Gianlorenzo Bernini received his training in his fatherÆs workshop, devoting himself to an enthusiastic study of the great masters of the sixteenth century and ancient statuary. With the election of Pope Urban VIII (1623) he assumed a dominant position
in Roman artistic circles and commenced his long involvement with the construction of the new St. PeterÆs. In his numerous architectural and sculptural works he was an exquisite exponent of the scenographic and dynamic conception of baroque space, making
masterly use of the effects of light and fusing the different arts. In his many portraits he was capable of great immediacy and psychological penetration, interpreting the baroque concept of spirituality through the representation of feelings of exaltat