Oxbow Spring 2013.pdf - Oxbow Books

Visible Spirit II
The Art of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Volume II
Irving Lavin (Author)
Irving Lavin is best known for his array of fundamental publications on the Baroque
artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680). These include new discoveries and
studies on the master’s prodigious childhood, his architecture and portraiture, his
invention of caricature, his depictions of religious faith and political leadership,
his work in the theatre, his attitude toward death and the role of the artist in
the creation of a modern sense of social responsibility. All of Professor Lavin’s
papers on Bernini are here brought together in three volumes. The studies have
been reset and in many cases updated, and there is a comprehensive index.
Volume II Contents: Bernini and Antiquity - The Baroque Paradox. ; A Poetical
View ; Bernini’s Portraits of No-Body; Bernini’s Bust of Francesco I d’Este. “Impresa
quasi impossibile” ; Bernini’s Bust of the Medusa: An Awful Pun ; Bernini’s Bust
of the Savior and the Problem of the Homeless in Seventeenth-Century Rome;
Bernini’s Image of the Ideal Christian Monarch ; Bernini’s Bumbling Barberini
Bees ; Bernini-Bozzetti: One More, One Less. ; A Berninesque Sculptor in Mid-
Eighteenth Century France ; Bernini’s Death ; Visions of Redemption ; The Rome
of Alexander VII. ; Bernini and the Reverse of the Medal ; The Young Bernini ;
“Bozzetto Style”: The Renaissance Sculptor’s Handiwork ; The Regal Gift. Bernini
and his Portraits of Royal Subjects ; Urbanitas urbana . The Pope, the Artist, and
the Genius of the Place
Art – Renaissance
9781904597452, £150.00, Available Now
HB, 680p, 318 illus., Pindar Press
Visible Spirit III
The Art of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Volume III: Bernini at St. Peter’s. The
Pilgrimage
Irving Lavin (Author)
Bernini at St. Peter’s may be a unique case in history: a single artist in change
of a grandiose monument in a continuous state of creativity under constantly
changing patrons and a variety of projects, for nearly six decades. This book
argues that a continuous thread of thought may be discerned underlying and
connecting the vicissitudes of this spectacular display. From first to last, Bernini
conceived of St. Peter’s as a pilgrimage church, a kind of pilgrimage of human
life, his own and of the believers who visited the basilica to worship and give
testimony. The book is in large format and richly illustrated with 272 colour
illustrations. It represents a fitting tribute to the artist and his monument, St.
Peter’s Basilica.
Volume III Contents: Preamble; St. Peter’s as summa ecclesiarum; The apse and
crossing; The high altar; Baldachins and ciboria; The baldacchino (1624–35); Paired
tombs; The tomb of Urban VIII (1627–47); The crossing piers (1627–41); The nave:
continuity; “Feed my sheep” (pasce oves meas) (1633–46); The tomb of Matilda
of Tuscany (1633–44); The nave decoration (1645–9); Ingress – egress; The piazza
and colonnades (1656–67); Commemoration; The cathedra petri (1657–66); The
equestrian monument of Constantine and the Scala Regia (1662–70); The tomb
of Alexander VII (1671–8); Passage to the Holy City; The Ponte Sant’Angelo and
Castel Sant’Angelo (1667–71); Consummation; The Sacrament Altar (1673–5); The
church, the city, and the artist; Roma alessandrina: urban unity, public welfare,
and universal Christian charity; The blood of Christ (1669–70)
9781904597469, £195.00, January 2013
HB, 386p, 21 x 30 in, 272 colour illus., Pindar Press
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