Gian LorenzoBernini was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter and a man of the theatre: he wrote, directed and acted in plays, for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.
Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini created c. 1618–19. Housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the sculpture depicts a scene from the Aeneid, where the hero Aeneas leads his family from burning Troy.
Charity with Four Children is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed between 1627 and 1628, the work is housed in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City. The small terracotta sculpture represents Charity breast-feeding a child, with three other children playing. There is an imprint of Bernini's thumbprint in the clay.
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni is a funerary monument by the Italian Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The Trastevere sculpture is located in the specially designed Altieri Chapel in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa in Rome, Italy. Bernini started the project in 1671, but his work on two other major works—The Tomb of Pope Alexander VII and the Altar of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Peter's Basilica—delayed his work on the funerary monument. Bernini completed the sculpture in 1674; it was installed by 31 August 1674.
The Goat Amalthea with the Infant Jupiter and a Faun is the earliest known work by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Produced sometime between 1609 and 1615, the sculpture is now in the Borghese Collection at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.
The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence is an early sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It shows the saint at the moment of his martyrdom, being burnt alive on a gridiron. According to Bernini's biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, the sculpture was completed when Bernini was 15 years old, implying that it was finished in the year 1614. Other historians have dated the sculpture between 1615 and 1618. A date of 1617 seems most likely. It is less than life-size in dimensions, measuring 108 by 66 cm.
The Bust of Giovanni Battisti Santoni is a sculptural portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Believed to be one of the artist's earliest works, the bust forms part of a tomb for Santoni, who was majordomo to Pope Sixtus V from 1590 to 1592. The work was executed sometime between 1613 and 1616, although some have dated the work as early as 1609, including Filippo Baldinucci. The work remains in its original setting in the church of Santa Prassede in Rome.
The Bust of Cardinal Escoubleau de Sourdis is a marble portrait sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed in 1622, the work depicts François de Sourdis. It is currently in the Musée d'Aquitaine in Bordeaux, France.
The bust of Giovanni Vigevano is a marble sculptural portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The bust was produced between 1617 and 1618, and was then inserted into Vigevano's tomb after he died in 1630. The tomb is in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.
Damned Soul is a marble sculpture bust by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini as a pendant piece to his Blessed Soul. According to Rudolf Wittkower, the sculpture is in the Palazzo di Spagna in Rome. This may well be what is known today as the Palazzo Monaldeschi.
The Bust of Alessandro Peretti di Montalto is a portrait sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed in 1622 and 1623, the sculpture is now in the Kunsthalle Hamburg, in Germany. Although possibly mentioned by one of Bernini's early biographers, the bust had been considered lost and therefore makes no appearance in Rudolf Wittkower's catalogue of Bernini’s sculptures of 1955. However, the bust was identified in the 1980s and is now considered an authentic work by Bernini.
The Bust of Cardinal Giovanni Dolfin or Delfin is a sculptural portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which is part of a mausoleum for the Venetian Cardinal Giovanni Delfin, member of one of Venice's most ancient noble families. The tomb as a whole was a joint work commissioned of Bernini and his father Pietro. While Gianlorenzo executed the portrait bust, Pietro carried out the surrounding figures, including two allegorical figures of Faith and Hope as well as the Delfin family coat of arms. The work was completed in late 1621, and sits in the church of San Michele in Isola.
The Blessed Soul is a bust by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed around 1619, it is a pendant piece to the Damned Soul. Their original location was sacristy of the church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, but they were then moved in the late 19th century, and then to the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See in Piazza di Spagna The set may have been inspired by prints by Karel van Mallery, although they were initially categorized as nymph and satyr.
The Bust of Gabriele Fonseca is a sculptural portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed sometime between 1668 and 1674, the work is located in San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome, Italy. Gabriele Fonseca was the doctor to Pope Innocent X.
The Busts of Pope Innocent X are two portrait busts by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini of Pope Innocent X, Giovanni Battista Pamphili. Created around 1650, both sculptures are now in the Galleria Doria Pamphili in Rome. Like the two busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, it is believed that Bernini created a second version of the bust once a flaw was discovered in the first version. There exist several similar versions of the bust done by other artists, most notably Alessandro Algardi.
The Bust of Cardinal Melchior Klesl is a life-size marble bust of the seventeenth-century cardinal by Gianlorenzo Bernini and his assistants, notably Giuliano Finelli. It was probably executed in 1626. It is unclear how much of the work was executed by Bernini and how much by Finelli, or indeed others in Bernini's studio. The sculpture is part of Klesl's tomb in the cathedral of Wiener Neustadt, just south of Vienna.
Several sculpted busts of Pope Urban VIII were created by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini, with varying amounts of assistance from other artists in his workshop:
- Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 1623–1624. Marble.
- San Lorenzo in Fonte, 1626. Marble. Assistance by Giuliano Finelli.
- Galleria Nazionale di Arte, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, 1637–1638. Marble.
- Galleria Nazionale di Arte, Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Early 1640s. Marble. Largely the work of an assistant.
- Louvre, Paris. 1640. Bronze.
- Cathedral of Spoleto, 1642. Bronze.
- Collection Principe Enrico Barberini. Early 1640s. Porphyry. Adapted from existing antique statue, largely by assistants.
- Private Collection. 1658. Bronze
The busts of Paolo Giordano and Isabella Orsini are two sculptural portraits of the Duke of Bracciano and his wife Isabella Orsini. They were carried out by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini and members of his studio. Executed around 1635, the two sculptures remain in the Castello Orsini-Odescalchi in Bracciano, Italy.
The Raimondi Chapel is a chapel within the church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy. The chapel houses the tombs of two members of the Raimondi family, Francesco and Raimondo. Both the architectural and sculptural elements of the chapel were designed by the artist Gianlorenzo Bernini - it was one of Bernini's first works where the relationship between the sculpture and the architecture was considered as a whole. Elements of the sculptures were executed by other artists in Bernini's circle; Andrea Bolgi did the busts of the two Raimondi brothers and the accompanying putti. Niccolò Sale undertook the reliefs on the tombs, while Francesco Baratta did the larger relief in the central altar. Work on the chapel took place between 1638 and 1648.
