Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1598 – 1680

Biography

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born in Naples, Italy, the son of a sculptor, and was recognized as a prodigy while still a boy. In Rome he became the defining artist of the Baroque, sculpting Apollo and Daphne, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, and the marble portrait busts of popes and cardinals that remain unsurpassed for their lifelike energy. As an architect he designed the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square, the baldachin over the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the fountains of Rome, including the Fountain of the Four Rivers. He also designed stage sets, wrote plays, and painted. For more than fifty years he shaped the look of papal Rome. He died in Rome in 1680 and is buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. His Rome, of fountains, colonnades, and marble saints caught mid-miracle, still defines the city’s baroque grandeur for visitors today.