3-083-329 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Chair of St. Peter, 1658. This is the only surviving sculptural sketch for the Chair of Saint Peter, the focal point of the apse of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. Bernini designed a magnificent gilded bronze throne as a shrine to encase the most venerated relic in the Vatican, the chair from which, by tradition, Saint Peter himself had preached. The reliefs on this model refer to the most significant moments in the life of Saint Peter. In April 1658 Bernini brought this terracotta model to his patron, Pope Alexander VII.