The Birth of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Bust of Gian Lorenzo Bernini by Ettore Ferrari

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On December 7th 1598, the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born in Naples. However, he spent most of his life in Rome, where he is commemorated by two plaques.

One plaque marks the house in Via Liberiana, in which Bernini lived with his parents and siblings from 1606 until 1642. It was there, as the plaque records, that he carved some of his earliest masterpieces, including the sculptures of David and Apollo and Daphne (now in the Galleria Borghese).

A second, and much more ornate, plaque marks the house in Via della Mercede, in which Bernini lived with his wife Caterina Tezio (1617-73) and their many children from 1642 until his death in 1680.  The plaque was erected on December 7th, 1898, the 300th anniversary of his birth. The bust is the work of the Roman sculptor Ettore Ferrari (1845-1931). The main part of the inscription reads: QVI VISSE E MORÌ GIANLORENZO BERNINI SOVRANO DELL’ARTE AL QVALE SI CHINARONO REVERENTI PAPI PRINCIPI POPOLI. (Here lived and died Gian Lorenzo Bernini, sovereign of art, to whom reverent popes, princes and peoples bowed). 

Unfortunately, the plaque is attached to the wrong building. Bernini owned two properties in Via della Mercede,  number 11 and number 12, but he lived and worked in the former not the latter, to which the plaque is affixed.

Bernini died on November 28th 1692, a few days short of his eighty-second birthday. He is interred in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. 

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Plaque to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Via della Mercede

Plaque to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Via Liberiana