page_title: Gian Lorenzo Bernini
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Gian Lorenzo Bernini / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Baldachin über dem Petrusgrab im Petersdom in Rom. Vor diesem lag der Papst nach seinem Tod, um vom Volk Abschied zu nehmen; von Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Français&#160;: Baldaquin dans la basilique St-Pierre-de-Rome. arch: Gianlorenzo Bernini dit Le Bernin.
context_page_description: Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was, also and even more prominently, the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful...." In addition, he was a painter and a man of the theater: he wrote, directed and acted in plays, for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.
  As an architect and city planner, he designed secular buildings, churches, chapels, and public squares, as well as massive works combining both architecture and sculpture, especially elaborate public fountains and funerary monuments and a whole series of temporary structures for funerals and festivals.
context_section_description: Bernini's architectural works include sacred and secular buildings and sometimes their urban settings and interiors. He made adjustments to existing buildings and designed new constructions. Amongst his most well known works are the Piazza San Pietro (1656–67), the piazza and colonnades in front of St. Peter's Basilica and the interior decoration of the Basilica. Amongst his secular works are a number of Roman palaces: following the death of Carlo Maderno, he took over the supervision of the building works at the Palazzo Barberini from 1630 on which he worked with Borromini; the Palazzo Ludovisi (now Palazzo Montecitorio, started 1650); and the Palazzo Chigi (now Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi, started 1664).
  His first architectural projects were the façade and refurbishment of the church of Santa Bibiana (1624–26) and the St. Peter's baldachin (1624–33), the bronze columned canopy over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica. In 1629, and before St. Peter's Baldachin was complete, Urban VIII put him in charge of all the ongoing architectural works at St Peter's. However, Bernini fell out of favor during the papacy of Innocent X Pamphili: one reason was the pope's animosity towards the Barberini and hence towards their clients including Bernini. Another reason was the failure of the belltowers designed and built by Bernini for St. Peter's Basilica, commencing during the reign of Urban VIII. The completed north tower and the only partially completed south tower were ordered demolished by Innocent in 1646 because their excessive weight had caused cracks in the basilica's facade and threatened to do more calamitous damage. Professional opinion at the time was in fact divided over the true gravity of the situation (with Bernini's rival Borromini spreading an extreme, anti-Bernini catastrophic view of the problem) and over the question of responsibility for the damage: Who was to blame? Bernini? Pope Urban VIII who forced Bernini to design over-elaborate towers? Deceased Architect of St. Peter's, Carlo Maderno who built the weak foundations for the towers? Official papal investigations in 1680 in fact completely exonerated Bernini, while inculpating Maderno. Never wholly without patronage during the Pamphili years, after Innocent's death in 1655 Bernini regained a major role in the decoration of St. Peter's with the Pope Alexander VII Chigi, leading to his design of the piazza and colonnade in front of St. Peter's. Further significant works by Bernini at the Vatican include the Scala Regia (1663–66), the monumental grand stairway entrance to the Vatican Palace, and the Cathedra Petri, the Chair of Saint Peter, in the apse of St. Peter's, in addition to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the nave.
  Bernini did not build many churches from scratch; rather, his efforts were concentrated on pre-existing structures, such as the restored church of Santa Bibbiana and in particular St. Peter's. He fulfilled three commissions for new churches in Rome and nearby small towns. Best known is the small but richly ornamented oval church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, done (beginning in 1658) for the Jesuit novitiate, representing one of the rare works of his hand with which Bernini's son, Domenico, reports that his father was truly and very pleased. Bernini also designed churches in Castelgandolfo (San Tommaso da Villanova, 1658–1661) and Ariccia (Santa Maria Assunta, 1662–1664), and was responsible for the re-modeling of the Santuario della Madonna di Galloro (just outside of Ariccia), endowing it with a majestic new facade.
  When Bernini was invited to Paris in 1665 to prepare works for Louis XIV, he presented designs for the east facade of the Louvre Palace, but his projects were ultimately turned down in favour of the more sober and classic proposals of a committee consisting of three Frenchmen: Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and the doctor and amateur architect Claude Perrault, signaling the waning influence of Italian artistic hegemony in France. Bernini's projects were essentially rooted in the Italian Baroque urbanist tradition of relating
caption: St. Peter's baldachin, 1624–1633
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