Small
chapel erected in 1099 by Paschal II (1099/1118) at the expense of the Roman
people on the DOMITII MAUSOLEUM where Nero had been buried
Perhaps it
was built as a vow of thanksgiving on the occasion of the liberation of the
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by the Crusaders
Enlarged in
1227 for Gregory IX (1227/41)
It was
entrusted in 1250 to the Augustinians
Rebuilt in
the years 1475/77 by an unknown architect, maybe Andrea
Bregno (1418/1503) for Sixtus IV Della Rovere (1471/84)
Early
1500s, works by Donato Bramante (1444/1514) and Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)
Second half
of 1600s, works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
(1598/1680) and Carlo Fontana (1634/1714)
1811/13
destruction of the CONVENT
of the fifteenth century, rebuilt by Giuseppe Valadier
(1762/1839)
Martin
Luther lived for several months in 1511 in the original convent and it was here
that his desire to reform the church was ultimately transformed into a
resolution and will
End of
1400s modified by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
“Rose
window held by two angels” by Ercole Ferrata
(1610/86)
On the
upper part, second entablature with dentils “Sixteen statues of saints” in
stucco designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini with
statues executed by his assistant:
“Sts. Clare
and Scholastica” by Ercole Ferrata
“Sts.
Catherine, Barbara, Thecla and Apollonia” by Ercole
Antonio Raggi (1624/86)
“Sts.
Catherine, Theresa, Agnes and Martina” by Giovanni
Francesco De Rossi (active 1640/77)
“St.
Praxedes” by Pietro Paolo Naldini (1619/91)
“Sts.
Cecilia and Ursula” by Giovanni Antonio Mari
(active from 1635/d. 1661)
“St.
Pudentiana” by Lazzaro Morelli (1608/90)
“Sts.
Dorothy and Agatha” by Giuseppe Peroni (about
1626/63)
Entrance
arch to the transept “Allegorical figures holding a coat of arms” by Ercole Antonio Raggi
Right End Side of the Church
RIGHT NAVE
Balustrade
by Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)
“Nativity” about 1490 by Bernardino di Betto
aka Pinturicchio (1454/1513)
“The natural
gifts of Pinturicchio were huge, and his early works are among the most
faithful representations of the refined splendor and elegant life of the great
patrons and contemporary humanists. They do their best to please us and draw
us, by the grace of feeling, the beauty of female figures, the romantic views,
the clarity of composition and the magnificent portraits. And since any more
serious purpose was carefully avoided, nothing is in them that would expect to
take to a higher level” (Bernard Berenson)
Frescoes 1485/89 by Tiberio
d'Assisi (about 1460-70/1524)
On the left
“Tombs of Cardinals Cristoforo and Domenico Della Rovere” (brothers from
Piedmont relatives of Sixtus IV), maybe by Andrea
Bregno (1418/1503)
1682/87 Carlo Fontana
(1634/1714)
“The initial
project was organized following the method of concentric circles, while for the
final version it was preferred a Greek cross instead with very short arms in
depth, except for that of the vestibule. Through the placement of columns and
round sculptures on the side walls Fontana was able to guide the viewer's gaze
towards the altar and the picture above, in which the figures of saints and of
the Immaculate are in such a spatial relationship to each other to create an
effect of depth without resorting to illusionistic tricks” (Helmut Hager -
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Formerly
painted by Pinturicchio
Above the
altar “Immaculate Conception and Saints”
by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)
On the
sides of the “Twin tombs of Cardinal Lorenzo Cybo (founder of the chapel) and
Cardinal Cybo Alderano” 1683/84 by Francesco Cavallini (active
1672/1703) who also designed the sculptures on the altar
Dome painted by Luigi
Garzi (1638/1721)
In the
vestibule of the chapel, on the right “Martyrdom of St. Catherine”
by Daniele Seiter (1649/1705) and on the left “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence”
by Giovanni Maria Morandi (1622/1717)
Frescoes by
pupils of Bernardino di Betto aka Pinturicchio
Floor of
the fifteenth century with tiles from Deruta
4th
RIGHT - COSTA CHAPEL
Frescoes by
pupils of Bernardino di Betto aka Pinturicchio
“Marble
Triptych with, in the middle, St. Catherine of Alexandria and, at the sides,
St. Vincent Zaragoza and St. Anthony of Padua” by the school
of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503) for Cardinal Jorge de Costa, who wanted to
represent St. Catherine in honor of Catherine, daughter of the king of
Portugal, thanks to whom he had made an important ecclesiastical career
At the
center “Tomb of Bishop Pietro Foscari” 1480 with bronze statue by the Sienese Lorenzo di Pietro aka Vecchietta (about 1412/80)
“Tomb of
Cardinal Jorge de Costa” d. 1509
RIGHT
TRANSEPT
1657/59 Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)
Above the
altar “Visitation” about 1659 by Giovanni Maria Morandi
(1622/1717)
Sculptures
of “Angels” supporting the frame on the right by Ercole
Ferrata (1610/86), on the left by Arrigo Giardè
BALCONY FOR
THE ORGAN
In the
upper part with oak trees, symbols of the Chigi family, surrounding the organ
1656/57 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini with statues by Ercole Antonio Raggi and beautiful oak branches by the
engraver Antonio Chicari
Apse
1627 at the
behest of Cardinal Antonio Sauli who also had the stucco decoration carved on
the big arch
CHOIR
1500/1509
by Donato Bramante (1444/1514)
On the left
“Monument of Cardinal Ascanio
Sforza” 1505 with the snake emblem
On the
right “Monument of Cardinal Girolamo
Basso Della Rovere” 1507 with the emblem of the oak,
masterpieces by Andrea Contucci aka Andrea Sansovino
(1460/1529)
“The
architectural type of the tomb was updated to the solemn forms of Bramante
(inserting a large triumphal arch) and the modeling of the figures to the
rounded plastic and to the chiaroscuro of Raphael. The vague similarities in
taste tend furthermore to specify a more explicit intentional transposition in
sculpture of the language of painting, and it is significant that the language
that Andrea Sansovino wants to plastically translate is Raphael's and his
school's” (Giulio Carlo Argan)
STAINED
GLASS WINDOWS
“Stories of Christ” and “Life of the Virgin Mary”
1509 by Guillaume de Marcillat (about 1469/1529)
VAULT
Frescoes “Coronation of Mary” with “Evangelists,
Sibyls and Doctors of the Church” 1508/10 by Bernardino di Betto aka Pinturicchio (1454/1513)
Left End Side of the Church
LEFT TRANSEPT
CERASI CHAPEL
1600 Carlo Maderno (1556/1629) for Monsignor Tiberio Cerasi
In the
center of the ceiling “Coronation of the Virgin”, on the sides “Quo Vadis” and “Conversion
of St. Paul” 1601 by Annibale Carracci
(1560/1609) with his pupil Innocenzo Tacconi
(active in Rome 1607/25)
On the
altar “Assumption of the Virgin Mary”
1601 by Annibale Carracci
“In the two
decades of activity in Rome - 1595/1605 - Annibale became the creator of a
grand manner, a dramatic style, supported by a careful study of nature,
antiquity, Raphael and Michelangelo. And from this style, equally admired by
men at odds with each other such as Poussin and Bernini, derived all the
official painting of the next 150 years” (Rudolf Wittkower)
On the
right “Conversion of St. Paul”
“Caravaggio
puts us as spectators almost from the perspective of the man on the ground who
has the enormous horse above him and the indecipherable entanglement, between
quadruped and servant, of the gnarled and varicose veins. Everything is
suddenly stamped on his mind by that beam of light that now seals in his shut
eyelids the appearance of blind pupils of the Roman busts. With this discreet
hint, eliminating down to the bone the iconographic tradition of the time, he
executed perhaps the most revolutionary painting in the history of sacred art”
(Roberto Longhi)
On the left
“Crucifixion of St. Peter”
“Things
happen with innocent evidence where everyone is simply doing his job. The
servants are workers who labor and are not executioners keen to be cruel, given
the situations. The saint looks at us calm, conscious as a modern secular hero”
(Roberto Longhi)
“He painted
the stillness, not the action. (...) The Crucifixion took place in the same
intimacy of the Conversion: no transcendental presence, no spectators or
witnesses to the killing of the elderly man except us, and we are brought so
close to the scene like no one could ever be. It was another strictly private
event” (Peter Robb)
Two
masterpieces by Michelangelo Merisi aka Caravaggio
(1571/1610)
The
canvases were placed in the chapel in 1605 as a replacement of the paintings
made on cypress wood of similar subject but completely different in the
composition executed in 1601 and never put in place perhaps in consequence of
the death of the client in 1601
The
previous “Conversion” is in the Palazzo Odescalchi, the “Crucifixion” perhaps
in a Spanish monastery
“From such a
comparison the Assumption of Annibale could appear insipid and even tiring, but
it is worth noting that, as in the two works by Caravaggio, is the overwhelming
mass of the figures that dominates the painting. Despite this triumph of the
massive sculptural figure Annibale shows that he never forgot the lesson
learned from Titian and Correggio. Fusing the Venetian color with the Roman
drawing, treating pictorially the classic austerity of form, he showed that
these ancient contrasts were not irreconcilable” (Rudolf Wittkower)
Designed by
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)
On the altar
“Holy Family” by Bernardino Mei (1612/76)
“Two Angels”
on the right by Ercole Antonio Raggi, on the
left by Giovanni Antonio Mari (active from
1635/d. 1661)
In the
upper part with oak trees, symbols of the Chigi family, surrounding the organ
1656/57 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini with statues by Ercole Antonio Raggi
LEFT NAVE
Wooden
crucifix of the XV century
3rd LEFT - MELLINI CHAPEL
Vault 1623/24 by Giovanni Mannozzi aka Giovanni da S. Giovanni (1592/1636)
On the left
“Monument of Cardinal Garcia
Mellini” about 1630 masterpiece by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654) of whom are also the “Busts of Urban and Mario Mellini” on
the sides of the altar
Designed by
Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520),
commissioned by Agostino Chigi (1466/1520) as the family mausoleum
It was
begun in the years 1513/14 by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto
(1490/1541) and completed in the years 1650/56 by Gian
Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) for Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67)
It was
formerly a funerary chapel sacred to the Borgia family, who had buried here the
second son of Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503), Juan of Gandia, who had been
killed on June 14, 1497 by his brother Cesare, and his mother Vannozza Cattanei
Design for
the mosaics of the dome “God with symbols of the sun and
the seven planets” by Raphael
executed in 1516 by the mosaics expert Luigi De Pace
who had especially come from Venice
“A
civilization that owed to classical culture whatever was its best part, had
finally found the artist who was needed in that specific moment: the
Illustrator who was able to interpret antiquity in unsurpassed visual images, and
so filled the most elevated desires. We can say that Raphael was the greatest
artist of Humanism, and that he remained the artist for those who have been
trained on the classical world” (Bernard Berenson)
Between the
windows EIGHT COMPARTMENTS with scenes of the “Creation” and “Original Sin” and
in the SPANDRELS “Four Seasons” about 1550 by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco Salviati (1510/63)
LUNETTES of
the seventeenth-century by the Sienese Raffaele Vanni
(1587/1673)
ALTAR
Oil
painting on wall “Birth of the Virgin Mary”
by Sebastiano Luciani aka Sebastiano Del Piombo
(1485/1547) commissioned in 1526 (he had been commissioned also the paintings
between the windows), still incomplete in 1547 (his death) and completed in
about 1554 by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco
Salviati
Bronze
relief on the altar, “Jesus and the Samaritan Woman” by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto (1490/1541) originally for one of the tombs
that was supposed to be that of Francesca Ordeasca wife of Agostino Chigi and
not the tomb of his brother Sigismondo
However,
since Sigismondo was the great-grandfather of Fabio Chigi, later Pope Alexander
VII, he was by him honored with a grave that was not his
In the
niches of the pillars “Prophets of the Resurrection”
TO THE
RIGHT OF THE ALTAR
Marble
sculpture “Habakkuk and the Angel”
1656/61 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)
TO THE
RIGHT OF THE ALTAR
Marble
sculpture “Jonah coming out of the whale”
1520 by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto from a
design by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520)
ON THE
OPPOSITE PILLARS
Marble
sculptures “Daniel and the Lion”
1655/57 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and “Elijah”
by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto but finished by Raffaello da Montelupo (about 1505/57)
“The
position of the figure of Daniel is extremely complex in its opposing motion
and form an antithesis of the figure of Truth lying in her pose compressed and
actively pleading. One might never guess that the original inspiration came
from the figure of Laocoon, but there it is, as evidenced by the preparatory
drawings left to us. He began with a study of the Laocoon, overthrew it, and
returned at the end to a pose quite similar in Daniel but with a totally
different sense” (Howard Hibbard)
WALLS
“Tombs of Agostino Chigi and of
his brother Sigismondo” by Raphael but
modified in about 1650 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
At the
center of the floor “Winged Death”
by Gian Lorenzo Bernini with cartouche “Mors aD
CaeLos” indicate in capital letters the year of jubilee in 1650
PILLAR
BETWEEN THE 2nd AND 1st CHAPEL
“Monument to Maria Flaminia
Odescalchi Chigi” 1771 by Paolo Posi (1708/76) executed by
Agostino Penna (known since 1768/d. 1800) with
extraordinary “Lion” by Francesco Antonio Franzoni
(1734/1818) from Carrara, the sculptor of the statues in the two in the
world-famous Halls of Animals in the Vatican Museums
Aediculas
derived from the old high altar by Andrea Bregno
(1418/1503)
“Tomb of
Cardinal Francesco Castiglioni” 1568 and “Tomb of Cardinal Antoniotto
Pallavicini” 1507 by artists of the school of Andrea
Bregno
TO THE LEFT
OF THE ENTRANCE
Curious “Funerary monument of G.B. Gisleni”
1672 by G.B. Gisleni (1600/72) himself with
death imprisoned and caterpillar that lives on as a butterfly
SACRISTY
CORRIDOR “Monument
of Bishop Bernardino Elvino” 1548 by Guglielmo Della
Porta (1515/77)
A monument
and a marble triptych by Luigi Capponi (active
end of 1400s/beginning of 1500s)
HALL OF THE
SACRISTY
“Ciborium”
marble altar for the 1473 masterpiece by Andrea Bregno
(1418/1503) for Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI (1492/1503), formerly
on the high altar of the church
The
ciborium is signed and dated by Bregno who dedicated it to the memory of his
son Marcantonio, who died only seven during the works
