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Bernini and His World is a unique exploration of Gian Lorenzo Bernini the sculptor, offering new insights and including discussions of the artist's stylistic innovations and the ways in which he approached sculpture. Placing his life and work within a social, anthropological and historical context, Livio Pestilli gives a fascinating and in-depth account, from the Rome in which Bernini lived and its reception of foreign sculptors to the myth-making narrative of his biographers, and the judgements of his critics.
Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, this book draws on a deep familiarity with both historic and modern Italian culture to give readers a vivid account of sculpture and sculptors in early modern Rome, and of Bernini's lasting legacy.
List of contents
Preface; Chapter 1: "Berninus Neapolitan[us] sculptor"; Chapter 2: Of Sculptors and Cobblers; Chapter 3: Tall Tales; Chapter 4: Biographies, Garments, and Bernini's "Abito...grosso, e rozzo" in Perspective; Chapter 5: Pride and Prejudice: Paris–Rome; Chapter 6: Bernini's Shadow; Bibliography; Index
About the author
Professor Livio Pestilli is the former Director of Trinity College, Rome, where he currently teaches seminars on Michelangelo and Bernini. He is the co-editor of
"Napoli è tutto il Mondo" Neapolitan Art and Culture from Humanism to the Enlightenment and the author of
Paolo de Matteis: Neapolitan Painting and Cultural History in Baroque Europe (Ashgate, 2013) and
Picturing the Lame in Italian Art from Antiquity to the Modern Era (Ashgate/Routledge, 2017).
Summary
Bernini and His World is a unique exploration of Gian Lorenzo Bernini the sculptor, offering new insights and including discussions of the artist’s stylistic innovations and the ways in which he approached sculpture. Placing his life and work within a social, anthropological and historical context, Livio Pestilli gives a fascinating and in-depth account, from the Rome in which Bernini lived and its reception of foreign sculptors to the myth-making narrative of his biographers, and the judgements of his critics.
Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, this book draws on a deep familiarity with both historic and modern Italian culture to give readers a vivid account of sculpture and sculptors in early modern Rome, and of Bernini’s lasting legacy.
