BERNINI, Gian Lorenzo
(b. 1598, Napoli, d. 1680, Roma)

The Baldacchino

1623-24
Bronze, partly gilt
Basilica di San Pietro, Vatican

After the completion of the façade of St Peter's (fabric consecrated 1626), attention turned to the decoration of the vast interior of the church. Bernini embarked on a series of projects that eventually filled the basilica with major works celebrating the primacy of the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. His first effort for Urban VIII, which occupied him and a small army of assistants, including Francesco Borromini, for more than a decade, was the erection of a monumental structure beneath Michelangelo's dome in the centre of the crossing to mark the site of the first apostle's grave and papal altar. The famous baldacchino (1623-34), consisting of four colossal spiral gilt-bronze columns set on high marble bases and joined by a cornice, rises over the high altar. Above each column stands a twice life-size angel holding in each hand garlands that disappear under the volutes of the ribbed superstructure as if supporting it. The form of the columns was inspired by a group of spiral marble columns from Old St Peter's thought to have been brought by Constantine the Great from the Temple of Jerusalem.

In his design for the baldacchino, Bernini alluded to a series of earlier projects for the crossing, as well as to structures known from the early history of St Peter's, by combining the permanence of an architectural ciborium, the mobility of a portable canopy carried by acolytes and the sacred, ceremonial symbolism of the suspended baldacchino to create an architectural chimera that is also a mystical event - four bronze columns crowned by a superstructure carried there and held in place by angels. While it is generally agreed that Bernini was the originator of the overall design, the exact role of Borromini, who was assigned to Bernini's team as a draughtsman and technical adviser, is controversial.