Reviews
By adopting the manner of a lecturer-teasingly mentioning things to come, employing the first-person plural as a teacher, roping students into his intellectual questing, throwing in some slang now and then, and without neglecting scholarship (this is a history of papal Rome as much as a biography)-Mormando gives us a succulent reading experience. Quanto e dolce ., By adopting the manner of a lecturer--teasingly mentioning things to come, employing the first-person plural as a teacher, roping students into his intellectual questing, throwing in some slang now and then, and without neglecting scholarship (this is a history of papal Rome as much as a biography)--Mormando gives us a succulent reading experience. Quanto e dolce ., Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one artist whose life was every bit as dramatic, sensual, and emotional as his art. Franco Mormando's sympathetic, intimate biography moves as fast as its hyperactive subject, taking us on a whirlwind ride through the glittering courts of papal Rome and the Paris of the Sun King, Louis XIV. From its shocking beginning to its perfect ending, the book is sheer unmitigated delight., Mormando provides enough salacious details of the scandal-ridden life of baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini to keep readers turning pages in this engaging, well-researched biography. . . . Mormando's extensive research and documentation not only will satisfy scholars and students of art history, especially baroque aficionados, but this biography will also appeal to general readers, Franco Mormando's fascinating book is a welcome addition to the Bernini literature. It is both a biography of the artist and a portrait of Roman Baroque culture. Though written for a general audience, it reveals an impressive command of the specialist scholarship-in art history, literature, and history. Mormando wears his learning lightly, writing with animation, carefully pacing his anecdotes, and making the whole as entertaining as it is informative., Franco Mormando's fascinating book is a welcome addition to the Bernini literature. It is both a biography of the artist and a portrait of Roman Baroque culture. Though written for a general audience, it reveals an impressive command of the specialist scholarship--in art history, literature, and history. Mormando wears his learning lightly, writing with animation, carefully pacing his anecdotes, and making the whole as entertaining as it is informative., Mormando provides enough salacious details of the scandal-ridden life of baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini to keep readers turning pages in this engaging, well-researched biography. . . . Mormando's extensive research and documentation not only will satisfy scholars and students of art history, especially baroque aficionados, but this biography will also appeal to general readers, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one artist whose life was every bit as dramatic, sensual, and emotional as his art. Franco Mormando's sympathetic, intimate biography moves as fast as its hyperactive subject, taking us on a whirlwind ride through the glittering courts of papal Rome and the Paris of the Sun King, Louis XIV. From its shocking beginning to its perfect ending, the book is sheer unmitigated delight., There are a few artists to whom the label 'faultless' applies, and the top of that list is Bernini, architect, showman and sculptor. Franco Mormando's book shows him in full as a man for the first time, and he is as pleasing, as sweet, as interestingly ambiguous as his amazing oeuvre. This is a wonderful book to have at last.
Table of Content
Preface: The First English-Language Biography of Bernini Acknowledgments Website Information Money, Wages, and Cost of Living in Baroque Rome Abbreviations 1. The Neapolitan Meteor A Twelve-Year-Old Pregnant Bride We Pause to Talk about Our Sources Childhood in a "Paradise Inhabited by Demons" Moving on Up: To Rome, 1606 Falling in Love with the Boy Bernini "I Beg You to Dissimulate" Bernini Comes of Age "Why Shouldn't Cardinal Scipione's Penis Get What It Wants?" The Tender and the True Bernini Rejoices 2. Impresario Supreme "Pretty-Beard Urban" "The Michelangelo of His Age" Fire Is Never a Gentle Master "What the Barbarians Didn't Do, the Barberini Did" "The Cupola Is Falling!" Head of the Clan An Encounter with Death Bernini Slashes a Lover's Face Bernini Purchases a Bride "Making What Is Fake Appear Real" "To Our England Your Glorious Name" For Whom the Bell Tolls, or Not 3. Bernini's Agony and Ecstasy A Universal Father So Coarse and So Deformed Bernini Sinks and Teresa Floats "Not Only Prostrate, But Prostituted as Well" "Unless Moved by Something Extraordinary That They See" La Pimpaccia to the Rescue A Heroic Bust for a Mousy Princeling The Papal Corpse Left to Rot 4. Bernini and Alexander The Dream Team: Pope and Architect "She's a Hermaphrodite, They Say" Bubonic Plague, Yet Again A Jewel for the Jesuits Final Act of the Bernini-Borromini Rivalry 5. A Roman Artist in King Louis's Court Bernini Becomes a Political Pawn Over the Alps in a Sedan Chair "Speak to Me of Nothing Small!" Bernini Weeps "A Plague Take That Bastard!" The Long, Troubled Aftermath 6. "My Star Will Lose Its Ascendancy" A Brief Sigh of Relief The Stoning of Casa Bernini Sodomy behind the Statue(s) "That Dragon Vomiting Poison in Every Direction" Queen Christina Lends Her Name to a Hoax An Occasional Round of Applause "Cover Those Breasts!" "The Cupola Is Falling (Again)!" Not with a Bang, But a Whimper Notes Works Cited Index
