Bernini: His Life and His Rome

In one of the few biographies of Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini since his death in 1680, Boston College Italian professor Mormando constructs a comprehensive, extraordinarily vivid portrait of the sculptor known as “the Michelangelo of his age.” A child prodigy compulsive about creative achievement, Bernini was, in Mormando’s estimation, a superbly technically skilled sculptor who possessed rare psychological insight into the human and mythological subjects he portrayed. Mormando traces Bernini’s work for his first chief patron, Pope Urban VIII, detailing Bernini’s power struggles with rival Borromini; the critical receptions of and controversies surrounding major commissions such as the baldacchino at St. Peter’s and sexually charged Saint Teresa in Ecstasy; his monumental work for Pope Alexander VII; and the tumultuous period in the court of Louis XIV. Swiftly paced and buoyantly written, this richly sourced work places Bernini within the dynamic, criminal, superstitious, and sensual city that was baroque Rome; Mormando examines Bernini’s work and artistic place within the baroque in far less depth. Of great interest to general readers seeking a well-researched, highly readable portrait of the sculptor and those interested in the cultural history of baroque Rome. 43 b&w illus. (Nov.)