Installation of the main tapestries. A two story arrangement. In the reconstruction proposed for the two-story arrangement of the tapestries, The Four Evangelists was undoubtedly positioned over The Eucharistic Saints. The spiraling Solomonic columns refer to the columns that were brought from the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem to St. Peter's in Rome, and thus allude to the new Christian Church, the most famous contemporary instance of the columns' use as symbols of the Church was, of course, Bernini's Crossing in St. Peter's. By covering the walls of the church in the Descalzas Reales with both the hangings and columns of the old temple, Rubens conceptually and illusionistically recovered the ancient, long since destroyed Holy of Holies, but transformed it into the new Christian Church. 8 |