Beloved woman of Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini

A furtive glance, the strands of untidy hair thrown back and the nightgown slipping from her shoulders – Bust of Costanza Buonarelli, 1636. Beloved woman of Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680)
Beloved woman of Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The swarm of runners scattered along the stone pavement and broke the silence of the morning city. The younger brother flew ahead with a distraught look, and the older one raced after him. Already in the cathedral, catching him up, he raised over his younger brother’s head an instrument of violence … Lorenzo Bernini, one of the brilliant artists of Rome, favorite of popes and the audience, resembled the biblical Cain who is about to will bring down his anger on the head of the unfortunate Abel.
Meanwhile, it all happened because of the one whose marble bust Bernini sculpted – Costanza Buonarelli. A furtive glance, the strands of untidy hair thrown back and the nightgown slipping from her shoulders – such was the lover from under the chisel of Lorenzo.
Traditionally, the bust portraits in marble could have only kings, popes and other wealthy persons, and certainly men. But not half-naked women… However, Bernini didn’t care any canons and rules. Since childhood, Giovanni Lorenzo, or just Lorenzo, considered himself a man who can do a lot.
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