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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 9
Lesson 2: Italy- Restoring ancient sculpture in Baroque Rome
- Bernini, Pluto and Proserpina
- Bernini, David
- Bernini, David
- Bernini, David
- Bernini, Apollo and Daphne
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino
- Bernini, Bust of Medusa
- Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
- Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
- Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
- Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter)
- Bernini, Saint Peter's Square
- Bernini, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
- Geometry and motion in Borromini's San Carlo
- Carracci, Christ Appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way
- Caravaggio, Narcissus at the Source
- Caravaggio, Calling of Saint Matthew
- Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew
- Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)
- Caravaggio, Crucifixion of Saint Peter
- Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus
- Caravaggio, Deposition
- Caravaggio, Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness
- Caravaggio, The Flagellation of Christ
- Caravaggio, Death of the Virgin
- Caravaggio and Caravaggisti in 17th-Century Europe
- Reni, Aurora
- Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes
- Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes
- Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
- Gentileschi, Conversion of the Magdalene
- Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding her Thigh
- Guercino, Saint Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin
- Il Gesù, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco
- Pozzo, Saint Ignatius Chapel, Il Gesù
- Pozzo, Glorification of Saint Ignatius, Sant'Ignazio
- The altar tabernacle, Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
- Pierre Le Gros the Younger, Stanislas Kostka on his Deathbed
- Baroque art in Italy
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Bernini, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, 1658-70, Rome; commissioned by Cardinal Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili for the nearby Jesuit seminary. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- What about the ultimate death bed @?? 8:20(13 votes)
- He's talking about Pierre Le Gros the Younger's Stanislas Kostka on his Deathbed, for which there is a separate video.(14 votes)
- What was the Jesuit order, which commissioned Bernini to build Sant'Andrea al Quirinale in 1658?
The Sacred Destinations website, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/, has an interesting webpage dedicated to the church here, http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-sant-andrea-al-quirinale.(7 votes)- The Jesuit Order (also known as the Society of Jesus) is a priestly society created by Saint Ignatius of Loyola to teach the faithful, spread the faith to far-off lands, serve Christ and fight heresy.(5 votes)
- The two colored columns made of marble are really unique. Is that painted or does it just develop that amazing contrast as it forms? I have never seen marble like this before, and it's quite beautiful.(3 votes)
- That is the actual stone, it is not painted.(5 votes)
- Does the sunlight from Bernini's hidden windows impact the painting of St. Andrew in this case? Has it been protected or conserved in some way?(3 votes)
- Has s the painting been damaged by the bright sunlight requiring more frequent restoration?(1 vote)
- With a Jesuit Pope now how will this small church fit into the scheme of things in Rome? Again Bernini makes his art look like setting a stage up. Does anybody else see this?(2 votes)
- Yes, I definitely see a kind of "theatrical" display in Bernini's art. Your question made me think immediately of his 'Ecstasy of Saint Theresa.' He used flat canvas, sculptures, as well as three-dimensional structures and natural lighting to illuminate his "stage."
This reminds me of a friend of mine who painted with a type of clay that he use to produce a three-dimensional painting. The clay would stay relatively soft and pliable so it was delicate but the result was phenomenal.(1 vote)
- Does anyone else hear static through the video. When I pause it, the static stops. When I start the video again it pops up. It's not constant though only comes up every now and then, one of the moments I heard it was in. Please tell me if its my end or the video. Thanks :) 4:59(2 votes)
- Who painted the picture of St Andrew?(1 vote)
- Over the High Altar is an oil painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (1668) by French painter Guillaume Courtois,
Found it at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant'Andrea_al_Quirinale#Interior(3 votes)
- Who is that other person talking besides Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris?(1 vote)
- What are ellipses?(1 vote)
- Who is talking in this video?(1 vote)
- Frank Dabbell (the guy with the English accent), Beth Harris, and Steven Zucker.(2 votes)
Video transcript
(piano playing) Dr. Beth Harris: We're standing, the three of us, outside of
Sant' Andrea al Quirinale. I don't know how my Italian sounded there. Male: Perfect, perfect. Beth: A church by Bernini. Male: A small church because there was not much space to build it. He was told by the Jesuits that he should build and design the architecture within this limited area. And he's done a magnificent thing. He's used what's called a
giant order of architecture, which means that the steps
that lead up to the church or the porch and the whole
body of the church itself are enclosed within a
single, giant pilaster on each side and a huge elevation, which gives it a monumentality that really makes you forget how
relatively small it is. He also has the steps
spilling out into the street in a series of concentric
ovals, like ripples. He loved movement. There's always movement
in his architecture which prepares us for the inside as we will see, the
inside has an oval plan. Let's go inside. Dr. David Drogin: Absolutely. I can't wait to see it. So, we've just entered into the church and we're in this beautiful oval form and that's actually ... As we walk in, it opens more broadly to
our left and our right. Male: It's a horizontal oval. Not what you would expect. Well, first of all, a
church you would erect a quadrangular space of some kind, a cross shaped space and
this too is something which could not have happened
during the Renaissance era. There would have been a circular plan. This is an oval one and
it's interesting to see that we'll come to an oval
again just down the street with Borromini, is often
compared as a kind of rival to this and in some ways it is as Camillo. David: It also seems ...
Saint Peter's Square. Male: Yes, which is elliptical actually. It's two ellipses. In that sense of, of well, it's like the difference between classical ballet and modern ballet. There's a sense of, sort of, expansion while keeping to certain symmetries. This is rigorously symmetrical. The thing that most strikes us as we go in is beyond and above the
altar we have light. It looks like theatrical light,
but it's actually real light filtered in through a
window that we can't see. Beth: Bernini does that often. Male: He loves doing
that. He does that ... David: In the Saint Teresa. Male: ... in the Saint
Teresa and in Saint Peter's and it filters down on
this group of tumbling. When they're moving up
and down at the same time, joyous, musical angels
and cherubs set against massive rays of light and they're made of stucco and gold and bronze. Beth: Let's go a bit closer. Male: Yes. Male: Well, as we approach the altar in the curve of the oval, we have a richly appointed altar and seats and all of that, but we have a central painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew. Sant' Andrea is Saint Andrew in Italian. That is the dedicatee of the church and he is very important
in the Christian faith not just for Catholics. He is the brother of
Saint Peter so there are many churches dedicated to him in Rome. And he is the figure
nailed to a X shaped cross which we call Saint Andrew's Cross and that is what is framed
within these cherubs and angels and fictive, but
very solid rays of light. David: What's so interesting
is that the painting itself is framed in the same marble ... Beth: As the columns and pilasters. David: Yeah, so that it
really is not a painting as we would normally understand it within an architectural space. Male: It's fully integrated. Again, it is that
combination of solid and void of rich material and
sculpture in architecture and painting, it is this
complete work of art again and theatricality. And if we get too close, as it were, we're standing right in front of the altar and look up, we see the
source of that light that the congregation
wouldn't normally see and whether it's daylight or electric, but there is space for daylight. That is what bathes the area in light. David: This beautiful second lantern. Male: Exactly. David: Yeah, yeah. Male: And that, of course, is pure theatrical expedience. The color of the columns and the pilasters and the gorgeous colors of the different stone materials that we
used to build this church are earthly colors. Some people have compared these columns to, I would think of prosciutto, maybe. Some people say hamburger meat. We're not being flippant. We're looking at browns and whites and streaks of what would be
the fat in the prosciutto, but this relates to food
in a perfectly serious way. That is something of the earth. All of that gives way when
your eyes are taken up into the vaulting of the whole church to pure colors and
they're Heavenly colors. Down below it's earth
and up above it's only white and gold and those
are the colors of paradise and as we'll see, Saint
Andrew, dying on the cross in the painting yields
to a statue actually exploding out of the level down below into the upper level and
that is a white statue and he's being carried up to Heaven. Beth: And that gold in the
lantern. That's just ... Male: Yes, well that gold
is enhanced, of course, by having stained glass. A simple expedient ancient landmark and we simply use glass that
is, in this case, yellow so even on a cloudy day like today it's gives this sense of a glow
like the Holy Spirit above. Beth: Heavenly. Male: And that is what
is shown in that lantern. Beth: In the center. Male: The very top of the building. David: What I'm really taken by is the way that the structural ribs of the dome are structured as rays that
emanate from the dove. Male: It's a two way thing and you've hit it on the head. It both emanates from
that dove and brings us divine grace which comes
from the Holy Spirit an inspiration, but also
it leads the eye upward. Whichever way you look
at it, it works to go from this very decorated
oval shape that we have below to something that resolves into, as I said, pure gold and white and light. And that vaulting, that dome itself, which is so oval is full of people in white. Now, they're made of stucco. These are statues of both men and boys. The boys, of course, are little cherubs. We can see them with the angels. The men are fishermen and they have nets and this is to remind us that Andrew was a fisherman like his brother Saint Peter. They're the first two
apostles who were called to the ministry by Jesus of Nazareth. Beth: Some of the figures seem to be moving from the lantern down. Male: Yes, in the
Renaissance, well let's say 150 years before this,
Mantena's famous ... Beth: Camera de Espose. ... Camera de Espose. The view up or down according to which way you look at it, included figures that look down on us. Beth: Yeah. Male: And we have the illusion that Beth: Exactly. ... and this does that perfectly. We have this dissolving of the earthly and the spirituals by having figures midway between one and the other and none is more obvious
than Andrew himself, who stands in a white statue
in the broken pediment. And the pediment is broken
so that he can be released from earth up to Heaven where he is going. David: And there's the fact
that this contrast then between the suffering of
Andrew in the painting and then the spiritual representation. Male: The spiritual release and eternity. And remember that everyone at that time would have believed in death as something that is almost comforting. We refer to this in the Jesuit, this God's time is the best time. Beth: The release from the body. ... of course, the release. The absence of what we now have as fear and apprehension and even terror of death because we don't think
much about the afterlife. Everyone was sure that they were going to an eternal place. Not of ultimate happiness, you had to work your way through and that's
what purgatory is for and as long as you weren't going to hell, but it was a certainty
and it was something that was seen as better than this life. And death was, of course, ubiquitous because of infant
mortality, current outbreaks of plague. Beth: People lived with
it in a way that we don't. Male: People lived with it. We absolutely don't. We don't
even like to talk about it. Beth: That's right. Male: And this kind of
painting and sculpture and architecture is also reassuring and comforting even. It sounds paradoxical, but about death. Well, it's not death. It's a new life. Beth: That's right. I
think often about that when we see images of saints or the death of Christ or the death of Mary, being at a death bed was not unusual. Male: No. Beth: You know, they
could relate to that. because we're going to ... I'm going to show you
now, the ultimate deathbed in Rome. Beth: Let's go see. Male: And that is a statue upstairs behind the church. Let's go there. (piano playing)