514 



BERNINI BEUNIS. 





jiioli (vine-dressers). Mauro, Casa, Fire nzuoln, Ca- 

 j)ilniii, &c. were of the number. They laughed at 

 every thing, and made sport, in verse, of the i.:o-t 

 serious, nay, the most tragic mattt r-. H.' 

 were the most successful, and were written in so 

 MGQihr a style, that his name has been given to it 

 (maniera Berne$ca,ot Berniesca). When Koine was 

 sicked by the troops of the constable Bourbon, 1527, 

 B. lost all that he possessed. He afterwards made 

 several journeys. with his patron Ghiberti, to Verona, 

 Venice, and Padua. At length, wearied with serving, 

 and satisfied with a canon-hip in the cathedral at 

 Florence, in the possession of which he had been for 

 some years, he retired to that place. The favour of 

 the great, however, which he was weak enough to 

 conn, lironnht him into difficulties. He was required 

 to commit a crime, and his refusal cost him his life. 

 Alrs-andro de' Medici, at that time duke of Florence, 

 lived in open enmity with the young cardinal Ippolito 

 dr' Medici. B. was so intimate with both, that it is 

 doubtful which first made him the proposal to poison 

 the other. Certain it is, that the cardinal died by 

 poison, in 1535. 15. died July 26, 1536 ; and if, as 

 i> ; sserted, his life was terminated by poison, then 

 the crime must be imputed to duke Alessandro. 



In the burlesque style of poetry, B. is still con- 

 sidered the best model. His satire is often very 

 bitter, and frequently unites the good humour of 

 Horace with the causticity of Juvenal. The extreme 

 licentiousness of his writings is his greatest fault. It 

 should, however, be considered that he wrote for his 

 friends only, and tliat his works were not printed 

 until after his death. The admirable ease, for which 

 his writings are distinguished, was the result of 

 great efforts, since he repeatedly amended and cor- 

 rected his verses. The same is asserted of Ariosto ; 

 and yet they are the most distinguished, among the 

 Italian poets, for the ease and fluency of their style. 

 B. also wrote Latin verses very correctly, and was 

 well acquainted with Greek. His Rime Burlesche 

 (Burlesque Verses) have great merit. So lias also 

 his Orlando lnnamorato,compostogid dalSig. Bojardo 

 Conte di Scandiano, ed ora rifatto tutto di nuovo da 

 M. Fr. Berni. Another Berni (count Francesco B., 

 who was born in 1610, and died in 1673) lias written 

 eleven dramas, and also several lyric poems. 



BBRNINI, Giovanni Lorenzo, called // cavaliere 

 Bernini, born in Naples, 1598, is praised by his con- 

 temporaries as the Michael Angelo of modern times, 

 on account of his success as a painter, a statuary, and 

 an architect ; but he deserves his fame principally in 

 the latter character. Richly endowed by nature, 

 and favoured by circumstances, he rose superior to 

 the rules of art, creating for himself an easy manner, 

 the faults of which he knew how to disguise by its 

 brilliancy. From his early youth, he manifested a 

 great power to excel in the arts of design, and, at 

 the age of eight years, executed the heaa of a child 

 in marble, which was considered a remarkable pro- 

 duction. That such rare endowments might be 

 suitably cultivated, his father carried him to Rome. 

 One of B.'s first works was the marble bust of the 

 prelate Montajo; after which he made the bust of 

 the pope, and of several cardinals ; also sundry 

 figures of the natural size. He was not yet eighteen, 

 when he produced the Apollo and Daphne, in marble, 

 a master-piece of grace and execution. Looking at 

 this group near the close of his life, he declared that 

 he had made very, little progress since the time when 

 that was produced. His manner was, indeed, more 

 chaste and less affected, in the early part of his 

 career, than at a later period. After the death of 

 Gregory XV., cardinal Maffeo Barberini, his succes- 

 sor, employed B. to prepare plans for the embellish- 

 ment of the Basilica of St Peter's, assigning to him a 



monthly pension of 300 crowns, which was after- 

 wards augmented. Without forsaking sculpture, 

 B.'s genius embraced architecture, and he furnished 

 the design for the canopy and the pulpit of St Peter's, 

 as well as for the circular place before the church. 

 Among his numerous works, were the pnlnce Bar- 

 berini, the belfry of St Peter's, the model of the monu- 

 ment of the countess Matilda, and the monument of 

 Urban VIII., his benefactor. 



In the year 1644, cardinal Mazarine, in the nairn; 

 of the king of France, offered him a salary of 12,000 

 crowns; but he declined the invitation. Urban had 

 scarcely closed his eyes, and Innocent X. ascended 

 the papal throne, when the envy engendered by the 

 merits of the artist and the favour bestowed on him 

 broke forth. His enemies triumphed ; but he re- 

 gained the favour of the pope by a model for a 

 fountain. About the same time, he erected the 

 palace of Monte Citorio. Alexander VII., the suc- 

 cessor of Innocent X., displayed much taste for the 

 arts, and favour to this artist, and required of him a 

 plan for the embellishment of the piazza di San 

 Pietro. The admirable colonnade, which is so 

 beautifully proportioned to the Basilica, was built 

 under the direction of B. We may also mention the 

 palace Odescalchi, the rotunda del la Riccia, the house 

 for novices, belonging to the Jesuits, on Monte 

 Cavallo, &c. Louis XIV. having invited him, in the 

 most flattering terms, to Paris, he set out from Rome, 

 in 1665, at the age of sixty-eight, accompanied by 

 one of his sons, and a numerous retinue. Never did 

 an artist travel with so great pomp, and under such 

 flattering circumstances. The reception which he 

 met with in Paris was highly honourable. He was 

 first occupied in preparing plans for the restoration 

 of the Louvre, which, however, were never executed. 

 But, notwithstanding the esteem which he enjoyed 

 in Paris, some disagreeable circumstances induced 

 him to return to Rome: he left Paris loaded with 

 presents. Cardinal Rospigliosi having become pope, 

 B. was admitted to an intimate intercourse with him, 

 and charged with several works ; among others, with 

 the decoration of the bridge of St Angelo. In his 

 seventieth year, this indefatigable artist executed one 

 of his most beautiful works, the tomb of Alexander 

 VII. He still continued to devote himself to several 

 works of architecture, as well as of statuary, with 

 such ardour, that, exhausted by his labours, he died, 

 Nov. 28, 1680, at the age of eighty- two. He was 

 buried, with great magnificence, in the church of St 

 Maria Maggiore. To his children he left a fortune 

 amounting to about 3,300,000 francs. B.'s favourite 

 maxim was, Chi non esce talvolta della regola, nan 

 passa mai. Thus he was of opinion, that, in order 

 to excel in the arts, one must rise above all rules, 

 and create a manner peculiar to one's self. This B. 

 has accomplished with a rare good fortune, but the 

 influence of his style has been transient. His most 

 eminent disciples are Pietro Bernini, his brother, a 

 statuary, architect, and mathematician ; Matthia 

 Rossi, Francois Duquesnoi, surnamed the Fleming, 

 and Borromini. 



BERNIS (Francois Joachim de Pierres, comte de 

 Lyon) cardinal de, born at St Marcel de 1'Ardeche, in 

 1715, was descended of an ancient family, but 

 little favoured by fortune, for which reason, his pa- 

 rents destined him for the clerical profession. Me. 

 de Pompadour, whom he had known as Me. d'Etioles, 

 presented him to Louis XV., who being pleased with 

 him, assigned to him an apartment in the Tuileries, 

 with a pension of 1500 livres. His wishes were di- 

 rected towards raising his income to 6000 livres. Not 

 succeeding, however, in attaining this moderate for- 

 tune, he resolved to aim at a larger one. He went 

 as ambassador to Venice, and obtained great respect 



