S. GIUSEPPE DEI FALEGNAMI
1546 for
the Confraternity of Carpenters
1597/1602 G.B. Montano (1543/1621)
Sacristy
1621 and expansion of the oratorio 1627 by G.B. Soria
(1581/1651), pupil of G.B. Montano, to whom he succeeded in the direction of
the works
Completed
in 1663 by Antonio Del Grande (about 1625/79)
and consecrated in the same year
Restored in
1880 by Antonio Parisi
On the FAÇADE
paintings on slate “Flight into Egypt” and “Sts. Peter and Paul”, now barely
visible, maybe by Avanzino Nucci (1552/1629)
STAIRS IN
FRONT OF THE FAÇADE
1625 G.B. Soria, modified and restored in 1884. The left
ramp was eliminated in 1932
CEILING
Made of
wood with central relief “Nativity” 1612 by G.B.
Montano
WALLS OF
THE NAVES
Frescoes on the right:
“Salathiel”,
“Zerubbabel”, “Zadok”, “Ealzar”, “Nathan” and “Joachim”
Frescoes on the left:
“Abraham”, “Isaac”,
“Judas”, “David”, “Solomon” and “Asa”
Frescoes on the sides of the presbytery:
“Joseph”
and “Noah” painted in 1883 all by Cesare Mariani
(1826/1901)
COUNTER
FAÇADE
“Josiah”
and “Hezekiah” 1883 by Angelo Maccaroni, a pupil of Mariani
1st
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. JOSEPH
Above the
altar “Death of St. Joseph” 1648 by Bartolomeo Colombo
Panels on
the wooden choir “Stories of St. Joseph”, “David” and “Prophet” 1634 by G.B. Speranza (about 1600/40)
2nd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. ANNE
Above the
altar “Holy Family with St. Anne” by Giuseppe Ghezzi
(1634/1721)
PRESBYTERY
Transformed
from a quadrangle apse in a semi-circular one in 1880 by Antonio Parisi
Above the
MAIN ALTAR “Marriage of the Virgin Mary” 1605 by the French Horace Le Blanc (about 1580/1637)
On the
right “Journey to Bethlehem”, on the left “Workshop of St. Joseph” 1883 by Cesare Maccari (1840/1919)
In the
lunette “Eternal God and Holy Spirit” 1610 by Antonio
Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620), a pupil of Federico Fiori aka Barocci
NICHES ON
EITHER SIDE OF THE CHANCEL
Statue to
the right “St. Paul” by Cesare Aureli
(1843/1923) and to the left “St. Peter” by Pietro
Jacometti
TO THE LEFT
OF THE PRESBYTERY - CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS
“Our Lady
of Sorrows” mid 1800s
2nd LEFT -
CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY
“Nativity”
1651 by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)
It was his
first public work and it contributed much to his personal success
“The
Nativity was the brilliant prelude to an unbroken succession of commissions,
which would have quickly established his primacy on the Rome scene and his role
of arbiter of the artistic taste for over half a century. In the works carried
out by the middle of the century one can already recognize the stylistic
essential ingredients of Maratta's pictorial language, in which the classicism
of Andrea Sacchi functioned as the basic component enriched by a plot of
suggestions as articulated as wisely governed. In his style coexisted the
universal and supreme model of Raphael, a special admiration for the soft
luminosity of Correggio, the references to models of Annibale Carracci,
Francesco Albani, Guido Reni and Domenichino, a most sumptuous coloring typical
of Venice (especially Titian) and weighted openings to the baroque style, to be
modulated between the dominant manner of Sacchi and the ones of Pietro da
Cortona, Giovanni Lanfranco and the younger Giacinto Gimignani” (Luca
Bortolotti - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Panels on
the wooden choir “Rest on the Flight into Egypt”, “Two Prophets” and “Two
Allegories” 1634 by Giuseppe Puglia aka Bastaro
(about 1600/36)
1st
LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE MAGI
On the
altar “Flight into Egypt” by Niccolò Berrettoni
(1637/82) copy from the original of Carlo Maratta for the Duomo of Siena, now
housed in the Villa Chigi in Castelfusano
On the
reverse of the canvas the painting “Marriage of the Virgin Mary” was
rediscovered during a restoration in 1989
The
altarpiece was originally used as a door for an organ, and it later replaced an
altarpiece by Avanzino Nucci
ORATORIO
Renovated
and enlarged in 1627 by G.B. Soria (1581/1651)
Wooden
ceiling of the years 1628/29 and walnut wood stalls of the years 1639/43
Frescoes
with “Stories of Joseph” 1631/37 by Marco Tullio
Montagna (1594/1649) from Velletri, a pupil of Federico Zuccari
On the
altar “Immaculate Conception with Sts. Joachim and Joseph” 1715/16 by Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674/1755)
SACRISTY
Built in
1621 by G.B. Soria
In the
ceiling “St. Joseph in glory among four angel” by Marco
Tullio Montagna
Mamertine
Prison
Under the
church. Also known as CARCERE TULLIANO (Tullian Prison)
Maybe it's
just the most ancient and secret sector of the ancient prison (carcer)
that was in this area
FAÇADE
Built in
travertine limestone in the early imperial period (39/42 AD), with names of the
consuls Caius Vibinus Rufinus and Marcus Cocceius Nerva
It covers
an older façade in tufa from Grotta Oscura
INTERIOR
Trapezoidal
room built in blocks of tufa from Monteverde and from the Aniene River in the
second half of the second century BC
It was
consecrated by Pope Sylvester I (314/335) as an oratory
It was
considered to be the prison of Sts. Peter and Paul only from the fifteenth
century without any documentary evidence
It was
restored for Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) and in 1726 for Benedict XIII
Orsini (1724/30)
TO THE LEFT
OF THE STAIRS
Concavity
in the stone where tradition has it that St. Peter hit his head
According
to tradition, St. Peter converted his two jailers, Process and Martinianus, who
later become saints, and forty-seven other prisoners. He baptized them with
water from a source miraculously appeared at that very time, water that is
still flowing and that was considered miraculous
ABOVE THE
PRISON - CHAPEL OF THE CROSS
“Wooden
Crucifix” maybe of the sixteenth century
A small
door, now walled up, led to the other rooms of the prison along the foot of the
Capitoline Hill, known as Lautumiae, carved in an ancient tufa quarry
There is a
circular hole in the floor that was the only entrance to the room below: this
was the Tullianum
Here the
most important prisoners of state were thrown and strangled after the triumphs
of the winners. Among the ones killed here: Jugurtha, Vercingetorix, the
partisans of Caius Gracchus, the Catilinarians, Sejanus and his sons
TO THE LEFT
OF THE PRISON
There were
the SCALE GEMONIAE (the Gemoniae stairs) to the Capitoline Hill, perhaps
coinciding with the Gradus Monetae
They came
up from the Forum and had to be, as the current modern stairway, between the
Temple of Concordia and the Mamertine Prison
On
these stairs, close to the prison, were thrown the bodies of those condemned to
death for crime of treason under Tiberius (14/37) and later also several
victims of conflicts linked to the imperial power, as the Emperor Vitellius
(69)
