St. ELIGIUS OF THE JEWELLERS

S. ELIGIO DEGLI OREFICI

Via di S. Eligio 8a

1514/1551 designed by Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) from a project of the years 1514/15

The attribution is based on a drawing by Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi (?/1573) son of Baldassarre Peruzzi. The drawing is in the Uffizi Museum in Florence and there is a note in which the church is explicitly attributed to Raphael

It was built on the former church of S. Eusterio, demolished in 1514

St. Eligius (about 588/660) was a French saint, patron of goldsmiths

According to tradition, the Frankish king Clotaire II would have commissioned a golden throne and Eligius would have made two with the amount of gold that he had been given just to make one

The king was very impressed by his ability and his honesty and appointed him goldsmith of the court and master of the mint

In addition to being the patron saint of goldsmiths, he is also the patron saint of farriers and veterinarians because he would miraculously hung a leg off a horse

RESTORATIONS

In 1590 by Francesco Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94) and in the years 1602/04 by Flaminio Ponzio (1560/1613) who consolidated the church and in the years 1710/11, 1857/65, 1911 under the direction of Antonio Muñoz (1884/1960), 1952/55 and 1977/78

“Despite the various restorations over time, the interior maintains a fine of solemnity, as determined by light and geometric harmony among the various parts of the building that is inspired, regardless of the exact identification of the specific contributions to the project - Raphael and Peruzzi -, to the culture of Bramante. Significant in this respect the choice of the Greek cross plan that certainly can be seen as a reflection on a reduced scale of the formal, functional and symbolic implications of the designs of Bramante for St. Peter” (Sofia Barchiesi)

FLOOR

1857 using marble slabs from the destroyed Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

FAÇADE

Collapsed in 1601

It was rebuilt in 1602/04 by Flaminio Ponzio

Completed in 1620, possibly by Giovanni Bonazzini

DOME

Maybe by Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481/1536) who completed Raphael's project

Restored and redesigned in 1590 by Francesco Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94)

In the years 1710/11 the lead lining of the exterior of the dome began, only to be completed in 1739

RIGHT ALTAR

“Adoration of the Magi” 1639 by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona, who also painted the “Sibille” on the sides at the top

Originally there was a fresco by Federico Zuccari with the same subject destroyed by the collapse of 1601

APSE

Frescoes “Eternal God supporting the crucifix between angels” at the top and “Madonna and Child with Sts. Eligius, Stephen, Mary Magdalene and Lawrence on the right and John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria on the left” at the bottom 1581/84 maybe by Matteo da Lecce (about 1546/1616) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

“Matteo da Lecce in his frescoes was able to bring to such intensity the three-dimensional illusion that his figures - in the words of Baglione - seemed to come off the walls. In this, which is his Roman masterpiece, the composition betrays the influence of the school of Raphael, and in the design of the bodies, of the school of Michelangelo, especially through Sebastiano del Piombo and Salviati” (Hermann Voss)

On the sides “Two prophets” maybe by Taddeo Zuccari

Above the altar fragment of the head of St. Eligius kept in a silver reliquary of 1628

ARCH ABOVE THE ALTAR

Fresco “St. Eligius as he is assisting the poor” by an unknown seventeenth-century artist

On the sides “Annunciation” maybe by Matteo da Lecce

LEFT ALTAR

“Adoration of the Shepherds” in 1574 by Giovanni De Vecchi (about 1537/1615)

On the sides at the top “Sibille” by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

LEFT AND RIGHT OF THE CHURCH

Houses belonging to the Brotherhood of the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths

The one on the right was designed in 1625 by Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649)

PALACE OF JACOPO DA BRESCIA

PALAZZO DI JACOPO DA BRESCIA

Via dei Corridori

About 1519 maybe by Raffaello Sanzio (1483/1520) for Jacopo da Brescia the doctor of Leo X Medici (1513/21)

The palace was destroyed in 1936 for the opening of Via della Conciliazione and the façade was moved here from Via Borgo Nuovo

The same happened to the CASA DI FEBO BRIGOTTI (Febo Brigotti's House), the doctor of Paul III Farnese (1534/49). The façade of the Casa is now adjacent to the Palace of Jacopo da Brescia on Via dei Corridori

It was inspired by the neighboring and now completely destroyed Palazzo Caprini by Donato Bramante

“The upper floors are one of the first examples in Rome of the use of a curtain of exposed brick (in this case coupled with lava stone), in a representative building. The tight side on Borgo Sant'Angelo was solved by Raphael with a Serlian window of which he was one of the first designers” (Emanuela Montelli)

BRANCONIO DELL'AQUILA PALACE

PALAZZO BRANCONIO DELL'AQUILA

Piazza S. Pietro - demolished

1515/20 Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) for his friend G.B. Branconio chamberlain of Leo X Medici (1513/21)

It was demolished in the seventeenth century to open the new Piazza Rusticucci which took its name from the palace

It was one of the architectural masterpieces of the Renaissance, the archetype of an architectural style derived from ephemeral scenes of parties and theater

“The prestige of the owner suggested to Sanzio a reference to a precise classical model, the exedra of the Trajan's Markets. Correspondence between the virtues of the emperor saved from limbo and the contemporary patron are part of a wider symmetry established between the old Roman Empire and the monarchy of the popes” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - ROOM OF THE FIRE OF BORGO

Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo

The iconographic program alludes to the function that the room had at the time of Julius II when here met the Holy See's highest court, the Signatura Gratiae et Iustitiae, chaired by the pontiff

The room later became Leo X's dining room

The paintings aim to exalt the policy of Leo X by references to events in the lives of popes with the same name, Leo III and Leo IV

VAULT

Commissioned in 1508 by Julius II to Pietro Vannucci, aka Pietro Perugino (about 1450/1523). Raphael did not touch the work of his teacher

In the four round panels “Holy Trinity”, “Creator enthroned between angels and cherubs”, “Christ as Sol Iustitiae and tempted by the devil”, “Christ between Mercy and Justice”

WALLS

Painted in the year 1514/17 by the pupils of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) for Leo X Medici (1513/21) who used the room as a dining room and wanted to show on the walls his political aspirations

Raphael produced himself only cartoons and drawings, as he was busy as architect of the new Basilica of St. Peter and had been appointed Superintendent of the Antiquities of Rome

“Fire in the Borgo neighborhood” close to the Vatican, extinguished, according to the Liber Pontificalis, by the blessing of Pope Leo IV (847/855) in 847

Almost completely painted by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) and Giovanni Francesco Penni (about 1496/1528)

In the background there is the façade of the old Basilica of St. Peter

“The spatial composition does not tend to harmonize in a balanced structure the subsequent units of the action, as well as the architecture does not form an organic dimensional container: they appear rather like slipping surfaces, like scenes and backdrops for theater, offering to the story a symbolic reference to the place and allowing figures to emerge in leading roles, dominating the scene, isolated and mighty. Here the style of Raphael has a radical transformation, which opens a new course in the history of painting: Raphael leaves the tension to comparisons with nature and the basis of organic form inherited from 1400s, altering the harmonious and proportional foundation of fifteenth-century perspective. His interest focuses on the expressiveness of the individual elements, giving up their integration” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“The favor with which the two figurative inventions of the 'Boy embracing the column' and the 'Woman with the pitcher on her head' in the Fire of Borgo were received and proposed again in many representations in the sixteenth century cannot be explained only by the typically Mannerist taste for ennobling quotations, but also by their specific iconographic role: they propose themselves to viewers as spectators in the image, suggesting indirectly, but with the evidence of two wonderful vivid dramatic inventions, some type of reaction, a behavior pattern, a proposal for self-identification” (Antonio Pinelli)

“The fresco of the Fire in the Borgo Neighborhood with its definitive overcoming of the symmetry in architecture, with the increase of spatial impression of the whole and the high motion content of each single figure indicates further progress (...). Some of the individual figures, for the lovely agreement between the motives of the clothing and the movement, belong to the most beautiful things that Raphael ever created” (Hermann Voss)

“Coronation of Charlemagne” by S. Leo III (795/816), by Giovanni Francesco Penni, with the help of Giulio Romano, where Charlemagne is represented with the face of the French king Francis I and Leo III with the face of Leo X

It alludes to the agreement signed in Bologna in 1515 between Francis I and Leo X

“Naval Victory of Leo IV over the Saracens” at Ostia in 849 by Giulio Romano, with Leo IV represented as Leo X

Behind him are portraits of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena and Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, cousin of the Pope, who would later himself become pope with the name of Clement VII (1523/34)

The painting alludes to the desire of Leo X to organize a crusade against the Turks. He failed and it was the last time anybody tried to organize a crusade

“Oath of St. Leo III” maybe by Giulio Romano or Pietro Bonaccorsi aka Perin del Vaga (1501/47)

Leo III (795/816) was purified with a unilateral statement in St. Peter's Basilica of “false accusations” on December 23, 800, two days before crowning Charlemagne emperor

We do not know what kind of charges they were and, in any case, at the time it was enough to assert one's innocence before God to be believed innocent. The character with the gold chain on the left is Charlemagne

The painting alludes to the Lateran Council of the years 1512/17 that Leo X was leading at that time, during which he reaffirmed the bull of Boniface VIII Unam Sanctam according to which the pope was accountable only to God

It has been suggested that the Reformation could have been avoided if the reforms of the Lateran Council had been more innovative or fully implemented. The promulgation of the 95 theses of Martin Luther in fact took place only six months after the closing of the Council itself

“The spiritual tension that had supported the programs of the first two rooms relaxes here to give way to the courtesan celebration of the reigning pope” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

In the lower part of the wall monochrome paintings “Six seated figures of emperors and kings protectors of the Church”

VATICAN MUSEUMS - RAPHAEL ROOMS (first part)

STANZE DI RAFFAELLO
 

Built for Pope Nicholas V Parentucelli (1447/55) and originally decorated by various artists including Piero della Francesca

In 1508 Pope Julius II Della Rovere (1503/13) summoned for a new decoration Pietro Vannucci aka Pietro Perugino (about 1450/1523), Giovanni Antonio Bazzi aka Sodoma (1477/1549), Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536) and Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480/1556), but he later dismissed them all and gave the job to the young artist known as Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael) (1483/1520) who worked here in the years 1509/17

“In the commitment to the Vatican Stanze Raphael summarized the ancient thought reworked in the light of the humanistic-Christian doctrine. The complex iconographic program was probably conceived by a scholar of the Roman Curia (the names, among others, of Ludovico Ariosto and Celio Calcagnini have been mentioned) and intended to reaffirm the central role of the church” (Andrea Pomella)

 

Sala di Costantino - Room of Constantine

VAULT

In the center “Triumph of Christianity”, “Personifications of Italian provinces and continents”, “Virtues and symbolic attributes” with explanatory inscriptions 1582/85 by the Sicilian Tommaso Laureti (about 1530/1602) pupil of Sebastiano del Piombo

Tommaso Laureti conceived with Giambologna the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna and painted also the Room of the Captains in the Capitoline Museums

“Laureti adopted here a neoraffaellesque language very close to the first Roman Mannerism, also for cohesion with the frescoes on the walls, although a few roundels with prospective papal emblems are typical of his illusionist abilities. The central box with the Triumph of the Cross over the Gentiles' idols, carried out under Sixtus V, was probably adapted to the needs of the new pope and, in its essence symbolic entrusted solely to the spatial structure, it effectively becomes the centerpiece of the decoration” (Monica Grasso - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

FLOOR

“Roman mosaic” of the third century from the Lateran area

WALLS

Completed in 1525, almost all decorated after the death of Raphael by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) with the help of Giovanni Francesco Penni (about 1496/1528) and Raffaellino del Colle (about 1490/1566)

“Figures of Popes enthroned and virtues”

“Baptism of Constantine” and “Donation of Constantine” are attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni

“Apparition of the Cross to Constantine” and “Victory of Constantine over Maxentius” are attributed to Giulio Romano

“It is curious to note that in recent years Raphael is the first creator of two genres that cease after his death to reappear again between late 1500 and early 1600: the still life and the battle. The Battle of Milvian Bridge represents a type of painting that, in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, especially with Cavalier d'Arpino, will become an archetype from which a genre will be born destined to great success in Italy and throughout Europe” (Federico Zeri)

“Complex correlation of levels that increase in accordance with their ambiguous broken rhythms and do not allow the viewer to locate a fixed point of reference. The derivation from Roman iconography is obvious (on the left Ludovisi Sarcophagus, in the center Relief with Trajan's deeds from the Arch of Constantine), but the relationship with the old is solved rhetorically speaking, according to an interpretation that plays down the violence of action to recover the symbolic value of the whole scene” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Part of the nature of Giulio Romano was the not so common gift to represent the moving form, the interest in ancient culture and his remarkable formal skill, characteristics that made him suitable as any other for mythology and ancient history. His talent led him resolutely on the path that he had been beating working actively to the frescoes of the third room, i.e. pushing him towards powerful movement (...) and towards strong effects of modeling in the interest of a powerfully accentuated three-dimensionality” (Hermann Voss)