The artist and the eternal city : Bernini, Pope Alexander VII, and the making of Rome /

By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome, celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi, the head of the world, had lost its preeminent place in Europe. Then a new Pop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Grossman, Loyd (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Pegasus Books, [2021]
Subjects:
Description
Summary:By 1650, the spiritual and political power of the Catholic Church was shattered. Thanks to the twin blows of the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years War, Rome, celebrated both as the Eternal City and Caput Mundi, the head of the world, had lost its preeminent place in Europe. Then a new Pope, Alexander VII, fired with religious zeal, political guile and a mania for creating new architecture, determined to restore the prestige of his church by making Rome the key destination for Europe's intellectual, political and cultural elite. To help him do so, he enlisted the talents of Gianlorenzo Bernini, already celebrated as the most important living artist, no mean feat in the age of Rubens, Rembrandt and Velazquez.
Item Description:Illustrations on endpapers.
Physical Description:315 pages : illustrations (some color), color maps ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages [288]-295) and index.
ISBN:9781643137407
1643137409