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THE ARTIST AND THE ETERNAL CITY

Name: THE ARTIST AND THE ETERNAL CITY
Author: Loyd Grossman
ISBN: 978-1-64313-740-7

BERNINI, POPE ALEXANDER VII, AND THE MAKING OF ROME

by Loyd Grossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 3, 2021

A fresh look at Rome’s vast grandeur during the 17th century.

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A vibrant journey to Baroque Rome.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), acclaimed as the “genius of the Baroque,” is the focus of Grossman’s engaging, sumptuously illustrated history of 17th-century Rome, when grand architectural and artistic projects, commissioned by a succession of popes, transformed the city dramatically. The son of well-regarded sculptor Pietro Bernini, Gian’s talent was evident when he was as young as 11. By the time he was in his 20s, he was a recognized master, and his career soared during the 21 years of the papacy of Urban VIII, when “a flood of papal commissions” made him spectacularly wealthy. Even under Innocent X, Urban’s successor and foe, Bernini managed to navigate political intrigue and turbulence to maintain his status as Rome’s preeminent sculptor and architect. His most important patron, however, was the physically frail Alexander VII. By 1650, after the Thirty Years’ War and the Protestant Reformation, with papal political influence waning and the power of France’s Louis XIV growing, Alexander “turned ever more inward, lavishing more time, attention and money on his projects for Rome.” Public works of art, he believed, reflected his spiritual and diplomatic power, and he saw in the swirling, sensuous, theatrical Baroque a style focused only on “heightening the drama of life.” Grossman portrays Bernini as a self-promoter with a “prodigious” work ethic; a man who could display “arrogance, quick temper, and sharp tongue” but also a tendency to be self-critical. A self-portrait, reproduced in this book, shows “piercing eyes, a dark piratical look, and a sense of tremendous physical and intellectual energy.” He directed that energy toward managing a huge workshop, which, at one time or another, employed “almost every sculptor of talent in Rome.” An added bonus, Grossman’s guide to an Obelisk Walk of Rome, appended to his narrative, highlights many of Bernini’s works.

A fresh look at Rome’s vast grandeur during the 17th century.

Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-64313-740-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021

Categories:

HISTORY | PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION | ART & PHOTOGRAPHY | HISTORICAL & MILITARY | WORLD

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IN THE FORESTS OF THE NIGHT

ENCOUNTERS IN PERU WITH TERRORISM, DRUG-RUNNING AND MILITARY OPPRESSION

by John Simpson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1994

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A memorable report of a monthlong 1992 expedition to Peru, featuring daring, drugs, and despotism. BBC reporter Simpson (Despatches from the Barricades, 1991) loves a good story, and Peru—source of most of the world's cocaine and home of both the relentless Shining Path guerrilla movement and an army unburdened by procedural niceties—seemed like a natural place to find one. He planned, with a group of colleagues, to cover the drug problem and the political situation for the BBC and other news organizations. But before describing this trip he whets readers' appetites with engaging preliminary tales of a trip from Brazil to visit forest-dwelling Indians and his subsequent negotiations from London over the logistics of the Peruvian trip. Arrived in Lima, Simpson and his team learn that the Peruvian police have captured Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman. Simpson's interviews show the manhunt leader to be one of the government's few committed democrats, while President Alberto Fujimori, who has suspended the constitution, wriggles out of tough questions. Navigating Peru's coca-growing region, an area off-limits to foreigners, Simpson's team, aided by a brave Peruvian journalist and some rickety forms of transport, has several adventures: They take testimony about army human-rights violations, meet a former official willing to testify about army corruption, and escape some menacing local army potentates, whom they manage to film before fleeing. Amid the tension, there is macabre humor, as when a Peruvian journalist composes for Simpson a fawning letter asking to interview a local drug lord (``Our news...has 99 per cent credibility among the people of Europe''). Simpson leaves Peru after getting the country's vice president, Maximo San Roman, on camera calling Fujimori ``the front man'' for a regime linked with drug traffickers. A good yarn with an appealing protagonist that inspires sadness for the Peruvian people and much distaste for their government. (8 pages b&w photos)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-679-43297-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL HISTORY | WORLD | HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WORD DETECTIVE
by John Simpson

- BOOK REVIEW
DESPATCHES FROM THE BARRICADES
by John Simpson

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GOD AND MAMMON IN AMERICA

by Robert Wuthnow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 21, 1994

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An interesting but inconclusive look at the relationship between religion and money in contemporary America. Wuthnow (Social Sciences/Princeton; Sharing the Journey, p. 59, etc.) asks: What is the effect of religious belief on economic choices? Jesus cautioned that a person could not serve two masters- -both God and money. Yet, according to Wuthnow, that is precisely what many American synagogue- and churchgoers and professed believers are attempting to do. In the postindustrial era, people are working more hours than ever before and, under tremendous pressure to perform and gain ever more material goods, enjoying it less. What impact does religion have? Does it affect the careers people choose? Very little, according to the author, who bases his work on a wide variety of sources (including surveys and interviews). What religion might do, however, is make people happier on the job. It also influences workplace ethics, helping to determine whether one will be honest or willing to cut corners. Statistical comparisons of people of various moral stances, and of churchgoers to the population at large, also indicate that religious commitment influences people's attitudes toward money (showing it is as much the province of priest and rabbi as it is of economist and businessman), charitable giving, environmental consciousness, and opinions and actions concerning the economically disadvantaged. In the end, Wuthnow's answers are all mixed bags, demonstrating that Americans are at once deeply spiritual and profoundly secular. He also criticizes current religious leadership for reshaping modern religion so as to not afflict the consciences of their consumerist, capitalist congregants. Appendices on methodology will be helpful to serious students. Straightforwardly written in accessible prose, the book will appeal primarily to students and scholars of religion. There is, however, enough to attract the interested layperson as well.