St. PETER IN MONTORIO

S. PIETRO IN MONTORIO
Piazza S. Pietro in Montorio 2

Originally built maybe in the eleventh century
Mentioned by the sources in the twelfth century
It was built on the site where St. Peter was believed to have been killed, halfway between the Meta Romuli (Via della Conciliazione) and the Meta Remi (Pyramid of Cestius)

Rebuilt in the years 1481/1500 maybe by Baccio Pontelli (about 1450/92) for the Spanish King Ferdinand II of Aragon

The two ramps in front of the FAÇADE were added in 1605

Restored after the damage of the French bombardment of 1849 (in 1995 it has been embedded in a wall outside a cannonball fired by the French) and restored again in 1957 and 1963

ON THE LEFT AFTER THE ENTRANCE
“Monument of Giuliano da Volterra” 1510 by artists of the school of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)

1^st RIGHT - BORGHERINI CHAPEL
Above the altar “Flagellation of Jesus” with on the sides “St. Francis of Assisi” and “St. Peter” 1518 by Sebastiano Luciani aka Sebastiano Del Piombo (1485/1547), maybe from a design by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475/1564)
In the apsidal basin “Ascension” and outside the arc “Prophets” also by Sebastiano Del Piombo

“Several works by Sebastiano Del Piombo were made on the basis of drawings by Michelangelo, or under his influence. Gorgeous single figures, groups often well-drawn (as in the Flagellation in S. Pietro in Montorio, and colors tones a bit dark even if with a sensitivity always typically Venetian, combined with beautiful atmospheric scenery, but never the creations of a free and radiant genius. Occasionally, however, there is a certain tragic force, a lean greatness, reflecting the intimate bond of the Venetian painter with the spirit of Rome” (Hermann Voss)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Above the altar “Madonna of the Letter” by Niccolò Circignani aka Pomarancio (about 1520/98)
In the apse frescoes “Coronation of the Virgin” maybe by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
“Presentation in the Temple”, “Immaculate Conception” and “Annunciation” by Michelangelo Cerruti (1663/1748)
On the external arch “Sibyls” maybe by Baldassare Peruzzi

4^th CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Ceiling frescoed by Giorgio Vasari (1511/74). On the left there is a self-portrait of Vasari in a black dress

5^th RIGHT - DEL MONTE CHAPEL
1552 by Giorgio Vasari, by whom is also the altarpiece with “St. Paul and Ananias”

“It's one of the few scenes deeply felt by Vasari. The figure of Paul, struck by blindness and rescued by Ananias, has something touching and extraordinarily great in his complete annihilation. (...) The background consists of a row of columns in a semi-circle that goes in depth, a valid ingenious pattern, cleverly exploited. It is instead comic the bunch of people with no specific function wandering in the background in front of the row of columns, with the sole purpose of enriching the scene” (Hermann Voss)

On the sides “Funerary monuments of Antonio and Fabiano Del Monte”, statues “Justice”, “Religion” and cherubs on the balustrade by the Florentine Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92)

MAIN ALTAR
The steps in front of the altar are conventionally regarded as the burial place of Beatrice Cenci
She was actually buried somewhere in this church but without inscription, as was common for anybody who had been executed

In the LEFT NAVE are buried very important Irish men of political and military significance of the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century:
Hugh, Baron of Dungannon (d. 1609), eldest son of Hugh O'Neill, The O'Neill, second earl of Tyrone
A single grave shared by Rory O'Donnell (1575/1608), first Earl of Tyrconnell, and his brother Cathbharr (1583/1609), both younger brothers of Red Hugh O'Donnell
They fled from Ireland in 1607 and died in Rome as well as the more famous Hugh O'Neill (about 1550/1616) leader in the Nine Years War (1594/1603) or Tyrone Rebellion fought between the Gaelic Irish forces against the English government of Elizabeth I in Ireland

APSE
“Crucifixion of St. Peter” copy by Vincenzo Camuccini (1771/1844) from the original by Guido Reni

5^th CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Designed by Daniele da Volterra (1509/66)
Above the altar “Baptism of Jesus” 1568 and frescoes maybe by Giulio Mazzoni (about 1525/after 1589)
“Statues of Sts. Peter and Paul” and balustrade by Leonardo Sormani (before 1530/after 1589)

4^th LEFT - MUTI CHAPEL
“Deposition” 1617 and “Christ Carrying the Cross” by Dirk Van Baburen (about 1595/1624)
Three paintings “Stories of Christ” by David de Haen (1585/1622)
Stuccos by Stefano Maderno (1560/1636)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “St. Anne sitting in a throne with the Virgin Mary and Child” and other frescoes by an unknown pupil of Antonio Aquili aka Antoniazzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

2^nd LEFT - RAYMONDI CHAPEL
1640/47, first example of MARAVIGLIOSO COMPOSTO (marvelous compound) first experiment with hidden light shining on sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) for the Marquis Marcello Raymondi
Above the altar bas-relief “Ecstasy of St. Francis” a masterpiece by Francesco Baratta (about 1590/about 1663)
On the sides “Funerary Monuments of Girolamo Raymondi and Francesco Raymondi“ by Andrea Bolgi (1606/56)

“The tendency to execute works as a group with an artist primus inter pares (first among equal) typical of the period 1585/1621 was reversed under Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44). Chapels as the Raymondi and Cornaro absolutely show the imprint of Bernini; employees were assistants rather than autonomous artists” (Rudolf Wittkower)

“The role of the viewer is mediated by the busts on the side walls of the tombs overlooking the scene from small balconies, speakers' balconies reserved in churches for important personalities, and that, in the case of the chapels by Bernini, are often mistaken by art historians as theater boxes, architectural elements which at the time did not yet exist” (Francesco Galluzzi)

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “Stigmata of St. Francis” and other paintings by Giovanni De Vecchi (about 1537/1615)

SPANISH ACADEMY OF HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY AND FINE ARTS
It is housed in a wing of the convent 
Lunettes “Stories of St. Francis” maybe by Niccolò Circignani aka Pomarancio (about 1520/98)

Tempietto di Bramante

Small Temple by Bramante

Masterpiece probably built in the years 1502/07 by Donato Bramante (1444/1514)
In 1605 the roof was modified
In 1628 Gian Lorenzo Bernini changed the crypt

“The architectural elements are systematically drawn from the vocabulary of ancient architecture, according to choices not guided by subjective aesthetic preferences of the artist, but by a strict organizational and symbolic logic: the classical round peripteral temple is quoted in the body of the building, in absolute eurhythmy and syntactic coherence of the various elements of the building that is a symbol of universal harmony. But the metaphysical ideas and the historical dignity of the classical language are loaded here with further religious and political meanings: built to commemorate the Crucifixion of the Apostle founder of the Church of Rome, it celebrates, at the same time, the universal authority of the city of Rome already established by the ancients, and affirms the universality of the architecture of the Renaissance” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Bramante is one of the most powerful and original personality of the Renaissance. He was part in Milan of the Lombard tradition imbued of late-Gothic and Tuscan elements, but he overcame it soon for his keen sense of monumentality achieved through the unified rhythm and articulation of architectural masses, modeled with a refined sensibility for coloristic and atmospheric values. This tendency of his for wide and serene breathing space, of which one can find significant advances in the Mantua buildings by Leon Battista Alberti, deepens, in Rome, as the artist is confronted with the classical buildings intensely studied by him and culminates in the Temple of S. Pietro in Montorio, and especially in the new church of St. Peter in the Vatican. Deep has been the influence exercised by Bramante on the architecture of his time; to him is especially connected the art of Sansovino, Sanmicheli and Palladio” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

DORIA PAMPHILJ PALACE - DORIA PAMPHILJ GALLERY (second part)

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ

This splendid private collection is taken good care of by the Doria Landi Pamphilj family who still lives in the building and owns the works

The exhibition is well maintained and the splendor of the rooms invariably provokes amazement and admiration in the visitors

A gallery with magnificent and spectacular exciting peaks such as the Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Caravaggio, the Double Portrait by Raphael, Susanna and the Elders by Annibale Carracci and the extraordinary Portrait of Innocent X, the member of the family who became pope, by Velásquez

Aldobrandini Room

Restored in 1956 after the collapse of the roof due to snow

There are ancient statues found mainly in Villa Pamphilj:

“Sarcophagus with Selene and Endymion”

“Odysseus under the ram”

“Bacchus” in porphyry marble restored by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)

“Centaur” in polychrome marble found in the mid-1800s in Albano in one of the residences of the Pamphilj

Marble relief with putti “Amor sacred profane love breaks down” about 1630 by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)

“In the representations of cherubs he really gave something of the soul of children and he molded their bodies so round, soft and delicate that they seem to be alive and breathing. It was Duquesnoy's conception of the child which became a general European property and, consciously or unconsciously, the majority of the following representations of children derived from him” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Paintings:

“Descent from the Cross” by Giorgio Vasari (1511/74)

It was bought by Camillo Pamphilj in 1661 from the church of S. Augustine where he had funded some works

“Gale at sea” by the school of Pieter Mulier

Seventeenth-century copy of the old “Aldobrandini Wedding” now in the Vatican Museums

“Sacrifice of Noah” by Ciro Ferri (1634/89)

“Landscape with rest of the flight into Egypt” by Pier Francesco Mola (1612/66)

Green Room

“Annunciation” about 1445/50 by Filippo Lippi (about 1406/69)

“Typical example of telescope perspective which limits the space to the visual field and organizes it in function of the transmission of light. But, in turn, light must have internal sources in the framework, and is therefore produced by the opposed intensification of light and dark as well as by the relationship between the colors” (Giulio Carlo Argan)

“Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine” by Domenico Beccafumi (1486/1551)

“Battle of Castro” by Jacques Courtois aka Borgognone (1628/79)

“Crucifixion” from Michelangelo maybe by Annibale Carracci (1560/1609)

“St. Joseph” and “Allegory of Spring” by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Circumcision” school of Giovanni Bellini (about 1432/1516)

“Christ Carrying the Cross” by Sebastiano Luciani aka Sebastiano Del Piombo (1485/1547)

“In the years following the sack of Rome Sebastiano reaffirmed in sacred painting the needs of piety and austerity that some circles were shown to agree with before their official affirmation, which took place at the Council of Trent. Christ Carrying the Cross, repeatedly replicated by Sebastian is an early example of this religious feeling that inspired devotional images drawn up according to a severe style, convenient to the tragedy of the Roman climate shaken by the terrible story of the sack” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“Flood” by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620) and Jean Le Clerc (about 1585/1633)

“Religion rescued from Spain” by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian) (about 1490/1576) and workshop

“Portrait of a man of thirty-seven” perhaps self-portrait of Lorenzo Lotto (about 1480/1556)

“In Venice painting kept true to the more mature and reflective spirit which had succeeded the luminous vapors to the early Renaissance. A spirit that led artists to see life with less enthusiasm and less illusions. Quieter pleasures were sought: the pleasures of friendship and sincere affection. It is not surprising that the Venetian artist who first expressed these new attitudes, was one who had been brought into contact with the miseries of Italy during long journeys, as it was not possible to those who stayed in Venice. Lorenzo Lotto, at his best, do not celebrate the dominance of man over things that surround him, but, in altarpieces, and even more in portraits, shows us people who needs to be comforted and supported, either by religion or by healthy ideologies, friends and loved ones. His figures look from the canvas almost asking for benevolence” (Bernard Berenson)

“St. Jerome” by Jusepe de Ribera aka Spagnoletto (1591/1652)

“Bust of Pope Innocent X” by Domenico Guidi (1625/1701)