S. BERNARDO ALLE TERME
Built in
the years 1598/1602 for Caterina Nobili Sforza S. Fiora, nephew of Julius III
Del Monte (1550/55), using one of the four corner towers of the ancient
enclosure of the Baths of Diocletian (284/305)
built from 298 to 306 AD
The tower
was maybe a Sphaeristerium, a gym for some ball game, or a room for
reading and studying
Restorations
for the consolidation of the dome were carried out in 1857: the lantern of the
sixteenth century that burdened too much the ancient dome was taken off
It is
dedicated to the Burgundian St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090/1153) the founder of
the Cistercian Order
It is also
known as the Church without Windows
DOME (diameter 22 m - 72.2 feet)
Along the
perimeter “Eight statues of saints” in stucco over 3 m (10 feet) tall, about
1599/1602 masterpiece of Camillo Mariani
(1567/1611)
From the
right: “St.
Augustine”, “St. Monica”, “St. Mary Magdalene”, “St. Francis”,
“St.
Bernard”, “St. Catherine of Alexandria”, “St.
Catherine of Siena” and “St. Jerome”
“He was born
in Vicenza and in the study of Rubini he had the inestimable advantage of going
through the discipline of the school of Alessandro Vittoria. Shortly after his
arrival in Rome he made these noble figures of monumental saints, his
masterpieces. The Venetian touch is visible to all but it was strengthened with
a new emphasis and a fine psychological insight, so that these works raise well
above the average contemporary production and are linked to the intensity of
the transitional style in painting in which we find crystallized the true
spirit of the great reformers” (Rudolf Wittkower)
“Camillo
Mariani was instrumental in the formation of another great sculptor, Francesco
Mochi, who, some scholars speculate, might have been a young assistant of the
master in S. Bernardo. Mindful of the painting of the Venetian masters such as
Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto, Mariani here realizes 'the achievement of monumentality
combined with naturalness, the bright distinction of matter combined with a
noble stylization' (Nava Cellini). It is a style that would leave a deep
imprint in the Roman scene and it would be a source of inspiration and
reflection for many seventeenth-century sculptors, including Bernini himself”
(Sergio Lombardi)
ALTAR ON
THE RIGHT
“Vision
of St. Bernard” about 1705 by Giovanni Odazzi
(1663/1731), a pupil of Baciccio
In 1718
Odazzi was commissioned to add a lunette in the upper part of the painting,
which was originally rectangular. The addition is well connected and the
painted angels help to give a buoyancy to the composition
“Odazzi,
faithful follower of Baciccio, shows here that he was influenced by the master
in the figures of angels and in the bright colors he used, as well as in the
setting of the theatrical scene” (Sergio Lombardi)
The
painting is flanked by two beautiful columns in verd antique (ancient
green) marble from the Baths of Diocletian
ON THE 5th PILLAR
ON THE RIGHT
“Tomb
of S. Giovanni della Barrière” 1626 with painting maybe by Andrea Sacchi (1599/1661)
BEHIND THE
MAIN ALTAR
At the
sides canvas “Death of Joseph” second half of seventeenth century by anonymous
and “Madonna of Loreto” beginning of seventeenth century by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620)
UNDER THE
3rd NICHE ON THE LEFT
“Monument
of the sculptor Carlo Finelli (1785/1853)” by Rinaldo Rinaldi
(1793/1873)
Carlo
Finelli from Carrara was part of a family of sculptors including the great
Giuliano Finelli precious collaborator of Bernini in the extraordinary group of
Apollo and Daphne in the Galleria Borghese
ALTAR ON
THE LEFT
“Mystic
Marriage of St. Robert with the Virgin Mary” 1710 by Giovanni
Odazzi
In 1730 Giovanni
Odazzi was commissioned to add, just like in the opposite painting, a lunette
in the upper part
This
painting, like the one in front, is flanked by two beautiful columns in verd
antique (ancient green) marble from the Baths of Diocletian
To the right of the Presbytery
Family
chapel of the Nobili, built in 1647 for Vincenzo Nobili, grandson of Caterina
Nobili Sforza
“Statue
of St. Francis in Ecstasy” about 1647 by Giacomo Antonio Fancelli (1619/71),
who also sculpted the statue of the Nile in the Fountain
of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona
On the left
“Tomb
of the painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789/1896)” 1869 by
the German Karl Hoffmann (1815/86), his friend
and collaborator
On the
walls “Busts
of Nobili family members: Vincenzo junior, Pierfrancesco,
Sforza, Roberto and Vincenzo” who had initiated the construction of the chapel,
1647/49 by Giacomo Antonio Fancelli who also
made the rich stucco decoration of the ceiling that frames the painting “St.
Francis in Glory with Angels” and “Angels with Instruments of the Passion” in
the square panels 1897 by Mario Adami
The
altars on the left and on the right exhibit considerable seventeenth century
frontals in scagliola, a type of fine chalk that mimics inlaid marble
