Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) was the last of the universal geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. And Bernini's artistic vision remains palpably present today through the countless statues, fountains, buildings and other works of his design that transformed Rome into the Baroque theater that continues to enthral tourists today. No other artist has left so large, so enduring and so delightful a mark on Rome as Bernini, who easily counts as one of the most influential artists of European history.

In his lecture Franco Mormando, author of the first English-language biography of the artist, will give us a guided tour of Bernini's long, dramatic life (private and public) and his equally fascinating Rome.

LOCATION
Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008

DOORS OPEN AT 6:30PM AND CLOSE AT 7PM PROMPTLY

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Please click on "Make a Reservation" by June 18, 2013 at 2 PM

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FRANCO MORMANDO

Franco Mormando is Professor of Italian in the Dept. of Romance Languages at Boston College. Born and raised in Manhattan, he received his B.A. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. (Italian lit.) from Harvard University. Author of various interdisciplinary studies on Italian literature and history, popular religion and sermons, he has lectured extensively on the art and culture of early modern Italy at various universities and museums including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

In 1999 he was principal curator of the Boston Caravaggio exhibition, Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image. His book, The Preacher's Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy (University of Chicago Press, 1999) was awarded the Marraro Prize for Excellence in Italian historical scholarship by the American Catholic Historical Association. His annotated English translation and critical edition of Domenico Bernini's Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1713) was published in Spring 2011, followed in October 2011 by his own biography of Bernini entitled, Bernini: His Life and His Rome (University of Chicago Press) and representing the first English-language account of the artist's private life and public career.

In September 2005, in recognition of his achievements in the promotion of the Italian language and culture, Prof. Mormando was inducted by the Republic of Italy into its honorary Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana with the title of "Cavaliere."