Born: 7 December 1598 · Died: 28 November 1680 · Age: 81
Italian sculptor and architect who pioneered the Baroque style
Did you know?He was a child prodigy who completed his first major marble sculpture, The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, before he had reached the age of twenty.
Quick facts
Date of birth7 December 1598
Date of death28 November 1680
Age at death81
NationalityItalian
BirthplaceNaples, Italy
Occupationsculptor, artist, painter
Editor's Take:
No single artist did more to shape the look of Rome than Bernini. As a young man he made marble seem soft as skin, capturing figures in the middle of movement. Pope after pope then gave him their grandest commissions. His bronze canopy over the altar of St Peter's and the colonnade that embraces its square still frame the Catholic world's most famous church. In the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa he fused sculpture, architecture and light into theatre. He worked into his eighties and outlived almost all his rivals.
Key Milestones
1622: Begins Apollo and Daphne
1623: Commissioned to create the baldachin in St Peter's Basilica
1651: Completes the Fountain of the Four Rivers
1656: Begins the colonnade of St Peter's Square
Gian Lorenzo (or Gianlorenzo) Bernini (UK:, US:; Italian:; Italian Giovanni Lorenzo; 7 December 1598 – 28 November 1680) was an Italian sculptor, architect, painter and city planner. Bernini's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an uomo universale or Renaissance man.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini's birthday is December 7. He was born on December 7, 1598 in Naples, Italy.
How old was Gian Lorenzo Bernini when he died?
Gian Lorenzo Bernini died on November 28, 1680, aged 81.
Who shares a birthday with Gian Lorenzo Bernini?
Famous people who share Gian Lorenzo Bernini's December 7 birthday include Noam Chomsky, Christina of Sweden, John Terry, Larry Bird and Nicholas Hoult.
