From Publishers Weekly
Sometimes plodding but often entertaining, this dual biography of two Italian Baroque artists popularizes a tale familiar to art historians. Raised in a wealthy family with connections to politicians and cultural players, Bernini (1598–1680) was 12 when he was commissioned to do his first major piece—and he soon learned how to win the hearts and pocketbooks of rich patrons on his own. Borromini (1599–1667) lacked such connections, but climbed the guild's ladder, eventually becoming chief assistant to Carlo Maderno, the chief architect of St. Peter's. When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini was shocked that Bernini was named chief. Morrissey (A Weekend at Blenheim) finely renders the intense rivalry between these two artists, giving a reasonable if fact-heavy look at 17th-century Roman life in the process. Borromini elected to work for Bernini, but tensions soon led to a break; Bernini went on to complete the Scala Regia and the Cathedra Petri; Borromini found fewer and fewer commissions and eventually killed himself. The book doesn't do justice to the varying levels of ambition, engagement and achievement Morrissey finds in these figures, but it does an adequate job sketching their contours. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Among Rome's many splendid churches, two of them only 300 yards apart--Sant'Andrea and San Carlos--have dazzled visitors with their beautiful but sharply contrasting types of architectural brilliance. Morrissey here tells the remarkable story of the two seventeenth-century geniuses behind these two churches--collaborators and rivals, united by a deep love for the Eternal City, divided by diverging personalities and imaginative visions. As Morrissey recounts the intertwined lives of Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, readers see how two very different minds worked together to create a new artistic style (the baroque) but then turned against each other in the fierce competition for commissions and acclaim. By skillfully gauging and then exceeding others' expectations, Bernini adroitly curried favor with the patrons and clerics who employed him. By truculently resisting the slightest intrusions upon his artistic prerogatives, Borromini alienated even many admirers of his greatest achievements--and consequently ended his frustrated life as a suicide. A highly successful double biography. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Seattle Times Book Review
"[Morrissey] succeeds. His descriptions of the men’s passions and their art and architecture make for page-turning reading."
Book Description
The rivalry between the brilliant seventeenth-century Italian architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini is the stuff of legend. Possessed of enormous talent and ambition, these two artists -- one trained as a sculptor, the other as a stonecutter -- met as contemporaries in the building yards of St. Peter's in Rome and ended their lives as bitter enemies. Over the course of their careers they became the most celebrated architects of their era, designing some of the most beautiful buildings in the world and transforming the city of Rome.
The Genius in the Design is an extraordinary tale of how these two men plotted, schemed, and intrigued to get the better of each other. Full of dramatic tension and great insight into personalities, acclaimed writer Jake Morrissey's engrossing and impeccably researched account also shows that this legendary rivalry defined the Baroque style that immediately succeeded the Renaissance and created the spectacular Roman cityscape of today.
Almost exactly the same age -- Bernini was born at the end of 1598, Borromini nine months later -- they were as alike and as different as any two men could be, each a potent combination of passion and enterprise, energy and imperfection. Bernini was a precocious talent who as a youth caught the attention of Pope Paul V and became Rome's most celebrated artist, whose patrons included the wealthiest families in Europe. The city's greatest sculptor -- the creator of such masterpieces as Apollo and Daphne and the Ecstasy of St. Teresa -- Bernini would also have been Rome's preeminent architect had it not been for Francesco Borromini, the one man whose talent and virtuosity rivaled his own. In contrast to Bernini's easy grace, Borromini was an introvert with a fiery temper who bristled when anyone interfered with his vision; his temperament alienated him from prospective patrons and precipitated his tragic end.
Like Mozart and Salieri, these two masters were inextricably linked, their dazzling work prodding the other to greater achievement while taking merciless advantage of each other's missteps. The Genius in the Design is their story, a fascinating narrative of beauty and tragedy marked at turns by personal animosity and astonishing artistic achievement.
The Genius in the Design: Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome FROM THE PUBLISHER
"The rivalry between the brilliant seventeenth-century Italian architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini is the stuff of legend. Possessed of enormous talent and ambition, these two artists - one trained as a sculptor, the other as a stonecutter - met as contemporaries in the building yards of St. Peter's in Rome and ended their lives as bitter enemies. Over the course of their careers they became the most celebrated architects of their era, designing some of the most beautiful buildings in the world and transforming the city of Rome." "The Genius in the Design is a tale of how these two men plotted, schemed, and intrigued to get the better of each other. Jake Morrissey's account also shows that this legendary rivalry defined the Baroque style that immediately succeeded the Renaissance and created the spectacular Roman cityscape of today." "Almost exactly the same age - Bernini was born at the end of 1598, Borromini nine months later - they were as alike and as different as any two men could be, each a potent combination of passion and enterprise, energy and imperfection. Bernini was a precocious talent who as a youth caught the attention of Pope Paul V and became Rome's most celebrated artist, whose patrons included the wealthiest families in Europe. The city's greatest sculptor - the creator of such masterpieces as Apollo and Daphne and the Ecstasy of St. Teresa - Bernini would also have been Rome's preeminent architect had it not been for Francesco Borromini, the one man whose talent and virtuosity rivaled his own. In contrast to Bernini's easy grace, Borromini was an introvert with a fiery temper who bristled when anyone interfered with his vision; his temperament alienated him from prospective patrons and precipitated his tragic end." Like Mozart and Salieri, these two masters were inextricably linked, their dazzling work prodding the other to greater achievement while taking merciless advantage of each other's missteps. The Genius in the Desi
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Sometimes plodding but often entertaining, this dual biography of two Italian Baroque artists popularizes a tale familiar to art historians. Raised in a wealthy family with connections to politicians and cultural players, Bernini (1598-1680) was 12 when he was commissioned to do his first major piece-and he soon learned how to win the hearts and pocketbooks of rich patrons on his own. Borromini (1599-1667) lacked such connections, but climbed the guild's ladder, eventually becoming chief assistant to Carlo Maderno, the chief architect of St. Peter's. When Maderno died in 1629, Borromini was shocked that Bernini was named chief. Morrissey (A Weekend at Blenheim) finely renders the intense rivalry between these two artists, giving a reasonable if fact-heavy look at 17th-century Roman life in the process. Borromini elected to work for Bernini, but tensions soon led to a break; Bernini went on to complete the Scala Regia and the Cathedra Petri; Borromini found fewer and fewer commissions and eventually killed himself. The book doesn't do justice to the varying levels of ambition, engagement and achievement Morrissey finds in these figures, but it does an adequate job sketching their contours. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A well-documented account follows the thread of ambition, pride, and betrayal that drove an unparalleled explosion of arts and architecture in Europe's 17th-century cultural capitol. Give Morrissey, with 20 years' architectural writing experience, credit for not just gleaning cogent commentary from previous volumes on the output of his two subjects but for enhancing it. His handling of these personalities and their divergent careers brings fresh passion (and a sense of their frustration) to the remarkable tale of two gifted talents drawn to Rome at the height of ecclesiastical extravagance (if not corruption) that sought expression in marble, bronze, and grand designs. Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (b. Naples, 1598) was the son of a Florentine sculptor; Francesco Castelli (b. Swiss-governed Lugano, 1599), who would change his name to Borromini, was a stonecutter's son who honed his talents in Milan. When both arrived in Rome before 1620, Bernini, his work noticed by the influential Borghese family, was presented to the Pope, while Borromini went to work for a relative, Carlo Maderno, an architect charged with the daunting task of rebuilding the ancient church of St. Peter's. What began as a partnership between the two on the St. Peter's project was altered forever by the death of Maderno, when Bernini was tapped as chief architect and designer. He was less technically competent as an architect than Borromini, Morrissey notes, but had papal favor, and thus began a time where Borromini's designs and conceptual input were subtly incorporated, sans credit, into Bernini's resume. The resulting antagonism was to last for their entire professional lives, but the real difference as Bernini's star roseand Borromini's did not in a golden age of clerical commissions, Morrissey suggests, is that "if Bernini had perfect artistic pitch, Borromini was socially tone-deaf." In the end are Bernini's anointing as the period's greatest artist, Borromini's ghastly suicide. Gripping soap opera tells a tale of the Eternal City's artistic transcendence. Author tour. Agent: Suzanne Gluck/William Morris Agency
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