Bernini

His Life and His Rome

By: Franco Mormando

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Paperback | 2 April 2013 | Edition Number 1

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456 Pages

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2.34 x 1.66 x 0.24

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

Industry Reviews

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

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