Gian Lorenzo Bernini was born in Naples but he immediately made Rome his own city. Bernini was the great genius of his time: the Baroque. He was a master of sculpture. Anybody can assess this by just taking a tour of the city. All these sculptures are made of marble, but in Bernini's hands this rock turns into play dough.
He was capable of giving this material any aspect, like textile, skin or flesh. Among all the details of a sculpture, Bernini was obsessed with facial expressions. For him, a facial expression was very important. In some occasions, he took himself as a model. For example, the David in Galleria Borghese has Bernini's face; he stood in front of a mirror and sculpted himself.
On the right: Bernini's David in Galleria Borghese, Rome - On the left: Bernini portrait
Such was the obsession that when he sculpted the martyrdom of San Lorenzo - who died burnt alive - Bernini burned his own leg in front of a mirror to observe the expression of pain on his face.
According to Bernini's biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, the sculpture was completed when Bernini was 15 years old.
Bernini burned his own leg in front of a mirror to observe the expression of pain on his face.
The martyrdom of San Lorenzo by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Uffizi Florence
A business lesson from this story - the importance of understanding customer needs
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In order to achieve excellence in his art, Bernini didn't hesitate to burn himself to feel and replicate a realistic human expression in the martyrdom of San Lorenzo.
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Bonus story: The ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Teresa was known for her mystical religious experiences (e.g. she wrote several poems about God's appearances).
When Bernini was asked to sculpt this saint, he focused his attention over the possible face expression able to display that experience: he wanted to grasp this mysticism on her face.
On the other hand, Bernini did not know anything about mystical religious ecstasies, he never had one. Thus, he did not know how to represent it. But he knew another type of ecstasy; he knew what a sexual ecstasy looked like.
And when he sculpted Santa Teresa, he represented her with the kind of ecstasy he knew.
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Rome
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