This lecture will take you through one of the most fascinating streets of Baroque Rome, the Strada Pia. From the Entrance Gate, designed by Michelangelo, to Piazza del Quirinale, with its monumental central obelisk, this monumental axial avenue boasts some of the greatest buildings designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and Francesco Borromini (1599-1667). Initially, the two artists worked together at Saint Peter’s Basilica and Palazzo Barberini. Then, professional competitions and divergent approaches led to a certain rivalry and above all to the creation of different, astonishing achievements. On the Strada Pia, Bernini elaborated his emotional theatrum sacrum in the Cornaro Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria and in Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, while Borromini manifested his Neoplatonic thought in the complex design of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. Borromini, introspective and irascible appreciated by a cultivated elite; Bernini, the superstar beloved by all patrons, changed the skyline of Rome but gave their best in the representation of spiritual elevation toward God in the buildings of the Strada Pia. This celebrated rivalry ended with the death of Borromini in 1667. The architect committed suicide like Seneca (by falling on his own sword). Bernini survived him by another decade, continuing working until the age of 81.

Paolo Alei is an art historian from Rome. He is Professor of art history at the University of California (the UCEAP academic program in Italy) and Curator of the Museum of the Castle of Bracciano near Rome. He has a Master from Columbia University where he specialized on Venetian Renaissance Painting and a PhD from Oxford University where he completed a dissertation on the influence of the Natural History by Pliny the Elder on Italian Renaissance art. He has published several essays on Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, and a book on the history of the Venice Carnival. Recently, he coedited a monumental book about the patronage of the Orsini family in Central Italy. He is co-organizer of EMR (Early Modern Rome), one of the greatest conferences about Renaissance and Baroque culture.