art Baroque Bernini Italy time travel

Time Traveling in Italy

Today I’m working on my time travel novel set in Renaissance and present-day Italy, featuring the genius sculptor and architect who invented The Baroque style, Gianlorenzo Bernini. Of this sumptuous sculpture of Bernini’s beloved, Costanza Piccolomini, art historian Jonathan Jones wrote: “He has made an intimate monument to secret moments, a sculpted memento of his lover, whose marble reality dissolves, when you chance on her among the stony dead, into breath, life. Bernini’s genius for motion is dedicated to making his lover live for ever. Her wild hair and loose clothes speak of energy and passion. He has caught her mid-glance, mid-conversation, perhaps before or after sex.”

What was the truth of the Bernini’s relationship with his assistant’s wife? We may never know, though if you read my book, you could learn the secrets. Wikipedia tersely sums up the interesting facts: “… Costanza Bonarelli, with whom [Bernini] fell in love when her husband was working as Bernini’s assistant in 1636. The normally polite Bernini openly insulted the husband, which led Pope Urban VIII to intervene before anyone was killed. He advised Bernini to get married, which he did, in 1639, to Caterina Tezio. Their marriage lasted 34 years and produced 11 children.”

Visit https://racheldacus.net for more information and writing by Rachel Dacus.

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