Bernini did what, exactly, with St. Peter's Basilica's entrance?

Solution 1:

In French I would refer to this as a mise en valeur of the dome, a phrase that has no exact English equivalent.

However, a search for English translations of mise en valeur led to some possible words you could use:

• beautify

• develop

• emphasize

• enhance

• showcase

• show off

• present (or maybe re-present)

I have seen the expression translated into English as valorize, but to my mind this is too ugly a word for something like the piazza.

Maybe the Italian expression itself would serve your purpose, e.g. valorizzare or mettere in valore. Sometimes the original is your best bet.

For the specific action that Bernini performed on the physical entrance, it's hard to improve on your original term of "relocated".

Solution 2:

In architectural terminology, it is known as a type of foreportal / fore-portal.

In De Officiis Libre Tres, by Marcus Tullius Cicero, c.1852 version, in the notes on p.175 for Chapter XVII, we find reference to,

the entrance to the Acropolis, the fore-portal of the Parthenon.

A later, c.1859 edition of the same work, uses the term vestibule with the Greek term, TvpoTcvkaia given as the translation. However, Google Translate gives a slightly different translation for vestibule, προθάλαμος

Foreportal is an architectural term used a number of times in both the 19th and 20th centuries, the Royal Dictionary, c.1866, directly equating fore-portal with the French term, avant-portail. Googling avant-portail reveals that it refers to the outer front gate of a structure, usually a church or cathedral.

The characterization given in the 1852 version of Cicero's work, of the Acropolis acting as a fore-portal / foreportal for the Parthenon fits very logically with the feature described in this question, of the outer courtyard entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. Both structures are considered sacred architecture, featuring open-air surrounds forming types of courtyards, with ceremonious front gates and grand pathways leading to the main doors of the religious structures containing the altars.