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.
Andrea Bolgi was an Italian sculptor responsible for several statues in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Towards the end of his life he moved to Naples, where he sculpted portrait busts. He died in Naples during a plague epidemic.
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.
Saint Sebastian is an early sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed in 1617 and 1618, it features the Christian martyr Saint Sebastian pinned to a tree, his flesh filled with arrows. It is smaller than life size. The sculpture is part of the Carmen Cervera's private collection and is currently shown in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
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 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 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.
The Busts of Cardinals Agostino and Pietro Valier are two portrait sculptures executed by the Italian artists Gianlorenzo Bernini and his studio. They were commissioned in 1627. It is likely that the bust of Pietro was done largely by Andrea Bolgi following Bernini's design. The more lively portrait of Agostino is probably Bernini's design and execution.
The Tomb of Countess Matilda of Tuscany is a large sculptural memorial designed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini and executed by Bernini and various other sculptors. It was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII in 1633 and was destined for St. Peter's, Rome, where it still sits now. The final parts were completed in 1644.
Pasce Oves Meas is a sculptural relief designed by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini and executed by members of his workshop, with some involvement of Bernini himself. The work was commissioned in 1633 but was not installed in its destination of St Peter's, Rome until 1646.
Noli Me Tangere is a large sculptural arrangement that forms part of the Alaleona Chapel in the church of Santi Domenico e Sisto, in Rome.
