In the summer of 2015, my girlfriend Darcy and I wandered the streets of Rome to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
The sky that day was sometimes light rain, sometimes sunny, sometimes blue and white clouds.
When we walked from the Vatican Street of Reconciliation to St. Peter's Square, we found that the streets were full of pedestrians, and we didn't think much of it at the time, thinking that they were all tourists who came to visit St. Peter's Basilica like us. Approaching the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica, the whole square stood full of people wearing transparent raincoats. Tiptoeing through the crowds, and looking further ahead, there were rows of solemn priests dressed in black robes. While I was still wondering, from the sound equipment around St. Peter's Square, the voice of the Pope's speech came. Today, by mistake, we have encountered the Pope in public.
The joy of traveling is that you don't know what you will encounter in the next moment, and you are ignorant and surprised. It was just this atmosphere that Darcy and I stood in the crowd, a picture that can still be clearly remembered years later. In 2017, there was an American drama - "Young Pope" starring Qiu Hua, and there were several scenes that were simply a copy of my time, which was vividly remembered. Therefore, knowing more about the stories behind the Vatican, architecture, religion, Renaissance history, etc., I felt more profound and clear about my casual encounter with St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Without further ado, let's take a look at Italy's most expensive and greatest building, St. Peter's Basilica.
St. Peter's Basilica is the most classic building of the Renaissance, known as the landmark of Renaissance architecture, from which we can see the distinctive characteristics of Renaissance architecture: the appropriate use of the language of classical architecture, such as domes, columns, barrel vaults, arches and mountain flowers, etc., but not a simple imitation, but a creative combination and promotion.
In the middle of the 17th century, the famous sculptor Bernini designed the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica, and cleverly circled an oval square with a circle of circular colonnades, this 4 rows of columns supporting a wide colonnade of 17M gives people a very wonderful feeling, it makes the square have a very spectacular boundary, but also produces a strong centripetal force, it seems to embrace the people who come to the square. At the top of the colonnade are 96 statues of saints, traveling through time to gaze lovingly at the square.
When you walk into the magnificent hall of St. Peter's Basilica, you will be free to marvel. It is a splendid hall that can accommodate 50,000 people, the top of the hall is a semicircular arch, the vault is 46 meters high, and at the intersection of the hall and the horizontal hall, is a large dome with a diameter of 42 meters, 123 meters high, with more than 40 floors high. There is an ornate canopy supported by a 29-meter-high bronze pillar.
Stopping in the hall, everyone will be struck by the great architectural creations of the Italians hundreds of years ago.
St. Peter's Basilica is a 160-year-old project, during which time 12 masters of architecture presided over the construction of the project. These masters of architecture are well known one after another, including michelangelo and Raphael, the most famous masters of the Renaissance, Bramante, and Bernini, the most famous sculptor of the Baroque period, among which Michelangelo contributed the most.
Above: Michelangelo's Mercy, 1499;
St. Peter's Basilica, the world's first cathedral and at the same time the most expensive building, was divided by its construction, or rather, its construction.
St. Peter was a disciple of Jesus and the first priest to go to Rome, and he is considered the progenitor of the Pope. He was killed by the Roman Emperor Nero. Later, during the Reign of Constantine, St. Peter's Basilica was built on his cemetery, which is also the main church of the Roman diocese, and many emperors such as Charlemagne and Otto the Great were crowned in St. Peter's Basilica.
Above: Statue of Peter and Papal Statue of St. Paul Pius VIII; he was the shortest pope of the 19th century, for a total of 2 years;
After more than a thousand years of ups and downs, the old St. Peter's Basilica is dilapidated and far from commensurate with the supremacy of the Pope in Christendom. Cathedrals in many parts of Europe are prettier than it, with the Cathedral of Pisa in Italy and the Cathedral of the Hundred Flowers in Florence far outpacing it in terms of size, grandeur and grandeur. So, in 1506, pope Julius II at the time ordered the reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica.
The Pope selected designers from the most famous masters of art, and finally even Michelangelo was eliminated. The Pope hired bramante, the 62-year-old, the most famous architect of the time, to preside over the construction. After he took over the project, he was not ready to repair the original church, but to rebuild it from another stove, and he demolished the old church, which was jokingly called "the master of demolition".
The construction plan that Blattman initially determined was a centralized plan of the Greek cross with a large dome in the center. Since this church surpasses all previous churches, the choice of a large dome scheme is the most emblematic of this transcendence. Previously, the world's famous religious buildings, the Pantheon in Rome, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul), and the Cathedral of Florets in Florence were all large domes.
Domes are symbols of the universe, and from an aesthetic point of view, curves look more comfortable than straight lines, as the architectural theorist Alberti argues— human beings have an instinctive preference for spherical shapes.
However, the centralized Greek cross layout is not very practical for churches, after all, churches are not built for just good looks, and the biggest function of churches is to gather. As a church, it is more appropriate to arrange the Latin cross.
In 1514, When Blattmann died, Raphael took over the construction of the project, and he changed Blattmann's Greek cross scheme to a Latin cross arrangement, that is, to lengthen the main hall along the length, according to the instructions of the new Pope Leo X (born in the Medici family). However, due to the shortage of funds and the religious revolution, the progress of the project was very slow, raphael died after 6 years of presiding over the construction of the project, and the project did not make much progress until Michelangelo took over the project in 1547.
Michelangelo was eliminated more than 40 years ago, and at the age of 72, the opportunity came to the door again. But he was reluctant to take over the project, he was so old, running all day on the site, plus it was the most concerned project at the time, there was a lot of debate, and the responsibility was great. But the Pope was optimistic about him, and he couldn't resign, so he put forward the conditions for taking office, and if I wanted to do it, I had to decide.
Michelangelo, a master artist, insisted on achieving Brattman's original centralized plan from an aesthetic point of view, changed the arrangement of the Latin cross, and demolished one that Raphael had already built. Ginger was still old and spicy, Michelangelo was experienced, and under his leadership the works went smoothly, and by the time of his death in 1564 most of the works had been completed and the dome was more than half built.
The domes designed by Michelangelo are structurally similar to those of Florence, both are double-layered domes. But Michelangelo's dome is more perfect than the florence's. Unlike the Florentine dome, which is octagonal in flat terms, it is a smooth circle composed of 16 lobes arcing, which looks fuller.
The diameter of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is 42 meters, which is similar to the diameter of the Pantheon and the Florence Dome, but its height is the highest, and the highest point of the dome is 137.7 meters, which is 3 times that of the Pantheon and 20 meters higher than the Florence Cathedral, achieving the purpose of transcendence. But Michelangelo was a very modest master, and when he talked about the topic of transcendence, he said that the dome of St. Peter's Basilica may surpass the Florence Cathedral in terms of scale, but from an artistic point of view, the florence dome cannot be surpassed.
After Michelangelo's death, with the intervention of the Church, the cathedral was changed from the Greek Cross to the Latin Cross, and the hall was lengthened to make it a vertical hall, and an antechamber was added to the doorway. That's what we see now. The Latin Cross won the final victory. Of course, it is indeed reasonable to use the function. Unfortunately, the elongated hall and vestibule blocked the unparalleled large dome, affecting the momentum outside the building, and it was a long way from the building to see the full view of the large dome.
Nevertheless, St. Peter's Basilica remains magnificent, magnificent, harmonious and just right.
... THE END...
Architecture is solidified music. - Goethe