The sculptural flowering of the Italian Baroque - the sensuous beauty of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne; the spectacular papal tombs in St Peter's; dramatic altarpieces such as the mystical Ecstasy of St Teresa; and Rome's dazzling fountains - boldly transcended the traditional limitations of artistic media.

Often dismissed in the past for creating a sham world to distract the observer's attention with dazzling technical displays, the sculpture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy is here reassessed for the first time in more than a generation. It is an invaluable critical survey of Italian Baroque sculpture.

The sculptural flowering of the Italian Baroque - the sensuous beauty of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne; the spectacular papal tombs in St. Peter's; dramatic altarpieces such as the mystical Ecstasy of St. Teresa; and Rome's dazzling fountains - boldly transcended the traditional limitations of artistic media. Often dismissed in the past for creating a sham world to distract the observer's attention with dazzling technical displays, the sculpture of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy is here reassessed for the first time in more than a generation. Published to coincide with the fourth centenary of the births of Bernini and Algardi, the greatest of Baroque sculptors, Bruce Boucher's book provides an invaluable critical survey of Italian Baroque sculpture.