Bernini

Summary: Using a combination of dramatic reconstruction, photography, and Schama's narration, introduces us to Gian Lorenzo Bernini: boy wonder, then adult prodigy, and a favourite with the Catholic church. Sculptor, architect, composer, he is a dashing Cavalier and personal friend of Pope Urban VIII. In his hands, stone seems to breath, move and ripple. Then in the late 1640s, shortly after it was built, cracks appear in the bell tower Bernini designed for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, society is shocked when he reacts with extreme violence to his mistress' infidelity, and his star begins to fall. Years later, the commission to sculpt The Ecstacy of St. Theresa gives him a way to restore his reputation. The result: his marble saint hovers on the border between mystery and indecency, pain and pleasure, carnal consummation and disembodied bliss. Along with extensive commentary on this sculpture, the program also looks at his earlier works including: the sculptures The martyrdom of St. Lawrence, and Apollo and Daphne, and his busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese and his mistress Costanza Bonarelli.