Early Book Collections | Art and Architecture

Mirabile Dictu! Moving the Vatican Obelisk, 1586-87

These two large-scale and breathtakingly detailed engravings record the process, and aftermath, of one of the most suspenseful and (upon completion) momentous events in the history of Renaissance architectural engineering: the moving of the vast Vatican obelisk from its ancient position at the side of the old St. Peter’s basilica in Rome to its current location at the center of the Piazza San Pietro facing the frontal façade of the new St. Peter’s in 1586. Situated for some fifteen hundred years at the south crossing of Emperor Constantine’s ancient basilica (and, before that, at the center of Nero’s pagan circus), in moving the obelisk Domenico Fontana achieved what many thought impossible. This extraordinary spectacle went off without a hitch, though not without inspiring several apocryphal stories. According to one piece of lore, the pope ordered complete silence during the entire affair on pain of excommunication, his herald marking the start of the obelisk’s 275-yard sojourn with a trumpet blast and declaring its end by the ringing of a sacred bell. The silence tale seems unlikely, for the immense achievement took several months to complete, as does another apocryphal tale that the endless miles of ropes overheated and had to be splashed at the last minute with holy water.

This technical achievement was unprecedented. Originally taken from ancient Egypt as imperial booty by the Caesars of Rome, by the Renaissance Europeans had literally forgotten how to erect, let alone move at any distance, these gigantic monoliths, least of all the still-standing 327-ton and 83-foot-tall red granite Vatican obelisk. The task required the coordinated efforts of some 907 workers, 75 horses, 40 massive capstans, 5 gigantic levers, and were observed throughout by hundreds of privileged onlookers from atop St. Peter’s and nearly every rampart of Vatican City.

The first of these two separately issued prints is a rare first edition of the etched plate depicting the relocation of the obelisk; it is also enormous in size, represented in three joined folio sheets (114 x 50.8 cm at the plate mark). The piece was executed in Rome in August 1586 by the engraver Natale Bonifacio after a design by Domenico Fontana and the Modenese painter Giovanni Guerra, and published and sold by Bartolomeo Grassi, extraordinarily while the obelisk project was still in progress. The initial lowering of the obelisk depicted here occurred on April 30, though Fontana spent the next four months preparing the prone obelisk to be rolled to its new location, beginning August 30. It was subsequently hoisted and fixed onto its new pedestal beginning September 10. The print thus represents an official “eyewitness” account of the event, commemorating the first phase of this miracle of engineering while promoting the still unachieved final phase of the re-erection of the monolith before the largest church on earth. At the center of this sweeping view of the south side of St. Peter’s, the obelisk appears encased in a framework of wooden beams. Its one thousand plus human figures range from gawking onlookers to laborers engaged in turning the great machine works Fontana called the castello—a twin tower made of huge timbers erected on both sides of the obelisk that simultaneously combined the functions of scaffolding and crane.

A detailed key delineates each of the specialized crews and their roles in the larger project, and even marks special barricades manned by Swiss Guards for the purpose of crowd control. Statistics on the size of the monolith are provided “because this image cannot depict the full height of the obelisk,” which would extend well beyond the upper frame of the print at scale. While the etching has great pictorial sophistication and offers a stunning view of the western portion of the soon to be demolished ancient basilica’s nave, the eastern end of the New St. Peter’s, still uncapped by a dome, presents the only other architectural structure to challenge the obelisk in height. The affair was later documented by Fontana in a book-length explication Della trasportatione dell’obelisco (1590), of which the Sheridan Libraries possess two copies, one at the George Peabody Library.

The second, single-sheet print represents the conclusion of Fontana’s great enterprise: the ceremonial blessing of the obelisk. With the death of Sixtus V in 1590, new plans extended the length of the nave considerably, transforming the basilica from Michelangelo’s centrally planned design into a traditional Latin cross conceived by the architect Carlo Maderno (built between 1606-15). This etching thus constitutes a highly unusual temporal hybrid representing, concomitantly, a contemporary event that took place at a specific date in time—the consecration of the obelisk—and a prospective, idealized view of St. Peter’s façade that would never be realized. Maderno’s extension has been criticized for centuries since it conceals the original prospect of the Michelangelo’s magnificent dome to onlookers standing directly before it. The present consecration print was the fourth collaborative Bonifacio-Fontana-Guerra-Grassi effort associated with this great event.

The action in the foreground documents the procession and ceremony to exorcise and reconsecrate the pagan obelisk, which had been crowned, and thus symbolically subjugated, by the papal insignia and Christian cross. Text at the left provides the names of the most prominent participants, while a cartouche in the upper-central portion of the sheet describes the events of the day. At the upper right is a further textual outline of the physical characteristics of the obelisk, and inset are texts of the recently engraved inscriptions on the new base for the obelisk. At the bottom left is a printed indulgence to be granted to those who pray in the presence of the cross that tops the obelisk. In the distance stands the idealized image of Michelangelo’s western, frontal façade, ironically described here as “the design of the new basilica of Saint Peter’s at the Vatican, which all hope for” (Formae Novae Basilicae D. Petri in Vaticano quam Omnes Sperant).

Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana brought the dome of St. Peter’s to completion in 1590, the last year of the reign of Sixtus V. His successor, Gregory XIV, saw Fontana complete the massive lantern while to next pope, Clement VIII, ordered a great cross raised atop the lantern. In February 1606, under Pope Paul V, the dismantling of the remaining parts of the old Constantinian basilica finally commenced. Carlo Maderno extended the nave, completing the narthex and façade (1607–15). The Piazza di San Pietro in its present arrangement was constructed between 1656-67 under Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who inherited the location of the Vatican obelisk from these tremendous labors of the preceding eight decades, making it the central element of his embracing colonnade design.

Both prints are quite rare, as only four examples of the 1586 three-sheet etching are recorded in North American library and museum collections. In addition to Johns Hopkins, only two other American institutions hold both the 1586 moving of the obelisk print and the separately published consecration etching, Yale’s Center for British Art and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

—Earle Havens