Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Prolegomena to the Interdisciplinary Study of Bernini’s Biographies

Maarten Delbeke, Evonne Levy, and Steven F. Ostrow

1 At the Margins of the Historiography of Art: The Vite of Bernini Between Autobiography and Apologia

Tomaso Montanari

2 Bernini’s Voice: From Chantelou’s Journal to the Vite

Steven F. Ostrow

3 Plotting Bernini: A Triumph over Time

John D. Lyons

4 Chapter 2 of Domenico Bernini’s Vita of His Father: Mimeses

Evonne Levy

5 “Always Like Himself”: Character and Genius in Bernini’s Biographies

Robert Williams

6 Bernini Portraits, Stolen and Nonstolen, in Chantelou’s Journal and the Bernini Vite

Rudolf Preimesberger

7 Gianlorenzo on the Grill: The Birth of the Artist in His “Primo Parto di Divozione”

Heiko Damm

8 Gianlorenzo Bernini’s Bel Composto: The Unification of Life and Work in Biography and Historiography

Maarten Delbeke

9 From Mascardi to Pallavicino: The Biographies of Bernini and Seventeenth-Century Roman Culture

Eraldo Bellini

10 Costanza Bonarelli: Biography Versus Archive

Sarah McPhee

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index

About the Author

Maarten Delbeke is Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the universities of Ghent and Leiden. Evonne Levy is Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Toronto. Steven F. Ostrow is Professor and Chair of Art History at the University of Minnesota.

Reviews

"Although there is more biographical writing on the incomparable Gian Lorenzo Bernini than on any other early modern artist, including Michelangelo, the investigation of these writings remains surprisingly incomplete. This fascinating and highly original book is therefore a welcome addition to the literature, for it both consolidates our present understanding of these biographies, which can be traced to Bernini himself, and raises important questions about these writings for future consideration. Bernini's Biographies will therefore be of great interest to scholars of art history, literature, and the social history of art alike." - Paul Barolsky, University of Virginia"