Two monuments, two rivals
At the centre of Piazza Navona stands the Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. On the western side, a few metres away, rises the façade of the Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone (1652–1672) by Francesco Borromini. Two monumental works from the same period, the same place, by two artists who detested each other for their entire lives.
The story of Bernini and Borromini is the story of the most legendary rivalry in Western art — and Piazza Navona is its ultimate battleground.
Who they were
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was the genius of the establishment. The son of a Tuscan painter, he grew up at the papal court and became the favoured artist of no fewer than six popes. He was worldly, charming, brilliant in his work and his relationships. He painted, sculpted, designed architecture, wrote plays. He was the living embodiment of triumphant Baroque.
Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) was his opposite: introverted, solitary, tormented. The son of a Lombard mason, he had arrived in Rome as a humble stonecutter working on St Peter's. He had worked as an assistant to Bernini — a relationship that left him with a permanent resentment. While Bernini built for popes, Borromini built for religious orders and less powerful clients. He died by suicide in 1667.
Opposing visions of the Baroque
The two artists embody two radically different conceptions of architecture and sculpture.
Bernini worked with a sense of theatre: his works are designed to astonish the visitor with a single sweeping view, to create immediate wonder. The Fountain of the Four Rivers is conceived to be seen from the entire square: an obelisk rising from a pierced rock, figures twisting in space.
Borromini was obsessed with geometry: his plans are built on triangles, ellipses, intersecting curved forms. His architecture — Sant'Agnese, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza — is experimental, complex, sometimes incomprehensible at first sight. He preferred white marble and purely architectural surfaces to sculptural decoration.
The façade of Sant'Agnese
The Church of Sant'Agnese in Agone was begun in 1652 by Pope Innocent X, who wanted a family church adjacent to his palace. Work began with Girolamo and Carlo Rainaldi, but in 1653 Borromini took control of the project.
The façade is a masterpiece of dynamic architecture: concave (curving inward at the centre), with two lateral bell towers framing the dome. The concavity creates a visual tension that draws the visitor towards the entrance. Bernini had proposed convex façades; Borromini chose the opposite solution.
In 1657 Borromini was removed from the project — probably due to conflicts with the patrons — and the work was completed by other architects.
The legend of the gesture
The statue of the Río de la Plata in Bernini's fountain raises its arm in the direction of Sant'Agnese's façade. The Nile keeps its head veiled. According to legend — born in the 18th century — these are deliberate gestures: Bernini had represented fear before Borromini's building and covered the Nile's eyes so it could not see it.
The legend is historically impossible: the Nile's veil is explained by the unknown source of the river; the raised arm of the Plata was already in the 1648 model, three years before Borromini began the façade. But the story is too beautiful to abandon.
The legacy
In life, Bernini was the winner: wealthy, famous, protected by popes. Borromini died alone, leaving half his works unfinished.
In the history of modern architecture, the judgment has been reversed. Borromini — with his bold geometry, the dynamism of his surfaces, his anti-classical abstraction — became the forerunner of modern architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier studied his work. Bernini remains the supreme stage-director of the Baroque; Borromini is the revolutionary nobody fully understood until long after his death.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Did Bernini and Borromini know each other personally? Yes. Borromini worked as a stonecutter under Bernini's supervision at the St Peter's building site. The relationship was conflictual and left Borromini with a deep bitterness.
Why is Borromini now considered more important than Bernini by many architects? Because modern architecture developed in Borromini's direction: abstract geometry, spatial dynamism, rejection of classical ornament. Bernini remains unsurpassed as a sculptor and stage-director, but his architecture was less influential on subsequent generations.
Article no. 144 — TIER S — MON-08 Piazza Navona Type: HISTORICAL Words: ~800