During the reign of Urban VIII, bernini began to create a large number of works, and his skills were constantly improved. Urban VIII asked his disciples to paint and work in the field of architecture. Although bernini's paintings are of little value, several of them, especially two self-portraits (about 1620 and 1640) are commendable. His first architectural task was to rebuild St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.
At the same time, Benigni was entrusted to build a landmark building on St. Peter's tomb in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, that is, the famous giant bronze gilded canopy made in 1624- 1633. Spiral columns and metal curtains are reminiscent of honor umbrellas placed above important people or places. Benigni's original contribution to the finishing project was to use four angels to support the sphere and cross structure above. This canopy is also a personal symbol of the Pope: near the top of the canopy is the Pope's triple crown, and the whole monument is inlaid with the heraldic figures of the Ba Bei Lini family-bees, the sun and laurel tendrils. The shape of the canopy is very suitable for the surrounding environment, and people hardly realize that it is as high as four floors. The canopy is also the center of the planned decoration of St Peter's Cathedral. The four pillars supporting the dome are decorated with huge statues, among which Saint Laurent Girnus was designed by Benigni.
1629 After Madeno's death, architecture became Benigni's main responsibility. This year, he became the architect of St Peter's Cathedral and Ba Bei Lini Palace. At that time, due to more and more projects entrusted, he not only did it himself, but also relied on the assistance of others. He has made outstanding achievements in organizing the work team and engineering design, so that the sculptures and decorations made by a group of people are integrated as one hand. Benigni's works were also formed by his strong Catholic faith, which was then and forever (he attended mass every day and received communion twice a week). He certainly agreed with the Trento Conference that the purpose of religious art is to educate and inspire devout believers and do propaganda work for the Catholic Church. Religious art should always be easy to understand and realistic, first of all, it should stimulate piety emotionally. The development of Benigni's religious art mainly depends on his conscious adherence to these principles.
In City VIII, Benigni also began to create new and different kinds of commemorative works of art-graves and fountains. Urban VIII's mausoleum is carved with a statue of the Pope, who raised an arm as a conductor. Below the statue is a bronze gold-plated coffin, with a moral angel on each side, one representing love and the other representing justice, all carved with white marble. Above the coffin, there is an image of death, which seems to have written Urban's name on a leaf as a tombstone. This is a model of Benigni's application of "theme thought". The flexible theme combines different elements of the novel and colorful mausoleum into a unified whole. In these years, Benigni has also designed a series of revolutionary small mausoleum memorials, the most impressive of which is the tomb of Maria Raj.
Benigni's fountain is his most outstanding contribution to Rome. His first fountain was the "wrecked ship" in the Spanish square, which combined sculpture and architecture like a canopy. Triton is a major change of Romanesque fountain, and the overlapping pools of traditional geometric square fountains look lifelike. Four curved fish lifted a huge shell, and Poseidon stood on the shell and sprayed water with the horn of the conch shell.
But not all the early architectural designs in Benigni were successful. 1637 He began to build the bell tower above the facade of St. Peter's Cathedral. But by 1646, when the weight of the bell tower began to crack the building, they were torn down, and Benigni once fell out of favor. Funded by Innocent X and Alexander VII.
Benigni's most outstanding commemorative works were completed in the mid-1960s from 65438 to 0640s. The Fountain of Four Rivers in Rome's Navona Square is an ancient Egyptian obelisk, which stands on a huge hollow rock. There are four marble statues at the top of the rock, symbolizing the four major rivers in the world in the17th century, namely the Danube in Europe, the Nile in Africa, the Ganges in Asia and the Labrador River in America. At the top of the obelisk is the Pope's coat of arms and a dove with a brown column (the family emblem of Pope Innocent X), which clearly shows that the Vatican has recovered and is full of vitality, and it rules the world in the name of God. Despite its obvious symbolic significance, Benigni's fountain is his best permanent work.
Benigni's stage design survived for several years, which also shows his comprehensive imagination. The essence of Benigni's plays is the same as his art. He broke the old rules and established direct and often unexpected contact with the audience. He is famous for using real fire in his performances, and once he even flooded the stage with water, making the audience become enthusiastic actors in the performance at least for an instant.
The most prominent example of mature art in Benigni is the Cornaro Chapel in Notre Dame de Victoria, Rome. Since the beginning of his artistic career, he has been exploring progress. The church commissioned by Cardinal Cornaro is located in a shallow auditorium of the church. The center is The Addiction of Mother Teresa, which describes a mysterious experience of Mother Teresa of Avila, a great reformer of Spanish Gal Murrow society. Teresa dreamed that one day she would pierce her heart with the burning arrow of God's love. Benigni's artistic creation is based on the situation described by Teresa herself. The posture of the statue is that the addicted saint fainted in a dreamland, and the veil hung on the front cover and placed in the niche above the altar, illuminated by airlight. This work combines many factors of architectural art and decorative art, and it is orderly and distinct. Many members of the Cornaro family can be seen in the space similar to the opera box on the left and right. They are full of energy, either talking, reading or praying. Cornaro Chapel fully embodies Benigni's ideal of stereoscopic painting. The images of Santa Teresa and angels are carved in white marble, but the viewer can't tell whether they are three-dimensional carvings or just deep relief. Natural sunlight forms an inseparable part of this sculpture. It shines from a hidden light source above and behind the two images and shines brightly. Mother Teresa's addiction is not a sculpture in the traditional sense, but an organized landscape painting, which consists of sculpture, painting and light, including admirers in religious dramas.
Benigni's greatest architectural achievement is the colonnade around the square in front of St Peter's Cathedral. The main function of the huge space is to accommodate people who come to listen to the Pope's blessing on Easter and other special occasions. Benigni designed a huge oval pattern, and the place connecting the church was a trapezoidal vestibule. In this form, he described the church as a mother and surrounded it with his arms. In order to meet the demand of free access to the site, it is a pioneering solution to design independent columns. The square guides tourists into the church, which makes up for the lack of too wide front of St. Peter's Cathedral. The center of Benigni Oval Square is the Vatican Obelisk, which Sixtus V moved to the front of the church in 1586. Benigni moved a fountain built in Madeno to the long axis of the square. In order to match the scenery perfectly, an identical one was added on the opposite side. This design is similar to the image of Santander Square in Quirinal Mountain designed by bernini, but the meaning and function are different, but the two oval patterns are equally refreshing.
The most magnificent religious decoration in Benigni is the Pope's seat. 1657- 1666 completed the throne of St. Peter. The wooden papal chair in the Middle Ages was gilded with bronze. Bernini's task is not only to decorate chairs, but also to create a meaningful goal for attending St. Peter's Cathedral in the back hall. The appearance of the throne is supported by bronze statues of four famous figures, namely, early Christian theologians Saint Ambrose, Saint Athanasius, Saint John Crisosto and Saint Augustine. Above are the golden wheels of angels in the clouds and the light of the Holy Spirit painted on the oval window. The natural light of the Holy Spirit has become a tangible symbol that God's mercy has spread all over the world through the church. The creation time of the chair is roughly the same as that of the square. The obvious difference between these two works shows that Benigni's versatility is really amazing. Both of these works were created by Pope Alexander VII of Qiji family (1655-1667 reigned).