Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was a prodigy and polymath whose fame has by no means fairly escaped from the shadow of his hero, Michelangelo. Nonetheless, he was a genius whose emotive artworks and structure nonetheless form Rome immediately. On this video essay from the YouTube collection Nice Artwork Defined, the UK curator, gallerist and video essayist James Payne makes use of Bernini’s sculpture Apollo and Daphne (1622-25) as a centrepiece for exploring his artwork within the context of Seventeenth-century Rome, when the classical restraint of the Renaissance gave option to the extra expressive dynamism of the Baroque period. Diving into Bernini’s life and oeuvre, Payne particulars how the interaction of non secular expression and papal power-politics formed his storied profession, culminating in maybe his most well-known achievement: the design of St Peter’s Sq. in Vatican Metropolis.
