REBUILDING THE RENAISSANCE PODCAST
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Rebuilding The Renaissance podcast will explore the development of the art, architecture, culture and history in Italy, from ancient Roman times through the Renaissance. Listeners will develop an understanding of Italy’s role in the development of Western civilization and an ability to appreciate and understand works of art in their historical context.
Episodes
Episode 320 – The Death and Legacy of Gian Lorenzo Bernini On November 28, 1680, the 82-year-old Bernini passed away. His spectacular career was nearly 70 years long, during which he worked for 8 different popes. Only Michelangelo surpassed him in terms of lifespan and papal patrons! This podcast looks back on Bernini’s career, his rather surprisingly m...
Episode 319 – Bernini’s “Tomb of Pope Alexander VII” - Posted: February 27th, 2025
In 1672, Gian Lorenzo began the creation of the most spectacular papal tomb monument in St. Peter’s Basilica – the “Tomb of Pope Alexander VII.” Located in the southern transept arm of the church, the monument depicts a pious figure of the pope kneeling in prayer, surrounded by four massive ...
Episode 318 – Bernini’s “Blessed Ludovica Albertoni” - Posted: February 20th, 2025
Carved in the last decade of Bernini’s life, the monument to Blessed Ludovica Albertoni shows that Bernini had not lost his touch in his later years. As sensual and beautiful as his more celebrated earlier works such as “Apollo and Daphne” or “Ecstasy of St. Teresa,” the “Blessed Ludovic...
Episode 317 – Bernini’s Bridge of Angels - Posted: February 12th, 2025
In 1669, at the age of 71, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned by Pope Clemet IX to renovate the most important pilgrimage bridge in Rome, the Ponte Sant’Angelo. Bernini planned on installing 10 spectacular statues of angels holding the instruments of the passion, only two of which were ultimate...
Episode 316 – Bernini’s “Elephant” - Posted: February 5th, 2025
Completed in 1667 and located in front of the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome, Italy, Bernini’s “Elephant” is a powerful symbol combining Egyptian lore and Roman power. The elephant was designed as an imaginative base for the ancient Egyptian obelisk from the 6th century BCE....
Episode 315 – Answers to Open Questions XXIII - Posted: January 30th, 2025
From why the façade of San Lorenzo was never completed, to the use of the “golden ratio” in the Medici Palace, to the speed of Caravaggio’s painting technique and his use of the camera obscura, to future podcasts on Sofonisba Anguissola and Artemisia Gentileschi, to why Bramante is consider...
Episode 314 – Bernini’s “Equestrian Monument of King Louis XIV” - Posted: January 22nd, 2025
Although commissioned while Bernini was in Paris in 1665, Bernini did not work on the statue until he returned to Rome. When it was finally delivered to Paris 20 years later, it was immediately rejected by the king, who vowed to destroy it!...
Episode 313 – Bernini and King Louis XIV - Posted: January 15th, 2025
In April of 1665, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was sent by Pope Alexander VII to the court of King Louis XIV in Paris as a gesture of goodwill between monarchs. Although Bernini’s main project was the design of the east façade of the Palace of the Louvre (which was eventually rejected, perhaps out of jea...
Episode 312 – Bernini’s “Vision of Constantine” - Posted: January 8th, 2025
Originally commissioned in 1654 by Pope Innocent X to be a free-standing statue in the Basilica of St. Peter, Bernini’s “Vision of Constantine” was later incorporated into Bernini’s Scala Regia. The marble statue represents – in typical Bernini dramatic fashion – the miraculous vision of...
