BERNINI THE SCULPTURE. THE BIRTH OF BAROQUE IN THE HOUSE OF BORGHESE

Gian Lorenzo Bernini had a crucial boost at the start of his career with the commission from Cardinal Scipione Borghese. His earliest famous sculptural groups originated amid the ancient sculptures of the collection, in the setting of the villa where they are preserved. And the beginnings of the Roman Baroque can be found here in the brilliant artist’s famous sculptures and the paintings by Giovanni Lanfranco.
The exhibition is dedicated to this crucial moment in Roman art, and the birth of that language that Bernini embodied in uniting the three arts, and his extensive work in architecture that provided the foundations for the creation of the city’s Baroque face.
The occasion is the fourth centenary of the artist’s birth. Much of Rome’s configuration as a modern city is thanks to him, and on this occasion, it celebrates him in the place that best embodies the new figurative culture that he created and lead.
The sculptures made by Gian Lorenzo in his youth are exhibited together with the Borghese collection’s large groups, to investigate this particular arc in Bernini’s artistic development, in the political and cultural setting of the time.
The exhibition is curated by Anna Coliva and Sebastian Schutze; the catalogue is published by De Luca.