Bernini Lorenzo: biography, creativity

In its scope, the creativity of Lorenzo Bernini is comparable only with the creations of the great masters of the Renaissance in Italy. He was, after Michelangelo, the largest architect and sculptor of this country, and also one of the creators of the Baroque style - the last in the history of all European art of a truly "great style".

Origin and first works

Bernini Lorenzo was born in Naples in 1598. He was born in the family of Pietro Bernini, a famous sculptor. In the early 17th century, Giovanni moved to Rome with his father. Since that time, it is with the "eternal city" that his life and creativity are connected. A lot of work was created here by Lorenzo Bernini. Some of them are shown below.

The first mature works of Bernini include the following: the sculptural groups Pluto and Proserpine, Aeneas and Anchises, Apollo and Daphne, and the marble statue of David. Years of their creation - 1619-1625. Bernini performed these works commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, an art lover. In the works of Lorenzo, there is a connection with the antique and Renaissance plastics. And the image of Apollo can be seen as direct borrowing from Hellenistic sculpture. However, in general, Bernini almost completely reinterpreted classical traditions. His contemporaries were struck by the feeling of living flesh and the extraordinary illusion of vitality inherent in his sculpture. Admired and exciting dynamism of these works.

The flowering of creativity

The flourishing of Bernini's creativity refers to the patronage of the already higher one, namely Cardinal Maffeo Barberini. He became in 1623 by Pope Urban VIII. In Bernini's art of this period the ideas of the counter-reformation, which fed all the European Baroque and, in particular, Italian, were fully expressed. In them, medieval religiosity seemed to be reinterpreted into secular harmony. From the external pomposity was inseparable genuine greatness. Bernini, subsidized by the church, erected majestic architectural structures. He created altar compositions, fountains, monuments, sculptural portraits, tombstones (including the well-known tombstone Urban VIII).

The versatility of Bernini's talent

In the person of Bernini, the architect and sculptor combined; Head of a large workshop, which carried out various projects; Theatrical decorator, painter, performer and author of comedies and art theorists. His work, he figuratively compared with the powerful jets created by him fountains. But the sculpture still was the main kind of artistic activity Bernini. The most important principles of the Baroque style were most fully embodied in it.

Sculpture by Bernini

Bernini's sculpture combined a spiritual and sensual beginning, a theatrical pathetic and "exaltation" with inner grandeur, mysticism with concrete psychologism, a desire for resemblance to nature with a vital impulse that gave organic wholeness to plastic forms. To solve the various tasks facing him, Bernini seemed to lack the natural properties of the material and expressive means of sculpture. It causes the marble to melt, curl and flow like wax. This obstinate material in his hands perfectly conveys the texture of the fabric and the tenderness of the human skin. In addition, Lorenzo Bernini widely uses light and color effects. A brief biography, unfortunately, does not allow us to dwell in detail on the features of his sculpture. And you can talk about them for a very long time ...

"The Department of St. Peter"

In the works of Bernini, painting becomes one of the techniques of sculpture, and the latter - part of the architectural structure. In turn, it is included in the surrounding space, in infinity. The picturesque and grandiose nature of the Baroque vision is expressed with the greatest strength in the "St. Peter's Chapel" for the Roman Cathedral of St. Petra. The years of its creation - 1656-1665. On a massive plinth of red-yellow jasper and black and white marble, the sculptor hoisted 4 bronze statues of the "church fathers" discussing with each other. Above them rises the bronze throne and the "chair of St. Peter." The clouds swell even higher, the host of bronze angels crowned with golden rays moves. And in the center of this splash of matter, cosmic in power, is the real light radiating from the round window of the cathedral. He collects the whole composition, balances it.

"Ecstasy of St. Theresa"

However, Bernini's most famous works of plastic include a modest and much simpler sculptural group. It is called "Ecstasy of St. Theresa". This group was created between 1645 and 1647 for the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, commissioned by Cardinal Carnaro. The sculptor portrayed the mystical vision of a Spanish nun who lived in the 16th century with the same certainty with which he was told in letters. As if from theatrical boxes, from the niches of the church wall, the statues of the representatives of the Carnaro family seem to "look" at Bernini's creation.

In front of the spectator is also St. Theresa, overcome by longing, and an angel with a fiery arrow, and the sunlight that Bernini materialized in golden rays, and a cloud on which figures hover. With psychological acuity and astonishing realism, Bernini Lorenzo conveys a state of religious ecstasy. At the same time, he achieves a sense of irreality and weightlessness of his characters. It seems that the clothes of the figures are picked up by a gust of some cosmic wind.

"Secular" sculptures by Bernini

Lorenzo Bernini, whose works are diverse, is known as a "secular" sculptor. He is the author of many portraits. They also embodied the concept of baroque. The main feature of the portrait in this style is the paradoxical combination of illusory likelihood of the appearance of the model, the instantaneous state, and the sense of timeless greatness, the eternity behind them. It seems that the characters created by Bernini Lorenzo live, talk, breathe, gesticulate, and sometimes "come out" of their frames. We do not see bronze and marble, but the silk of their shirts, lace jabot, the fabric of raincoats. However, they are all elevated above everyday life, imbued with a special impersonal energy. This applies to many works, even those intimate, like the bust of Bernini's beloved Constantia Buonarelli. And this applies to the full extent to the ceremonial portraits resembling solemn ode. This, for example, a portrait of Louis XIV or the Duke of D'Este. For Louis he created not one but two great works. This, firstly, a marble bust, as if flying on a pedestal (pictured below).

And secondly, it's an equestrian statue, reminiscent of a splash of flame.

Architecture and fountains of Bernini

Lorenzo Bernini owns the main merit in the creation of the so-called Baroque Rome. In such masterpieces of architecture as the church of Sant Andrea al Quirinal, the colonnade of the cathedral of St. Petra (pictured below), the Vatican staircase "Rock Regia", the master seems to explode the entire architectural system.

His main task in this case was not just to create some individual monuments, but to organize the space of the city. Bernini Lorenzo thought of the categories of squares and streets. He used both plastic and architectural means of expression. The famous fountains (Moor, Barkachcha, Four Rivers (pictured below), Triton, and Trevi, performed after the death of its author) are a synthesis of these funds. In them the life-affirming and spontaneous-natural beginning of baroque was embodied with the greatest power.

The death of Bernini and the transformation of Baroque

In 1680 Lorenzo Bernini died. Biography (creative) master almost coincided with the chronology of this style. At the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The powerful energy of baroque gives way to tinsel glitter and superficial rhetoric, or turns into rococo, striving for decorative elegance.