Originally
built in the years 1575/76
Formerly
known as S. Maria della Morte for the Arciconfraternita della Morte (Confraternity
of Death) founded in 1538 that gave burial to the poor
It was rebuilt
in the years 1733/37 by Ferdinando Fuga
(1699/1782) with the help of Giuseppe Sardi
(1680/1753) who was master builder at the time
Ferdinando
Fuga asked, as only reward, the right for free burial for himself and his heirs
Golden
decorations and other works in the interior done in 1867
Restored in
1975
Since 1992
it has been dedicated to people who had died at work
“For the
façade Fuga conceived initially a convex shape and later changed his project,
because of the limited space available toward the street and also for his
personal stylistic evolution, to a rectilinear structure but with strong visual
contrasts” (Daniele Ferrara)
“Ferdinando
Fuga demonstrates that he thoroughly studied Borromini, Bernini and Rainaldi
regarding the history of this type of building, almost proposing to fix himself
a type which would be the synthesis and, at the same time, the adjustment of
the different solutions. He does not alter substantially the structure of the
Baroque image of space, but, in summarizing it, he almost involuntarily brings
the elements to the firmness preached by the classical treatises of 1500s”
(Giulio Carlo Argan)
On the
walls FRESCOS DETACHED:
Among the chapels to the right
“St.
Anthony Abbot and St. Paul of Thebes”
Among the chapels on the left
“St. Simeon
Stylites” about 1605 by Giovanni Lanfranco
(1582/1647), his first independent works from the Camera degli Eremiti (Room
of the Hermits) of the destroyed Palazzina Farnese (Farnese Small
Palace)
Above the
entrance there is a third fresco covered. The three murals were placed here in
1734
“In this first
cycle Lanfranco shows that he was already following a relatively free pictorial
line, immune, rather strangely, to the severity of the Roman style of Annibale
Carracci” (Rudolf Wittkower)
1st
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA
On the
altar “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine” by unknown
artist of the end of the sixteenth century probably from the old church
2nd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. MICHAEL
1741 Paolo Posi (1708/76)
On the
altar “St. Michael the Archangel” about 1740/50 copy by an unknown artist from the original by Guido Reni in the
church of S. Maria della Concezione (St.
Mary of the Immaculate Conception)
MAIN ALTAR
On the
altar “Crucifixion” about 1680 by Ciro Ferri
(1634/89), a pupil of Pietro da Cortona, who was here clearly influenced by the
painting with the same subject by Guido Reni in in the church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina
2nd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. JULIANA FALCONIERI
Above the
altar “St. Juliana Falconieri receives the dress from St. Philip Benizi” about
1740 by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)
1st
LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE HOLY FAMILY
Above the
altar “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” mid-1700s by Lorenzo
Masucci (?/1785), son of Agostino Masucci
“The
curvilinear and jutting pediments out of the chapels have a slight concavity in
contrast with the convexity of the entablature above the choruses and the
confessionals: this alternation of form suggests a swaying motion that ends at
the chorus, where the arc breaks up the attic on which the dome rests. The
undulating outline of the interior is an original design by Ferdinando Fuga,
never seen before even considering the interiors of Borromini's churches”
(Daniele Ferrara)
SACRISTY
Canvas:
“St.
Michael the Archangel defeats the devil” about 1576 maybe by Raffaellino Motta
aka Raffaellino da Reggio (1550/78)
“Deposition
of Christ” by an unknown seventeenth-century artist
“St.
Michael the Archangel save the souls of Purgatory” and “St. Michael the
Archangel, the devil and the passing of a dying man” about 1660/70 by Giacinto Brandi (1621/91), originally located in the
church at the sides of the altar of St. Michael
UNDERGROUND
CEMETERY
Large room
originally built in 1762 but resized during the works for building the walls by
the River Tiber
For three
centuries, from 1552 to 1896, about 8,600 corpses were buried here, with an
average of one every two weeks
The
decorations with skeletons of people belonging to the Confraternity of Death
were very macabre, similar to those in the cemetery of St. Mary of the
Immaculate Conception
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