St. Peter's Basilica is a grand piece of art, but one bit I've never been fond of is Bernini's altar canopy (baldachin if you want to sound smart). For that reason I didn't bother spending the time to take a good picture of it. Sorry about that. I should have had more self discipline.
Anyway, here are three photos of the baldachin. The top one is a basic picture. The second one shows the top of the canopy. The bottom one shows the main dome of St. Peter's above the baldachin. This is the dome, the Michelangelo masterpiece that inspired legions of dome makers for the next couple of centuries.
glad to see based on the date of your photos that you traveled at a very low point of delta cases inItaly
I agree with you about the canopy.
Now only if they let you use your drone 😉
That is hilarious. Now I'm going to be thinking about The Drone of St. Peter's for the rest of the evening.
I've known a few priests in my time that could drone with the best of them
I don't like that canopy thing, either. But I do love a nice cathedral, and this one's a peach.
Took 'em over a hundred years to build that.
MMMMM???
Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.
Wonder where the money to build it came from. The rich? HaHaHaHa!!
The poor most certainly.
A lot of builders and artists made a good living off of it.
I love the way it’s decorated at Christmas and Easter. Stunning. Almost makes me want to believe. The music and setting are great works of art. I do appreciate that.
Yeah, I’d rather see cat and monkey pictures
The canopy is about as gaudy as anything in the basilica, although I was impressed with the wobbling columns. I was on a tour and remember the guide contrasting the canopy with Bernini's work on the apse - an uplifting display that you can see behind the canopy in one of your pictures. The apse was designed and completed several decades later, when he had better taste, I believe. Not Catholic, not even a believer, but the place is pretty amazing.