Bernini left nothing out of the range of emotions, and this in turn left some of his work ripe for scandal. He was ripe for that anyway. His libido was always in a rage.

Kryza-Gersch and her team found that, just days after being appointed, in 1655, Alexander VII—who was born Fabio Chigi—commissioned Bernini to make both the marble skull and a lead sarcophagus.

Senay Boztas 22 January 2025 The model represented Bernini’s initial ideas for a marble statue for a fountain in Rome Photo: Rijksmuseum/Kelly Schenk ...

The new exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum, “Bernini: Sculpting in Clay,” takes us right into the 17th-century studio — and to some extent the mind — of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, one of the ...