, called the Cavalier BerNiN, and by some styled the modern Michael
, called the Cavalier BerNiN, and by some styled the modern Michael Angelo, because he united the knowledge and practice of painting,
statuary, and architecture, owes his extensive reputation
prinqipally to his excellence in the latter, branch. His
father Peter Bernini, left Tuscany when young, and went
to Rome to study painting and sculpture. Having acquired
considerable skill in both, he removed to Naples, and practised with great success. There in, 15.98, his son, the subject of this memoir, was born, and from his earliest years
discovered a surprising capacity for the fine arts, having at
the age of eight executed a head in marble, which was
considered as a prodigy. His father, desirous of cultivating so promising a genius, brought him to Rome, and
imparted to him a taste for the great masters, which he
never altogether lost, although in the sequel he did not
follow their track. The pope expressed a desire to see
this extraordinary child who had astonished the artists, and
when introduced, asked him if he knew how to sketch a
head, “Whose head
” said Bernini. “You know then
how to draw any let it be that of St. Paul,
” replied the
pope.' The boy performed the task before him in about
half an hour, and the pope, enchanted with the specimen,
recommended him warmly to cardinal Barberini, that celebrated patron of the arts. “Direct his studies,
” added his
holiness, “and he will become the Michael Angelo of the
age.
” About the same time, happening to be in St. Peter’s church, with Annibal Carrache, and some other celebrated artists, Carrache, looking to the cupola, said it would
be very desirable to find a man of genius great enough to
form and erect two objects in the middle, and at the end
of that temple, which should correspond to its dimensions.“The young Bernini instantly exclaimed with enthusiasm,
” Would I were that man," little thinking that one day he
was to fulfil Carrache’s wish.