Bernini vs Borromini, Part II - What Winning Actually Costs
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TW: Discussions of suicide
In Part Two of our deep dive into the Bernini and Borromini rivalry, the stakes get personal. With a new pope in power and Bernini in disgrace, Borromini finally had what he'd spent a decade working toward: the commissions, the recognition, and the satisfaction of having been right all along. It didn't last. What followed was a slow, painful unraveling — a series of ruptures with patrons, a knighthood delivered by proxy because nobody could stand to be in the room with him, and a rival who kept winning even when he was supposed to have lost. Meanwhile, Bernini was building the colonnades of St. Peter's Square, entertaining Louis XIV in Paris, and accumulating a fortune that would dwarf Borromini's estate by a factor of forty.
This episode covers the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the greatest commission of Borromini's life, the Baroque architecture scandal that defined 17th century Rome, and the question that the whole story leaves you with: is it better to be celebrated in your time, or vindicated by history? And is there any version of this art history story where you get to have both?
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