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Raising The Dead: Bernini, The Bel Composto, And Theatricality In Counter-Reformation Rome, Colleen Murdock

Senior Theses and Projects

Skilled in a variety of arts, Gian Lorenzo Bernini incorporated his knowledge of theater to perfect the Baroque concept of the bel composto, meaning the beautiful whole or the effortless and harmonious synthesis of the arts of sculpture, architecture and painting. His connections with the Catholic Church and the efforts of several popes to promote the Counter-Reformation provided commissions and thus opportunities for Bernini to develop and perfect an elevated, theatrical application of the bel composto concept in the designs of Catholic chapels in Rome. However, the bel composto was a technique meant not only to portray spatial unity …