DELIGHT IN SAN PIETRO

Piazza San Pietro is a delightful piazza in many respects. It responds to the human compulsion to compare and relate the known to the new in a number of ways.

Proximity: The Piazza San Pietro is just down the Via della Conciliazione from the Castel San Angelo. It is immediately viewable from a long way off. It works from a long distance, slowly approaching it and noticing new things as one moves closer. It also works as one approaches from the North off Via Ottaviano, almost stumbling across it as you move along the old imposing Vatican walls.

Repetition: The Piazza San Pietro is founded on the principal of repetition. It is almost perfectly symmetrical. It is so symmetrical that when the renovation of one of the capstone pediments of the colonnade fell behind, they covered the opposite pediment in a false scaffold in order to make it symmetrical, opting to maintain the symmetrical repetition of the space rather than allow it to be broken.

Simplest + Largest Figures: The piazza is comprised almost completely of simple figures, the most obvious being the obelisk in the middle, and the squared basilica with its semicircular dome on top. The largest figure is debatably the ovular plan of the piazza, it is simultaneously the least obvious.

Figure + Ground Relationship: The slope of the site appears at first glance to be flat, but in reality is sloped a great deal towards Saint Peters. This subtle shift upwards makes Saint Peters even more imposing, as the base of it sits well above eye level of the viewer in the piazza, playing up the tension of the figure and ground relationship.

Proportion: The design of the Piazza San Pietro was governed a great deal by the historically existing structures on the site. The Vatican apartments and service buildings had to be maintained to the North, as well as the obelisk and a fountain by Maderno. Bernini unified these elements, made them symmetrical, and used massive columns of a giant order in order to make the colonnade enclose them without feeling weak or timid in their attempt to contain.

Scale/ Rhythm: The rhythm of the space is constant. Bernini used the same Doric column to wrap a colonnade around the perimeter of the space, creating a constant pattern. The fountains are symmetrical, as well as the lighting, and the brickwork and geometric layout is Cartesian.

Texture: Almost completely travertine marble for the structures. Which create a flat, dull finish background for the shiny cobblestones and brass light posts. The contrast is beautiful both when the sun strikes the piazza during the day and when the light illuminates the piazza in the evening.

Ornament: Is used to create a sense of tension. The Doric columns wrapping the piazza are bare and monolithic, while the detailed statues on top are lovingly sculpted. The obelisk is smooth and mostly unadorned while the brass lights are baroque and dripping with ornamentation. Saint Peters finds a happy middle ground between the two with its classical renaissance façade and dome.