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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.
Bernini
was born in Naples by a Florentine family and accompanied his father
Pietro Bernini, a well known Mannerist sculptor himself, to Rome.
His first works were inspired by Hellenistic sculpture that had
been brought to Rome in imperial times. Among these early works
are "The Goat Amalthea Nursing the Infant Zeus and a Young
Satyr" (redated 1609, Galleria Borghese, Rome) and several
allegorical busts such as the "Damned Soul" and "Blessed
Soul" (ca 1619, Palazzo di Spagna, Rome). In the 1620s he came
to maturity with the bust of Pope Paul V (1620), the "Abduction
of Proserpina" (1621-1622, Galleria Borghese, Rome), the "David"
(1623 - 24), and "Apollo and Daphne" (1624-25).
His
first architectural project was the magnificent bronze baldachin
(1624 - 1633), the canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica,
and the facade for the church of Santa Bibiana (1624-1626), Rome.
In 1629, before the Baldacchino was complete, Urban VIII put him
in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's.
He was given the commission for the Basilica's tombs of Pope Urban
VIII (1628-1647 and, years later, Pope Alexander VII Chigi 1671-1678.
The Chair of Saint Peter (Cathedra Petri) 1657-1666), in the apse
of St. Peter's, is one of his masterpieces.
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