Word: basilicas
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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...environment. As if in answer to the formal strictness and intricate metaphysics of early medieval thought, with its insistence that the world is only a screen and a simile for divine existence, angels like the one who blows the last trump across the wall of the llth century Italian Basilica of St. Angelo in Formis are stern, unbending, and (literally) otherworldly. But the host of warrior angels that a North Italian artist, Guariento, painted in 1344-45, minus their wings and with a few adjustments of costume, could have stepped from some 14th century condottiere's parade ground...
...church had commissioned the portals from Sicilian-born Sculptor Emilio Greco, 56, a friend and admirer of Giacomo Manzu, who designed the impressive bronze Doors of Death for St. Peter's basilica in Rome. For the main entrance, Greco created a 24-ft.-high, two-ton bronze relief depicting Catholicism's seven corporal works of mercy. One scene, for example, showed Pope John XXIII on his visit to Rome's Regina Coeli prison in 1958; Greco's presentation of burying the dead uses angled limbs and tortured faces to convey a strong sense of grief...
...night long the thunderstorm had roared over Rome, hurling lightning bolts into the city at three places. "Then on Monday morning, July 18, 1870, it abated briefly, allowing the 535 Fathers of the First Vatican Council to assemble in St. Peter's Basilica. Before them lay a historic document. In matters of faith and morals, it declared, when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra (from the chair of Peter, i.e., by virtue of his office) to the universal church, he is incapable of error...
...architecture, as well as to a few Roman Catholic traditions. Chief among these is the peculiar spectacle known as the Pope's general audience. Since its beginning during the first decade of the 20th century, this event has usually taken place in St. Peter's Basilica, a resplendent setting that is unfortunately characterized by slushy acoustics and poor visibility. Centerpiece of the current Vatican construction is a sleek new papal audience hall designed by Pier Luigi Nervi, with well-planned, air-conditioned facilities for 14,000 pilgrims. Once it goes into use, the atmospheric old St. Peter...