Rome is a city of many glories, created from distant antiquity onwards, and amongst her remarkable churches, fountains and monuments are the spectacular works of GianLorenzo Bernini. This complex, driven artist was the friend and confidant of Popes and princes, a child prodigy and a prolific, if understandably arrogant, genius whose talent encompassed sculpture, paintings, fountains, architecture - even plays and music.

In this lecture we'll look at his extraordinary abilities, discovering the wide range of portraits, religious and mythological groups, fountains and buildings with which he changed the face of the Rome. We'll also consider why his exuberance and talent became powerful weapons in a period of great religious and political upheaval, offering a new aesthetic language with which the Church of Rome could battle for supremacy and which would influence painters, sculptors and architects for generations to come.