artebarocca-blog

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Assumption of the Virgin, Annibale Carracci 1590

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Butcher's Shop, Annibale Carracci 1580

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Bean Eater, Annibale Carracci 1584

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Another must read by Sarah McPhee

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Dr. McPhee was my all time favorite teacher in college, and knows such a rich amount of Roman history during the Baroque period. I highly recommend checking her new book, Bernini's Beloved, out. This is what has been said about the book:

With lips slightly parted and eyes fixed on a point in the distance, a breathtaking marble portrait of Costanza Piccolomini appears alive. Carved by Gianlorenzo Bernini in 1636–37 for his own pleasure, the portrait of Costanza is one of his most captivating works, but until now little has been known about its subject.

For centuries Costanza was identified only as Bernini's mistress, who later incited his rage by betraying him for his brother. Author Sarah McPhee corrects and expands this story in her remarkable biography of a sculpture and its subject. Bernini's Beloved sets the bust and Costanza's own life—her childhood and noble name, her marriage, affair, fall from grace, and recovery—against the backdrop of Baroque Rome. Beautifully illustrated and written, this fascinating story expands our understanding of the woman whose intelligence and passion served as inspiration for Bernini's celebrated sculpture, and who courageously forged a life for herself in the decades following its creation.

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Diagram of column capitals

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San Lorenzo, Guarino Guarini, 1666-79, Turin.

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Palazzo Real in Caserta, Luigi Vanvitelli, 1752.

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Spanish Steps, designed by Francesco De Scantis, Roma.

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Interior of the dome at S Antonio dei Portoghesi

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Basilica of Santa Croce, founded 1353, rebuilt after c 1550, lower half of the facade by Gabriele Riccardi

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Triton Fountain, found in Piazza Barbernini, executed by Bernini between 1642 and 1643. The subject of the fountain is based off a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses book I. 

  Already Triton, at his call, appears

Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;

And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.

The sovereign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,

And give the waves the signal to retire.

His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent

Grows by degrees into a large extent,

Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,

Runs the wide circuit of the world around:

The sun first heard it, in his early east,

And met the rattling ecchos in the west.

The waters, list'ning to the trumpet's roar,

Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.

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Honorary Monument of Urbano VIII Barbernini, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

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S. Maria della Pace, façade and semi-circular porch by Pietro da Cortona, 1656-1661

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Cupola of Sant Andrea della Valle, Rome, frescoed by Giovanni Lanfranco and Domenichino

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Portrait etching of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Ottavio Maria Leoni 

Song: Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Memoryhouse

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Pantheon, originally built in 27 b.c. and later rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in 126 a.d., Roma. It is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome every constructed.