Art
Works under
Cardinal Borghese
In his early 20s, Bernini was hired
by Cardinal Borghese to adorn the
garden of his villa, Villa Borghese.
He soon gained enough repute at
age 22 to create the bust of Pope
Paul V. Bernini then established his
wonderful mastery with marble
through capturing four tense
moments in Roman mythical history.
One of them, called Apollo and
Daphne, captures the moment
in the classic myth when Daphne
transforms into a tree. What
was revolutionary about the way
Bernini portrayed this event and
many others is that he captures it
as if the moment was happening,
rather than a more posed style of
previous sculptors. In addition, the
detail and use of light in the location
this statue was placed in adds to
the drama and theatrics of the
sculpture itself. Bernini was skilled
at theatrics of myth and religion,
and Apollo and Daphne is definitely
a great example.
Works under Pope
Urban VIII
Under Urban VIII, Bernini was given
several titles and commissions that
allowed him to expand his horizons
and make his marks all over the city
of Rome. The most famous of this is
the canopy he designed to stand
above St. Peter’s tomb, called
Baldacchino. He created this while
he was appointed Chief Architect
of St. Peter’s Basilica. Made of
bronze and standing 30 meters
tall, Baldacchino is meant to be
the stunning centerpiece of the
symbolic heart of Rome. Of course,
Bernini also left room for some of
his statues to be placed. This work
is one of the first landmarks Bernini
created that tourists from all over
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the world come to see, and it
certainly wasn’t his last.
Works under Pope
Innocent X
Just before he worked under Pope
Innocent X, Bernini designed two bell
towers that were to be built on the
façade of St. Peter’s Basilica. When
the first tower was erected in 1641,
however, cracks begin to form and
the tower was eventually torn down.
Bernini’s reputation was tarnished
for a while, and the event impacted
his finances as well. But he never
lost patronage, and Pope Innocent
X allowed Bernini to keep his jobs
and commissions. Bernini was also
given many commissions for funeral
memorials and chapels.
One chapel he was commissioned
to design, called the Cornaro Chapel,
is his most controversial work when
it came to chapels. This chapel
features his best example of
blending architecture and sculpture
into one cohesive creation. The
centerpiece of this chapel is the
sculpture called Ecstasy of Saint
Teresa that depicts the spiritual
overwhelming of the Spanish nun
Teresa of Avilla. What stands out
about this piece is how the smiling
angel holds an arrow aimed at the
swooning Teresa and where exactly
he was aiming it. It wasn’t pointed
at her heart, the place of the soul,
but it was aimed lower, a lot lower.
The aim of that arrow caused
controversy among viewers of the
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. However,
that didn’t stop this work from
becoming one of Bernini’s most
famous sculptural works, using a lot
of the same methods he used with
Apollo and Daphne to create the
dramatic, theatrical feel that was
his signature.