Happy birthday, Gianlorenzo Bernini!

I'm only a few days late but still in time to celebrate the birthday of one of the main characters of my novel and play (both in the works): Gianlorenzo Bernini, the genius of the Baroque, the tempestuous sculptor who they say shaped the face of Rome and who sculpted one of the most talked-about (even today) sculptures of a saint ever made.

Bernini's passionately gorgeous art transformed sculpture and created the style they now call the Baroque. He made marble "flutter and stream" and he was famous for catching his subjects at the moment of speaking, when their expressions are most revealing. This documentary shows some of the best pieces, and makes Bernini the fascinating bad boy of the Renaissance. Enjoy. Simon Schama's The Power of Art: Bernini is like a great potboiler novel, a page-turner. I guess Bernini's life was something of a page-turner too.

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