Jake Morrissey’s book, The Genius in the Design, reveals the intense rivalry between two maestri,
Gianlorenzo Bernini and his contemporary Francesco Borromini. The
two artists were born only a year apart and both achieved success in
the art world of seventeenth-century Rome. Though today, Bernini
is the perhaps the better-known artist, it would be safe to say that
both Bernini and Borromini should be credited with the invention and
elaboration of the Roman Baroque style.
Bernini,
the savvy courtier, curried the favor of five popes, while the
melancholy Borromini, won only the dedication and patronage of two
pontiffs. Early in their careers, Borromini and Bernini worked
together for a short period of time, however they quickly went their
separate ways and developed two entirely different means of expressing
similar Baroque ideas.
This
book - which blends a social history of Baroque Rome
with the biographies of Bernini and Borromini - explores the
circumstances that brought these artists into a head-to-head
competition that transformed Rome into one of the most beautiful cities
in Europe, but ultimately ended when Borromini took his own life.
William Morrow, 2005. ISBN 0060525339