The Basilica is considered the greatest building of the renaissance, designed by Bramante, Bernini and Michelangelo. The burial site of St Peter, holiest site in christianity and a place of pilgrimage for the 1.3 billion followers of the catholic religion. It has resonated as a place of spiritual power for the last 15 centuries.
The work has been created from a greatly enlarged architectural drawing by Paul Letarouilly from the early 1800s, this was combined with religious figures from Durer’s woodcuts created around 1500. The resulting template has been cut through an archival photograph of St Peters viewed from the Tiber.
At the rear of the piece are the enlarged figures of Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni whose illuminated forms were projected upon the Trevi fountain from the Fellini film “La Dolce Vita” . At one point in the film Marcello pursues the unattainable Ekberg up inside the dome of St Peters. It is a film that illustrates in some ways the changing relation of modern Italy to religion, the film stars looming larger and supplanting old identifications.
