Profiles the whirlwind life of the famed Italian sculptor who is known for his artistic and architectural contributions to the city of Rome.

Bernini and His World is a unique exploration of Gian Lorenzo Bernini the sculptor, offering new insights into the artist including discussions of his stylistic innovations and the ways he approached sculpture. Placing his life and work within a social, anthropological and historical context, Pestilli gives a fascinating and in-depth account of the artist, from the Rome in which he lived and its reception to foreign sculptors to the myth-making aspects of his biographies, and his critics. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this engagingly written book draws on a deep familiarity with both historic and modern Italian culture to give readers a vivid account of sculpture and sculptors in early modern Rome and Bernini's lasting legacy.

"A critical translation of the unabridged Italian text of Domenico Bernini's biography of his father, seventeenth-century sculptor, architect, painter, and playwright Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Includes commentary on the author's data and interpretations, contrasting them with other contemporary primary sources and recent scholarship"--Provided by publisher.

"The vitality of Petersson's book is drawn directly from the sculpture of Bernini, an artist now regarded as the true successor of Michelangelo. It differs from others by bringing the reader inside the sculptural process, from genesis to completed form. Frequently Bernini had to solve uniquely interesting problems and his innovative talents never faltered." "As well as presenting the brilliant, flamboyant Bernini, the book simultaneously displays Rome in the throes of its Counter-Reformation renewal, the second birth of the city with the full panoply of its arts, culture, and aberrant activities during Bernini's years in the service of eight popes. In later life he expanded his fame by spending an eventful half year in Paris at the invitation of Louis XIV. The proud and touchy Bernini, then the most celebrated artist in Europe, was in a pitched battle with the arrogant and aggressive French. Yet in Paris as in Rome it is the artistic works that have lasted and are widely known as having redirected the course of European sculpture."--BOOK JACKET. Book jacket.