From Library Journal
In the later years of his stellar career, Bernini created three masterpieces that exemplify the spirit of the Baroque style. The Fonseca and Albertoni chapels and the altar of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale vividly manifest the combinatory impulses that create a visceral, spiritual, and aesthetic unity out of the diverse components of architecture, painting, and sculpture. Careri's subtle study seeks not only to elucidate the nature of these dynamic ensembles but also to suggest means of investigating them. Of particular value is his attempt to evoke how the monuments might have been experienced and understood. In addition to his summary of essential art historical data about these works, the author, who is cultural attache for the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris, provides a thoughtful methodological critique of earlier studies. But for a sometimes strained theoretical garniture, Careri's attempt at interpretative comprehensiveness should command the respectful attention of the scholarly community.Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New YorkCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
An analysis of two chapels and an altar, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini between 1664 and 1675, that shows how Bernini created a bel composto, or beautiful whole, uniting architecture with sculpture and painting. A revision of the author's doctoral thesis at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, the analysis focuses on the way unity is created from the heterogeneous elements of a work of art. With 41 b&w illustrations. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Midwest Book Review
Bernini was the first to attempt to unite architecture with sculpture and painting in a "beautiful whole". His design of Baroque chapels (a dark world sealed below by a balustrade, covered by a luminous celestial dome, and populated by bodies of paint, marble, stucco, and flesh) bare this out. Bernini: Flights of Love, the Art of Devotion explores three of these Baroque chapels to show how Bernini achieved his remarkable effects. Giovanni Careri examines the ways in which the artist integrated the disparate forms of architecture, painting and sculpture into a coherent space for devotion, and then shows how this accomplishment was understood by religious practitioners.


Book Description
Nowhere is evidence of Bernini's unique abillity to unite architecture with sculpture and painting into a beautiful whole more compelling than in the Baroque chapel of Bernini's design: a dark world sealed below by a balustrade, covered by a luminous celestial dome, and populated by bodies of paint, marble, stucco, and flesh. This book explores three of these Baroque chapels to show how Bernini achieved his remarkable effects. Giovanni Careri examines the ways in which the artist integrated the disparate forms of architecture, painting, and sculpture into a coherent space for devotion, and then shows how this accomplishment was understood by religious practitioners.

In the Fonseca Chapel, the Albertoni Chapel, and the church of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, all in Rome, Careri identifies three types of ensemble and links each to a particular spiritual journey. Using contemporary theories in anthropology, film, and reception aesthetics, he shows how Bernini's formal mechanisms established an emotional dynamic between the beholder and a specific arrangement of forms. As an inquiry into the ways art in a certain historical context transformed and was transformed by its audience, Bernini: Flights of Love, the Art of Devotion is also a penetrating investigation into the aesthetic principles of multimedia composition.




Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Italian

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Nowhere is evidence of Bernini's unique abillity to unite architecture with sculpture and painting into a beautiful whole more compelling than in the Baroque chapel of Bernini's design: a dark world sealed below by a balustrade, covered by a luminous celestial dome, and populated by bodies of paint, marble, stucco, and flesh. This book explores three of these Baroque chapels to show how Bernini achieved his remarkable effects. Giovanni Careri examines the ways in which the artist integrated the disparate forms of architecture, painting, and sculpture into a coherent space for devotion, and then shows how this accomplishment was understood by religious practitioners.

In the Fonseca Chapel, the Albertoni Chapel, and the church of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, all in Rome, Careri identifies three types of ensemble and links each to a particular spiritual journey. Using contemporary theories in anthropology, film, and reception aesthetics, he shows how Bernini's formal mechanisms established an emotional dynamic between the beholder and a specific arrangement of forms. As an inquiry into the ways art in a certain historical context transformed and was transformed by its audience, Bernini: Flights of Love, the Art of Devotion is also a penetrating investigation into the aesthetic principles of multimedia composition.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews