VATICANO Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

The first St. Peter's Basilica was ordered built by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century a.D.on the site of the Apostle's tomb. Begun in 315 and completed in 349, the basilica was a splendid building with five naves, rich with mosaics, frescoes and work's of art. In the 15th century, after over a thousand years, it had fallen into such precarious conditions that in 1452 Pope Nicholas V decided to have it rebuilt, though work was not begun until 1506 with Pope Julius II. The task was assigned to Bramante, who created a design in the form of a Greek cross. A few years later Bramante died and leadership of the work was taken over by Giuliano da Sangallo, Raffaello, B. Peruzzi, and Michelangelo in 1546, who returned to the original design by Bramante and conceived a building in the form of a Greek cross dominated by an enormous cupola. Upon his death (1564) the work was carried on by Vignola, Pirro Ligorio and, for the cupola, by Giacomo della Porta. Following the desire of Pope Paul V , Carlo Maderno later changed the Greek cross form into a Latin cross, extending the front arm by adding three more chapels, and built the facade. On the 18th of november 1626 Pope Urban III consecrated the new basilica.

Isabelle, rdans59, jurgen, joseelias, elena, pamastro, GrahamB, Curioso, burdallet, bfly, TheG1, Loucoz has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

rudymalou (800) 2004-06-20 15:17

Impressive spiral, great perspective. Your conversion to BW is great. I like the small people, especially the couple whose man has an hat. Good job!

jurgen (1994) 2004-06-20 15:24

Excellent. I think that not including the lower part of the picture (to exclude a part of the spiral) is interesting here because it leaves us to guess how it could be. The repetitive patterns —steps and molds— are nice. I like the most the group of people climbing up the stairs.

zto (292) 2004-06-20 15:43

JOrge, this is fantastic. Great angle you have choosen. With all those people, B&W was defenatly the way to go.

rdans59 (263) 2004-06-20 16:18

Wonderful perspective and framing. It gives the image a great dynamism. I like the choice of B&W. Your note is also really interesting. You succeeded in concentrating some centuries of architectural history in few lines. Well done!

Isabelle (9014) 2004-06-20 16:21

muito linda sua foto, muito extraordinário este lugar.
sua foto mostra bem a escala, e, a propósito, como somos pequeninos...
e pensar que é apenas um dos muitos detalhes da basílica.
excelente nota.

joseelias (367) 2004-06-20 17:18

Boa imagem Jorge! Bom PB e um trabalho na luz e contrastes excelente. Gosto bastante da forma como a espiral é interceptada em vários pontos e do ligeiro blur pelo movimento nas pesoas do lado direito que cria uma sensação de movimento interessante.

elena (1054) 2004-06-20 17:39

excellent point of view, interesting silouettes passing by, good chice to show it in B/W, and informative note to go with it... this photo is ready to be printed, framed and hung on a wall!

Caffeine (194) 2004-06-20 23:00

Excellent work, conversion to BW is great, and I love the geometry very much.

pamastro (7213) 2004-06-21 2:04

Very nicely captured. The entire spiral is great. It really draws me right down the stairwell. The people add a good energy to this with their feel of movement. The stairs of course flow so smoothly, also, that they seem to inspire the mind to feel movement alone. You really captured that feel perfectly here with this point of view. Great job.

baska (0) 2004-06-21 2:25

Wonderful photo!
beata

GrahamB (939) 2004-06-21 16:53

Excellent shot. I like the off-centre framing so you don't see all of the spiral. A reat B&W picture.

bfly (5737) 2005-01-15 15:23

very very beautiful composition..I liked a lot that you did not include all the spiral..
excellant note too..thanks..

TheG1 (1447) 2005-04-03 6:04

Very nice pattern and good color selection.
The composition is excellent! The centre of the staircase is in the bottom which leads the viewer to go over the entire staircase.

I wish I could see more notes like yours.

Amir

juanjose (532) 2005-10-18 15:46