St. ANASTASIA

S. ANASTASIA

Piazza di S. Anastasia

Built in the fourth century as the official place of worship for the imperial dignitaries of Palatine Hill

It was dedicated to St. Anastasia martyred in the year 253 but it was probably originally dedicated to the worship of the Anástasis, the resurrection

After the torture Anastasia's breasts were cut, her nails torn, her teeth broken, her hands and feet cut off. She finally died only by decapitation

It was restored in the eighth and ninth century and the end of 1400s for Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere (1471/84)

Final restructuring with a new FAÇADE in 1636 by Luigi Arrigucci (1575/after 1643) for Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) after a tornado had destroyed the previous façade in 1634

Interior decorated in the years 1721/22 by the Maltese Carlo Gimach (1651/1730)

This was the first church ever where the practice of the perpetual Eucharistic adoration began in 2001, a practice now spread throughout the world

CEILING

“Martyrdom of St. Anastasia” 1722 by the Roman Michelangelo Cerruti (1663/1748)

CHAPEL IN THE RIGHT NAVE

Above the altar “St. John the Baptist” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

CHAPEL AT THE END OF THE RIGHT NAVE

“Stories of St. Charles Borromeo” and “Stories of S. Filippo Neri” by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

Incredible reliquary with relics of thirty-four saints and blessed, including the Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

RIGHT TRANSEPT

Above the altar “S. Toribio” 1726 by Francesco Trevisani (1656/1746)

ALTAR

“Nativity” and other paintings by Lazzaro Baldi

“Renouncing to the throbbing vitality and dynamism of his master Pietro da Cortona, he acquired Venetian solutions inspired by Pierfrancesco Mola and revived by Gaulli, he also acquired the expressive taste for darkness of Giacinto Brandi or he yielded toward formal balance, showing sensitivity to the calibrated compositional layout of Carlo Maratta, more befitting his measured mood” (Antonella Pampalone)

Under the altar statue of “St. Anastasia” by Francesco Aprile (?/1685) completed in 1667 by Ercole Ferrata (1610/86)

LEFT TRANSEPT

“Tomb of Cardinal Angelo Mai” in 1857 by Giovanni Maria Benzoni (1799/1873)

Altar painting “Madonna of the Rosary” by Lazzaro Baldi under which a medieval fresco was found

CHAPEL AT THE END OF THE LEFT NAVE

“St. Jerome” maybe by Domenico Zampieri aka Domenichino (1581/1641)

In the lunette “Martyrdom of St. Anastasia” by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Sts. George and Publius” by Etienne Parrocel (1696/1774)

Attached to the church MONASTERY OF THE OLIVETANI FATHERS with the façade of the second half of 1600s on Via dei Cerchi facing the Circus Maximus

QUIRINAL PALACE (fifth part)

Gallery of Alexander VII Chigi (1655/67)

Divided into three rooms (Yellow Room, Augustus' Room and Room of the Ambassadors) in early 1800s by Raffaele Stern (1774/1820) to create the rooms of the apartment of the Empress Marie Louise, during the transformation of the palace for the planned residence of her husband Napoleon Bonaparte, who never actually came to Rome in his life

The recent restoration work, started in 2001 and still ongoing, revealed the original fresco decoration with columns and telamons 1656/57 directed by Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)

YELLOW ROOM

Fresco “Joseph recognized by his brothers” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

“He started under the Cavalier d'Arpino, but received the influence that would last throughout his life after a prolonged stay in Venice. He returned to Rome in 1641 and in the following two decades he used a rich palette of warm and brownish shades and created works in which the element of landscape often forms the central point of the composition. He gave his best in small paintings that reveal an idyllic and even elegiac style, absolutely personal. His masterpiece as a painter of frescoes at the Quirinal Palace reveals the specific problem of this group of artists. Again, the landscape plays a predominant part, but the organization of the painting with a composition of figures, which derives as much from Raphael as from Pietro da Cortona, shows a trend toward conciliation with the dominant classicism of the period” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Frescoes in the great frieze “Stories from the Old Testament” under the direction of Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669) who also directed the work on the frieze in the two following rooms:

Left wall:

“Joseph sold by his brothers” by Giovanni Paolo Schor (1615/74)

“Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau” by Fabrizio Chiari (about 1615/95)

“Jacob and the Angel” by Giovanni Paolo Schor

Right wall:

“Explorers of the promised land” by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (1606/80) from Bologna

“Passage of the Red Sea” by Jean Miel (1599/1663)

“Moses and the Burning Bush” by Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi

Two tapestries “Miraculous Draught of Fishes” and “The Last Supper” 1753/64 by the Gobelins manufactory in Paris

The room was the dressing room of the new pontiff during conclaves

ROOM OF AUGUSTUS

It was the Throne Room of Pius IX and of the King of Italy and it is now named after the “Bust of Augustus” sculpted in 1900 and placed here for Hitler's visit in 1938

Ceiling 1812 with central panel in monochrome “Prophets” 1846 by Tommaso Minardi (1787/1871)

Frescoes on the great frieze “Stories from the Old Testament”:

Left wall:

“Sacrifice of Isaac” by Giovanni Angelo Canini (1609/66)

“Exit from the ark of Noah” by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

“Entrance into the ark” by Giovanni Paolo Schor (1615/74)

Right wall:

“David slays Goliath” by Francesco Murgia

“Gideon squeezes out the dew from the fleece” by Filippo Lauri (1623/94)

“Victory of Joshua over the Amorites” by Guillaume Courtois aka Borgognone (1628/79)

ROOM OF THE AMBASSADORS

Floor with “Mosaic with birds” maybe from Villa Adriana in Tivoli

Ceiling “Justice”, “Wisdom” and “Judgment of Solomon” about 1823 by Francesco Manno (1752/1831)

Frescoes on the great frieze “Stories of the Old Testament” 1656/57:

Left wall:

“God warning Adam and Eve” by Lazzaro Baldi and Gaspard Dughet (1615/75)

“Expulsion from Paradise” by Bartolomeo Colombo

“Sacrifices of Cain and Abel” by Filippo Lauri (1623/94) and Gaspard Dughet

Right wall:

“Judgment of Solomon” by Carlo Cesi (1626/86)

“Ciro frees the Israelites from captivity in Babylon” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

“Annunciation” by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

Among the paintings “Virtues” by Tommaso Minardi (1787/1871), fresco “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713) which was covered in the Savoy period and recovered only in 1925

On the sides “Angels” 1848 by the Roman Luigi Coghetti who often worked with his namesake Francesco Coghetti from Bergamo

Below “Monochrome with the church of S. Maria della Pace” revealed by the recent restoration

Large fresco “The mission of the apostles” 1864 by Tommaso Minardi

Tapestries “Stories of the New Testament” of the beginning of the eighteenth century by the Gobelins manufactory in Paris

BARBERINI PALACE - NATIONAL ART GALLERY (nineteenth part)

Room XXIV - Painters from the Emilia Region

“Triptych” with, on the front, “Pietà with Sts. Ermenegildo and Cecilia” and, on the back, “Michael the Archangel and Guardian Angel” about 1604 for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, and, perhaps, “Portrait of a Young Man” about 1592 by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)

“In contact with the work of Raphael and ancient art, Carracci developed the great compositions with classic simplicity and inventive freedom, pursuing a harmonious blend of the natural empirical world and classical tradition. (...) It was too firmly emphasized the contrast between the eclectic classicism of Annibale and rigorous anticlassicism of Caravaggio: in reality both are flatly opposed to the Mannerist style, the first proposing to restore the sixteenth century classicism, the second aiming at a total renewal of the contents and forms of art. Huge was his influence in Italy and outside” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

“Cupid Asleep” about 162 and “Magdalene” about 1632 by Guido Reni (1575/1642) to whom is tentatively attributed also the portrait of “Beatrice Cenci”

The Cupid Asleep was painted by Guido Reni on a wall of the palace in the presence of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, to show his skills

“Guido helped to create to a very considerable extent that second form of classicism that, once exhausted the direct impulse of Raphael, was looking for a new 'perfect form', the Ideal in which incarnate” (Maria Antonietta De Angelis)

“Beatrice Cenci, daughter of the rich and powerful Francesco Cenci, violent and dissolute man, suffered the tortures of the father and was confined, along with her stepmother, in the fortress of Petrella Salto, near Rieti. Exasperated by constant ill-treatment and in accordance with the stepmother and two brothers, also victims of their bullying father, she meditated her father's murder which took place in 1598. Found out, after a trial followed by the entire citizenry, she was sentenced to death by order of Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1592/1605), who perhaps longed to seize the assets confiscated from the family. Beatrice was decapitated on the square of Ponte Sant'Angelo in September 1599 in the presence of a huge crowd of Romans and she immediately became a symbol of oppressed innocence” (Rossella Vodret)

“Mary Magdalene” about 1625 and “Allegory of Peace” maybe by Simon Vouet (1590/1649)

“The interpretation that he develops from his famous models met during his Italian stay (Caravaggio and the great masters from Emilia) had the consent of Louis XIII, of whom he became the official painter. At the head of a large group of artists, Vouet executed many decorative projects in the residences of the French nobility, with great success between the third and fourth decade of 1600” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“St. Ursula with the Virgin Martyrs” about 1623 and “Venus plays the harp (Music)” about 1632 by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582/1647)

He was a pupil of Agostino and Annibale Carracci and affirmed his genius in Rome with a spectacular and daring painting style

Among the Emilia painters he was the most at odds with the current classical painting and championed freedom, becoming the most representative painter of the Roman Baroque

“Penitent Mary Magdalene” by Guido Cagnacci (1601/63) pupil of Guido Reni, but influenced by Caravaggio

Among the many Mary Magdalene in this museum this is undoubtedly the most blatantly erotic

“Painting and Sculpture”, “St. Jerome sealing a letter” 1617, “Saul against David” and “Flagellation” about 1658 by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“The stor of the evolution of Guercino's style (...) is somewhat troubled. The works of the early period (1615/20) are carried out with a bold, dramatic pictorially ('prima maniera gagliarda', early assertive style, it was later described by the artist himself in a letter) and place him in the forefront among those artists who in the second and third decades of the century were exploring possibilities and defining the character of the style now known as 'baroque'. On the other hand the experiences of his stay in Rome - especially the classical influence of Domenichino and Guido Reni and his friendship with the influential art theorist monsignore Agucchi, secretary of Gregory XV - prompted in Guercino's style a definite deviation in the classical direction. The vigorous dynamism of forms in space of his 'first manner' left room to a more planimetric organization. The constant and independent movement of light on the forms is converted into a gradation of warmer light that defines them” (Dwight C. Miller - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Self Portrait” about 1615 by Orazio Borgianni (1578/1616)

“St. John the Baptist points to Christ” and “Portrait of a Woman” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

“Portrait of a Woman” by Ludovico Carracci (1555/1619)

BASILICA OF St. MARK

BASILICA S. MARCO

Piazza S. Marco 48

Founded as TITULUS MARCI by Pope Mark (Jan/Oct 336) in 336 in honor of the Evangelist with his same name in the area known as ad Pallacinas

Restored in 792

Rebuilt in 833 by Gregory IV (827/844)

BELL TOWER 1154

Paolo II Barbo (1464/71) fully renovated it in the years 1465/70

FAÇADE

1466/69 with travertine marble taken from the Colosseum and the Theatre of Marcellus

The architect is unknown but there is a definite influence by Leon Battista Alberti (1404/72)

In 1654/57 the Baroque transformation began, continued 1735/50 by Filippo Barigioni (about 1680/1753), a pupil of Carlo Fontana for Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini

ATRIUM

Architectural fragments and early Christian tombstones

Columns of the ancient tabernacle of 1154)

Inscription with list of the works of Paul II

"Tombstone of Vanozza Cattanei" formerly in S. Maria del Popolo. She was the lover of Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503) with whom she had four children: Cesare, Lucrezia, Jofrè and Juan Borgia. Juan was the Duke of Gandia and he was murdered by his brother Cesare

PORTAL

Bas-relief of "St. Mark the Evangelist" in the lunette maybe by Isaia da Pisa (active 1447/64)

COFFERED CEILING

1465/68 Giovannino de' Dolci (d. about 1486) e Marco de' Dolci one of the only two ceilings left in Rome from the fifteenth century, the other being the one of St. Mary Major

FRESCOES

In the central nave and in between the windows 1654/57 under the direction of Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657):

On the right "Stories of the Sts. Abdon and Sennen", on the left "Stories of St. Mark Pope"

stucco reliefs in between the arches "Apostles" 1741/45:

On the right by Carlo Monaldi (about 1690/1760), on the left by Clemente Orlandi (1694/1775) a pupil of Luigi Vanvitelli, who also designed the ones on the right

Floor

Seventeenth century including cosmatesque-type panes from the fifteenth century

RIGHT NAVE

1st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

"Resurrection" by Jacopo Negretti aka Jacopo Palma the Younger (1544/1628)

3rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

"Adoration of the Magi" by Carlo Maratta (1625/1713)

FURTHER ON "Monument of Cardinal Cristoforo Vidman" who died in 1660 by Cosimo Fancelli (1620/88)

ON THE SIDE OF THE STAIRS FOR THE PRESBYTERY

"Tomb of Leonardo Pesaro" who died in 1796, by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)

At the end of the nave CHAPEL OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT 1656 by Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669), modified 1740/41 by Filippo Barigioni (about 1680/1753) for Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini

On the altar "Pope S. Mark" by Melozzo degli Ambrosi aka Melozzo da Forlì (1438/94). Dome with stucco decoration by Ercole Ferrata (1610/86) and Cosimo Fancelli

PRESBYTERY

Granite urn with bodies of St. Mark Pope and the Sts. Abdon and Sennen. Floor 1478

In the apse mosaics of the time of Gregory IV (827/844) with on the right "Christ and Sts. Mark Pope, Agnes and Agapito" and on the left "Sts. Felicissimo and Mark Evangelist with Gregory IV offering the church". Below "Lamb and twelve sheep"

Apsidal arch "Christ, Sts. Peter and Paul with symbols of the evangelists"

Above the choir "Gold medallion" with a portrait of Paul II 1735 by Filippo Barigioni

In the center "Glory of St. Mark the Evangelist" by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) pupil of Pietro da Cortona

On the sides paintings by Jacques Courtois aka Borgognone (1628/79)

LEFT NAVE

At the end of the nave CAPRANICA CHAPEL with three paintings by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

4th CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

"St. Michael the Archangel" by Pier Francesco Mola

3rd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

"Miracle of St. Domenico" maybe by Baccio Ciarpi (1574/1654)

On the sides "St. Francis" by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703) and "St. Nicholas" by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

2nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT "Marble relief of Antonio d'Este", "Monument of Cardinal Marcantonio Bragadin" who died in 1658 by Alessandro Vitale and Lazzaro Morelli (1608/90)

1st LEFT - BAPTISTERY

Frescoes with beautifully elegant female figures, maybe by Carlo Maratta

SACRISTY

Fragment of a fresco of the end of 1200

"St. Mark the Evangelist" by Melozzo Ambrosi aka Melozzo da Forlì (1438/94)

"S. Martino" by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

"Adoration of the Magi" by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

Reliefs from the altar by Mino da Fiesole (1429/84) and Giovanni Duknovich aka Giovanni Dalmata (about 1440/1510) removed in 1737