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Saint Peter's
Basilica ( Basilica
Di San Pietro )
Saint Peter's
Basilica,
Information about
St. Peter's Basilica
Tours in Rome - The
Holy see in Rome,
Saint Peter's Rome
Looming over all is
the massive façade
of the Basilica of
St. Peter and a lofty
campanile topped by
the famous golden
cockerel that
everyone believed
would some day crow
to announce the end
of the world.
This
St Peter's, where
Charlemagne and
Frederick II
received their
imperial crowns, was
falling to pieces by
the 1400s,
conveniently in time
for the popes and
artists of the
Renaissance to plan
a replacement.
The
first to do so was
Nicholas V, who, in
about 1450,
conceived an almost
Neronian building
programme for
the
Vatican, ten times
as large as anything
his ancestors could
have contemplated -a
complex that would
have stretched all
the way to
Castel Sant'Angelo.
It was
not until Julius II
realized that there
was not enough room
in the basilica for
his planned tomb
that he commissioned
Bramante to demolish
the old church
and
begin the new.
His
original plan called
for a great dome
over a central Greek
cross. Michelangelo,
who took over the
work in 1546,
basically agreed,
and if he had had
his way St Peter's
might indeed have
become the crowning
achievement of
Renaissance art
everyone hoped it
would be.
The most substantial
tinkering came in
1605, when Paul V
and his committed
cardinals decided on
a Latin cross after
all.
Carlo Maderno
was given the task
of
demolishing the
portico of the old
basilica to extend
the nave, which had
the unforeseen
effect of blocking
out the view of the
dome, and he
designed the facade
(1612) with Paul V's
name blazoned on
top.
But Maderno
shouldn't
be
blamed for its
disproportionate
width: Bernini, who
was in charge of
decorating the
interior, had the
bright idea of
adding twin
campaniles to the
flanks which were
such a dismal
failure that they
were levelled to the
same height as
Maderno's facade.
In
the centre is the
balcony from which
the pope gives his Urbl et Orbi
blessing at Easter
and Christmas.
On 18
Nov 1626, the
supposed 1300th
anniversary of the
original basilica,
Urban VIII consecrated the new
St Peter's.
Step inside,
hopefully past the
security men and the
dress code bouncers
without trouble, and
into the
Portico.
Some of the best art
in St Peter's is in
the Portico,
beginning with the
oldest and hardest
to see, Giotto's
1298 mosaic of
Christ walking on
water, called the
Navi cella,
located in the
tympanum over the
central door; this
has been so often
loved and restored
almost nothing
remains of the
original. At the
extreme right end of
the portico is
Bernini's equestrian
statue of
Constantine,
showing the Emperor
staring at the
vision of the cross.
There are five sets
of bronze doors into the
basilica, the work
of some of Italy's
leading modern
sculptors.
the
Holy Door,
opened only in Holy
Years (1950, by Vico
Consorti); the next,
by Venanzio Crocetti
(1968); the famous
central doors, from
Old St Peter's, made
by Antonio Filarete
(1439-45), with
scenes from the lire
of Pope Eugenius IV,
who held an
ecumenical council
in Florence in 1441,
an attempt to
reconcile the
differences between
the Eastern and
Western Churches
III
face of the mutual
Turkish threat; you
can recognize
Emperor John Palaeologos by his
pointy hat, while
Ethiopian monks pay
homage to Eugenius.
on the other side of
the right door, at
the bottom,
Filarete
and his workmen may
be seen dancing with
their tools below an
inscription in
pidgin Latium.
The
next set of doors to
the left are by Giacomo Manzu
(1963), with
harrowing scenes of
death and martyrdoms
and victims torn
like paper bags.
The last set of
doors, by Luciano
Minguzzi (1977),
includes a charming
hedgehog.
The
plodding equestrian
statue at the left
end is of
Charlemagne, by Cornacchini, giving
the portico two
knights in case any
of the giant marble
saints ever want to
play chess.
The
floor of the portico
is by the
indefatigable
Bernini, embedded
with the giant coat
of arms of John
XXIII by Manzu to
commemorate the
Second Vatican
Council of 1962.
The Pieta
The best work Of art
is right in front,
in the first chapel
an the right:
Michelangelo's
famous
Pieta,
now restored and
hard to see behind
the glass that
protects it from
future madmen.
Finished in 1499,
when he was only
25, the statue
helped make
Michelangelo's
reputation.
Its
smooth and elegant
figures, with the
realities of death
and grief sublimated
an same ethereal
plane known only to
saints and artists,
marked a turning
paint in religious
art-from here, the
beautiful, unreal
art of the religious
Baroque was the
logical next step.
The
Pieta
is the only work
Michelangelo ever
signed ; he added it
after overhearing a
group Of tourists
from Milan who
thought the
Pieta
was the work ,Of a
fellow Milanese.
Michelangelo
sculpted the
Pieta
far the French
ambassador;
significantly, none
, Of the art made to
order far St
Peter's can match
it.
By the time the
basilica was
finished, the great
artists of the
Renaissance were
dead, and whatever
glories they may
have contributed
have been replaced
by assembly-line
Baroque statues and
huge Caunter-Refarmatian
paintings, in turn
replaced by 'mare
eternal mosaic
copies.
Ancient Necropolis
of St Peter's
In
1939,
when Pius XII
ordered the Sanpietrini to lower
the floor of the
Sacred Grottoes and
prepare a tomb for
Pius Xl, the workmen
discovered not only
the floor of the Constantinian
Basilica, but below
this, signs of an
ancient tomb.
Although its
existence has been
documented since
Bramante's day,
Pius
XII was the first
pope to consent to
an exploration of
the area (previous
popes had
superstitiously
feared to disturb
the bones, or worse
yet, to learn that
the Saracens in
846
had stolen St
Peter's relics after
all).
All during the
war, the secret
excavations
continued,
uncovering one of
the most remarkable
sights in all Rome:
the
Ancient Necropolis
of St Peter's,
a pristine street of
pagan and early
Christian tombs
built around that of
the Apostle.
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