Medieval review в июле дважды привлекает внимание к книге
которая осталась практически незамеченный, несмотря на солидность издания
и компетентность авторов >St. Peter's in the Vatican. Cambridge
(впрочем, может быть именно эта, солидность теперь вредит успеху
не помогли даже многочисленные иллюстрации и не столь высокая
для такого количества иллюстративного материала цена! рисунков больше чем страниц в ниге!
соотношение!338 ил.на 300 с.!
...так или иначе, оксфордское собрание исследований, связанных с ватиканской историей разных эпох, несомненно заслуживает внимания, и возможно получит его благодаря помощи американского коллеги.
В этой рецензии есть то, что необходимо современному читателю- не слишком упрощенный, хотя и
краткий! пересказ.дополнительные ссылки на полезный круг публикаций и авторов, связанных со сквозной темой для общей эрудиции... К сожалению то, что годится американскому читателю- сегодня несомненно будет полезно и русскому,поэтому привожу часть рецензии (по второму улучшенному варианту выступления).
и советую обратить внимание,как на толкового рецензента, так и на саму публикацию!
Brother Charles Hilken
St. Mary's College of California
chilken@stmarys-ca.edu
Tronzo, William, ed.
St. Peter's in the Vatican. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
This book will be necessary reading for anyone interested in the
history of the two Saint Peter's Basilicas. The essays give insight
into specific moments in the history of the buildings and, taken
together, allow the reader to see the significance of the whole. The
book becomes a model and goad for similar studies of other major
church buildings. Tronzo, the editor, makes the argument that the
book's copious illustrations could tell the history. Indeed, there are
338 illustrations in less than 300 pages of text.
The introduction begins in the middle of the history of St. Peter's,
right before the destruction of the old basilica. Tronzo neatly
characterizes the work of the Renaissance builders as the
rationalization of the medievalalert(a nod to Burckhardt). He describes
the continuities between the two basilicas as memories, a theme which
takes on special resonance in the second essay on
spolia. The
organization of the book is to be commended. There are eight essays,
all but one with footnotes following. A list of illustrations begins
the work and a selected bibliography and index complete it.
G. W. Bowersock, "Peter and Constantine", makes the case that
Constantine had nothing to do with the building of the basilica. The
argument is somewhat convincing with one defect. The proposal of the
translation of Peter's relics in the third century is labeled as
"extravagant speculation," a charge which is hard to align with the
work of Jose Ruysschaert, whose essay, "La tomba di Pietro. Nuove
considerazioni," in
Studi Romani 34.3 (1976), developed this
argument. It seems Bowersock did not know of this essay since it is
not cited. Bowersock is perhaps too cautious, for example, "The
translation of bones, and the tomb violations it entails, would be
inconceivable for the third century" (14). In light of the burying of
an entire cemetery to make way for a basilica in the fourth century,
it is hard to think of much else that would be inconceivable in the
preceding century.
Dale Kinney's essay, "Spolia", examines the ultimately ambiguous
regard for spolia which she defined as "artifacts made for one
physical and cultural context, and reused in another" (25). This
remarkably informative essay describes the use and reuse of pagan and
Christian spolia in the two basilicas. With painstaking care she maps
out the history of the placement and reception of twisted columns.
The same attention to detail is given to the origins, placement, and
reuse of the shafts of the Constantinian nave. Here Kinney notes
variety as an aesthetic at play.
The fourth essay, "
Est haec sacra principis aedes" by Antonio
Iacobini is dedicated to the iconographic programs of Innocent III and
Gregory IX in the apse and facade renovations respectively. It is
especially clear in this essay as with all that leading scholars in
the history of Saint Peter's are at work. Iacobini uses visual
highlights--drawings and remains of apse and facade and the Limoges
statuettes that once adorned the confession--to show the relationship
of the artistic programs to the papal political philosophies of the
two popes.
The theme of papal theories driving artistic schemes under Innocent
III and Gregory IX leads nicely to the fifth essay, which begins with
Nicholas V's attempt to restore visual unity to St. Peter's that would
mirror the unity of the Church under papal primacy. Christof Thoenes,
in "Renaissance at St. Peter's," describes the fifteenth-century
basilica as an "immense repertoire of histories" lacking order. The
popes of the sixteenth century would add size as a theme in the
building renewal. Starting with Bramante the architects emerge in
their own right as shapers of the visual and spiritual message.
Henry A. Millon's essay, "Michelangelo to Marchionni. 1546-1784," is
an architectural history of the present basilica and is rich in
historical detail. There is a fascinating argument about
Michelangelo's placement of windows in order to use light to re-center
the altar over the tomb. Light here became an element of form. The
treatment of Michelangelo is a state of the question of his part in
the design and execution of the building. The figure of the floor plan
of the interior (#103) is too small to be of use. The book could have
benefited greatly from a legible illustration in this regard. For a
successful use of such a plan compare Antonio Pinelli, ed.,
La
basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano (Modena: 2000), vol. 1, pp. 340
and 345.
By far the longest essay is Irving Lavin's "Bernini at St. Peter's:
Singularis in Singulis, in Omnibus Unicus," which is 142 of the
320 pages of the book. The extraordinary length is unexplained but
not without merit. The essay is a brilliant treatment of Bernini as an
artist driven by his understanding of Catholic faith and the
possibilities of expressing it in stone and precious metals. Credit
is given by the author to his research assistant, Uta Nitschke-Stumpf,
and his editor, Mary Elizabeth Lewis, for assistance in the
considerable expansion of an essay previously published in the four-
volume work edited by Pinelli cited above. Lavin links the program of
design in Bernini's time to the Council of Trent's emphasis on
performance and involvement of the faithful. He gives a deep reading
to each of the major contributions of Bernini, making of the artist
something of a theologian. He describes the baldacchino as a rendering
in stone of a non-architectural processional covering, the placement
of which unites the three themes of the tomb of the apostle, the
Eucharist, and the papacy. Lavin analyzes the debate over Borromini's
part in the design of the baldacchino and even draws a possible
connection to the Battle of Lepanto. Each of the major works of
Bernini are treated: the placement of Paul III's tomb and the design
of Urban VIII's; the design of the crossing at the papal altar with
the giant statues at the piers of the dome; the nave decoration; the
piazza and colonnades; the monumental chair of Peter; the Scala Regia
and statue of Constantine; the Ponte Sant'Angelo; and the sacrament
altar. The essay ends with an evaluation of Bernini as a man of faith
who merged painting, sculpture, and architecture in service of the
Christian doctrine of redemption. There is also a lovely homage to
Richard Krautheimer's book,
The Rome of Alexander VII, 1655-
1667 (1985). The artistry of Lavin's Bernini is comparable to
Millon's Michelangelo on the point of the artists' use of light, which
in Bernini's case is especially evident in his work on the monumental
Charlemagne statue and the Altar of the Sacrament. It is impossible
to capture all of the rich insight of this essay in the confines of
this review. Much more could be said about Lavin's attention to
Bernini's architectural designs intended to give the experience of
liturgical drama across a giant stage and above all to the many ways
that Eucharistic theology shaped Bernini's masterpieces...
полные выходные данные коллективной монографии:
Tronzo, William, ed.
St. Peter's in the Vatican. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005. Pp. 336. $133.00. ISBN-13:
9780521640961.
