Vita del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino, scultore, architetto, e pittore.
Large 4to [28.0 x 20.8 cm], (6) ff. (half-title, title, dedication, index), (1) f. full-page portrait of Bernini engraved by Arnold van Westerhout after Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 111 pp., (1) p. (privilege and errata), and with (5) full-page and (4) folding engravings. Bound in contemporary vellum, title in manuscript on spine, mottled edges, bookplate of Maria Ludovica Arese and Massimiliano Favia del Core inside upper cover, stamp to title (Maria Ludovica Arese?). Minor wear at extremities of spine, minor rubbing and staining to spine and covers. Spotting and staining to the first quire and plates, occasional minor spotting elsewhere. Generally a genuine and a very good copy. First edition of this generously illustrated biography of the epoch-making artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), written by the contemporary art historian Filippo Baldinucci (1624-97). The work, a classic of art-historical biography in the mode of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite, was commissioned by Queen Christina of Sweden (1626-89) in the year following Bernini’s death, and constitutes an important documentary and critical source for the practical and technical aspects of Bernini’s achievements in painting, sculpture and architecture. It also includes a comprehensive catalogue of Bernini’s work (some no longer extant) and their locations at the time of publication, as well as precise information about what was executed by Bernini’s assistants and what by the master himself. The Vita explains some of the rivalries and controversies in which Bernini was involved. Baldinucci provides a detailed account of the criticisms Bernini faced with regards to St Peter’s. The first of these concerns the bell towers commissioned under Urban VIII (1568-1644), which, by the time Innocent X (1574-1655) acceded to the papacy, remained only partially completed, but already had begun to develop cracks. Bernini’s detractors suggested that he had not done sufficient surveying work, but Baldinucci explains at length that this was not, in fact, the case. Thus after lengthy consultations with a number of eminent builders and architects, Innocent X told Bernini to proceed, but the pope soon reversed course and the bell tower was entirely torn down (see Sarah McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers. 2002.) A similar furore was caused years later when an old crack in the dome of St. Peter’s was falsely attributed to Bernini’s structural alterations to the supporting piers. Confident that the dome was at no risk, and by then in his 79th year, Bernini paid no attention to these slanders, but Baldinucci takes great pains to discredit them. In addition to summarizing the report commissioned by Innocent XI, Baldinucci provides four large folding architectural engravings: a plan of the whole church, a plan of the cupola on its piers, a plan of an individual pier, and a section/interior elevation of crossing from the lantern surmounting the dome to the ‘Veronica’ pier at floor level. He also supplies five smaller engravings of the precise structure of the pier niches, the staircase in the crossing to the subterranean grotte, and ideal arch structures. Filippo Baldinucci (1624-1697) was among the most important Italian Baroque writers on art, emulating the ‘lives’ made famous by his fellow Florentine Giorgio Vasari. In addition to his ‘life’ of Bernini, Baldinucci is best known for his multi-volume biographical dictionary of artists, Notizie de’ professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua (1681-1728). * Fowler 35; Berlin Catalog 2670; Brunet I.623; Comolli II.289; Cicognara 2197; Delbeke, Levy & Ostrow, Bernini’s Biographies (2006) for a recent re-assessment; Pianatanida (4328).
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