150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (20)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Bernini

Entering Piazza Minerva, our attention is immediately drawn to a stone elephant carrying an Egyptian obelisk. Its author is Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598 – 1680), who will often appear on our path with Frances Siedliska through Rome. He took his first steps as a sculptor alongside his father, Pietro, also a sculptor. The son, however, far surpassed his father in becoming one of the most outstanding artists of the Baroque. In Rome alone, he left behind some 100 pieces of work. The most famous are the colonnade in St. Peter’s Square, the confession over St. Peter’s tomb, the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, the Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila from the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria or the expressive sculptures of David, Apollo and Daphne or Pluto and Proserpine, which can be seen in Rome’s Borghese Gallery. His house, located near the Piazza di Spagna, is marked with a commemorative plaque. At his request, he was buried under the floor of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, to the right of the main altar. This is where “it all began.” His father, called from Naples to make the altarpiece in that Basilica, took with him 7-year-old Gianlorenzo, who immediately became his helper. At the age of 11, he single-handedly made the bishop’s tombstone for the Church of St. Praxedda.

The Elephant of Piazza Minerva is his late work, commissioned by Pope Alexander VII as the base for an Egyptian obelisk found in the Dominican garden. There are whole stories on websites about the monument’s conception, why it is now called Minerva’s Chicken (Pulcino della Minerva) and why it faces the back to the windows of the Dominican monastery…

For both Pope and Bernini, the elephant was the epitome of the virtues needed in Christian education. The inscription on the pedestal also says: “Understand by means of this symbol that unshakeable truth requires robust reason.” (Documentum intellige robustae mentis esse solidam sapientiam sustinere).

And a few more sentences about the Egyptian obelisks in Rome. At least eight of them are originals, brought by the Romans after the conquest of Egypt. The tallest, measuring 32 meters, stands in front of the Basilica of the Lateran. Also original is the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, in front of the Pantheon or just the one in Piazza Minerva. But there are also copies and even modern obelisks erected in the 19th and 20th centuries. Therefore, it may be worth knowing that “not all gold that glitters”.

Pictures:
Bernini’s elephant in Piazza Minerva – CSFN
Fragment of an obelisk in front of the Basilica of the Lateran – Public Domain