Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Self Portrait
b. Dec. 7, 1598 – d. Nov. 28, 1680

I know Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Father Pietro Bernini was Florentine and the artist did his greatest work in Rome, but his mother Angelica Galante was Neapolitan and he was born in Naples, so that makes him partially ours. Besides, I have no doubt that if Bernini turned out to be a villain of some sort, instead of one of the world's great artists, he would have been labelled a Southerner.

The Hellenistic sculpture of ancient Greece and Rome obviously influenced the young artist, as can be seen in his Amalthea with the infant Zeus and a Faun (1609). Other examples of Classical influence is evident in his Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius (c.1619), The abduction of Persephone (1621-22) and Apollo and Daphne (1622-25).

Considered the greatest Baroque sculptor, Bernini was also an accomplished painter and architect. His masterpieces include the heroic David (1623-24), the Ecstacy of St Theresa (1645-52) and the piazza and colonnades of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.