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Subject Information |
When Carlo Maderno built the extension of St. Peter's, an addition that Pope Paul V considered necessary to satisfy the church's cultural and liturgical needs, he managed to do so without disturbing what Michelangelo had accomplished with his centralized plan. This great achievement was highly praised by most 17th-century and later writers, who extolled the gigantic proportions and majestic beauty of the extension. As De Rossi wrote in his Ritratto di Roma Moderna (1652): 'Anyone contemplating the new church's majesty and grandeur has to admit... that its beauty must be the work of angels or its immensity the work of giants. Because its magnificent proportions are such that... neither the Greeks, the Egyptians nor the Jews, nor even the mighty Romans ever produced a building as excellent and vast as this one...'. Even so, Maderno's work was also criticized during the 17th and 18th centuries, not only because it changed and reduced the importance of Michelangelo's dome, but also because of its inevitable relationship to Michelangelo's centralized church. It was also hampered by restrictions that Michelangelo had not considered, liturgical and functional requirements that were fulfilled in Maderno's time by the new choir, new sacristy, the bell towers, the benediction loggia, etc. A few historical notes can summarize the main stages in the construction of the monumental facade under Maderno's supervision, describing the restrictions overcome by complex consolidation work on both the terrain and the foundations. In 1606, three years after being nominated architect of St. Peter's (together with Giovanni Fontana), Carlo Maderno won the competition for building the extension to the Basilica. Areas cleared by the demolition (decided in 1605) of the Constantinian Basilica, and of subsequent additions made during the Middle Ages and up to the 15th century, all had to be included in the new plan. Source: www.eni.it/english/notizie/mediateca/special/s_pietro/int_benedetti1.html 'Archival documents tell us, for example, that travertine slabs were first put on the facade towards the end of October, 1610. Over seven hundred masons were employed in the task. At the same time, the masons were also used to 'fill in the foundations, knock-down the bell-tower, lower the Navicella mosaic showing Christ and St.Peter into the Swiss Guard's courtyard and do other work around St.Peter's'. Ongoing work at that time was not, in fact, circumscribed to just the area of the facade. They were hard at work inside the new building and were still digging some of the foundations, while other sections of the foundations were being filled in. Traditionally, when the foundations of a new building were being filled, the ancient Romans would put coins or medals in the earth to bring good luck. The Congregation of the Fabbrica revived this custom, and had three hundred coins minted in 1608 to put in the facade's foundations. Once the blocks of travertine arrived in Rome, they were handed over to the stone-masons. A contract stipulated with them in 1611, which still exists in the Archives, states that they must use the greatest care in finishing the travertine for the facade: the stone must not be 'stuccoed or patched in any way' and if by some awful chance they did have to patch it, the dugs had to be dove-tailed and made of travertine' Source: www.enitecnologie.it/en/spietro/century.htm |
