Bernini and Pallavicino, the artist and the Jesuit cardinal, are closely related figures at the papal courts of Urban VIII and Alexander VII, at which Bernini was the principal artist. The analysis of Pallavicino's writings offers a new perspective on Bernini's art and artistry and allow us to understand the visual arts in papal Rome as a 'making manifest' of the fundamental truths of faith. Pallavicino's views on art and its effects differ fundamentally from the perspective developed in Bernini's biographies offering a perspective on the tension between artist and patron, work and message. In Pallavicino's writings the visual arts emerge as being intrinsically bound up with the very core of religion involving questions of idolatry, mimesis and illusionism that would prove central to the aesthetic debates of the eighteenth century.
Industry Reviews
'... we owe a scholarly debt of gratitude to Delbeke for having undertaken with such success the herculean task of retrieving and analyzing the art theory of one of the most prominent intellectuals of Seicento Italy. This book will be an important point of reference for all future discussions of art theory in Bernini's Rome.' Renaissance Quarterly 'The book is a refreshing antidote to the fetishization of Caravaggio, on the one hand, and the Roman classicists, on the other. It is a masterful demonstration of the ways in which the sources and techniques of intellectual history can be used to illuminate the history of art.' Catholic Historical Review 'A long-awaited book that sets new standards in the understudied history of baroque art theory' Frank Fehrenbach, Harvard University, USA 'This exciting and elegant book is like nothing else to have appeared thus far in English concerning the epicenter of Baroque art, namely Bernini's Rome. Delbeke shows us how art theory works in early modernity, by examining the discourses and practices of seventeenth-century Rome through the lens of one of the most prominent figures of the age, Sforza Pallavicino, who was a philosopher, theologian and strikingly innovative aesthetic thinker whose ideas have surprisingly strong links with the aesthetic philosophy of the eighteenth century to come. Many major and minor players on the Roman stage-from Urban VIII and Alexander VII to Giovanni Ciampoli and Bernini himself-fill the pages of this beautifully composed book. Offering an invaluable guide to the intellectual ferment of the Seicento in the Eternal City, this is at once a work of theory and cultural history of a high order, and should be of interest to anyone who has ever fallen under the seductive sway of the Baroque.' Jon R. Snyder, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA Maarten Delbeke's book takes a radically new look at a crucial aspect of the history of Western aesthetics: the Roman Baroque. Delbeke succeeds in perfectly combining a precise analysis of Pallavicino's writings with a sharp general vision of the aesthetic issues of his times, maintaining a rare critical balance between the particular and the universal. Thanks to Delbeke's book, it now becomes clear how the religious function assigned by Pallavicino to the figurative arts allows one to overcome the theoretical deadlock of the 'deceit' of Baroque illusionism: deception of the senses is acceptable as an instrument to guide one towards a more important and profound truth: the knowledge of God. Delbeke thus clarifies the theoretical horizon within which one of modern Europe's greatest artists, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, worked. Tomaso Montanari, Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy 'Martin Delbeke, in a long awaited monograph, The Art of Religion-Sforza Pallavicino and Art Theory in Bernini's Rome makes a strong and carefully-documented case for the primary role played by another Jesuit, Sforza, later Cardinal, Pallavicino (unmentioned by Haskell), in providing Bernini with a coherent and robust theoretical rationale for his religious artwork.' Art & Christianity
