Bernini's Scala Regia at the Vatican Palace
Bernini's Scala Regia at the Vatican Palace
Out of Print
Bernini's Scala Regia is the paradigm of the Baroque aesthetic. Combining art and architecture, sculpture and decoration in an illusionistic ensemble, this monumental staircase served as the main entrance to the Vatican Palace, as well as the principal connection between the palace and St Peter's basilica. The monument also encapsulates the essence of Bernini's working procedure as architect and designer as well as his creative response to both structural challenges and iconographic concerns. This book is the first complete account of the Scala Regia in the context of the long building history of the Vatican Palace, the history of St Peter's, and the architecture and sculpture of Bernini.
- Essential for understanding the texture and subtlety of Bernini's design capacity
- Essential to the history of the Vatican Palace
- Essential for a grasp of the complexities of designing and building in seventeenth-century Rome
Reviews & endorsements
'… this is an admirable study of a great architectural and sculptural monument'. The Art Book
' … a thoroughly worthwhile and illuminating achievement.' Apollo
'Marder's work as a whole should be viewed as a thoroughly worthwhile and illuminating achievement.' Christopher Baker, Apollo Magazine
Product details
June 1997Hardback
9780521431989
337 pages
224 × 288 × 30 mm
1.545kg
296 b/w illus.
Unavailable - out of print July 2004
Table of Contents
- 1. A tour of the monument
- 2. The palace entrance and stairs during the Renaissance
- 3. Paul V's new palace entrance
- 4. Bernini's designs from Colonnade to Corridor, 1656–59
- 5. Bernini's designs for the North Corridor, 1659–62
- 6. Bernini's staircase, 1663–66
- 7. The design and execution of Bernini's statue of Constantine, 12654–1670
- 8. Meanings of the Constantine imagery
- 9. Iconographic, ritual, and historical contexts for the ensemble.
