Includes bibliographical references and index.

Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the presiding genius of the Italian Baroque. As a sculptor, he produced a host of exhilarating works -- the Ecstasy of St. Teresa, David, Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Proserpina, among others -- that seem to breathe with life. As an architect, he created the interior of St. Peter's in Vatican City as we know it today -- the ornate shrines and monuments under the dome, the papal tombs, and encircling colonnades of the Piazza San Pietro itself -- as well as churches and numerous fountains throughout Rome.Drawing on much previously unpublished research, art historian Charles Avery rescues Bernini from critical neglect and offers a thoroughgoing reevaluation of this great artist's multifaceted career. Throughout, 400 illustrations, including eighty magnificent color plates, capture the richness of Bernini's work as never before -- and reveal many extraordinary details that are difficult to see even on the originals