Art by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Bernini basically invented the version of Baroque sculpture that later became shorthand for the whole style: marble that seems to breathe, fabric caught mid-motion, figures posed at the exact instant of transformation. Apollo and Daphne (1622-25) freezes a woman turning into a laurel tree at the precise moment bark is climbing up her fingertips. The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-52) goes further, combining sculpture with hidden windows, gilded light, and a painted ceiling to stage what still gets debated today as either religious rapture or something considerably more physical. He also designed St. Peter's Square's colonnade and the massive bronze baldachin inside the basilica, shaping how Rome itself looks to this day.

His personal life had a genuinely dark chapter. In 1638, after learning that his mistress Costanza Bonarelli, wife of one of his own studio assistants, was also involved with his younger brother Luigi, Bernini beat Luigi badly enough to break his ribs and chased him with a sword, then sent a servant to slash Costanza's face with a razor, a punishment with grim precedent at the time. He was fined and quickly pardoned by Pope Urban VIII ahead of an arranged marriage; Costanza served jail time instead. It's an ugly episode that doesn't fit neatly next to the ceilings and fountains, but it's part of the same record.