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Borromini and the heavenly Jerusalem

Today, the Basilica appears in the form that Pope Innocent X gave it for the Jubilee of 1650. He wanted Francesco Borromini to preserve the structure of the primitive basilica, together with the new curvilinear forms that can be seen in the counter façade, so beloved of the Baroque, to depict the welcoming of human life.

The central nave is presented as the interior of the heavenly Jerusalem described in Revelation, with twelve doors protected by the twelve apostles. Indeed, in the niches, twelve doors are depicted, and in front of each one there is the statue of one of the Twelve. Those who participate in the liturgy in the Basilica are ideally in the number of the saved within the Jerusalem descended from heaven. The doves above the tabernacles and in the entrance vault, as well as commemorating Pope Pamphilj, are symbolically connected to the depiction of the Holy Spirit.

Borromini conserved the medieval floor, the work of consummate masters, like a marble lawn leading to the altar. The ovals, in which he had left the masonry visible as a relic of the ancient church, were covered in the eighteenth century by paintings depicting prophets.

The bas-reliefs in stucco, which according to Borromini’s intentions should have been temporary, illustrate biblical stories following the typological reading of salvation history, characterized by Christian faith and adopted by the liturgy and catechesis: every episode of the Old Testament is seen as a prefiguration of the New. For example, in the second pair of stuccoes starting from the altar, Noah’s Ark prefigures Baptism.

Behind the third pillar of the right nave there is a fragment of the medieval fresco, known as the Loggia of Blessings, depicting Pope Boniface VIII in the act of taking possession of the Lateran see or in the act of proclaiming the first Jubilee. There is some doubt as to its attribution to Cavallini or Giotto.

 

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