HOLY STAIRS

SCALA SANTA
Piazza di S. Giovanni in Laterano

1587/89 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607) for Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90)

Arches closed in 1853 by Francesco Azzurri (1831/1901)

Built to preserve the chapel of S. Lorenzo in Palatio ad Sancta Sanctorum (S. Lawrence in the Palace of the Holy of Holies) originally built for Nicholas III Orsini (1277/80) but already mentioned in the sources of the end of the sixth century

“The experience of the construction of the transept of the Upper Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, and, according to Marina Righetti Tosti-Croce, also Cistercian constructions through which came the influence of French Gothic, were clearly an inspiration for the architecture of the ‘Sancta Sanctorum’, the Holy of Holies. Here the model of Assisi appears, however, proposed to a lesser extent and measured, as exemplified in the fake tunnel with trefoil arches, with more direct references to the classical Roman tradition, reaching a result that combines tradition and innovation” (Emanuela Marino)

SCULPTURES IN THE ATRIUM
From right “Pius IX in prayer” 1877 by Tomasz Oscar Sosnowski (1810/86)
“Jesus praying in the Garden” 1915/17 by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1860/1932)
At the center marble groups “Kiss of Judas” 1855 and “Ecce Homo” 1857 by Ignazio Jacometti (1819/83)
On the left “Pietà” 1875 by Tomasz Oscar Sosnowski and “Jesus at the column” 1874 by Giuseppe Meli

STAIRS
28 marble steps of Proconnesio marble from the Marmara Sea covered in wood in 1723 to prevent the wear and tear

It is believed they are the ones that Jesus went up three times in the Palace of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem (Scala Pylati)
It is also believed that the steps were brought here by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine in the year 326

Originally the steps made up the stairway entrance to the Patriarchìo (Patriarchate), the old papal palace

The stairs can only be climbed up by the faithful kneeling and red spots are visible on the steps, tracks, according to an extremely improbable belief, of the blood of Christ
The first information of any devotion for the stairs dates back, however, only to 1450, while before that date they are not even called holy and it appears they didn’t have any kind of devotional consideration

The stairs were moved from the old location in the old, now destroyed, papal palace to the new papal palace in a single night in 1589. They were reassembled in reverse, with the original first step which is the last one now, so that the workers who carried out the displacement would not have walked on the steps

“It was the seat of an actual law court and a stage at the same time to perform punishment and even death sentences” (Cesare D'Onofrio)

VAULT AND WALLS OF THE STAIRS
“Stories of the Old Testament” and “Stories of Christ” 1586/90 iconography designed by Giovanni Guerra (1544/1618) mainly executed by G.B. Ricci (about 1550/1624), Giacomo Stella (1545/about 1630), Paris Nogari (about 1536/1601), Andrea Lilio (about 1555/1632), Paul Brill (1554/1626), Giovanni Baglione (1566/1643), Ferraù Fenzone (1562/1645)

“Andrea Lilio painted on the walls of the Holy Stairs various scenes of the Legend of Moses and among them the fresco with the Miracle of the Source deserves special attention. The style of Lilio is not always uniform: among his works carried out quickly and often superficially, there are works of great quality made with great precision. What sets him apart is the unusually irregular and broken character of the design and the iridescent coloring” (Hermann Voss)

“Paul Brill in the History of Jonah shows a lively and exciting fantasy that seeks to unify the wealth of ideas of the Nordic peoples with Italian clarity” (Hermann Voss)

Among the ones who also collaborated:
Avanzino Nucci (1552/1629), Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620), Cesare Torelli, Paolo Guidotti aka il Cavalier Borghese (1560/1629), Baldassarre Croce (about 1553/1628), Antonio Scalvati (1557/1622), Girolamo Nanni (about 1569/about 1642), Vincenzo Conti (second half of the 1500s/about 1620), Prospero Orsi, Giuseppe Franco aka Giuseppe Monti or “delle Lodole” (1565/1628), Ventura Salimbeni (1568/1613), Giovanni Alberti (1558/1601) and Cherubino Alberti (1553/1615) (as many as 21 artists in total!)

Unknown Flemish artists also collaborated for inserts with landscapes and topographical details
“Three ancient lintels” recycled here above the gaps in the upper part of the stairs

SANCTA SANCTORUM (Holy of Holies)
Remade in 1278 by members of the Cosmati family
“Bronze door” of the third or fourth century AD perhaps from the ancient Patriarchìo (Patriarchate)

Important frescoes on the VAULT “Four Evangelists” and on the WALLS “Sts. Peter, Paul, Lawrence, Stephen, Nicholas and Agnes”, “Nicholas III presents the Holy of Holies to the Saviour between Sts. Peter and Paul” about 1280 maybe by Jacopo Torriti (active 1270/1300) and Pietro de' Cerroni aka Pietro Cavallini (about 1240/about 1325) (according to Serena Romano) or by Cenni di Pepo aka Cimabue (about 1240/1302) (according to Pietro Longhi)

“The face of Nicholas III is the first real portrait in the painting Gothic civilization in central Italy” (Serena Romano)

“These frescos for the excellent condition and high quality style can reasonably be estimated as the most significant text of artistic Roman culture of the end of the thirteenth century, also considering the possibility to date them accurately. Recent studies are therefore reassessing their central role in relation to the parallel and important site of Assisi” (Emanuela Marino)

VAULT OF THE PRESBYTERY
Mosaic “Christ Pantocrator blessing” in a medallion supported by four angels about 1280

“The mosaic, which shows significant technical similarities with the paintings, as revealed by the restoration of 1994, it differs, however, from the paintings for modes more similar to Byzantine prototypes” (Emanuela Marino)

FAKE GALLERY
“Madonna and Child, saints and prophets” 1590 maybe by Girolamo Nanni (about 1569/about 1642), Ventura Salimbeni (1568/1613), Baldassare Croce (about 1553/1628), Andrea Lilio (about 1555/1632) and Paris Nogari (about 1536/1601)

MAIN ALTAR
Painting on board “Redeemer” acheropita (believed not to be painted by human hands) dating back to about fifth or sixth century, on which it is superimposed a copy of silk of the beginning of the thirteenth century

In the altar were kept SOME OF THE MOST PRECIOUS CHRISTIAN RELICS many of which stolen:
A piece of the Cross of Jesus, the heads of Sts. Peter and Paul, the sandals of Jesus, the sofa of the Last Supper, the rod of Moses, the manna descended from heaven, the bread of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, two ampoules with the blood spilled by the side of Jesus, the bread of the Last Supper, the sponge that was offered on the cross, the navel of Jesus and, incredibly, the foreskin of the Child Jesus

The holy foreskin was stolen, according to tradition, by a lansquenet in 1527 during the sack of Rome and ended up, somehow, in a church in the village called Calcata, 47 km (29 miles) north of Rome, where it was venerated until 1985 when it mysteriously disappeared

CHAPEL OF St. LAWRENCE
1587/89 Domenico Fontana (1543/1607)
Above the altar fresco “St. Lawrence venerated by the faithful underneath God the Father and the Son” by Baldassare Croce (about 1553/1628)
Four lunettes with “Landscapes” by Paul Brill (1554/1626)
Ceiling and pediments “Trinity in glory, saints and prophets” maybe by Giovanni Guerra (1544/1618) and Cesare Nebbia (1536/1614)

CHAPEL OF THE CROSS
1936/37 by Vincenzo Mannucci
“Wooden crucifix” by an anonymous artist of the fifteenth century

CHAPEL OF St. SYLVESTER
1587/89 Domenico Fontana. It is used as choir
Vault “Triumph of Sixtus V” maybe by Giovanni Alberti (1558/1601) and Cherubino Alberti (1553/1615)
Lunettes with “Landscapes” by Paul Brill (1554/1626)
“Mary Magdalene at the foot of the Cross” of the second half of the eighteenth century by Tommaso Maria Conca (1734/1822)

CENCI SMALL PALACE

PALAZZETTO CENCI

Piazza dei Cenci 26

1579/84 Martino Longhi the Elder (1534/91) with beautiful courtyard and portico

It is connected to the Palazzo Cenci Bolognetti with the ARCO DEI CENCI (Arch of the Cenci family)

On the main floor frescos “Scenes of the Exodus of the Jews led by Moses” 1583/87 by Giovanni Guerra (1544/1618) and assistants, including Vitruvio Alberi (active 1575/dead after 1590)

“Giovanni Baglione reserved to Guerra in 1642 a very detailed biography, with a preliminary list of works (...) and the memory of his business capacity, which also contributed, with its scathing critical reviews, in the general devaluation of the late Roman Mannerism, to make forget the artist quickly, considered far from any appreciable qualitative standard. Only after the mid-twentieth century, initially through the study of his drawings, there was the beginning of the philological and critical recovery of the multifarious activities of Guerra, with particular attention to his ways of organizing a building site and the role of independent and original inventor of sacred and profane iconography” (Mario Bevilacqua - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - GALLERY OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAPS (second part)

Thirty-two big maps on the walls and eight smaller maps at the ends of the gallery

The four small maps at the entrance from the Gallery of Tapestries are:

“Tremiti Islands”

“Island of Corfu” with the representation of the Battle of Lepanto which took place in 1571, only a decade before this image was painted

“Island of Malta” with highly detailed representation of the dramatic siege placed by the Ottoman fleet in 1565

“Island of Elba” with, below, hypothetical reconstruction of the Port of Claudius at Ostia

Continuing in the Gallery alternating right and left:

“Southern Puglia” with commemorative plaque and Egnazio Danti's signature

“Jurisdiction of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin” with the march of the papal court of Gregory XI returning to Rome in 1377 after seventy years spent in Avignon

“Northern Puglia” with on the right polyhedron on a base with a painted relief depicting the death of Archimedes to whom the polyhedron refers to. Perhaps it is the tomb of Archimedes

Extended representation of the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC during which there were almost 50,000 deaths between the Romans and allies

“Sicily” with detailed maps of Messina, Palermo and Siracusa

“Abruzzo” with the now dried Lake Fucino and accurate map of L'Aquila even if specular

“Sardinia” with spectacular sea monster in the lower right

“Territory of Ancona” with a very precise costs and insert with a bird's eye view of Loreto

“Corsica” with on the right image of a galleon ship known as caracca, with crew disproportionate to the size of the ship

“Marche” with a map of Macerata and army of 15,000 men in arms marching to rescue Rome from the landsknechts that sacked the city in 1527

“Southern Calabria” indicating, to the north of Croton, castrum annibalis to indicate the place where it was assumed Hannibal had spent three winters from 206 to 203 BC

“Duchy of Urbino” as it was until 1631, when, with the extinction of the Della Rovere family, it was incorporated in the State of the Church

There are maps of Urbino and Pesaro, as well as a wide representation of the 207 BC Battle of Metauro between the Romans and Hannibal's troops

“Northern Calabria” with a beautiful brigantine (swift ship with three masts) to the right and battle of 330 BC between Alexander the Molossian king of Epirus and an array of Bruzi and Lucani

“Romagna” defined by Danti as Flaminia, with prospects of Ravenna, Cervia surrounded by salt mines and Rimini of which there is a detailed map at the bottom

On the Via Emilia there is a marching army identifiable with that of Julius Caesar in 49 BC crossing the Rubicon. In fact it is possible to see the writing near Cesena Alea Iacta Est

“Southern Campania and Basilicata” defined by Danti as Lucania

Below is the collision with the cavalry of Hannibal in 208 BC during which the Roman consul Marcellus was killed

“Jurisdiction of Bologna” one of the best maps, rich in historical events and detailed illustrations. Below on the left there is a very detailed map of Bologna

“Southern Campania and Basilicata” one of the less accurate maps from topographical point of view. It shows the Montevergine Sanctuary

“Duchy of Ferrara” with caption of the time of Urban VIII (1623/44) pointing out the annexation to the Papal State in 1598

The hydrographic network is made perfectly with a beautiful depiction of the Valli di Comacchio. At the time the waterways were very much used to transport goods

Very interesting is the reclamation of the Polesine of St. John wanted by Alfonso II d'Este and implemented from 1564 to 1580 that had been completed very recently

“Campania” not very accurate even if there is a beautiful rendering of the map of Naples

Victory of the army of Pope John X (914/928) with the lords of southern Italy and Alberic of Spoleto against the Saracens in 915 at the Garigliano River

“Duchy of Mantua” the first known topography of Mantua although unequal in value in the different parts

“Southern Lazio” completely repainted in the year 1636/37 by Luca Holstenio, as well as the beautiful map of Rome, where there is Barberini Palace too, built in 1625/33. Very striking is the representation of the Appian Way

“Duchy of Parma and Piacenza” with maps of the two cities

“Territory of Spoleto” defined as Umbria by Danti who surveyed himself at least part of the territory

There is a map of Spoleto and the representation of Pope Leo III (795/816), the same who crowned Charlemagne, rescued in Spoleto in 795 by Duke Guinigiso

“Lagoon of Venice, Friuli and Istria” defined Iulii Forum, with Istria disproportionately larger than Friuli

It was already restored under Sixtus V (1585/90) by Giovanni Guerra (about 1542/1618) and also under Urban VIII (1623/44)

“Northern Lazio” defined Patrimonium S. Petri, completely repainted in 1636/37 by Luca Holstenio. The map of Rome was made before 1614 but under Urban VIII the Gianicolensi Walls of 1642/43 were added

At the bottom left cupids hold maps of Viterbo and Orvieto

“Domains of Venice to the west of the Piave River” with very detailed maps of Padua and Vicenza

“Territories of Perugia and Città di Castello” with a map of Perugia and its territory surveyed by Dante himself who was born in Perugia. Città di Castello is defined as Tifernum and its territory is less detailed

In 1597 Pietro Oldrado added the representation of the Battle of Lake Trasimeno in 217 BC won by Hannibal against the Romans. There were 19,000 deaths among the Romans: 15,000 legionaries plus more than 4,000 riders arrived in the following days

“Duchy of Milan” with a map of Milan simplified by a nineteenth-century overpainting and victory in 774 by Charlemagne against Desiderius king of the Lombards at Piacenza

“Tuscany and Northern Lazio” described as Etruria, restored in 1589 by Giovanni Guerra (1544/1618) and in 1596 by Pietro Oldrado

 The map is very accurate and consistent. It also includes maps of Florence, Livorno and Siena

 

“Piedmont and Monferrato” with two commemorative inscriptions for the two domains of the Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Mantua, separated by a golden line. It is not very accurate

There is a map of Turin inserted and the Battle of Ceresola of 1544 between the army of Francis I of France and the Spanish army of Charles V

“Liguria” with in the sea Andrea Doria's brig scourge of pirates and the allegorical representation of Christopher Columbus represented as a Roman emperor with the inscription Ligurian Christopher Columbus discoverer of the New World

“Ancient Italy” and “Modern Italy” both about 1632/33 by Luca Holstenio who imagined some differences in physical geography as the difference between the two deltas of the Po River. Holstenio's sources for modern Italy date to late sixteenth and early seventeenth century

Before the entrance in the Gallery of St. Pius V there are four small maps of ports:

“Ancona”

“Venice” very similar to the city as it is today

“Genoa” rebuilt at the time of Urban VIII

“Civitavecchia” with a cargo ship that transports the Obelisk of Psammetichus II to Rome, later placed in Piazza Montecitorio