Saturday, December 29, 2018

St. ELIGIUS OF THE JEWELLERS

S. ELIGIO DEGLI OREFICI
1514/1551 designed by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) from a project of the years 1514/15
The attribution is based on a drawing by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi (?/1573) son of Baldassarre Peruzzi. The drawing is in the Uffizi Museum in Florence and there is a note in which the church is explicitly attributed to Raphael
It was built on the former church of S. Eusterio, demolished in 1514

St. Eligius (about 588/660) was a French saint, patron of goldsmiths
According to tradition, the Frankish king Clotaire II would have commissioned a golden throne and Eligius would have made two with the amount of gold that he had been given just to make one
The king was very impressed by his ability and his honesty and appointed him goldsmith of the court and master of the mint
In addition to being the patron saint of goldsmiths, he is also the patron saint of farriers and veterinarians because he would miraculously hung a leg off a horse

RESTORATIONS
In 1590 by Francesco Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94) and in the years 1602/04 by Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) who consolidated the church and in the years 1710/11, 1857/65, 1911 under the direction of Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960), 1952/55 and 1977/78
“Despite the various restorations over time, the interior maintains a fine of solemnity, as determined by light and geometric harmony among the various parts of the building that is inspired, regardless of the exact identification of the specific contributions to the project - Raphael and Peruzzi -, to the culture of Bramante. Significant in this respect the choice of the Greek cross plan that certainly can be seen as a reflection on a reduced scale of the formal, functional and symbolic implications of the designs of Bramante for St. Peter” (Sofia Barchiesi)
FLOOR
1857 using marble slabs from the destroyed Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

Collapsed in 1601
It was rebuilt in 1602/04 by Flaminio Ponzio
Completed in 1620, possibly by Giovanni Bonazzini

DOME
Maybe by Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481/1536) who completed Raphael's project
Restored and redesigned in 1590 by Francesco Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94)
In the years 1710/11 the lead lining of the exterior of the dome began, only to be completed in 1739

RIGHT ALTAR
“Adoration of the Magi” 1639 by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona, who also painted the “Sibille” on the sides at the top
Originally there was a fresco by Federico Zuccari with the same subject destroyed by the collapse of 1601

APSE
Frescoes “Eternal God supporting the crucifix between angels” at the top and “Madonna and Child with Sts. Eligius, Stephen, Mary Magdalene and Lawrence on the right and John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria on the left” at the bottom 1581/84 maybe by Matteo da Lecce (about 1546/1616) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)
“Matteo da Lecce in his frescoes was able to bring to such intensity the three-dimensional illusion that his figures - in the words of Baglione - seemed to come off the walls. In this, which is his Roman masterpiece, the composition betrays the influence of the school of Raphael, and in the design of the bodies, of the school of Michelangelo, especially through Sebastiano del Piombo and Salviati” (Hermann Voss)
On the sides “Two prophets” maybe by Taddeo Zuccari
Above the altar fragment of the head of St. Eligius kept in a silver reliquary of 1628

ARCH ABOVE THE ALTAR
Fresco “St. Eligius as he is assisting the poor” by an unknown seventeenth-century artist
On the sides “Annunciation” maybe by Matteo da Lecce

LEFT ALTAR
“Adoration of the Shepherds” in 1574 by Giovanni De Vecchi (about 1537/1615)
On the sides at the top “Sibille” by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

LEFT AND RIGHT OF THE CHURCH
Houses belonging to the Brotherhood of the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths
The one on the right was designed in 1625 by Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649)

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