The Vatican Palace and Gardens Seen from the Dome of St. Peter’s, 1870

This article explores the renovations of the ceremonial rooms of the Vatican Palace executed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger under Pope Paul III Farnese (r. 1534-49). The focus of the investigation is the evolution of Sangallo's design for the Cappella Paolina. From the evidence it is clear that the various ceremonial and liturgical functions performed in the chapel defined the ultimate design and the strategic, yet problematic, location at the nexus of the papal palace and St. Peter's basilica. The Cappella Paolina replaced the medieval Capella parva and assumed its functions, which necessitated that the new chapel be built in an analogous form and site in order to maintain papal ceremonial continuity. A new look at documentary evidence provides a revised chronology for the construction of the main ceremonial spaces and a new sequencing and interpretation of the surviving drawings.

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Introduction

The Many Deaths of Peter and Paul ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198767183.003.0008 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

David L. Eastman

Keyword(s):

Christian Art ◽

The Cross ◽

Saint Peter ◽

Vatican Palace

In the Cappella Paolina in the Vatican Palace hangs Michelangelo’s Crucifixion of Saint Peter, one of the most recognizable images in Christian art. As a crowd of onlookers watches, the aged and surprisingly muscular apostle lies nailed to a cross, his intense eyes glaring directly at the viewer. One soldier digs a hole for his cross, while seven others struggle to raise the cross into position so that Peter will be suspended upside down....

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Review: Bernini's Scala Regia at the Vatican Palace: Architecture, Sculpture, and Ritual by Tod A. Marder

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians ◽

10.2307/991324 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 509-510

Author(s):

Sarah McPhee

Keyword(s):

Vatican Palace

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