Bernini: His Life and His Rome

A biography of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680), the Italian sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer who shaped the Baroque style that defines Rome. Contemporaries and later historians placed Bernini alongside Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo as one of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy. His artistic vision remains visible throughout Rome in countless statues, fountains, and buildings that continue to attract visitors today. Historian Franco Mormando draws on archival sources, letters, diaries, and a hagiographic account written by Bernini's son to explore the artist's personal life. Bernini was a man of many passions—driven, temperamental, and sexually active—whose life was as dramatic as his artistic creations. Mormando traces Bernini's feuds, love affairs, scandals, and conflicts against the backdrop of Baroque Rome, a city of wealth and power populated by churchmen, bureaucrats, popes, and politicians. The biography presents Bernini's life as wild and unforgettable as his art.