BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo
(b. 1598, Napoli, d. 1680, Roma)

View of the Cornaro Chapel

1647-52
Marble, stucco, gilt bronze
Cappella Cornaro, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

The setting of Bernini's group consists of a carefully articulated variety of stones retrieved from ancient ruins in Rome (some twenty different kinds, including jasper, breccia, alabaster, lapis lazuli, red marble from France and black from Flanders), which go to constitute a theatre of salvation.