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 311 – Bernini’s Scala Regia - Posted: January 2nd, 2025
In 1663, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to restore and reinvent the official royal staircase – “Scala Regia” in Italian - leading up to the Apostolic Palace. The result was one of the world’s most majestic and breathtaking staircases....
Episode 310 – Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome - Posted: December 26th, 2024
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned in 1658 by the nephew of the late Pope Innocent X to build the third Jesuit church in Rome. Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale was Bernini’s first church project, and he did not disappoint. The combination of convex and concave forms dressed in polychromed marbles, g...
Episode 309 – Bernini and St. Peter’s Square - Posted: December 18th, 2024
In 1656, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned by Pope Alexander VII to design and build an appropriate forecourt to the Basilica of St. Peter, known as Piazza San Pietro (“St. Peter’s Square”). The resulting space is one of the greatest triumphs of Baroque architecture, combining a trapezoida...
Episode 308 – Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s “Chair of St. Peter” - Posted: December 11th, 2024
In 1647, Gian Lorenzo began work on a monumental reliquary for an ancient wooden chair (“Cathedra Petri”) thought to have belonged to St. Peter himself. The result was a spectacular ensemble of sculpture, gilded architecture, stained-glass and stucco that dominates the western apse of the grea...
Episode 307 – Bernini’s “Fountain of the Four Rivers” - Posted: December 4th, 2024
In 1651, with the help of the niece of Pope Innocent X, Bernini was able to sneak his design for the “Fountain of the Four Rivers” into the Pamphilj Palace. When Innocent saw it, he realized that despite being excluded from the competition, Bernini was clearly Rome’s greatest artist and deserv...
Episode 306 – Rome: Piazza Navona - Posted: November 27th, 2024
Once the site of an ancient stadium used for athletics (“agones”), the Piazza Navona is arguably Rome’s most famous piazza. It was renovated during the reign of Pope Innocent X in the middle of the 17th century and contains some of Rome’s most spectacular monuments such as Bernini’s “Fo...
Episode 305 – Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” (Part II) - Posted: November 20th, 2024
The central sculpture of the Coronaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Italy, is one of history’s greatest statues. Bernini depicts the ecstatic heavenly experience of the Spanish nun, which is described in vivid detail in St. Teresa’s autobiography....
Episode 304 – Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St. Teresa” (Part I) - Posted: November 13th, 2024
In 1647, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned by Cardinal Federigo Coronaro to design a funerary chapel in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, Italy. While the actual sculpture of the saint’s ecstatic experience is simply breathtaking, its architectural context is also magnificent. ...
Episode 303 – Bernini’s “Truth Unveiled by Time” - Posted: November 6th, 2024
Begun in 1645, one year after the death of his great patron Pope Urban VIII, the unfinished “Truth Unveiled by Time” is perhaps Bernini’s most personal statue. He was carving it for himself as a visual expression of vindication against the slander against him by his rivals for his earlier mish...
