future generations of Western artists . His career was successful from the start, and he became sought after by patrons, initially from Venice and its possessions, then joined by the north Italian princes, and finally the Habsburgs and papacy. Along with Giorgione , he

14027-584: The artist moved on from his early Giorgionesque style, undertook larger, more complex subjects, and for the first time attempted a monumental style. Giorgione died in 1510 and Giovanni Bellini in 1516, leaving Titian unrivaled in the Venetian School. For sixty years he was the undisputed master of Venetian painting. In 1516, he completed his famous masterpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin , for

14196-447: The artist's elaborate plan, under Clement, for a new apse for the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore came to an unpleasant end in the midst of public uproar over its cost and the destruction of ancient mosaics that it entailed. The last two popes of Bernini's life, Clement X and Innocent XI , were both not especially close or sympathetic to Bernini and not particularly interested in financing works of art and architecture, especially given

14365-643: The artistic advisors at the French court. The explicit reasons for the rejections were utilitarian, namely, on the level of physical security and comfort (e.g., location of the latrines). It is also indisputable that there was an interpersonal conflict between Bernini and the young French king, each one feeling insufficiently respected by the other. Though his design for the Louvre went unbuilt, it circulated widely throughout Europe by means of engravings and its direct influence can be seen in subsequent stately residences such as Chatsworth House , Derbyshire, England, seat of

14534-514: The chapel the artist places (in what can only strike the viewer as theatre boxes), portraits in relief of various members of the Cornaro family—the Venetian family memorialized in the chapel, including Cardinal Federico Cornaro who commissioned the chapel from Bernini—who are in animated conversation among themselves, presumably about the event taking place before them. The result is a complex but subtly orchestrated architectural environment providing

14703-780: The church of Santa Maria Assunta (1662–65) in the town of Ariccia with its circular outline, rounded dome and three-arched portico, reminiscent of the Pantheon. In Santa Maria Assunta, as in his church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castelgandolfo (1658–61), Bernini completely eschewed the rich polychrome marble decoration dramatically seen in Sant'Andrea and the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, in favour of an essentially white, somewhat stark interior, albeit still much adorned with stucco work and painted altarpieces. At

14872-511: The commission Bernini received to build the church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale for the Jesuits was relatively modest in physical size (though great in its interior chromatic splendour), which Bernini executed completely free of charge. Sant'Andrea shared with Piazza San Pietro—unlike the complex geometries of his rival Francesco Borromini —a focus on basic geometric shapes, circles, and ovals to create spiritually intense spaces. He also designed

15041-470: The common pigments of the Renaissance period, such as ultramarine , vermilion , lead-tin yellow , ochres , and azurite , he also used the rare pigments realgar and orpiment . Gian Lorenzo Bernini Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo ) Bernini ( UK : / b ɛər ˈ n iː n i / , US : / b ər ˈ -/ ; Italian: [ˈdʒan loˈrɛntso berˈniːni] ; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo ; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680)

15210-469: The continent and to the many non-Italian students of architecture who made long pilgrimages to Rome from all corners of Europe to study and be inspired by the ancient and modern masters, Bernini among them. Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors. He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. Among his most well-known works are St. Peter's Square (1656–67),

15379-421: The death of Carlo Maderno . From then on, Bernini's work and artistic vision would be placed at the symbolic heart of Rome. Bernini's artistic pre-eminence under Urban VIII (and later under Alexander VII) meant he was able to secure the most important commissions in the Rome of his day, namely, the various massive embellishment projects of the newly finished St. Peter's Basilica , completed under Pope Paul V with

15548-562: The disastrous conditions of the papal treasury. The most important commission by Bernini, executed entirely by him in just six months in 1674, under Clement X was the statue of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni , another nun-mystic. The work, reminiscent of Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, is located in the chapel dedicated to Ludovica remodelled under Bernini's supervision in the Trastevere church of San Francesco

15717-414: The disastrous project of the new bell towers for St. Peter's basilica, designed and supervised entirely by Bernini. The infamous bell tower affair was to be the biggest failure of his career, both professionally and financially. In 1636, eager to finally finish the exterior of St. Peter's, Pope Urban had ordered Bernini to design and build the two, long-intended bell towers for its facade: the foundations of

15886-428: The distinction of being only one of two artists (the other is Pietro da Cortona ) to be the proprietor of his own large palatial (though not sumptuous) residence, furnished as well with its own water supply. Bernini refurbished and expanded the existing palazzo on the Via della Mercede site, at what are now Nos. 11 and 12. (The building is sometimes referred to as "Palazzo Bernini", but that title more properly pertains to

16055-461: The early 21st century). "Quite simply", writes one art historian, "nothing like it had ever been seen before". Soon after the completion of the Baldacchino, Bernini undertook the whole-scale embellishment of the four massive piers at the crossing of the basilica (i.e., the structures supporting the cupola) including, most notably, four colossal, theatrically dramatic statues. Among the latter is

16224-400: The end of April 1665, and still considered the most important artist in Rome, if indeed not in all of Europe, Bernini was forced by political pressure (from both the French court and Pope Alexander VII) to travel to Paris to work for King Louis XIV , who required an architect to complete work on the royal palace of the Louvre . Bernini would remain in Paris until mid-October. Louis XIV assigned

16393-689: The end of his life. Like many of his late works, Titian's last painting, the Pietà , is a dramatic, nocturnal scene of suffering. He apparently intended it for his own tomb chapel. He had selected, as his burial place, the chapel of the Crucifix in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the church of the Franciscan Order. In payment for a grave, he offered the Franciscans a picture of

16562-488: The first securely attributed work dating to 1610-1612 (the marble portrait bust of Bishop Giovanni Battista Santoni, for his tomb monument in Rome's Santa Prassede) and the last to 1679 (the marble Salvator Mundi bust, Basilica of San Sebastian fuori le Mura, Rome). These many works range in size from small garden pieces of his earliest years (e.g., the Boy with a Dragon , 1617, Getty Museum, Los Angeles) to colossal works such as

16731-596: The grand equestrian portrait. The composition is steeped both in the Roman tradition of equestrian sculpture and in the medieval representations of an ideal Christian knight, but the weary figure and face have a subtlety few such representations attempt. In 1532, after painting a portrait of the emperor Charles V in Bologna, he was made a Count Palatine and knight of the Golden Spur . His children were also made nobles of

16900-478: The half-length figures and busts of young women, such as Flora in the Uffizi and Woman with a Mirror in the Louvre. At least according to popular legend, they were modeled by some of Venice's famous courtesans . Titian's skill with colour is exemplified by his Danaë , one of several mythological paintings, or "poesie" ("poems"), as the painter called them. This painting was done for Alessandro Farnese, but

17069-593: The handling of details and the general effect of horses, soldiers, lictors, powerful stirrings of crowds at the foot of a stairway, lit by torches with the flapping of banners against the sky. Less successful were the pendentives of the cupola at Santa Maria della Salute ( Death of Abel , Sacrifice of Abraham , David and Goliath ). These violent scenes viewed in perspective from below were by their very nature in unfavourable situations. They were nevertheless much admired and imitated, Rubens among others applying this system to his forty ceilings (the sketches only remain) of

17238-586: The high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari , where it is still in situ . This piece of colourism, executed on a grand scale rarely before seen in Italy, created a sensation. The Signoria took note and observed that Titian was neglecting his work in the hall of the great council, but in 1516 he succeeded his master Giovanni Bellini in receiving a pension from the Senate. Furthermore, he painted

17407-440: The human form in motion and a technical sophistication rivalled only by the greatest sculptors of classical antiquity." Moreover, Bernini possessed the ability to depict highly dramatic narratives with characters showing intense psychological states, but also to organize large-scale sculptural works that convey a magnificent grandeur. Unlike sculptures done by his predecessors, these focus on specific points of narrative tension in

17576-407: The inventory of their first documented owner, Fernando de Botinete y Acevedo, as depicting a nymph and a satyr, a commonly paired duo in ancient sculpture (they were not commissioned by nor ever belonged to either Scipione Borghese or, as most scholarship erroneously claims, the Spanish cleric, Pedro Foix Montoya). By the time he was twenty-two, Bernini was considered talented enough to have been given

17745-524: The late eighth century Ireland's Book of Kells , an "intricately decorated manuscript of the Gospels that is one of the most beautiful objects surviving from medieval Europe." The eighth piece included is Donatello 's ' Mary Magdalene ', a work of the Italian Renaissance created in 1453 that showed the artist's ability to be "harsh and imposing". Paglia then discusses Titian 's ' Venus with

17914-619: The main focus of the space. One of the most accomplished and celebrated works to come from Bernini's hand in this period was the Cornaro Family Chapel in the small Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome . The Cornaro Chapel (inaugurated in 1651) showcased Bernini's ability to integrate sculpture, architecture, fresco, stucco, and lighting into "a marvellous whole" ( bel composto , to use early biographer Filippo Baldinucci's term to describe his approach to architecture) and thus create what scholar Irving Lavin has called

18083-406: The majestic St. Longinus executed by Bernini himself (the other three are by other contemporary sculptors François Duquesnoy , Francesco Mochi , and Bernini's disciple, Andrea Bolgi ). In the basilica Bernini also began work on the tomb for Urban VIII, completed only after Urban's death in 1644, one in a long, distinguished series of tombs and funerary monuments for which Bernini is famous and

18252-483: The meticulous investigation conducted in 1680 under Pope Innocent XI . Nonetheless, Bernini's opponents in Rome succeeded in seriously damaging the reputation of Urban's artist and in persuading Pope Innocent to order (in February 1646) the complete demolition of both towers, to Bernini's great humiliation and indeed financial detriment (in the form of a substantial fine for the failure of the work). After this, one of

18421-517: The mindset and mores of Counter-Reformation Roman Catholicism. Under the patronage of the extravagantly wealthy and most powerful Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the young Bernini rapidly rose to prominence as a sculptor. Among his early works for the cardinal, as an assistant in his father's workshop, would have been small contributions to decorative pieces for the garden of the Villa Borghese , such as perhaps The Allegory of Autumn (formerly in

18590-462: The more prestigious the commission, and the earlier the commission in his career, the greater is Bernini's role in both design and execution, though notable exceptions exist to both of these general rules. Although his formal professional training was as sculptor and his entrance into the field of architecture not of his own volition but that of Pope Urban VIII, Bernini had by the end of his life reached what has proven to be his enduring status as one of

18759-441: The most influential architects of seventeenth-century Europe. He was certainly one of the most prolific over the many decades of his long, active life. Despite the fact that he rarely left the city of Rome and that all of his works of architecture were confined to the limits of the papal capital or to nearby towns, Bernini's influence was indeed European-wide: this is thanks both to the many engravings that disseminated his ideas across

18928-446: The most part, Ms. Paglia chooses well, from works both celebrated and obscure", and he stated that the author "is especially good at the difficult trick of providing context for the newcomer to art history without being tedious for a more experienced reader." In addition, The Philadelphia Inquirer ran a supportive article that labeled the book a "magisterial, poetically composed, and masterly study". The Los Angeles Times published

19097-512: The most significant ones in the city's recent history and for years to come—choosing Bernini as his principal collaborator (though other architects, especially Pietro da Cortona , were also involved). Thus did commence another extraordinarily prolific and successful chapter in Bernini's career. Bernini's major commissions during this period include St. Peter's Square . In a previously broad, irregular, and completely unstructured space, he created two massive semi-circular colonnades, each row of which

19266-555: The multiple forms of visual art and technique that Bernini had at his disposal, including hidden lighting, thin gilded beams, recessive architectural space, secret lens, and over twenty diverse types of colored marble: these all combine to create the final artwork—"a perfected, highly dramatic and deeply satisfying seamless ensemble". Upon his accession to the Chair of St Peter, Pope Alexander VII Chigi (reigned 1655–1667) began to implement his extremely ambitious plan to transform Rome into

19435-463: The ongoing architectural works in the basilica, bestowing upon him the official rank of "Architect of St. Peter's." However, Bernini fell out of favour during the papacy of Innocent X Pamphili because of that pope's already-mentioned animosity towards the Barberini (and hence towards their clients including Bernini) and the above-described failure of the bell towers designed and built by Bernini for St. Peter's Basilica. Never wholly without patronage during

19604-405: The papal art collection, director of the papal foundry at Castel Sant'Angelo , commissioner of the fountains of Piazza Navona ". Such positions gave Bernini the opportunity to demonstrate his versatile skills throughout the city. To great protest from older, experienced master architects, he, with virtually no architectural training to his name, was appointed "Architect of St Peter's" in 1629, upon

19773-508: The papal treasury had been exhausted by the disastrous Wars of Castro . Knowing that Bernini could no longer depend on the protection of a favourable pope, his enemies (especially Francesco Borromini ) raised a great alarm over the cracks, predicting a disaster for the whole basilica and placing the blame entirely on Bernini. The subsequent investigations, in fact, revealed the cause of the cracks as Maderno's defective foundations and not Bernini's elaborate design, an exoneration later confirmed by

19942-478: The piece ' Laocoön and His Sons ', a violent scene carved in marble in which sea serpents attempt to slay a man and his three sons that stridently addresses the problem of theodicy . The book goes on next to the famous mosaic of Saint John Chrysostom in the Hagia Sophia , a piece that Paglia writes as having an "implacable intensity of gaze" making it a great piece of Byzantine art , and additionally to

20111-480: The plague, greatly complicating the settlement of his estate, as he had made no will. Titian never attempted engraving , but he was very conscious of the importance of printmaking as a means to expand his reputation. In the period 1515–1520 he designed a number of woodcuts , including an enormous and impressive one of The Drowning of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea , in twelve blocks, intended as wall decoration as

20280-647: The poetry of the Pilgrims of Emmaus ; while in superb and heroic brilliancy he never again executed anything more grand than The Doge Grimani adoring Faith (Venice, Doge's Palace), or the Trinity , of Madrid. On the other hand, from the standpoint of flesh tints, his most moving pictures are those of his old age, such as the poesie and the Antiope of the Louvre. He even attempted problems of chiaroscuro in fantastic night effects ( Martyrdom of St. Laurence , Church of

20449-405: The pope had chosen him over any number of talented younger architects plentiful in Rome, for this prestigious and most difficult assignment since, as his son Domenico points out, "deterioration of the palace had advanced to such an extent that the threat of its imminent collapse was quite apparent." Shortly after the completion of the latter project, Bernini died in his home on 28 November 1680 and

20618-562: The powerful Duke of Modena , Charles I of England and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria . The bust of Charles I was produced in Rome from a triple portrait (oil on canvas) executed by Van Dyck , that survives today in the British Royal Collection. The bust of Charles was lost in the Whitehall Palace fire of 1698 (though its design is known through contemporary copies and drawings) and that of Henrietta Maria

20787-467: The practice of his faith, according to his early official biographers. Luigi, however, once again brought scandal to his family in 1670 by raping a young Bernini workshop assistant at the construction site of the 'Constantine' memorial in St. Peter's Basilica. During his lifetime Bernini lived in various residences throughout the city: principal among them, a palazzo right across from Santa Maria Maggiore and still extant at Via Liberiana 24, while his father

20956-544: The present day and have become indelible icons of the splendour of the papal precincts. Within the hitherto unadorned apse of the basilica, the Cathedra Petri , the symbolic throne of St Peter, was rearranged as a monumental gilded bronze extravagance that matched the Baldacchino created earlier in the century. Bernini's complete reconstruction of the Scala Regia , the stately papal stairway between St. Peters's and

21125-412: The previous generation, Rudolf Wittkower , Howard Hibbard , and Irving Lavin . As Tomaso Montanari 's recent revisionist monograph, La libertà di Bernini (Turin: Einaudi, 2016) argues and Franco Mormando 's anti-hagiographic biography, Bernini: His Life and His Rome (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), illustrates, Bernini and his artistic vision maintained a certain degree of freedom from

21294-432: The rare failures of his career, Bernini retreated into himself: according to his son, Domenico . his subsequent unfinished statue of 1647, Truth Unveiled by Time , was intended to be his self-consoling commentary on this affair, expressing his faith that eventually Time would reveal the actual Truth behind the story and exonerate him fully, as indeed did occur. Although he received no personal commissions from Innocent or

21463-422: The reigning pope, Paul V, who spoke of the boy genius to his uncle. Bernini was therefore presented before Pope Paul V, curious to see if the stories about Gian Lorenzo's talent were true. The boy improvised a sketch of Saint Paul for the marvelling pope, and this was the beginning of the pope's attention on this young talent. Once he was brought to Rome, he rarely left its walls, except (much against his will) for

21632-674: The retable of San Niccolò (1523), in the Vatican Museums , each time attaining to a higher and more perfect conception. He finally reached a classic formula in the Pesaro Madonna , better known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro (c. 1519–1526), also for the Frari church. This is perhaps his most studied work, whose patiently developed plan is set forth with supreme display of order and freedom, originality and style. Here Titian gave

21801-404: The right nave, and the decoration (floor, walls and arches) of the new nave. The Baldacchino immediately became the visual centrepiece of the basilica. Designed as a massive spiraling gilded bronze canopy over the tomb of St Peter, Bernini's four-columned creation reached nearly 30 m (98 ft) from the ground and cost around 200,000 Roman scudi (about 8 million US dollars in the currency of

21970-408: The same time he entered an exclusive arrangement for painting. The patent yielded him a good annuity of 20 crowns and exempted him from certain taxes. In return, he was bound to paint likenesses of the successive Doges of his time at the fixed price of eight crowns each. The actual number he painted was five. During this period (1516–1530), which may be called the period of his mastery and maturity,

22139-615: The similar painting of Assumption of the Virgin above the altar in Dubrovnik Cathedral , in Ragusa (now Croatia ). The pictorial structure of the Assumption —that of uniting in the same composition two or three scenes superimposed on different levels, earth and heaven, the temporal and the infinite—was continued in a series of works such as the retable of San Domenico at Ancona (1520), the retable of Brescia (1522), and

22308-420: The spirit of the assertive, triumphal but self-defensive Counter Reformation Catholic Church. Certainly, Bernini was a man of his times and deeply religious (at least later in life), but he and his artistic production should not be reduced simply to instruments of the papacy and its political-doctrinal programs, an impression that is at times communicated by the works of the three most eminent Bernini scholars of

22477-532: The spiritual context (a heavenly setting with a hidden source of light) that suggests to viewers the ultimate nature of this miraculous event. Nonetheless, during Bernini's lifetime and in the centuries following till this very day, Bernini's Saint Teresa has been accused of crossing a line of decency by sexualizing the visual depiction of the saint's experience, to a degree that no artist, before or after Bernini, dared to do: in depicting her at an impossibly young chronological age, as an idealized delicate beauty, in

22646-403: The state of mind of the characters and therefore understands the larger story at work: Daphne's wide open mouth in fear and astonishment, David biting his lip in determined concentration, or Proserpina desperately struggling to free herself. This is shown by how Bernini portrays her braids coming undone which reveals her emotional distress. In addition to portraying psychological realism, they show

22815-423: The stories they are trying to tell: Aeneas and his family fleeing the burning Troy ; the instant that Pluto finally grasps the hunted Persephone ; the precise moment that Apollo sees his beloved Daphne begin her transformation into a tree. They are transitory but dramatic powerful moments in each story. Bernini's David is another stirring example of this. Michelangelo's motionless, idealized David shows

22984-428: The subject holding a rock in one hand and a sling in the other, contemplating the battle; similarly immobile versions by other Renaissance artists, including Donatello 's, show the subject in his triumph after the battle with Goliath . Bernini illustrates David during his active combat with the giant, as he twists his body to catapult toward Goliath. To emphasize these moments and to ensure that they were appreciated by

23153-430: The successive pontificate to be held in high regard by Clement IX during his short reign (1667–69). Under Urban VIII's patronage, Bernini's horizons rapidly and widely broadened: he was not just producing sculpture for private residences, but playing the most significant artistic (and engineering) role on the city stage, as sculptor, architect, and urban planner. His official appointments also testify to this—"curator of

23322-444: The themes of Paglia's previous work, Glittering Images focuses on modern cultural ignorance . Paglia wrote what she intended as a personalized "journey" through art history since she believes people today have become visually overexposed by the mass-media and disconnected from the past. In it, she argues, "the eye is assaulted, coerced, desensitized." Paglia discusses twenty-nine examples of visual artwork. Paglia begins by describing

23491-618: The time of the sculpting of the portrait, Bernini was having an affair with Costanza , wife of one of his assistants, sculptor, Matteo.) Indeed, it would appear to be the first marble portrait of a non-aristocratic woman by a major artist in European history. Beginning in the late 1630s, now known in Europe as one of the most accomplished portraitists in marble, Bernini also began to receive royal commissions from outside Rome, for subjects such as Cardinal Richelieu of France, Francesco I d'Este

23660-496: The two towers had already been designed and constructed (namely, the last bays at either extremity of the facade) by Carlo Maderno (architect of the nave and the façade) decades earlier. Once the first tower was finished in 1641, cracks began to appear in the façade but, curiously enough, work nonetheless continued on the second tower and the first storey was completed. Despite the presence of the cracks, work only stopped in July 1642 once

23829-474: The various surfaces involved: human flesh, hair, fabric of varying type, 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 rapidly created by Bernini once a flaw had been found in the marble of the first. The transitory nature of the expression on Scipione's face

23998-402: The viewer, Bernini designed the sculptures with a specific viewpoint in mind, though he sculpted them fully in the round. Their original placements within the Villa Borghese were against walls so that the viewers' first view was the dramatic moment of the narrative. The result of such an approach is to invest the sculptures with greater psychological energy. The viewer finds it easier to gauge

24167-578: The viewer, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini 's ' Chair of Saint Peter ' in the Vatican City , a 17th-century work showing how Baroque art often "overwhelms the senses with flamboyant grandeur". She takes a nuanced view of the lasting influence of pop art , writing that, generally, the artistic movement "projects an innocent child's view of the world." She also argues that works by artists such as Andy Warhol , whom she praises, conveyed powerful subtleties with their pieces. The book details ' Marilyn Diptych ',

24336-420: The voluptuous figures carved by earlier, Stone Age people (such as the ' Venus of Willendorf ') while still displaying vulvae markings and prominent breasts that convey femininity. These pieces of Cycladic art are cited as "daring explorations of form and structure" foreshadowing the future. The author then describes the ' Charioteer of Delphi ', a work from the fifth century BC that she writes embodies well

24505-479: The windows of his dwelling the construction of the tower and dome of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte by his rival, Borromini and also the demolition of the chapel that he, Bernini, had designed at the Collegio di Propaganda Fide, which was later replaced by Borromini's chapel in 1660 (because the Collegio required a much larger chapel), but there is no documentation of this belief. The construction of Sant'Andrea, however,

24674-413: The world of art history , though concluded that her praise of George Lucas was assessing art "by its reach rather than its depth", and thus Paglia "has journeyed to the wrong continent, and what she has found glittering there is fool's gold." Journalist Gary Rosen of The Wall Street Journal , however, praised the book's "impressive range" and accessibility for a general audience. He argued that "[f]or

24843-547: Was afterwards doubled) from Charles V from the treasury of Milan . Another source of profit, for he was always aware of money, was a contract obtained in 1542 for supplying grain to Cadore, where he visited almost every year and where he was both generous and influential. Titian had a favourite villa on the neighboring Manza Hill (in front of the church of Castello Roganzuolo ) from which (it may be inferred) he made his chief observations of landscape form and effect. The so-called Titian's mill, constantly discernible in his studies,

25012-614: Was an Italian Renaissance painter , the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting . He was born in Pieve di Cadore , near Belluno . During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore , 'from Cadore ', taken from his native region. Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the final line of Dante's Paradiso ), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in

25181-483: Was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture . As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence

25350-607: Was at the Council of Trent towards 1555, of which there is a finished sketch in the Louvre. His friend Aretino died suddenly in 1556, and another close intimate, the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino , in 1570. In September 1565 Titian went to Cadore and designed the decorations for the church at Pieve, partly executed by his pupils. One of these is a Transfiguration, another an Annunciation (now in San Salvatore, Venice), inscribed Titianus fecit , by way of protest (it

25519-432: Was buried, with little public fanfare, in the simple, unadorned Bernini family vault, along with his parents, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore . Though an elaborate funerary monument had once been planned (documented by a single extant sketch of circa 1670 by disciple Ludovico Gimignani ), it was never built and Bernini remained with no permanent public acknowledgement of his life and career in Rome until 1898 when, on

25688-466: Was completed by Bernini's close disciple, Mattia de Rossi and it contains (to this day) the marble originals of two of Bernini's own angels executed by the master for the Ponte Sant'Angelo. Although he proved during his long lifetime to be a uomo universale , truly accomplished in so many areas of artistic production like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci before him, Bernini was first and foremost

25857-562: Was completely in harmony with the pre-existing buildings and added to the majesty of the basilica. Often likened to two arms reaching out from the church to embrace the waiting crowd, Bernini's creation extended the symbolic greatness of the Vatican area, creating an emotionally thrilling and "exhilarating expanse" that was, architecturally, an "unequivocal success". Elsewhere within the Vatican, Bernini created systematic rearrangements and majestic embellishment of either empty or aesthetically undistinguished spaces that exist as he designed them to

26026-582: Was consistently encouraged by his father, Pietro. His precocity earned him the admiration and favour of powerful patrons who hailed him as 'the Michelangelo of his century'”. More specifically, it was Pope Paul V , who after first attesting to the boy Bernini's talent, famously remarked, 'This child will be the Michelangelo of his age,' later repeating that prophecy to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (the future Pope Urban VIII ), as Domenico Bernini reports in his biography of his father. In 1606 his father received

26195-457: Was formed of four simple white Doric columns. This resulted in an oval shape that formed an inclusive arena within which any gathering of citizens, pilgrims and visitors could witness the appearance of the pope—either as he appeared on the loggia on the façade of St Peter's or at the traditional window of the neighbouring Palazzo Vaticano, to the right of the square. In addition to being logistically efficient for carriages and crowds, Bernini's design

26364-611: Was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter (mostly small canvases in oil) and a man of the theatre: he wrote, directed and acted in plays (mostly Carnival satires), for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches. As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and

26533-479: Was instead re-carved into a representation of the ancient Roman hero Marcus Curtius . Bernini remained physically and mentally vigorous and active in his profession until just two weeks before his death which came as a result of a stroke. The pontificate of his old friend, Clement IX , was too short (barely two years) to accomplish more than the dramatic refurbishment by Bernini of the Ponte Sant'Angelo , while

26702-515: Was interred in the Frari (Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari ), as at first intended, and his Pietà was finished by Palma il Giovane . He lies near his own famous painting, the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro. No memorial marked his grave. Much later the Austrian rulers of Venice commissioned Antonio Canova to sculpt the large monument still in the church. Very shortly after Titian's death, his son, assistant and sole heir Orazio , also died of

26871-552: Was long regarded as by Giorgione. The two young masters were likewise recognized as the leaders of their new school of arte moderna , which is characterized by paintings made more flexible, freed from symmetry and the remnants of hieratic conventions still found in the works of Giovanni Bellini. In 1507–1508, Giorgione was commissioned by the state to create frescoes on the re-erected Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Titian and Morto da Feltre worked along with him, and some fragments of paintings remain, probably by Giorgione. Some of their work

27040-631: Was lost—with many other major works by Venetian artists—in the 1577 fire that destroyed all the old pictures in the great chambers of the Doge's Palace. It depicted in life-size the moment when the Venetian general d'Alviano attacked the enemy, with horses and men crashing down into a stream. It was Titian's most important attempt at a tumultuous and heroic scene of movement to rival Raphael 's Battle of Constantine , Michelangelo's equally ill-fated Battle of Cascina , and Leonardo da Vinci 's The Battle of Anghiari (these last two unfinished). There remains only

27209-493: Was not undertaken due to the outbreak of the English Civil War . In 1644, with the death of Pope Urban with whom Bernini had been so intimately connected and the ascent to power of the fierce Barberini-enemy Pope Innocent X Pamphilj , Bernini's career suffered a major, unprecedented eclipse, which was to last four years. This had not only to do with Innocent's anti-Barberini politics but also with Bernini's role in

27378-490: Was popular among the crowds who gathered wherever he stopped, which led him to compare his itinerary to the travelling exhibition of an elephant. On his walks in Paris the streets were lined with admiring crowds too. But things soon turned sour. Bernini presented finished designs for the east front (i.e., the all-important principal facade of the entire palace) of the Louvre, which were ultimately rejected, albeit not formally until 1667, well after his departure from Paris (indeed,

27547-418: Was so successful in extracting from each physiognomy so many traits at once characteristic and beautiful". Among portrait-painters Titian is compared to Rembrandt and Velázquez , with the interior life of the former, and the clearness, certainty, and obviousness of the latter. These qualities show in the Portrait of Pope Paul III of Naples , or the sketch of the same Pope Paul III and his Grandsons ,

27716-436: Was still able 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 show his ever-increasing ability to capture the utterly distinctive personal characteristics of his sitters, as well as his ability to achieve in cold white marble almost painterly-like effects that render with convincing realism

27885-487: Was still alive; after his father died in 1629, Bernini moved the clan to the long-ago-demolished Santa Marta neighbourhood behind the apse of St. Peter's Basilica, which afforded him more convenient access to the Vatican Foundry and to his working studio also on the Vatican site. In 1639, Bernini bought property on the corner of the Via della Mercede and the Via del Collegio di Propaganda Fide in Rome. This gave him

28054-540: Was the son of Gregorio Vecellio and his wife Lucia, of whom little is known. Gregorio was superintendent of the castle of Pieve di Cadore and managed local mines for their owners. Gregorio was also a distinguished councilor and soldier. Many relatives, including Titian's grandfather, were notaries , and the family was well-established in the area, which was ruled by Venice. At the age of about ten to twelve Titian and his brother Francesco (who perhaps followed later) were sent to an uncle in Venice to find an apprenticeship with

28223-827: Was there again in 1550, and executed the portrait of Philip II , which was sent to England and was useful in Philip's suit for the hand of Queen Mary . During the last twenty-six years of his life (1550–1576), Titian worked mainly for Philip II and as a portrait-painter. He became more self-critical, an insatiable perfectionist, keeping some pictures in his studio for ten years—returning to them and retouching them, constantly adding new expressions at once more refined, concise, and subtle. He also finished many copies that his pupils made of his earlier works. This caused problems of attribution and priority among versions of his works—which were also widely copied and faked outside his studio during his lifetime and afterwards. For Philip II, he painted

28392-454: Was thinking of asking the young Gian Lorenzo to finish one of the statues left incomplete by Michelangelo, then in possession of Michelangelo's grandnephew which Maffeo was hoping to purchase, a remarkable attestation of the great skill that the young Bernini was already believed to possess. Although the Michelangelo statue-completion commission came to nought, the young Bernini was shortly thereafter (in 1619) commissioned to repair and complete

28561-510: Was very short (he died in 1623), Pope Gregory commissioned portraits of himself (both in marble and bronze) by Bernini. The pontiff also bestowed upon Bernini the honorific rank of 'Cavaliere,' the title with which for the rest of his life the artist was habitually referred. In 1623 came the ascent 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 near monopolistic patronage from

#461538