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

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.

S. Andrea al Quirinale, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is undoubtedly one of the great achievements of the Italian Baroque. No less spectacular is its message, though art historians have generally regarded it as simply a Jesuit church housing the glorious scene of the martyrdom and apotheosis of St. Andrew. This view, however, is clearly misleading since a closer examination of the building and its contents shows that the devout and learned Bernini intended to suggest a number of other important related themes. / This thesis focuses on the concept of martyrdom through a thorough analysis of not only the dominant religious event above the high altar area, but the entire iconographic scheme of the church, which is reinforced by the architectural setting. This Jesuit building is further examined in the light of several artistic influences. The most obvious, yet most overlooked of these is the literary source of the Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola. S. Andrea al Quirinale is also considered in terms of the architectural heritage of early Christian churches and martyria. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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