Saylor.org ARTH207: "Gianlorenzo Bernini and the Italian Baroque"

This lecture is entitled John Lorenzo Bernini and Italian Baroque Architecture. The image you see on your screen is a portrait of the young John Lorenzo Bernini, who you've already been introduced to as a sculptor. You should know that he was one of the rising stars of Baroque Rome. He was a very successful sculptor. Today we're going to look at Bernini as an architect. He was also a rising star in that regard, for many of the same reasons. He applied his same interest to detail, theatricality, movement, liveliness, to architecture. Without further ado, let's move on and take a look at some examples of that. The first work we're going to take a look at is his Baldacchino, which is located in St. Peter's Basilica and dates 1633. I have here on the screen sculpture meets architecture, because that's really what this work of art is. It's kind of a cross between a work of sculpture and a work of architecture. This is the first project Bernini did for the Pope. He was involved in the interior design of St. Peter's Basilica, which we've already talked about how that was a really complicated project that involved a lot of artists. Bernini was one of the artists working on the inside of the church. This work of art is definitely his most famous project from within the Basilica. First off, what exactly is a Baldacchino? That's what you see here, Baldacchino. That's an Italian word. It simply means a ceremonial canopy. It's usually used in a religious context. Sometimes you'll see another word, and that is cyborium. Again, it's just a canopy that denotes a sacred space. Here in St. Peter's, the Baldacchino is placed directly beneath the huge central dome of the church. Just to remind you, the church plan is roughly shaped like this, sort of a cruciform plan, and the dome is right here at this crossing. That's where you see, right here is where the Baldacchino is within St. Peter's Basilica. The placement of the Baldacchino is really important because it emphasizes certain details of the church that are important to the church, both in terms of emphasizing important details about the church's history and tradition, as well as emphasizing details that the church wanted to emphasize as a way of asserting their authority. Let's examine a couple of those things. First off, this Baldacchino is placed directly over what was thought to be St. Peter's tomb. So, over St. Peter's tomb. That's important because Peter was considered the founder of the Catholic church and the first pope. Peter was one of Christ's disciples, lived at the time of Christ, and so he directly, the correlation to Peter is that the popes are directly connected to Christ, the world of Christ. So that's a really important message. Second important detail of the placement of this Baldacchino is that it frames the high altar. High altar. And that's important because it literally draws the visitor's attention to the focal point of the church, the most important part of the church, which is where the sacrament takes place. So, this Baldacchino, in its very strategic placement, reminds the viewer both of what the church can do for you, and that is providing you with salvation by way of the sacrament, and it reminds the visitor of the Catholic church's very long and esteemed history by way of St. Peter. Now quickly, before we move on, we should just take a look at this Baldacchino, and hopefully you'll see right away some of the hallmarks of Bernini's sculpture. First off, it's got these really interesting spiraling columns. It's got an imitation of fabric. Hopefully you can get a sense of that here, even with little tassels on the ends of these pieces. And then it's got these wonderful angels kind of guarding at the top of the Baldacchino. And you can see they very gracefully stand there, and they're very typical of Bernini's sculpture. And just before we move on, just remind yourself of what are some of the important details of the Baroque, and really two things that should come to mind immediately are movement and theatricality. And Bernini has achieved both of those things in this Baldacchino. There's a real sense of movement throughout the Baldacchino, and these spiraling columns, these moving, delicate angels, and there's a theatricality in the way the viewer's attention is directed. It's not just sort of sitting there, but it really has an active role in the interior of the Basilica. Now let's move on and look at the outside of St. Peter's Basilica. And right now you're looking at two different views of the outside of St. Peter's Basilica. Here we have the view from the top of the Basilica looking out, and here's the piazza and the road into Rome. And at the bottom we have the opposite view, the view you would have coming into the Basilica. So you can see a full view of this. So this is known simply as St. Peter's Square, or Piazza San Pietro, which is the Italian, and it dates to around 1657. So this was what Bernini was asked to do by the Pope after he had finished working on the inside of the Basilica. And it's really an important commission because this was the visitor's introduction to this most important church of Catholicism. So introduction, the very first thing a visitor would see. And the piazza really connects the space outside of the Basilica to the Basilica itself with these curved colonnades right here and here. So it's connecting interior and exterior space. And not only are these colonnades physically joining the outside space to the inside, but there's also this visual connection between the two spaces, kind of drawing the visitor to come into the church. And this isn't useful only in literally ushering people into the Basilica, but also it served as a metaphor inviting people into the church. Let's write that down. Metaphor. So how exactly is that a metaphor? Well, the Catholic Church at this time wanted to draw converts, draw nonbelievers into the fold of the church. So these colonnades are often called the welcoming or embracing arms of the church. So physically they frame this piazza space. You can see how they do that here and here. But they also reflect the goals of the Catholic Church at this time, which was to draw people in, draw in believers and converts. So the way the colonnades look is really interesting too, especially in light of our discussion of the facade of the Basilica from a few lectures ago. Hopefully you'll see right away that there is that continued use of classical language. And you can see that, I think, best right here. At the entrance to this colonnade we have four columns, one, two, three, four, and a triangular pediment at the top. This is very familiar to us by now. And that's very reminiscent of a classical temple front. I'll write that down. Classical temple front. And it's interesting that Bernini does that because it also connects us to the facade here where Carlo Maderno used the same language. And again we have the colossal order with these very massive columns going from ground level all the way to the cornice level. And you can really get a sense for that if you look at the little figures in the piazza. They're just like little tiny ants. So this is on a really awesome massive scale, again as you would expect for this particular church. There's also a sense of movement in these colonnades, not only in the fact that they're curved, which is a more organic and perhaps interesting form than just a straight-edged colonnade, but there's also the columns have this rhythm as they seem almost to march from the outer edge of the square in towards the basilica itself. So let's write that down. Rhythm. Movement. Again, these are all words you're going to become very familiar with as we continue to study Baroque architecture. And just like Bernini's Baldacchino within the church, this piazza has that same theatrical role in pointing the visitor's attention to what they should be paying attention to, directing traffic and attention into the basilica, into the heart of the Catholic Church. Finally, we're just going to take a very quick look at Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, which is from later in Bernini's career. And there is a lecture later on that you're going to look at that's just devoted to this church, but I just wanted to show it to you in the context of some of his other architecture so you can see how consistent his skill is as an architect. And even though this is a much smaller building, you can see that same sense of grandeur. Right here we have the colossal order used, this pilaster going all the way from the street level to the top. We have familiar classical elements, but used in perhaps a way you wouldn't have expected to see them in the Renaissance with these little broken lines and contrasts of curving and straight forms. But again, it's a very theatrical, engaging, lively building, and very typical of Bernini and typical of the Baroque.