
Bernini's Biographies: Critical Essays (Paperback)
Evonne Levy (editor), Steven F. Ostrow (editor), Maarten Delbeke (editor)- We can order this
Unique among early modern artists, the Baroque painter, sculptor, and architect Gianlorenzo Bernini was the subject of two monographic biographies published shortly after his death in 1680: one by the Florentine connoisseur and writer Filippo Baldinucci (1682), and the second by Bernini's son, Domenico (1713).
This interdisciplinary collection of essays by historians of art and literature marks the first sustained examination of the two biographies, first and foremost as texts. A substantial introductory essay considers each biography's author, genesis, and foundational role in the study of Bernini. Nine essays combining art-historical research with insights from philology, literary history, and art and literary theory offer major new insights into the multifarious connections between biography, art history, and aesthetics, inviting readers to rethink Bernini's life, art, and milieu.
Contributors are Eraldo Bellini, Heiko Damm, John D. Lyons, Sarah McPhee, Tomaso Montanari, Rudolf Preimesberger, Robert Williams, and the editors.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN: 9780271029023
Number of pages: 440
Weight: 594 g
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 26 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
-Paul Barolsky, University of Virginia
"In addition to bringing together various methodologies to bear upon the study of Bernini's vite, this work also seeks to unravel the Gordian knot of the authorship of the biographies. . . . Taken as a whole, this collection of essays provides a series of departure points for future studies in the history of Bernini's biographies, the life of Bernini himself, and artistic biography in general. . . . Despite the seeming contradiction between engaging closely with the history and genesis of Bernini's biographies while simultaneously interrogating them from various literary, historical, and philological viewpoints, these essays are an immensely useful addition to the field."
-Kristin A. Triff, Renaissance Quarterly
"An outstanding contribution to a subject of signal importance."
-Brian Tovey, Art Newspaper
"This is an important book that is essential reading for anyone engaged in the study of Bernini and the Baroque, and indeed a cautionary and exemplary tale for historians who take artists' lives at face value. . . . Bernini's Biographies is a challenging read but a rewarding one . . . [which] brings together and epitomises the problems and debates surrounding the construction of an artist as a historical and/or literary figure. It will prove useful for those interested in this difficult and complex area-the confluence of art history and literary theory."
-Carol M. Richardson, The Art Book
"This [is an] absorbing book, which tells us a great deal about Bernini, but also a fair bit about textuality, myth, sub-genres of biography and even in one essay, the typological conventions of the time."
-Keith Miller, Times Literary Supplement
"As an edited volume of scholarly essays, this collection sets a new standard for excellence. The quality of all contributions is uniformly high-something that can rarely be said of such collections."
-Sheila McTighe, Oxford Art Journal
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