Baldachin

The Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller at Rhodes under a canopy of estate, on a dais: there is a cushion under his feet

A baldachin, or baldaquin (Italian: baldacchino, baldachino), is a canopy of state over an altar or throne, It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy,Baldac is a medieval Latin form for Baghdad, whence fine silks reached Europe. but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals.

In the Middle Ages, a hieratic canopy of state was hung over the seat of a personnage of sufficient standing, as a symbol of authority. The seat under such a canopy of state would normally be raised on a dais. Emperors and kings, reigning dukes and bishops were accorded this honour. In a 15th-century manuscript illumination (illustration) the sovereign Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes sits in state to receive a presentation copy of the author's book. His seat is raised on a carpet-covered dais and backed with a richly embroidered dosser (French, "dos"). Under his feet is a cushion, such as protected the feet of the King of France when he presided at a lit de justice.

Margaret Beaufort, Queen Mother, at prayer, by an anonymous artist, about 1500

Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII was a personage of such importance that in her portrait by an anonymous artist, c. 1500 (illustration) she prays under a canopy of estate; one can see the dosser against the gilded leather wall-covering and the tester above her head (the Tudor rose at its center) supported on cords from the ceiling. The coats-of-arms woven into the tapestry are of England (parted as usual with France) and the portcullis badge of the Beauforts.

In the summer of 1520 a meeting was staged between François I and Henry VIII of England, where the ostentatious display of wealth and power earned the meeting-place the name of The Field of Cloth of Gold. Every detail of protocol and ceremony was worked out. There Catherine of Aragon sat under a canopy of estate lined with sewn pearls to watch the two kings joust. At the climax of the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, when, determined to save his own neck, the Duke of Suffolk signed the proclamation that made Mary Tudor Queen, he went immediately to his daughter's apartments and tore down her canopy of estate, telling her she was no longer Queen.

The canopy of estate may still be seen in some formal throne rooms (illustration, left).

Engraving of the Gnadenaltar in the Vierzehnheiligen Basilica, Bad Staffelstein, Bavaria. This altar has a baldachino.

Bernini's Baldacchino in Saint Peter's Basilica

Best known of ecclesiastical baldachins is Bernini's Baldacchino in St. Peter's Basilica which surmounts the Altar of the Confessio in the center of the Basilica. The high or papal altar was carved from a gigantic block of Greek marble from the Forum of Nerva, and was consecrated by Clement VIII on June 26, 1594. It is set on an older altar erected by Callistus II in 1123, which in turn contains another even older one. The majestic, Baroque bronze "baldacchino" was Gian Lorenzo Bernini's first work in the basilica. Commissioned by Maffeo Barberini, Pope Urban VIII, and built from 1624 to 1633 using 6,200 kilos of bronze, said ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} to have been melted from ceiling panels and girders of the Pantheon. The canopy stands on four pedestals of marble on which in the papal escutcheons a wonderful sequence showing "motherhood" is carved, liberally scattered with the heraldic bees of the Barberini. Four gigantic bronze twisted columns, 20 m. high, adorned with sprigs of olive and laurel, among which the graceful figures of cherubs appear, support the canopy. Acanthus leaves entwine the base and the capitals. The spiral fluting of the columns suggests upward movement. Like the portable canopies used in processions to cover the Eucharist, fringes and tassels dangle from the top of the covering. Inside the "ciborium" is a dove, the symbol of the Holy Ghost, in a burst of golden rays. Above the frieze on each capital, four angels, the work of François Duquesnoy, offer garlands, while between them couples of smaller angels support the Pope's emblems: the keys, the papal tiara, the book and sword. The vertex, where four vast ribs and palm branches converge from the four corners, is crowned by the cross, set on a golden globe. It is a Baroque Gesamtkunstwerk that spans architecture and sculpture.

State bed

The state bed, intended for receiving important visitors and producing heirs before a select public, but not intended for sleeping in, evolved during the second half of the seventeenth century, developing the medieval tradition of receiving visitors in the bedroom, which had become the last and most private room of the standard suite of rooms in a Baroque apartment. Louis XIV developed the rituals of receptions in his state bedchamber, the petit levée to which only a handful of his court élite might expect to be invited. The other monarchs of Europe soon imitated his practice; even his staunchest enemy, William III of England had his "grooms of the bedchamber", a signal honour.

The state bed (illustration, right), a lit à la Duchesse—its canopy supported without visible posts— was delivered for the use of Queen Marie Leszczinska at Versailles, as the centrepiece of a new decor realized for the Queen in 1730–35.The hangings were rewoven for Marie Antoinette. The present hangings, made at Lyon by the same firm that delivered the originals, replicate the hangings as they were in 1787. Its tester is quickly recognizable as a baldachin, serving its time-honoured function; the bedding might easily be replaced by a gilded throne. The queens of France spent a great deal of time in their chambre, where they received the ladies of the court at the morning levée and granted private audiences. By the time Marie Antoinette escaped the mob from this bedroom, such state beds, with the elaborate etiquette they embodied, were already falling out of use. A state bed with a domed tester designed in 1775-76 by Robert Adam for Lady Child at Osterley ParkOf this grandiose bed Horace Walpole asked in a private letter "what would Vitruvius think of a dome decorated by a milliner?" and another domed state bed, delivered by Thomas Chippendale for Sir Edwin Lascelles at Harewood House, Yorkshire in 1773 Annabel Westman and Aasha Tyrrell, "The Restoration of the Harewood State Bed" ([on-line]) are two of the last English state beds intended for a main floor State Bedroom in a non-royal residence.

References

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