St. Peter's baldachin
Encyclopedia
Saint Peter's baldachin (Italian: baldacchino) is a large Baroque
sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium
or baldachin
, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City
, Rome
, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome. Designed by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini
, it was intended to mark, in a monumental way, the place of Saint Peter's tomb underneath. Under its canopy is the High Altar of the basilica. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, the work began in 1623 and ended in 1634. The baldachin acts as a visual focus within the basilica; it itself is a very large structure and forms a visual mediation between the enormous scale of the building and the human scale of the people officiating at the religious ceremonies at the papal altar beneath its canopy.
or architectural pavilion found over the altars of many important churches, and ceremonial canopies used to frame the numinous or mark a sacred spot. Old Saint Peter's had had a ciborium, like most major basilicas in Rome, and Bernini's predecessor, Carlo Maderno
had produced a design, also with twisted Solomonic column
s, less than a decade before. It may more specifically allude to features drawn from the funerary catafalque
and thus appropriate to St Peter, and from the traditional cloth canopy known as a baldacchino that was carried above the head of the pope on Holy Days and therefore related to the reigning pope as the successor of St Peter. The idea of the baldachin to mark St Peter’s tomb was not Bernini’s idea and there had been various columnar structures erected earlier.
The old basilica had had a screen in front of the altar, supported by 2nd century Solomonic columns that had been brought "from Greece" by Constantine I
(and which are indeed of Greek marble). These were by the Middle Ages believed to have come from the Temple of Jerusalem and had given the rare classical Solomonic form of helical column both its name and considerable prestige for the most sacred of sites. Eight of the original twelve columns are now found in pairs half way up the piers on either side of the baldachin.
The four columns are 20 metres or 66 feet high. The base and capital were cast separately and the shaft of each column was cast in three sections. Their helical form was derived from the smaller marble helical columns once thought to have been brought to Rome by the Emperor Constantine
from Solomon's Temple
in Jerusalem and which were used in the Old Saint Peter's Basilica (See the article Solomonic column
). From the cornice hangs a bronze semblance of the scalloped and tasselled border that typically trimmed the papal baldacchino. The structure is decorated with detailed motifs including heraldic emblems of the Barberini
family such as bees and laurel leaves. The underside of the canopy and directly above the officiating pope is a radiant sun, another emblem of the Barberini.
The source of the bronze to make the structure was an issue of contemporary controversy as it was believed to have been taken from the portico ceiling of the ancient Roman Pantheon
. A well-known satirical lampoon left attached to the ancient ‘speaking’ statue of Pasquino on a corner of the Piazza Navona
, said: Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini or ‘What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did’.
At this early stage in their careers, and before the bitter rivalry between the two ensued, Bernini worked in collaboration with Francesco Borromini
who made drawings of the structure and who may also have contributed to its design. Various other artistic colleagues were also involved including his father Pietro Bernini
, his brother Luigi Bernini, Stefano Maderno
, François Duquesnoy
, Andrea Bolgi
and Giuliano Finelli
who contributed to the sculptural decoration.
There remained an issue that Bernini was not to resolve until later in his career. In a Latin cross church, the High Altar should be placed in the chancel at the end of the longitudinal axis and yet in St Peter’s it was located in the centre of the crossing. Bernini sought a solution whereby the High Altar above the tomb of the first Pope of the Catholic Church could be reconciled with tradition. With his design for the Cathedra Petri or Chair of Saint Peter
(1657–66) at the apsidal end of the chancel, Bernini completed his visual concetto or design idea; the congregation had a perspectivised view down the nave to the image framed by the baldachin which compressed the distance between the crossing and the Chair of St Peter in the chancel, reconciling the Prince of the Apostles' tomb, his implied presence on the Chair and his legitimate successor officiating at the ceremonies.
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium
Ciborium (architecture)
In ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary, that stands over and covers the altar in a basilica or other church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin, though ciborium is often considered more correct...
or baldachin
Baldachin
A baldachin, or baldaquin , is a canopy of state over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is...
, over the high altar of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, which is at the centre of the crossing and directly under the dome. Designed by the sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...
, it was intended to mark, in a monumental way, the place of Saint Peter's tomb underneath. Under its canopy is the High Altar of the basilica. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, the work began in 1623 and ended in 1634. The baldachin acts as a visual focus within the basilica; it itself is a very large structure and forms a visual mediation between the enormous scale of the building and the human scale of the people officiating at the religious ceremonies at the papal altar beneath its canopy.
Context
The form of the structure is an updating in Baroque style of the traditional ciboriumCiborium (architecture)
In ecclesiastical architecture, a ciborium is a canopy or covering supported by columns, freestanding in the sanctuary, that stands over and covers the altar in a basilica or other church. It may also be known by the more general term of baldachin, though ciborium is often considered more correct...
or architectural pavilion found over the altars of many important churches, and ceremonial canopies used to frame the numinous or mark a sacred spot. Old Saint Peter's had had a ciborium, like most major basilicas in Rome, and Bernini's predecessor, Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque...
had produced a design, also with twisted Solomonic column
Solomonic column
The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew...
s, less than a decade before. It may more specifically allude to features drawn from the funerary catafalque
Catafalque
A catafalque is a raised bier, soapbox, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of the deceased during a funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalque may be used to stand in place of the body at the Absolution of...
and thus appropriate to St Peter, and from the traditional cloth canopy known as a baldacchino that was carried above the head of the pope on Holy Days and therefore related to the reigning pope as the successor of St Peter. The idea of the baldachin to mark St Peter’s tomb was not Bernini’s idea and there had been various columnar structures erected earlier.
The old basilica had had a screen in front of the altar, supported by 2nd century Solomonic columns that had been brought "from Greece" by Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
(and which are indeed of Greek marble). These were by the Middle Ages believed to have come from the Temple of Jerusalem and had given the rare classical Solomonic form of helical column both its name and considerable prestige for the most sacred of sites. Eight of the original twelve columns are now found in pairs half way up the piers on either side of the baldachin.
Description and history
The bronze and gilded baldachin was the first of Bernini's works to combine sculpture and architecture and represents an important development in Baroque church interior design and furnishing. The canopy rests upon four helical columns each of which stands on a high marble plinth. The columns support a cornice which curves inwards in the middle of each side. Above this, four twice life size angels stand at the corners behind whom four large volutes rise up to a second smaller cornice which in turn supports the gilded cross on a sphere, a symbol of the world redeemed by Christianity.The four columns are 20 metres or 66 feet high. The base and capital were cast separately and the shaft of each column was cast in three sections. Their helical form was derived from the smaller marble helical columns once thought to have been brought to Rome by the Emperor Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
from Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple
Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount , before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BCE....
in Jerusalem and which were used in the Old Saint Peter's Basilica (See the article Solomonic column
Solomonic column
The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew...
). From the cornice hangs a bronze semblance of the scalloped and tasselled border that typically trimmed the papal baldacchino. The structure is decorated with detailed motifs including heraldic emblems of the Barberini
Barberini
The Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII...
family such as bees and laurel leaves. The underside of the canopy and directly above the officiating pope is a radiant sun, another emblem of the Barberini.
The source of the bronze to make the structure was an issue of contemporary controversy as it was believed to have been taken from the portico ceiling of the ancient Roman Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...
. A well-known satirical lampoon left attached to the ancient ‘speaking’ statue of Pasquino on a corner of the Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
, said: Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini or ‘What the barbarians did not do, the Barberini did’.
At this early stage in their careers, and before the bitter rivalry between the two ensued, Bernini worked in collaboration with Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini
Francesco Borromini, byname of Francesco Castelli was an architect from Ticino who, with his contemporaries, Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Pietro da Cortona, was a leading figure in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture.A keen student of the architecture of Michelangelo and the ruins of...
who made drawings of the structure and who may also have contributed to its design. Various other artistic colleagues were also involved including his father Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
, his brother Luigi Bernini, Stefano Maderno
Stefano Maderno
Stefano Maderno was an Italian sculptor.-Biography:News about Maderno's life are scarce and often contradictory...
, François Duquesnoy
François Duquesnoy
François Duquesnoy was a Baroque sculptor in Rome. His more idealized representations are often contrasted with the emotional character of Bernini's works, while his style shows greater affinity to Algardi's sculptures....
, Andrea Bolgi
Andrea Bolgi
Andrea Bolgi was an Italian sculptor responsible for several statues in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Towards the end of his life he moved to Naples, where he sculpted portrait busts.-Early life:...
and Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli
Giuliano Finelli was an Italian Baroque sculptor who emerged from the workshop of Bernini.He was born in Carrara to a family of marble masons in a town associated with mining of the stone, and he initially trained with Michelangelo Naccherino...
who contributed to the sculptural decoration.
There remained an issue that Bernini was not to resolve until later in his career. In a Latin cross church, the High Altar should be placed in the chancel at the end of the longitudinal axis and yet in St Peter’s it was located in the centre of the crossing. Bernini sought a solution whereby the High Altar above the tomb of the first Pope of the Catholic Church could be reconciled with tradition. With his design for the Cathedra Petri or Chair of Saint Peter
Chair of Saint Peter
The Chair of Saint Peter is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica, enclosed in a gilt bronze casing that was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed 1647-53....
(1657–66) at the apsidal end of the chancel, Bernini completed his visual concetto or design idea; the congregation had a perspectivised view down the nave to the image framed by the baldachin which compressed the distance between the crossing and the Chair of St Peter in the chancel, reconciling the Prince of the Apostles' tomb, his implied presence on the Chair and his legitimate successor officiating at the ceremonies.