Sunday 19 May 2013

Bernini's Baldachin, Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Photograph Copyright ©2012 Loo Yen Yeo. All Rights Reserved.
Concept: Placement (secondary point of interest); Placement (subject vector); Triangles (vertical convergence)

Description: Gianlorenzo Bernini's baldacchino towers twenty metres over the main altar, and yet is dwarfed by Michelangelo's dome more than a hundred metres above it. This shot captures the detail of Bernini's design - the helical columns based on the legend of those from Solomon's temple, and the flaring dove of the Holy Spirit - with heavy use of diagonals to maintain the writhing energy. The dynamic off-centre placement is balanced by the Medallion of Saint John the Evangelist in the spandrel, top-right.

Taken close-up with a wide-angle lens, the helical spin of the bronze columns create a vector upwards to convergence point (the dome's lantern) just out of frame i.e. a vertical triangle was implied to give a sense of scale.

Title: The Dove and the Eagle

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