Who was the greater Baroque artist, Bernini or Borromini?
By Jake Morrissey Rome is a city that takes its art—and the artists who created it—very seriously. I learned this one day in the Piazza Navona, the city’s most beautiful public space, when I overheard a couple arguing over the work of the two men who created the piazza more than three centuries ago. “Bernini? He’s a show-off,” the young man said to his companion. “He’s all clouds and curlicues. Borromini—now, he is a true genius.” His friend shivered. “I can’t bear Borromini,” she said. “He has no grace, no delicacy. He hits you—boom, boom—over the head. He never lets you rest.” “Yes, but you shouldn’t want to,” the man said, laughing and taking her arm. Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini were two lions of Italian art who spent their professional lives locked in a complex, sometimes acrimonious rivalry. The differences between them—in their work and in their personalities—were profound, and nowhere is this more evident than in the piazza, where Bernini and Borromini clashed o
