I MARMI VIVI, BERNINI E LA NASCITA DEL RITRATTO BAROCCO

A universal artist, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) – of Tuscan origin, but born in Naples and always living in Rome – is the absolute protagonist of Baroque art, not only in sculpture. For more than half a century he was the most famous artist in Europe: eight popes competed for his services, as did many princes, both Italian and foreign. The catalogue of the exhibition at the Bargello (Florence, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, 3 April-12 July 2009) revolves around the Portrait of Costanza Bonarelli, the only Bernini work in the Bargello, but the curators have sought to contextualise the extraordinary progress of the young Bernini in a broader and more articulated context. Here, then, is the enthralling philological comparison with the coeval masters of portraiture: Velázquez, Van Dyck, Rubens and Carracci. Alongside the Portrait of Costanza Bonarelli, other living “marbles” and painted portraits have arrived at the Bargello, in an evocation of Baroque portraiture never before seen, not only in Florence, but also in Rome.

Edited by: Tomaso Montanari, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi