Gianlorenzo Bernini : a master of the Baroque - Italian Art at New Farm State School

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the greatest interpreter of Baroque style. He was an architect, a painter, a stage designer and a comedy writer but above all he was a very great sculptor. His artistic training was completed in Rome, where he worked all his life as official artist of the Popes and for the most significant noble families in Rome.

His artistic production was exceptionally immense and varied, the fruit of a theatrically oriented fusion of architecture, sculpture and painting. His most renowned sculptures include the Apollo and Daphne (1622-24) housed in the Gallery of the Villa Borghese in Rome, and the Ecstasy of St. Theresa (1644-51) in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome.

For over fifty years Bernini was engaged in the task of enlarging and decorating the Basilica of St. Peter’s, for which he created the square with the colonnaded wings (1657-65), the Baldacchino, or Canopy, (1624-33), the Chair of St. Peter (1656-66) and the tombs of two different Popes.

He adorned Rome’s most important squares with monumental fountains, including the very beautiful Fountain of the Four Rivers (1648-51) in Piazza Navona.

Do you want to know more about him? Come to the Italian Art workshop at New Farm State School on August 6th and 13th.

Contact Nancy today at nfsscommunityed@live.com.au