Gian Lorenzo Bernini (15981680), sculptor, architect, painter, and playwright, was the most influential artist of seventeenth-century Rome and, indeed, one of the leading creative forces in European art for most of that century. He is universally recognized as one of the creators of the vastly popular Roman Baroque style, which quickly disseminated throughout all of Europe. His influence lasted well beyond his death, and the popularity of his numerous worksfountains, statues, churches, and public squaresis today as great as it was during his own lifetime, if not more so. Domenico Bernini (16571723) was the artists youngest child. Domenicos full-length biography of his famous father represents one of the most important and most intimate primary sources for the artists life and work.