Image courtesy Emory University Digital Library Publications Program

ClassificationsWorks of Art on Paper

The Moving and the Raising of the Vatican Obelisk

Date1586

Credit LineJoint purchase by the museum, through the generosity of Linda Hyman, the Art History Department Fund, and by the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University

Dimensions20 1/2 x 45 3/4 in. (52.1 x 116.2 cm)

Object number2006.043.001

Label TextSince the papacy of Nicholas V (1447-1455) in the middle of the fifteenth century, plans to move the Vatican obelisk from its obscure location at the side of the old basilica to a more visible and prestigious site had periodically been considered and then set aside. When Paul III (1534-1549) asked him to perform the task, even the great Michelangelo had refused, reportedly saying, "But what if it breaks?" It was not, thus, a novel proposal when Sixtus V (1585-1590) at the beginning of his reign chose his personal architect and engineer Domenico Fontana to move the mammoth stone. What was new was the pope's determination in pursuing the project. In this era of the Counter-Reformation, Sixtus had as little respect for antique monuments as he did for the beliefs of Protestant heretics. As Fontana later wrote in his treatise On the Transportation of the Obelisk, Sixtus wanted "to provide the greatest and most excellent pedestal for the Cross . . . and, also to abolish the memory of ancient superstition and to adorn both the Piazza and the spectacular new building of St. Peter's."

In September 1585 Fontana began the undertaking which was to make all of Rome-in fact, all of Europe-marvel at this feat of engineering. Popular interest was such that these two images were published while the work was taking place. The painter Giovanni Guerra made the finished designs with the framed captions based on Fontana's working drawings. Natale Bonifacio then etched the plates following Guerra's drawings.

This print is composed of etchings on three separate plates. The image shows all the phases of the planned project. At the far left the obelisk stands in its original location in a narrow lane south of the transept of old St. Peter's. It had stood there ever since the emperor Caligula (37-41 AD) had it brought from Egypt at the very beginning of his reign and erected in the center of his circus on the Vatican. This circus was later the site of Nero's (54-68) persecution of Christians after the great fire of 64 AD. Unlike all the other obelisks in Rome, the Vatican obelisk never fell nor was it damaged. It had been preserved as a witness to these martyrdoms, especially that of St. Peter in 67. By the Middle Ages the bronze globe at the tip of the obelisk was thought to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. (As soon as the obelisk was lowered, the pope's metallurgist made a thorough examination and found that it did not).

Several different views of the apparatus required to move the stone are at the center of the image. Fontana devised a great structure of wood and iron, the castello, to lower and raise the obelisk At the bottom it lies on the sledge and ramp used to haul it to the new site. On the far right the obelisk stands in its new location with the three monti or hills and the eight-pointed star of Sixtus V's coat-of-arms supporting the cross. On September 26, 1586-one year after the project was launched-the monument was rededicated in an elaborate ceremony that began with an exorcism of its original pagan taint.

The print was published before the actual work of moving the obelisk was begun on April 30, 1586. Fontana had spent the first six months after his selection in planning, gathering materials-enormous quantities of rope, oak beams, and iron bars-and assembling the machines for the project. Houses that stood in the way of the obelisk's route also had to be demolished.
Exhibition HistoryDiscovering Rome: Maps and Monuments of the Eternal City, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 16, 2006 - January 14, 2007
Antichità, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 24 - November 17, 2013
Published ReferencesSarah McPhee, et al., Antichita, Teatro, Magnificenza: Renaissance and Baroque Images of Rome (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2013), 7, 56, plate 3.

ProvenancePurchased by MCCM and Robert W. Woodruff Library from Martayan Lan Rare Books, New York, New York.

Status

Not on view

Collections