Gian Lorenzo Bernini

This is my degree thesis. I tried to explain how society creates and influences our identities, based on the hegelian concept of recognition read by Judith Butler, who connects it with the concept of subjection. The explanation of how the subject becomes subject only into the social and powerfull interconnections (on wich is based society itself) is linked by Judith Butler with the idea of the constant (or not) redefinition of the concept of "human"; how this process may influence our image of "human"? Whom does this image include? What are the social concequences of this exclusions?
The thesis is based mostly on works of authors like Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Hegel and Lorenzo Bernini.

La Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine (École de Chaillot et musée des Monuments français) a organisé un second colloque sur la représentation de l’architecture, « La maquette, un outil au service du projet architectural », qui s’est tenu les 20 et 21 mai 2011 à la Cité, en coopération avec l’École pratique des hautes études (EPHE) et la Technische Universität München, avec le soutien de la Direction générale des patrimoines du ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

Documento di ricerca e approfondimento sulla chiesa di San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane e sulla figura di Francesco Borromini, nell'ampio panorama dell'architettura barocca a Roma:

"[...] l'approccio di Borromini alla storia e alla tradizione è profondo e complesso. Egli studia il classico, lo rielabora a discapito dei dogmi dell'architettura del Cinquecento e indaga altre epoche fino ad allora stigmatizzate, riconducendo poi il tutto ad una sintesi".

Progetto realizzato nell'ambito del corso di Storia dell'Architettura II "Miti, figure e linguaggi della modernità", a cura del prof. Maurizio Gargano.
Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Dipartimento di Architettura, a.a. 2016/2017

Inwieweit die Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird der Versuch unternommen, in der typologischen Ähnlichkeit beider Porträtgattungen einen Ansatzpunkt zu finden. Darüber hinaus weisen die Beispiele aus der Porträtpraxis darauf hin, dass dem profanen Bildnis zum einen eine Behandlung zukommen konnte, die den Kultbildern analog war, und zum anderen mit dem Begegnungsproblem von Prototyp und Porträt Anhaltspunkte vorliegen, die für eine Präsenzerfahrung bei den Betrachtern sprechen. Die Bedeutung der 'virtus' des Heiligenporträts scheint für das profane Porträt nicht ausgeschlossen, nur ihre Qualität muss vorerst anders eingestuft werden, denn als mirakulös dürften sie nicht gegolten haben. Hierfür jedenfalls liegen keine konkreten Quellen vor, wenngleich sich der Verdacht aufdrängt, dass für die offensichtlich kultische Verehrung der beschriebenen Papstporträts (Julius II., Gregor XV.) eine gewisse Erwartungshaltung der Zeitgenossen an das Bildnis vorauszusetzen ist. In beiden Fällen ist von einem postumen Bildniskult die Rede, der eine Sakralisierung des jeweiligen Porträts möglich erscheinen lässt. Die Übertragungskausalität der 'virtus' vom Prototyp auf sein Porträt, wie sie für das Heiligenporträt belegt ist, ist für das profane Porträt offensichtlich dann nachweisbar, wenn der Dargestellte noch lebt und seinem eigenen Bildnis während des Zeremoniells nicht begegnen darf. Das Begegnungsproblem unter der Voraussetzung der Präsenzerfahrung, wie sie bei den Herrscher-Funeralien und den frühneuzeitlichen Reitermonumenten zu registrieren war, weist auf ein Forschungsdesiderat hin, das vermutlich ohne den zeitgenössischen virtus-Begriff nicht auskommen wird. Der Mehrwert des Porträts und seine Aura als samenartiges Kraftpotential (ratio seminalis) bezeichnet den theoretischen Rahmen, innerhalb dessen der Porträtbegriff weiter zu verhandeln ist.

Sante Guido, "Marmi policromi, lapislazzuli e pietre dure: appunti di restauro dalla Cappella Cornaro a Santa Maria della Vittoria e dalla Cappella Paolina nella Basilica papale di Santa Maria Maggiore" in C. Giometti e C. M. Sicca (a cura di) " I colori del marmo",  Studi e fonti per la storia della scultura , 7, Pisa University Press, Pisa 2019, pp. 97-120. ISBN 8833392597, 9788833392592
(frutto di due giornate di studio svoltesi all'Università di Pisa il 15 e 16 febbraio 2019)

This book forges a new analysis of Baroque illusionism through a study of Bernini’s sculptural ensembles.  Its premise is to examine Bernini’s work in theatre as a wellspring for his sculpture’s visual effects.  Bernini was the leading sculptor, architect, and sometime painter of his era; he was also a playwright, scenographer, actor, and theatre director.  Bernini drew on this lexicon of theatrical effects, deploying light, movement and a fusion of fictive and physical space to render new languages of artistic illusion in both his scenographies and his sculpture. His innovative sculptural methods produced an animated verisimilitude that seemed ‘to make marble speak and move’, drawing his viewers into art’s illusions.  The question of the relationship between art and theatre is thus key to our understanding of both this artist and the Baroque as a whole.

The marble heads known as the Anima beata and the Anima dannata, a pair of masterpieces created by Bernini in his youth, still pose many questions relating to their origin, dating and meaning. This article presents new documentary evidence from the inventory of assets of their first known owner, an important Spanish cleric residing in Rome, don Fernando de Botinete y Acevedo. The inventory, compiled in 1632, offers a fascinating alternative interpretation of these sculptures as a Nymph and a Satyr, rather than as Christian souls. This document suggests two possible circumstances: on the one hand it might be argued that both sculptures were originally conceived as mythological representations; or, on the other, that these works were created by Bernini without clear identifying attributes in order to produce a deliberate iconographic ambiguity.

published in the volume, "The Holy Name. The Art of the Gesù: Bernini and His Age" (Philadelphia: St. Joseph's University Press, 2018), catalogue to the exhibition of the same name at the Fairfield University Art Museum (Feb-May 2018).
This is the first comprehensive survey of the career and publications of Oliva, Superior General of the Society of Jesus during a period of great expansion of the Order. It especially focuses on his role in changing the public face of the Jesuit Order through his decision to adopt the lavish Baroque style in the building and/or ornamentation of the Jesuit churches in Rome, and on his relationship with Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

Furnishing academies: notes on the cultural patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, addenda to Bernini`s and Cortona’s work for the Accademie di San Luca and degli Humoristi.

The artistic and cultural patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597 - 1679) is well known and one of the most important in seventeenth century Rome. As part of the cultural strategies employed by Barberini politics, the support of academic institutions was certainly one of the major activities, it also involved thorough architectural interventions, durable or ephemeral, for the academies spaces. This paper presents new archival evidence from Cardinal Francesco Barberini 's Giustificazioni relating to two small interior architetctural interventions financed by the Prelate and commissioned to the two major artists of his circle: Bernini and Cortona, respectively for the Accademia di San Luca in the former headquarters at Santa Martina, and the Accademia degli Humoristi at the Palazzo Mancini.

In this paper the covering of the breasts of the Charity statues Bernini designed for two sepulchral monuments at Saint Peter's is reconsidered from the perspective of a campaign of censorship that took place in the nineteenth century. It has been assumed that both statues were already covered at the end of the seventeenth century. From their unveiling onwards, Bernini's statues evoked strong reactions, being discussed in terms of affection and desire, and related to sexual arousal. Even though contemporary sources suggest strong responses occurred, these cannot be directly linked to a covering. Drawings and prints, as well as travel accounts, inform us that both Bernini's Charity statues must have been covered in around 1850. Though moral concerns played a role, the campaign of covering to which both statues fell victim must be regarded primarily from the perspective of church politics.

Il ritratto “caricato in forma strana, e ridicolosa, e con tanta felicità di somiglianza”. La nascita della caricatura e i suoi sviluppi in Italia fino al Settecento, in “Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz”, LIII, 1, 2009, pp. 73-144.

En este artículo se estudia una comedia de Gian Lorenzo Bernini, redescubierta en 1963 por Cesare D’Onofrio. En el momento de auge de la profesión actoral, ligada a los usos de la comedia del arte, Bernini, junto con otros artistas de su tiempo, nos proponen ahondar en la cuestión del “teatro en el teatro”, estableciendo así otro peldaño en la evolución del teatro italiano moderno que va del autor/actor al actor/autor al escenógrafo/autor. En este sentido, el genial creador de la "Roma barocca" con su comedia El empresario (L’impresario) nos convoca a reflexionar acerca de las implicancias sociales del género teatral en la Italia de su tiempo y, sobretodo, acerca de la centralidad de esos autores-escenógrafos-productores que debían luchar, ayer como hoy, por maravillar no sólo al público, sino especialmente al poder político que patrocinaba económicamente tales representaciones y permitía el uso de determinados espacios preparados para tal fin.

IT: La rilettura di alcune testimonianze archivistiche e l’attribuzione in questa sede di un importante disegno della seconda metà del XVII secolo, raffigurante una suggestiva soluzione progettuale per il prospetto meridionale del Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo, gettano nuova luce sul ruolo che l’architetto romano Mattia De Rossi (1637-1695), allievo prediletto e fidato collaboratore di Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), potrebbe avere avuto – a livello ideativo – anche all’interno del cantiere sassolese, grazie alla mediazione del cardinale Rinaldo d’Este, presso cui De Rossi era impegnato a Tivoli e non solo. Si giustificherebbe così quella originalissima “artificiosa naturalità” di matrice berniniana, estranea alla locale cultura architettonica, che accomuna il disegno per Sassuolo alla scenografica soluzione di Bernini per il Castello degli Altieri a Monterano, nel cui cantiere era presente De Rossi. La riflessione offre poi lo spunto per restituire al pittore modenese Francesco Stringa (1635-1709), dal 1685 sovrintendente alle fabbriche ducali, un disegno per l’adattamento del paliotto argenteo del Duomo di Reggio Emilia, recentemente riferito dalla critica a Mattia De Rossi.
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EN: The rereading of a number of archive testimonies and the attribution in this article of an important design from the second half of the 17th century, showing the original plan for the southern side of the Ducal Palace of Sassuolo, cast new light on the role that the Roman architect Mattia De Rossi (1637-1695) – favourite student and trusted collaborator of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) – might have had (on an ideational level) also on the Sassuolo building site, thanks to the mediation of Cardinal Rinaldo d’Este, for whom De Rossi was working in Tivoli and elsewhere. This would justify that highly original ‘artificial naturalness’ of Berninian leanings, far-removed from the local architectural culture, shared by the design for Sassuolo with Bernini’s scenographic solution for the Castello degli Altieri in Monterano, a building site where De Rossi had also been present. The reflection then offers the starting point to reattribute to the Modenese painter Francesco Stringa (1635-1709) – from 1685 superintendent of the ducal buildings – a design for the adaptation of the silver altarpiece of the Cathedral of Reggio Emilia, recently attributed by critics to Mattia De Rossi.

Bu yazı kapsamında Bernini'nin "Apollo ve Daphne" heykeli incelenmektedir. Barok sanatın özgün nitelikleri ve biçimsel dilinin irdelenmesinin ardından, Barok heykel ve mimari arasındaki ilişki irdelenmiş, incelenen yapıtın heykeltıraşı olan Bernini hakkında bilgi verilmiş, başlıca yapıtları incelenmiştir. Makalenin devamında "Apollo ve Daphne" heykelinin mitolojik kökeni, yapım sürecinin nasıl şekillendiği, eserin biçimsel özellikleri ele alınmıştır. Son olarak yapıtın özgün nitelikleri değerlendirilmiştir. Abstract In this article, "Apollo and Daphne" sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 2one of the leading artists of Baroque Art, is examined. After examining the original qualities and figurative language of Baroque art, the relationship between Baroque sculpture and architecture, artistic identity of Bernini, who is the sculptor of the studied work, and his main works are examined. In the rest of the article, the mythological origin of the sculpture "Apollo and Daphne", construction process of the sculpture and the figurative features of the work are discussed. Finally, the original qualities of the art-work are evaluated

Personaggio ben inserito all’interno della corte barberiniana, in qualità di medico di papa Urbano VIII, il senese Sebastiano Vannini manifestò nella sua produzione letteraria (rimasta quasi integralmente manoscritta) uno spiccato interesse verso le arti figurative. Se il suo ampio testo in volgare Diporti curiosi circa sagre antiche pitture (1642) si concentra sugli affreschi e i mosaici del tardo Medioevo romano, alcuni tra i suoi numerosi componimenti poetici latini sono dedicati a opere realizzate da Gian Lorenzo Bernini per il pontefice in San Pietro (il Baldacchino, la tomba di Urbano e quella di Matilde di Canossa), nonché a una scultura berniniana quale il busto del re d’Inghilterra Carlo I, che si inseriva a pieno titolo nella strategia diplomatica di papa Barberini.
A queste rime inedite, che rappresentano una fonte significativa per meglio conoscere la genesi e la più antica ricezione di alcune tra le principali creazioni di Bernini, se ne accompagnano altre che ci permettono di conoscere meglio la biografia di Vannini e in particolare lo stretto rapporto che egli intrattenne con il suo maestro, il noto connoisseur Giulio Mancini.

This paper will illustrate exactly where the Holy Mother Church: i.e. The Roman Catholic Church obtained its inspiration and the designs to build Saint Peter's Basilica and Bernini's Square. This thesis is all about sacred geometry and the numerical patterns laid out in first eleven chapters of Genesis, which are known as the antediluvian times or better still the Matriarchal Culture or the Age of the Goddess. The core of this theme center on the principle that every mother (Matriarchal Culture) prepares her child for the period of puberty, when the child is initiated into the societal mores: i.e. Patriarchal Culture