Howard Hibbard (1928–1984)

An engagingly written overview of Bernini’s career which blends technical analysis with a thesis concerning Bernini’s art as “the fulfilment of the religious and political and human aspirations of his age [which] collectively form...the autobiography of the age itself.” Perhaps reflecting Hibbard’s stint at the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research, but not in an off-putting way. His admiration for Bernini and for the scholarship of Rudolf Wittkower is show more evident throughout the book. Postscript added May 2021: As a follow-up I read Wittkower’s chapter on Bernini in his Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750. While the critical narrative was more or less the same, Wittkower’s analysis was everywhere deeper and more illuminating. show less

Abundant scholarly apparatus supports an engaging text highly readable by non-specialists. In the last chapter Hibbard puts Caravaggio on the couch and gives us a Freudian take on his art, with a look in at the Oedipal issues of the other famous artist forenamed Michaelangelo. Oh well. Autres temps...

148 full-page color plates, 57 b/w figures, text and notes.on each plate.

Testo in lingua inglese. Pittore e scultore italiano del XVII secolo.