A Bernini Day

It has been a Bernini day. We went to the Borghese Gallery, where several of Bernini's greatest works of sculpture reside. No pictures allowed, and no sneaking either - they make you check all of your bags save perhaps a wallet before they let you in. http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm

Where Michelangelo epitomized the height of the Renaissance (along with Leonardo and others immortalized by the Ninja Turtles), Bernini is the father of Baroque. He arrived on the scene about 100 years after Michelangelo, equally as competent in sculpture and architecture, and changed the course of art in Italy. He was a child prodigy - the Getty has a marble sculpture he made at about 16 years old, if memory serves. Where Michelangelo is all powerful anatomy, Bernini is anatomy in emotion and action - every viewpoint has something to say, something that grabs your attention and takes your breath away. He truly makes marble look like skin, or cloth, or animal pelt, or tree bark. His sculpture of Apollo and Daphne has Daphne turning into a tree as she tries to flee Apollo, leaves sprouting from her fingertips. The audio guide told us that they discovered that those delicate marble leaves ring like crystal when struck. I'd like to know who had the nerve to strike it!

After feasting on the Borghese, we stopped by the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, home to another of Bernini's masterpieces, St. Theresa in Ecstacy. The church is a small, unassuming building on a crowded corner, with the feel of a local parish inside. The interior could give St. Peter's a run for the money in terms of opulence. Fortunately, pictures were allowed (most of these were exposures of two seconds or more).