An allround genius of effervescent creativity

Historian Arne Karsten on the creator of Baroque Rome,
Gianlorenzo Bernini, who still shapes the city today

”If Gianlorenzo Bernini had designed nothing else in his life but St Peter’s Square, there could still be no doubt about his status as one of the most important architects in the history of art,” Arne Karsten writes in his book ‘Bernini – Der Schöpfer des barocken Rom (‘Bernini - The Creator of Baroque Rome’), clarifying that the work of this exceptional talent is still significant and influential today in almost every location in the Eternal City. “Bernini was more than just a sculptor,” he emphasises his statement, “he was an allround genius and always stylised himself as such.” Although the son of a sculptor was a sculptor himself by training, he worked in many artistic professions. “He was an architect, he worked as a painter, he wrote plays, he designed everyday art objects, we would say today, and he was a man of effervescent creativity that accompanied him throughout his long life - he would have turned 82 years old soon afterwards.”

Apollo and Daphne in the Villa Borghese

To list all of Bernini’s works, one would have to name half of Rome, because in addition to the famous sculptures, he created an enormous variety of church façades, palaces, fountains and square borders, portrait sculptures and paintings as well as various tombs for popes and cardinals, Karsten explains. “In the end, I would say that one of his most important buildings is St Peter’s Square, which is still the most visible today.” However, his early works also fascinate art lovers around the world. “The famous group of the four key sculptures is still the centrepiece of Villa Borghese today. You now have to book months in advance to get into this museum – it’s the main attraction.” Bernini’s masterpieces there include the sculpture ‘Apollo and Daphne’, created between 1622 and 1625. The work depicts the motif of Daphne’s pursuit by the god Apollo, who is in love with her, from the poem ‘Metamorphoses’ by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. It depicts the moment when the fleeing nymph Daphne escapes the desire of the sun god Apollo and transforms into a tree. Art historians see a dynamic parallelism and a surprising wealth of movement in the design, which the viewer can hardly escape.

St Peter’s Square

In the Vatican, Bernini left his mark on the design of St Peter’s Square, which was previously just a trapezoidal area leading to the Basilica. “He achieved this effect  by relating the main church of Catholic Christianity to the urban context through his square design, as can still be seen today by every visitor to Rome and as could be seen again recently at the papal death, conclave and papal election,” the historian explains. The famous colonnades that surround the square and at the same time regulate access to St Peter’s Basilica are world-famous and omnipresent.” Between 1656 and 1667, Bernini created an imposing elliptical structure with 284 Doric columns in four rows framing St Peter’s Square.

Enfant terrible of his time

Gianlorenzo Bernini was an enfant terrible of his time. Many of his contemporaries didn’t like him. ”Like many artists, he was simply an incredible egocentric who massively pushed away his competitors, who knew how to focus the attention of those around him, including recognition for his works, which were often created in workshops and in collaboration with colleagues, on himself alone,” Karsten comments. His temperament sometimes stood in his way and he did not shy away from violence. Karsten recounts the scandalous story of the young Roman woman Constanza Bonarelli in 1638: “Bernini had an affair with the wife of one of his employees. However, this fun-loving young lady was also having an affair with Bernini’s brother. And when he caught them both in flagrante delicto, today we would say he ’snapped’. He chased after his brother, wanted to beat him to death with an iron bar, but passers-by hindered him. Furthermore, he sent a servant to Constanza Bonarelli with the order to cut her face with a razor, which this servant actually did out of fear of his master, who was almost senseless with rage.” Hard to imagine today, Bernini was fined. At the end of the amorous entanglements, Costanza remained with her husband until her death in 1662. Bernini married Caterina Tezio in 1640, with whom he had 11 children. In this context, it is interesting to note the bust of Medusa, created between 1644/48, which can be admired in the Capitoline Museums in Rome today. Its facial features bear a strong resemblance to Bernini’s former lover Costanza Bonarelli underneath all the snake hair.
”It was a different time back then and it’s good to understand or learn to understand a time from its own world of values,” Karsten says, as this is the main task of historians. In earlier times, people acted out emotions as a matter of course that seem uncanny to us today. ”This applies to outbursts of anger, but also to storms of enthusiasm. These are things that we today, well-behaved and disciplined as we are, find ’strange’. However, in the period itself these emotions can be observed again and again and they were part of normality.”

The servant of several popes

Bernini served many popes. As the ruling elites changed after each papal election, Bernini also had to reinvent himself time and again, which he achieved  primarily thanks to his enormous creativity. ”His works were so good, so interesting, so innovative that even when he ran into crises for political reasons, this creativity triumphed in the end.” A good example of this is Pope Innocent X (1644 - 1655), who wanted to dispense with Bernini’s services at the beginning of his reign because he had been so closely allied with his hostile predecessor and was in his service. ”When he saw a design by Bernini at some point, he said laconically: ”If you don’t want Bernini to build something, you shouldn’t look at his designs.” Once you had seen them, they were overwhelming." However, he had a very special relationship with the later Pope Urban VIII (1623 - 1644). ”Urban VIII, who as a cardinal was still called Maffeo Barbarini, was already friends with Bernini when he was a cardinal, as far as this was possible across social class boundaries. He was very favourably disposed towards him.” This pope was an extraordinarily committed patron of the arts, understood a great deal about art and, above all, understood what he had in Bernini. ”He is said to have greeted him after his election with the sentence: ’You are very lucky, Cavaliere Bernini, to see Urban VIII as Pope, but we are even luckier to have Cavaliere Bernini in our service during his pontificate.’ A generous and also true word.”

Even great artists experience disaster

The design of the façade of St Peter’s Basilica was the defeat of Bernini’s life. As St Peter’s Basilica was created over a long period of time and there were repeated changes to the designs, the proportions didn’t quite match in the end. ”Bernini tried to solve the problem by adding two bell towers to each side of the façade. However, cracks appeared in the foundations and also in the masonry, so that the statics didn’t work and the towers had to be removed again. This development was of course a disaster for the reputation of the architect Bernini,” Karsten says. And the eternal Roman was not very successful abroad either. At the age of 67, the Pope lent him to France for the first time. From there, he returned to Rome very depressed, as none of his designs for the Louvre, which he was supposed to deliver to the French king, were realised. ”During his stay in Paris, the mentality of the Roman, who was spoilt for success, proved to be incompatible with the French court aristocracy,” the expert says, ”Bernini caused serious offence. For his part, he felt snubbed by the rudeness of many French aristocrats. In the end, they didn’t exactly end in a scandal, but in such a way that Bernini felt his journey was a failure.”

Bernini and Michelangelo - two workaholics in the service of the church

Bernini is often compared to Michelangelo. ”What they had in common was this tremendous intensity, creative power, and the will to turn this creative power into projects,” Karsten explains. ”Both were workaholics, Bernini once said of himself: ’It is harder for me to rest than anything else, you fight against yourself and your innermost nature.’ Michelangelo could well have said the same thing.” The historian sees a difference in the rather more tamed, polite, and courtly manner of the artist Bernini: ”He knew how to move on the smooth parquet of the aristocracy around the Pope with some confidence, albeit with occasional outbursts of anger, but on the whole socially accepted, even acclaimed. Michelangelo was much more reclusive, even more fixated on his art.” The court society in which Bernini moved with great virtuosity remained alien to Michelangelo throughout his life. ”Bernini is a typical representative of his time and a figure who, as an artist, but also as a courtier in the circle of the popes, continues to fascinate us to this day. There is no artist who has shaped Rome as much as Bernini.”

Book tip:
Arne Karsten
Bernini: Der Schöpfer des barocken Rom (The Creator of Baroque Rome), 4th ed. 2024
Publisher: C.H.Beck, Munich

PD Dr Arne Karsten (*1969) studied art history, history and philosophy in Göttingen, Rome and Berlin. Between 2001 and 2009, he was a research assistant at the Institute of Art and Visual History at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He has been teaching as a junior professor since the winter semester2009 and as a private lecturer in modern history at the University of Wuppertal since his habilitation in 2016.