Decline and Revival
Ciboria are now much rarer in churches in both East and West, as the introduction of other structures that screened the altar, such as the iconostasis in the East and rood screen and pulpitum in the West, meant that they would be little seen, and smaller examples often conflicted with the large altarpieces that came into fashion in the later Middle Ages. They enjoyed something of a revival after the Renaissance once again opened up the view of the sanctuary, but never again became usual even in large churches. Bernini's enormous ciborium in Saint Peter's, Rome is a famous exception; it is the largest in existence, and always called a baldachin. Many other elaborate aedicular Baroque altar surrounds that project from, but remain attached to, the wall behind, and have pairs of columns on each side, may be thought of as hinting at the ciborium without exactly using its form.
The Gothic Revival saw the true free-standing ciborium return to some popularity: the Votive Church, Vienna has a large Gothic example designed in 1856, and Ninian Comper built a number, including one for Pusey House. Peterborough Cathedral has a neo-Gothic example, and Derby Cathedral one with the Romanesque small columns below a neo-classical architrave and pediment. Westminster Cathedral, a neo-Byzantine building, has a splayed version of 1894, with extra flanking columns, which within that context is "resolutely modernistic". The Gothic style of ciborium was also borrowed for some public monuments like the Albert Memorial in London, as it had been in the Middle Ages for the outdoor Scaliger Tombs in Verona. For other post-Renaissance versions, many variations of the basic square four-column plan, see the next section.
Read more about this topic: Ciborium (architecture)
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