Monument to Pope Alexander VII

Map

Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII, St Peter's Basilica

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​The funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII (r. 1655-67), in St Peter's Basilica, was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and executed between 1671 and 1678.

​The monument, which is built around a door, is made up of six figures. At the apex the pope, bare-headed, kneels in prayer. Below him are four female allegorical figures: in the foreground stand Charity and Truth, whose left foot rests on a globe; in the background are half-figures of Prudence and Justice. All five figures were carved out of white marble. 

Death is portrayed as a winged skeleton, bearing aloft an hour-glass; its head is shrouded in billowing drapery, a tour-de-force creation of travertine veneered with Sicilian jasper, the work of Gabriele Renzi.  

The funerary monument was a collaboration between Bernini and his assistants, the latter doing most of the work under the close supervision of their master. 

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Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII

Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII

Funerary monument of Pope Alexander VII