![]() ![]() A servant sent by another lover enters the house bearing two flasks of Greek wine. Dust in the streets, churned by the wheels of passing carts and carriages, thickened the air… Costanza, the comely young wife of the sculptor Matteo is living in a rented house at the foot of the Quirinal Hill… At mid-morning her husband is at work carving stone in St Peter’s… Costanza escorts her lover to the door and returns to bed. Late summer in Rome in the year 1638 was hot, the days long and oppressive. Her husband was one of Bernini’s assistants. McPhee’s point of departure is a striking marble bust of a woman, carved by Bernini in 1637 and traditionally believed to record the features of a woman named Costanza with whom he was passionately in love. ![]() Written with novelistic verve by Sarah McPhee, a professor at Emory University, it is an example of how art history can be brought to scintillating, pulsing life when done well. Now here is a love story with a sting in the tail for Valentine’s Day. ![]()
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