The Bernini Trail

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Self=portrait (c. 1623) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Galleria Borghese

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Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the greatest sculptor of his age, some would say of any age; he was also an architect, painter, playwright and stage designer. And for most of his life he lived in Rome, where almost all of his work can be found.

Bernini was born in Naples on December 7th 1598. His father, Pietro Bernini (1562-1629), was a sculptor from Florence; his mother, Angelica Galante, was a Neapolitan. Gian Lorenzo was the sixth of their thirteen children. In 1606, the family moved to Rome; his father having received a commission to create a bas-relief for the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. The Bernini family lived in the shadow of the basilica, in Via Liberiana.  

Plaque to Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Via Liberiana

A plaque notes that it was in the parental home that he carved The Rape of Proserpine, David and Apollo and Daphne. All three sculptures, which Bernini carved in his early to mid-twenties, are on display in the Galleria Borghese. 

Bust of Pope Gregory XV by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

On June 30th 1621, Pope Gregory XV (r. 1621-23) created Bernini a member of the chivalric Order of the Cross of Christ. From then on he was to be addressed as il Cavaliere Bernini or simply il Cavaliere. 

At some point in the years following his father's death, in August 1629, Bernini moved the family home closer to St Peter's Basilica, where he was the chief architect. His house was located in an area known as Santa Marta, just to the rear of the apse of the basilica. The neighbourhood no longer stands.   ​

Plaque to Bernini, Via della Mercede

On May 15th 1639, Bernini married Caterina Tezio (1617-73) in the still-standing church of San Tommaso in Parione. He was forty-one, she was almost twenty years his junior.  Caterina went on to bear him eleven children. 

In 1641 Bernini bought property in Via della Mercede. There he lived with his wife and large family until his death in 1680. On December 7th 1898, the 300th anniversary of his birth, a plaque was erected on the wall of his house. 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,  numbers 11 and 12, but he lived and worked in the former not the latter, to which the plaque is affixed. 

Self-portrait by Bernini, circa 1675, Royal Library, Windsor

Bernini died on November 28th 1680, a few days short of his eighty-second birthday. He was interred, without pomp or ceremony, in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. His epigraph (to the right of the high altar) reads: IOANNES LAVRENTIVS BERNINI / DECVS ARTIS ET VRBIS / HIC HVMILITER QVIESCIT. (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, glory of the arts and of the city, humbly rests here.)

Tomb of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Santa Maria Maggiore

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List of Works in Rome

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Galleria Borghese
Jupiter and the goat Amalthea, 1615
Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius, 1618-1619
Bust of Pope Paul V, 1618
Rape of Proserpina, 1621-1622
​Self-portrait, 1623
David, 1623
Apollo and Daphne, 1622-1624
Two busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, 1632
The Allegory of Truth, 1646-1652

Santa Prassede
Bust of Giovanni Battista Santoni, ca. 1613–1616

Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Bust of Giovanni Vigevano, 1617–18
Bust of Virginia Pucci-Ridolfi
Memorial to Maria Raggi, 1647-53

Palazzo dell' Ambasciata di Spagna
Blessed Soul, 1619
Damned Soul, 1619

Santa Maria di Monserrato
Bust of Monsignor Pedro de Foix Montoya, 1621

San Giovanni dei Fiorentini
Bust of Antonio Cepparelli, 1622
​Bust of Antonio Coppola

Santa Bibiana 
Statue of St Bibiana, 1624-1626

Palazzo di Propaganda Fide
Facade, 1627

Fontana della Barcaccia, 1627-1629

Palazzo Barberini
Facade, 1627-1630
Bust of Pope Urban VIII, 1630

Palazzo dei Conservatori
Statue of Pope Urban VIII, 1635-40

Triton Fountain, 1637

Fountain of the Moor, 1653-55

Fountain of the Bees, 1644

Santa Maria della Vittoria
Cornaro Chapel, 1645-1652

Galleria Doria Pamphilj 
Bust of Pope Innocent X, ca. 1647 

Fountain of the Four Rivers, 1648-1651

Santa Maria del Popolo 
Statue of Daniel, 1655-1657
Statue of Habakkuk, 1655-1657

Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70

Palazzo Odescalchi
Facade, 1665

Sant' Andrea delle Fratte 
Angel with the Crown of Thorns, 1667-1669
Angel with the Titulus, 1667-1669

San Lorenzo in Lucina 
Gabriele Fonseca, 1668-1675

San Francesco a Ripa 
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, 1671-1674

San Sebastiano fuori le Mura
Bust of Christ, 1678-9

St Peter’s Basilica & the Vatican
Baldacchino, 1624-1633
Tomb of Urban VIII, 1628-1647
St. Longinus, 1629-1638
Tomb of Countess Matilda, 1633-1637
Bas-relief of Feed My Sheep, 1633-1646
Equestrian statue of Constantine, 1654-1670
Colonnade of St Peter’s Square, 1656-1667
Chair of St. Peter, 1657-1666
Scala Regia, 1664
Altar of the Sacrament, 1673-1674

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