Download or read book A Transitory Star written by Claudia Lehmann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining Bernini's works from 1665 on, from Paris and Rome, this book demonstrates the wealth of material still to be drawn from close visual and material examination, archival research, and comparative textual analysis. On the whole, this collection deals with Bernini's position as the leading creator of portraits - in oils, marble, monumental architecture, and metaphor - of some of the most powerful political players of his day. These studies speak to the growing distance of Gallic absolutism from the fading dreams of papal hegemony over Europe, and to the complexities of Bernini's role as mouthpiece, obstacle, and flatterer of the Princes of the Papal States.