Origin

This style of column does not come from the classical tradition, although certain types of spiral columns can be considered its predecessors, especially the base of the Tripod at Delphi and the columns of Trajan, with its 200-meter spiral decoration with 23 turns, and Marcus Aurelius (century AD). Both have a turned shaft decorated with a single continuous helical band of bas-reliefs representing the military power of both emperors.

In Spain we find this type of column with helical grooves of Roman origin in many cities of Roman Hispania. In Córdoba "Córdoba (Spain)") we can see this type of columns reused in the Mosque, and we can also see them in the decoration of some Hispanic early Christian sarcophagi.[5]​.

A well-known antecedent is the famous Column of Serpents (century BC) in the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople (Istanbul), built as an offering to Apollo from Delphi to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Plataea and brought to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine in 324 AD. C. We can also find it in one of the sections of the Great Colonnade of Apamea (Syria, century AD), reconstructed in the Fiftieth Anniversary Museum (Brussels) "Museum of the Fiftieth Anniversary (Brussels)") and in the portico of the Baths of Sardis (Lydia, Turkey, century - AD).[2]​.

4th century: Old St. Peter's Basilica

The first columns of this type appear in the ancient early Christian basilica of Saint Peter, in Rome, built on the initiative of the Emperor Constantine. It was crowned by a canopy mounted on four of twelve transverse columns, of which six were brought by the emperor to the place from Constantinople; Another six were donated some time later by the Byzantine exarch of Ravenna[2]. Depending on the type of stone used and its style, these columns came from Greece and dated from the 16th century. Legend, however, maintained that they came from the Temple of Solomon,[6] despite the fact that the Temple of Solomon was built in the century BC. C. and destroyed in 586 BC. C. Indeed, in the legendary sanctuary of Jerusalem, according to the Bible, there were two large freestanding columns, called Jachin and Boaz, which symbolized strength and stability. The legend, spread since the Middle Ages, alluded to them.

This type of columns was used in Byzantine architecture, from which it passed to Romanesque architecture. In this, some columns also had spiral elements, such as those in the cloister of the Papal Archbasilica Cathedral of Saint John Lateran (13th century, Vatican), episcopal seat of the bishop of Rome, that is, the pope. These arcades were prominent in Rome and may have also influenced the baroque Solomonic column.

16th century: Raphael and Francis of Holland

Rafael Sanzio's cartoons for the tapestries of the Acts of the Apostles were an important element in their dissemination.[7]​ Specifically the third tapestry The Healing of the Paralytic (1515), since this event according to Christian tradition took place inside the Temple of Jerusalem, since according to the Gospel (Acts 3, 1-11) the paralytic was placed every day at the eastern door of the Temple, called the Beautiful, through which it was entered. in the Women's Atrium. They were designed for the Sistine Chapel and are currently kept in London, in the Royal Collection of the United Kingdom. Felipe II owned a Flemish tapestry (ca. 1550-1560) based on this cartoon that is preserved in the Royal Palace of Madrid.[8]​.

Probably due to the influence of Raphael, the Solomonic column was used in the Circumcision of Tommaso Vincidor in the Louvre Palace (ca. 1522) and in some Roman altars, such as that of Santo Spirito in Sassia, but its large-scale use in architecture was rare.[9] Giulio Romano used a version with half columns decoratively, superimposed on a wall in the Cortile della Cavallerizza in the Palace Ducal of Mantua (1538-39).[10]​.

The Portuguese humanist Francisco d'Ollanda (Lisbon 1517-1584) took numerous notes during his trip to Rome, which he included in his book 'Os desenhos das Antigualhas' (1538-1541), which in the 1980s came into the possession of Philip II and is preserved in the Royal Library of the Monastery of El Escorial. Among his drawings he reproduces the Holy Column that was preserved in the Vatican, with the following Latin text under the meticulous drawing: «There are also columns that are twisted and fluted and covered with sculpture, which Constantine brought to Rome from the temple of Solomon; One of them is very famous, because Our Savior used to lean there many times to preach and it has great virtue against evil spirits."[11]

When the painters of the Renaissance represented events that occurred in the Temple of Jerusalem, they often resorted to the tradition of the Solomonic columns, taking direct inspiration from the columns of the Vatican with their twisted fluting and the cupids between fig leaves. It will be these painters, such as Giotto, Simone Martini, Jean Fouquet, Raphael, Giovanni Battista Ramenghi and Ambrosius Francken (I) "Ambrosius Francken (I)"), who will spread his image throughout Europe.

17th century: St. Peter's Baldachin, Rome

During the construction work of the new St. Peter's Basilica, St. Peter's tomb was transformed and the columns were moved. Urban VIII had two of them placed in the altarpiece of Saint Francis in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. A third, called "Colonna santa" (Holy Column) has changed location several times and is currently located in the Treasury Museum of the Basilica, surrounded by a balustrade surmounted by a door commissioned by Cardinal Giordano Orsini (d. 1438) "Giordano Orsini (d. 1438)"). Legend has it that it was on this column that Jesus, at the age of twelve, leaned on while disputing with the doctors of the temple.

When the Council of Trent promoted the veneration of saints and the cult of relics, the ancient columns were considered relics, since they were directly related to this episode in the life of Jesus in the Temple that God himself designed, and they were placed at the same level as the archaeological remains of Jerusalem. In this way they became a model for Western art.[2]​.

Bernini placed another eight columns in each of the four pillars that support the dome, above the niches that house the statues of Saint Helena, Saint Andrew, Saint Veronica and Saint Longinus and under the pendentives. The remaining column has disappeared.[6] In maintenance of this tradition, Bernini designed four helical columns to support the Baldachin of Saint Peter, placed under the center of the dome in 1624.

The European Baroque

This type of column became popular in Catholic Europe, including the southern part of Germany, it spread to Spain, almost at the same time that Bernini built his columns, and from Spain it passed in a very short time to the American colonies, where it was commonly used in churches as a characteristic element of the Churrigueresque style. The twisted shaft gave energy and dynamism to the traditional form of the column, adjusting the qualities that are characteristically baroque. Solomonic columns were commonly used in altars, furniture, and other designs. Sculptured vines were sometimes carved into the spiral cavetto of the torso columns, or made of metal, usually gilded bronze. In an ecclesiastical context, such an ornament can be interpreted as a symbol of the wine used in the Eucharist.

Rubens used Solomonic columns in some of his tapestry designs around 1626,[13]​ using a variant of the Ionic capital for the columns, as Raphael had done, and integrated Solomonic columns into the rustic style, appearing in the architecture of his paintings with great consistency and variety.[10]​.

Its use was less frequent in Britain, the only example found by Robert Durman was the south porch of St Mary the Virgin, in Oxford[14] and it was also rare in English interior design, an example, perhaps unique, is the funerary monument for Lady Helena Gorges, who died in 1635, in Salisbury.

After 1660, this type of ornamentation became a basic feature of furniture design in France, Holland and England, both on the legs of furniture and on the glass doors of wall clocks of the late century and early 1900s.

Expansion in Spain

The Solomonic column soon arrived in Spain. The survival of this "Solomonism" in the Spanish and New Spain Baroque can be seen in the presence of Solomonic columns in practically all altarpieces and tabernacles of the [15th] century. The twisted shaft was widely used in the Spanish Baroque by Alonso Cano. It was later replaced by the Solomonic type that was used for the first time in the altarpiece of the Chapel of the Relics of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, designed and built by Bernardo Cabrera between 1625 and 1630. Conversion of Saint Paul "Altarpiece of the Conversion of Saint Paul (Ourense Cathedral)"), located in the Cathedral of Ourense.[17]​.

In Andalusia it was used for the first time in the main altarpiece of the Cartuja church in Jerez de la Frontera, made by the architect Alejandro de Saavedra with sculptures by José de Arce, made between 1636 and 1639. Possibly its incorporation was carried out at the suggestion of Arce, who had seen Bernini's baldachin in Rome during its construction.[18]​.

In Madrid, the first use of this column was in the altarpiece of the Iglesia del Buen Suceso "Iglesia del Buen Suceso (Puerta del Sol)") by Pedro de la Torre. Since then it has spread in the architecture of Castilian altarpieces with the outstanding examples of José Fernández in the church of La Clerecia "La Clerecía (Salamanca)") in Salamanca and that of José Benito de Churriguera in the altarpiece of the church of San Esteban "Convento de San Esteban (Salamanca)") in Salamanca, made in 1693.[19]​.

Architecture Treatises

It will be Vignola who codifies its design and construction in his treatise Regole delli cinque ordini dell'arquitettura (Venice, 1562) without daring to establish the capital that should correspond to it and without including it in the five classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite). It increases to six capitals with a rotating profile, not wavy like those of the Vatican.

In the Spanish Baroque, probably influenced by the Solomonic fame of El Escorial, a profusion of treatises emerged that discuss its proportions, origin and use, such as the «Epitome architecturae de ordine salomonico integralo» by Juan Andrés Ricci or the «Civil, straight and oblique architecture considered and drawn in the temple of Ierusalen [...] promoted to extreme perfection in the temple and palace of S. Lorenço near the Escurial» (Vigevano, 1678) by Juan Caramuel.[20]​ Unlike the Vatican tradition, according to Caramuel, the twisted columns do not belong to a particular order and could be applied to any order and proportion.

Guarino Guarini in his treatise "Architettura civile", published in 1773, derived it from the Corinthian order, which is why he called it "Corinth terzo" or "Corinthian supreme order". Unlike the previous ones, the shaft is only covered with helical grooves without leaves.