Bernini, der Papst und der Tod

Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pope Alexander VII from the Chigi family significantly transformed the appearance of baroque Rome. At the beginning of this congenial relationship between artist and patron was a very intimate artwork that had previously been considered lost but has now been rediscovered in the Dresden Sculpture Collection: a strikingly realistic marble skull that Bernini created for Alexander VII in 1655. This significant rediscovery is presented in the current volume and placed in a broad context that includes the art patronage of the Chigi family, the purchase of their antiquities collection by Augustus the Strong, and the influence Bernini had on the sculptor Balthasar Permoser, who worked in Dresden. The chapter on the plague in Rome, which Alexander VII fought with quarantine, masks, and the extensive shutdown of public life, impressively connects to our present-day reality.