Baldachin
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A baldachin, or baldaquin (Italian: baldacchino, baldachino), is a canopy of state over an altar or throne, It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy,<ref>Baldac is a medieval Latin form for Baghdad, whence fine silks reached Europe.</ref> but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals.
In the Middle Ages, a hieratic canopy of state was hung over the seat of a personnage of sufficient standing, as a symbol of authority. The seat under such a canopy of state would normally be raised on a dais. Emperors and kings, reigning dukes and bishops were accorded this honour. In a 15th-century manuscript illumination (illustration) the sovereign Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes sits in state to receive a presentation copy of the author's book. His seat is raised on a carpet-covered dais and backed with a richly embroidered dosser (French, "dos"). Under his feet is a cushion, such as protected the feet of the King of France when he presided at a lit de justice.
Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII was a personage of such importance that in her portrait by an anonymous artist, c. 1500 (illustration) she prays under a canopy of estate; one can see the dosser against the gilded leather wall-covering and the tester above her head (the Tudor rose at its center) supported on cords from the ceiling. The coats-of-arms woven into the tapestry are of England (parted as usual with France) and the portcullis badge of the Beauforts.
In the summer of 1520 a meeting was staged between François I and Henry VIII of England, where the ostentatious display of wealth and power earned the meeting-place the name of The Field of Cloth of Gold. Every detail of protocol and ceremony was worked out. There Catherine of Aragon sat under a canopy of estate lined with sewn pearls to watch the two kings joust. At the climax of the brief reign of Lady Jane Grey, when, determined to save his own neck, the Duke of Suffolk signed the proclamation that made Mary Tudor Queen, he went immediately to his daughter's apartments and tore down her canopy of estate, telling her she was no longer Queen. The canopy of estate may still be seen in some formal throne rooms (illustration, left).
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[edit] State bed
The state bed, intended for receiving important visitors and producing heirs before a select public, but not intended for sleeping in,<ref>Peter K. Thornton, Authentic Decor: the Domestic Interior 1620-1920, (London, 1985) and Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland, (New Haven & London, 1981).</ref> evolved during the second half of the seventeenth century, developing the medieval tradition of receiving visitors in the bedroom, which had become the last and most private room of the standard suite of rooms in a Baroque apartment. Louis XIV developed the rituals of receptions in his state bedchamber, the petit levée to which only a handful of his court élite might expect to be invited. The other monarchs of Europe soon imitated his practice; even his staunchest enemy, William III of England had his "grooms of the bedchamber", a signal honour.
The state bed (illustration, right), a lit à la Duchesse—its canopy supported without visible posts— was delivered for the use of Queen Marie Leszczinska at Versailles, as the centrepiece of a new decor realized for the Queen in 1730–35.<ref>The hangings were rewoven for Marie Antoinette. The present hangings, made at Lyon by the same firm that delivered the originals, replicate the hangings as they were in 1787.</ref> Its tester is quickly recognizable as a baldachin, serving its time-honoured function; the bedding might easily be replaced by a gilded throne. The queens of France spent a great deal of time in their chambre, where they received the ladies of the court at the morning levée and granted private audiences. By the time Marie Antoinette escaped the mob from this bedroom, such state beds, with the elaborate etiquette they embodied, were already falling out of use. A state bed with a domed tester designed in 1775-76 by Robert Adam for Lady Child at Osterley Park<ref>Of this grandiose bed Horace Walpole asked in a private letter "what would Vitruvius think of a dome decorated by a milliner?"</ref> and another domed state bed, delivered by Thomas Chippendale for Sir Edwin Lascelles at Harewood House, Yorkshire in 1773 <ref>Annabel Westman and Aasha Tyrrell, "The Restoration of the Harewood State Bed" (on-line)</ref> are two of the last English state beds intended for a main floor State Bedroom in a non-royal residence.
[edit] St.Peter's Basilica
Pope Urban the 8th gave Gian Lorenzo Bernini the commision for the design and construction of a structure that would be placed over the tomb of St.Peter because of the construction that was occurring at St.Peter's Basilica(located in Rome). This structure is called the Baldacchino and took an amazing 9 years to complete, from 1624 to 1633.
Many of the design elements link to the spiral columns of Old Saint Peter's and the Temple of Jerusalm. Such as the 4 twisted columns that spiral upwards, just like the columns in the Temple of Jerusalm. The lowest parts of the 4 columns have a helical groove, and the middle and upper sections of the columns are covered in olive and bay branches, that are populated with a myriad of bees and small putti. At the base of every column there are the Bernini Barberini family's coat of arms (filled with the family's bees) to whose family Pope Urban VIII belonged.
All of these combined to create a upward feeling of movement.
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<references/>de:Baldachin fr:Baldaquin pl:Baldachim
