Known since
the year 955
It was
given in 1585 to the Confraternita della Pietà ai Carcerati (Brotherhood
of Mercy for Prisoners) who had it rebuilt in the late seventeenth century by Angelo Torrone
The
Brotherhood was established in 1575 at the behest of the French Jesuit Giovanni
Tallier. He was confessor in Roman prisons and organized a group of volunteers
who took care of prisoners
In 1579
Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) promoted it to Archconfraternity
The church
was renovated in the years 1700, 1837 maybe by Virginio
Vespignani and 1983
It is in
the district that took its name from the ancient bronze pine cone, which was
found here. It was part of the decoration of the TEMPLE OF ISIS who was in this
area and it was probably a fountain
It was
placed in the atrium of the Basilica of St. Peter and it is now in the
Courtyard of the Pine Cone in the Vatican Museums
The
district was formerly called “Porcari District” from the noble family that had
homes here in the Middle Ages: Stefano Porcari conspired against Nicholas V
Parentucelli (1447/55) to make Rome a republic but he was hanged
Interior decoration and “Evangelists” in the spandrels 1860
Near the
door “Tombs of Nicola, Giuliano
and Giovanni
Porcari” with mosaics of the fourteenth century
1st
ALTAR ON THE RIGHT
“Martyrdom of S. Eleuterio” 1738 by Giacomo
Zoboli (1681/1767)
2nd
ALTAR ON THE RIGHT
“Conversion of S. Genesio” by an anonymous
eighteenth-century Roman artist
Altarpiece “St. John the Baptist”
about 1628 last work of Baldassarre Croce (about
1553/1628)
On the cyma
“Pietà ” about 1690 by Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)
2nd
ALTAR ON THE LEFT
“Vision of St. Teresa of Avila” end of 1600s maybe by Antonio Gherardi (1638/1702)
1st
ALTAR ON THE LEFT
“Madonna of S. Maria Maggiore” interesting work painted in archaic
style by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist
It seems as
if the ancient iconic image protector of Rome kept in the Basilica of St. Maria
Maggiore would take full form in a new Baroque dimension and walk towards the
viewer between adoring angels
Further
on in the aisle “Funerary memory of Gaspare Elia”
1624, the benefactor of the Confraternity of Mercy for Prisoners which
bequeathed his fortune
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