Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini) (December 7, 1598 – November 28, 1680), who worked chiefly in Rome, was the pre-eminent baroque artist. Eminent as a sculptor and architect, he was also a painter, draftsman, designer of stage sets, fireworks displays, and funeral trappings.

Other works

Another of Bernini's sculptures is known affectionately as Bernini's Elephant. It is located in the Piazza della Minerva, right in front of the church, St. Mary over Minerva. Pope Alexander VII decided that he wanted an ancient Egyptian obelisk to be erected in the piazza and commissioned Bernini to create a sculpture to support the obelisk. The sculpture was finally carried out in 1667 by one of Bernini's students. One of the most interesting features of this elephant is its smile. To find out why it is smiling, one must head around to the rear end of the animal and one notices that its muscles are tensed and its tail is shifted to the left. Bernini sculpted the animal as if it were in the middle of defecating. The animal's rear is pointed directly at the office of Father Domenico Paglia, a Dominican friar, who was one of the main antagonists of Bernini and his artisan friends, as a final salute and last word.

Related Topics:
Piazza della Minerva - Alexander VII

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The death of his constant patron Urban VIII in 1644 released a horde of Bernini's rivals and marked a change in his career, but Innocent X set him back to work on the extended nave of St Peter's and commissioned the Four Rivers fountain in Piazza Navona. At the time of Innocent's death Bernini was the aribiter of public taste in Rome. He died in Rome in 1680.

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Two years after his death, Queen Christina of Sweden, then living in Rome, commisioned Filippo Baldinucci to write his biography, (translated in 1996 as "the life of Bernini" a work which is still well worth reading.

Related Topics:
Christina of Sweden - Filippo Baldinucci

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Bernini's works are featured in Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons as markers and Altars of Science.

Related Topics:
Dan Brown - Angels and Demons - Altars of Science

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