Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 488-521). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Inaug.-Diss.-Munich. / Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-Diss.-Munich. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Princeton. / "Illustrations, pages 161-228, not microfilmed at the request of the graduate school." eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-160).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 488-521). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 488-521). Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

The oft cited man on the street has never heard of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, although this great artist was perhaps the genius of the seventeenth century. Such ignorance, it is my contention in this thesis, arises from the myth that links creativity with illness, genius with insanity. The same man on the street often knows of other artists not so much, unfortunately, from their work, as from the much publicized idiosyncrasies of their personalities. Bernini, as I have endeavoured to show in this paper, was a man of outstanding stability, vitality, discipline— and a man entirely committed to, and involved in, the time in which he lived. Symbolic of this balance and involvement, it is also my contention, are Bernini's Fountains in Rome. It is generally acknowledged that Bernini brought to this art-form new unity and life, and I have endeavoured here to show how this achievement in the art-form is, more than any other of his well-known accomplishments in Sculpture, Architecture, etc., closely connected to, if not completely a projection of, the emotional stability of its creator. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-211) and index.

Inaug.-diss.--Bern. / "Diese arbeit erscheint unter dem titel J̀esuitismus und barockskulptur in Rom' mit 10 lichtdrucktafeln versehen als heft 70 der serie Z̀ur kunstgeschichte des auslanders'." "Verzeichnis der hauptsächlich benützten und zitierten literatur": p. [118]-120.

Gianlorenzo Bernini's Altieri Chapel possesses an aesthetic splendour that continues to captivate modern viewers. However, despite the recent publication of Shelly Karen Perlove and Giovanni Careri's studies on this subject, its unique manner of signification continues to be elusive. In the former case, the author's dependence on a melange of seventeenth-century religious notions reduces Bernini's choice of imagery to mere theological illustration. On the other hand, Careri affirms the originality of the chapel, but his over reliance on a heuristic comparison with film montage limits his appreciation of the viewer's role in this aesthetically charged space. / The present study strikes a balance between its own contemporary subjectivity and Bernini's historicity, locating the chapel's meaning making capacity in a hermeneutic oscillation between both its constituent elements and the participatory beholder. The result is the recognition of a unique artistic statement, which avers the fundamental commonality between several post-Tridentine liturgical practices. The salvific efficacy of these tenets is asserted by an aesthetic signification of the divine presence which lies behind them. The spectator is drawn into a mimetic world, suffused with Baroque Catholic ideology, and shown that Church doctrine is backlit with the radiance of ultimate truth. Of course, seventeenth-century viewing practices cannot be recreated, just as the feeling engendered by this artistic experience is beyond the descriptive powers of this or any other text. Nevertheless, it is possible to provide a guide to the spiritual references in Bernini's microcosm, for, while secular, modern viewers may no longer see with Baroque eyes, perhaps they can appreciate what those eyes saw.