Luigi Bernini
Illustration — Entrance to Villa Barbarigo at Valsanzibio, designed by Bernini Luigi Bernini (1612, Rome - 22 December 1681, Rome) was an Italian engineer, architect, and sculptor.
Luigi Bernini
Deblu68 · Public domain
- Died
- 1681 · Rome.
- Nationality
- Italy
- Occupation
- architect · engineer · sculptor
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1876100 · wikipedia · Luigi Bernini
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
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Institutions cited
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Not stated by the sources cited: nationality
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Life
Life
The son of Pietro Bernini and his wife Angelica Galante, he was born after the couple moved to Rome in 1605. He trained in his elder brother Gian Lorenzo's workshop and assisted him on several works such as the Baldacchino of St Peter's and the 1626 angel for the high altar in Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio. Luigi had an affair with his brother Gian Lorenzo Bernini's mistress Costanza Piccolomini Bonarelli. In the summer of 1638 Gian Lorenzo found out about Costanza and his brother, and in a fit of mad fury, he chased Luigi through the streets of Rome, attacked Luigi with a crowbar, breaking two of his ribs, and then with a sword. Luigi saved himself in his flight by taking sanctuary in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Gian Lorenzo then sent a servant to slash Costanza's face with a razor, a traditional punishment for a woman who had offended a man's honour. Costanza was imprisoned for adultery and fornication in the monastery of Casa Pia, the servant was exiled, as was Luigi Bernini to protect him, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini was fined 3,000 scudi. Luigi once again brought scandal to his family in 1670 by raping a young Bernini workshop assistant at the construction site of the 'Constantine' memorial in St. Peter's Basilica.
Documentary record
Luigi Bernini (1612 – 1681) was a sculptor and architect. The birth of Luigi Bernini is recorded in 1612, and the death in 1681.
Works
Works
Bernini designed the 7-hectare gardens of Valsanzibio, where visitors to the garden arrived by gondola to a doorway of sculptures within sculptures within sculptures.
Identity
Identity
Luigi Bernini is recorded as architect, engineer and sculptor.
Valsanzibio
Luigi Bernini · LorisRomito at the English Wikipedia · LorisRomito at en.wikipedia
Facciata di Villa Barbarigo a Valsanzibio.
GFS
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1612
Luigi Bernini was born in 1612 at Rome.
1681
Luigi Bernini died in 1681 at Rome.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1876100: Luigi Bernini
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Luigi Bernini”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- VIAF cluster 309816242 for Luigi Bernini, aggregating national library name authorities.
General reference · OCLC
Literature
Literature
Literature
Bernini, Luigi, Oxford Art Online, 2003
Bernini, Luigi, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, 2011
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Luigi Bernini, revision 1367632838 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.McPhee, Sarah. Bernini and the Bell Towers: Architecture and Politics at the Vatican. Yale University Press. 42. 2002-01-01. 978-0-300-08982-0.
- 2.Mormando 2011, pp. 99–106 See also F. Mormando, ed. and trans., Domenico Bernini, Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, University Park, Penn State Univ. Press, 2011, p. 113 and accompanying notes. For further information about Costanza (before and after her affair with Bernini), see the comprehensive and fully documented biography by Sarah McPhee, Bernini's Beloved: A Portrait of Costanza Piccolomini (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012); McPhee found no indication whatsoever of any further interaction between Bernini and Costanza after the explosive conclusion to their affair, and no indication of any children born as a result of that relationship.
- 3.Simon Schama "When stone came to life"
- 4.Sarah McPhee, Bernini's Beloved, pp. 149–50, 320–21, 325.
- 5.As Bernini scholar, Franco Mormando, underscores (Domenico Bernini: Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini Intro., pp. 60–61): "Any discussion of Bernini's religion, that is, his personal faith and the practice of his devotional life, must open with a word of caution: we have absolutely no reliable, nonpartisan (that is, not coming from Bernini, his family, or apologetic biographers) documentation on the topic until 1665, when Chantelou began writing his diary" (at which time Bernini was 67 years old). For Luigi's 1670 crime, see Mormando 2011, pp. 307–312.
- 6.Daddario, Will. Baroque, Venice, Theatre, Philosophy. Springer. 27–28. 2017-06-02. 978-3-319-49523-1.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Secondary witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1876100: Luigi BerniniWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
6,174 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Ludwik Konarzewski-juniorArtist
- Ludwika NitschowaArtist
- Luigi AcquistiArtist
- Luigi ArzuffiArtist
- Luigi BienaiméArtist
- Luigi Del BiancoArtist
- Luigi MaliceArtist
- Luigi OntaniArtist
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