Christian Architecture: The Vatican Architecture

Of the forty-nine prints and five drawings selected by the author,Suzanne Boorsch,Assistant Curator of Prints and Photographs,only the drawings and three prints come from other collections.Her compilation in its comprehensiveness truly demonstrates the universlity of the Metropolitan's collection of prints and illustrated books.Among the sources used for this publication are the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493,Antoine Lafrery's sixteenth-century Speculum Romae Magnificentiae,Domenico Fontana's Della transportatione dell' obelisco vaticano, of art as well as fascinating documents of the most dynamic centuries in the creation of the architecture of he Vatican.-Dust jacket.

It was the splendor--and the scandal--of the age, the defining event of the high Renaissance. In 1506, the ferociously ambitious Renaissance Pope Julius II tore down the most sacred shrine in Europe--the millennium-old St. Peter's Basilica built by the Emperor Constantine over the apostle's grave--to build a better basilica. Construction of the new St. Peter's spanned two centuries, embroiled 27 popes, and consumed the genius of the greatest artists of the age--Michelangelo, Bramante, Raphael, and Bernini. As the basilica rose, modern Rome rose with it, as glorious as the city of the Caesars. But the cost was unimaginable: the new basilica provoked the Protestant Reformation, dividing the Christian world for all time.--From publisher description.

The Facade by Carlo Maderno (1556-1629) is 116 meters long and,including the statues,53 meters high,with an area of 7,300 square meters.Including the various architectural extensions it covers a total area of 10,500 square meters.
The Work was done in 20 months.During this time 70 persons were involved: 3 architects,1 assistant,1 designer,2 employees,3 smiths,2carpenters,1 plumber, 8 manual workers,2 mosaic workers, 27 bricklayers,3 painters,7 scaffolding technicians and 10 stonemasons.
Also involved were:
79,274 working hours;15,960 4-meter wooden beams;891 2-meter wooden beams; 58,547 meters of tubing;35,066 right-angle joints; 115 metal ladders for passage from one level to another.
The 13 Statues above the Facade represent the Saviour,St. John the Baptist and the eleven Apostles with the symbol of martyrdom.Each statue,measuring approximately 6 meters high without the base,has been fitted with hundreds of reinforcements of various sizes.The statues of St.Peter and St.Paul,also restored,are at the foot of the steps leading up to the Basilica.
The To Clocks of Giuseppe Valadier(1762-1839)
-are: on the north east the "Ultramontano"
-and on the south east the "all 'Italiana".
The faces of the clocks have a diameter of 4 meters and are made of mosaic tesserae of different colors,each measuring 1square centimeter.
The Five Iron Gates giving entrance to the Atrium,decorated in brass with crests and ornaments,bear the coat-of -arms of the Pope in whose pontificate they were constructed: of Pope Paul V Borghese (1605-1621),the central gate,of Urban VIII Barberini(1623-1644),those in the middle, of Pious VI Braschi (1775-1779),those at the ends.
Dedicatory Inscription.
The letters of the dedication of the Basilica are 110 centimeters high.Where needed, blue ,mosaic teserae were added to restore the letters.-Back cover.

The small retreat designed by Pirro Ligorio for Pius IV in the Vatican gardens was the last in an extraordinary series of papal villas built between the end of the fifteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth.Although the Casino has been the subject of earlier study,its intricate decorations have never before been interpreted.Graham Smith's investigation of the stucco and fresco programs leads to a new grasp of their meaning,which relates the Casino firmly to its contemporary context and in particular to the ideas of its architect and the Pope himself. To understand the exterior stucco decorations,the author examined Pirro Ligorio's unpublished encyclopedia of antiquity in Naples and other manuscripts in Rome and Turin.The evidence of these documents proves that the classical and allegorical scenes were selected by the architect himself. Inside the Casino,the ceiling paintings are Christian in theme.Drawing on the patristic writings,primarily those of Augustine,Jerome,and Hrabanus Maurus, the author argues that the Pope himself was probably responsible for planning the subjects and their arrangement.He relates the decoration o the Casino to the attitudes of Pius IV at his accession and in the years immediately following,particularly in light of the starins imposed by the Protestants and the Council of Trent.