Bernini: Flights of Love, the Art of DevotionNowhere is evidence of Bernini's unique abillity to unite architecture with sculpture and painting into a beautiful whole more compelling than in the Baroque chapel of Bernini's design: a dark world sealed below by a balustrade, covered by a luminous celestial dome, and populated by bodies of paint, marble, stucco, and flesh. This book explores three of these Baroque chapels to show how Bernini achieved his remarkable effects. Giovanni Careri examines the ways in which the artist integrated the disparate forms of architecture, painting, and sculpture into a coherent space for devotion, and then shows how this accomplishment was understood by religious practitioners. In the Fonseca Chapel, the Albertoni Chapel, and the church of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, all in Rome, Careri identifies three types of ensemble and links each to a particular spiritual journey. Using contemporary theories in anthropology, film, and reception aesthetics, he shows how Bernini's formal mechanisms established an emotional dynamic between the beholder and a specific arrangement of forms. As an inquiry into the ways art in a certain historical context transformed and was transformed by its audience, Bernini: Flights of Love, the Art of Devotion is also a penetrating investigation into the aesthetic principles of multimedia composition. |
Common terms and phrases
Albertoni chapel Albertoni composto altar altarpiece Andrea al Quirinale Annunciation Baldinucci beholder bel composto Bellori black angels Blessed Ludovica body Borsi bust cherubs Christ chromatic church components conceptual conformation contemplation corresponds created decoration Divine Grace dome drapery dynamic ecstasy Eisenstein elements emblem emotional ensembles expression figure folds Fonseca chapel frame fresco function Gabriele Fonseca Gaulli gesture Gian Lorenzo Bernini Giovanni Giovanni Battista Gaulli Giovanni Paolo Oliva Guglielmo Cortese Guido Reni's Holy iconography Ignatius of Loyola imitation Incarnation intensity interpretation Jesuit lantern Lavin leaps light and shadow located Ludovica Albertoni marble Mary Mary's meaning montage movement mystery mystical niche Nonindifferent painting pathetic pathos Perlove pilasters pose posture prayer Quirinal Quirinal Palace relationship representation represents Rome rules Saint Andrew Saint Anne scene sculpted sculpture soul Spiritual Exercises statue stucco Teresa Teresa of Avila theory tion tradition transformation vault viewer Virgin Wittkower worshipper
References to this book
Bernini's Biographies: Critical Essays Maarten Delbeke,Evonne Anita Levy,Steven F. Ostrow Limited preview - 2006 |