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Historical person
1598–1680
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian sculptor, architect and painter whose career made him one of the defining artists of the Roman Baroque. Born in Naples in 1598 and raised in Rome, he attracted elite patronage while still young and became especially closely associated with Pope Urban VIII and the Barberini family.
His work transformed both individual churches and the ceremonial landscape of Rome, from sculpture and funerary monuments to fountains and major architectural projects at St Peter’s. Bernini also directed a large workshop, so his artistic world included assistants, craftsmen, patrons and rivals as well as the celebrated works bearing his name.
In Deborah Swift’s The Silkworm Keeper, She turns to Fabio Pasello, whose old attachment to her has survived and who now works in the artistic circle of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Series
The Giulia Tofana series reimagines the legendary poisoner against the courts, convents, workshops and political intrigues of seventeenth-century Italy. Beginning with Giulia’s flight to Naples, the sequence follows her attempts to survive a reputation built around Aqua Tofana while protecting those closest to her. Later volumes carry the…
All books in this series
