It is
mentioned in the sources for the first time in 467 when the Goth general
Flavius Ricimer wanted it to be decorated with a mosaic in the apse which
eventually collapsed in 1589
Maybe it
was originally dedicated to the Savior
It was the
only church in Rome dedicated to the worship for the Aryan Gothic community
In 592 it
was consecrated to the Catholic rite and to St. Agatha of Sicily by Gregory I
the Great (590/604)
According
to the Acta Sanctorum (the main collection of literary sources relating
to the saints of the Catholic Church, written in the seventeenth century), in
fact, St. Agatha, a native of Catania, had freed the city from the Goths with a
miracle
It was
restored by S. Leo III (795/816) and S. Leo IV (847/855), who entrusted it to
the Benedictines
It was
restructured in the years 1633/35 by Domenico Castelli
(1582/1657) for Cardinals Antonio and Francesco Barberini
It is also
known as S. AGATA IN CAPITE SUBURRAE named after the nearby Suburra
neighborhood or S. AGATA DE CABALLO from the ancient name of the
Quirinal Hill
It hosted
the Irish College for 90 years from 1836 to 1926 in the adjacent building in
Via Mazzarino. It is currently officiated by Irish monks
FAÇADE
1729 Francesco Ferrari (active in Rome 1721/44)
ATRIUM
Inscriptions
and sculptures from ancient and medieval including in the left arm “Head of a
woman on column” maybe of the fifth century AD
At the
center “Well” of the sixth century with the carved insignia of Cardinal Nicolò
Ridolfi, nephew of Clement VII Medici (1523/34)
INTERIOR
It still
has the plan of the fifth century with Goths particularities as the two arched
windows in the apse now walled in, the dosserets above the capitals and the use
of the Byzantine foot as unit of measurement
During the
renovation of the seventeenth-century the arches were reduced from seven to
five
COUNTER
FAÇADE
Organ 1703
for Cardinal Carlo Bichi who was buried in the left aisle
Canvas “Fortress”
on the left and “Humility” on the right by Paolo
Gismondi aka Paolo Perugino (1612/85), a student from Perugia of Pietro
da Cortona
CEILING
1633,
coffered with golden bees, symbols of the Barberini family
ABOVE THE
ARCHES
“Eight
medallions of Irish saints” 1863 reminiscent of the period between 1836 and
1926 during which the church was run by Irish monks
UPPER SIDE
WALLS
Six
paintings with “History of St. Agatha” about 1633/36, recently restored, by Paolo Gismondi aka Paolo Perugino:
On the right
“Martyrdom
of St. Agatha at the order of Quintianus”, “St. Agatha resisting the
temptations of Aphrodisias and her daughters” and “St. Agatha rejects offers of
jewelry from Aphrodisias and her daughters”
On the left
“St. Peter
appears to St. Agatha locked up in jail”, “St. Agatha at the stake” and “St.
Agatha on her deathbed surrounded by weeping women and angels”
ON THE
RIGHT WALL
“Tomb of
Cardinal Giovanni Marco y Catalan” d. 1841
END OF THE
RIGHT AISLE - CHAPEL OF St. AGATHA
Statue in
gilded wood “St. Agatha” 1681 by an anonymous
seventeenth-century monk
Gilded wood
reliquary with the relics of Greek martyrs from the Catacomb of S. Callisto
transported here at the will of Leo IX (1049/54)
MAIN ALTAR
From the
window of the altar it is possible to see the urn with other relics of Greek
martyrs
“Cosmatesque
Ciborium” XII/XIII century, reassembled in the years 1928/32 by Gustavo Giovannoni (1873/1947) who put philologically
together the scattered pieces found in the church and in the garden
In the
years 1931/33 the PRESBYTERY was painted simulating marble
APSE
“Glory of
St. Agatha” about 1633/36 Paolo Gismondi aka Paolo
Perugino who also painted the two allegorical figures in the spandrels
in front of the arc: on the left “Faith” and on the right “Hope”
“These works
gave some reputation to Gismondi, despite the pictorial language full of
hesitations and quotes from Michelangelo to the Cavalier d'Arpino, although
here he proves he is still a novice painter, and uncertain in terms of form,
revealing, in his immature Cortona style, obvious limitations in the definition
of the faces, in the drafts of color and in the construction of space” (Giovanna Mencarelli - Dizionario Biografico degli
Italiani Treccani)
END OF THE
LEFT AISLE - CHAPEL OF THE VIRGIN MARY
1681 “St. Gaspar Bertoni” 1991 Aronne
Del Vecchio (1910/98)
Frontal
with three reliefs: “Adoration of the Shepherds” and small round reliefs “Annunciation”
and “Assumption” in the first half of 1600s by an artist
influenced by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)
ON THE LEFT
WALL
“Tomb in
stucco of Cardinal Carlo Bichi” first half of 1700s by the Roman Carlo De Dominicis (1696/1758), his first public
commission. The Cardinal had wanted and paid for the splendid organ in the
counter-façade
“The
free treatment of this monument, executed in stucco, does not suggest a
sympathy of the artist for the classical idiom of the Academy of St. Luke.
Indeed, in the years between 1725 and 1733 De Dominicis collaborated with the
more anti-classical architect of his generation: Filippo Raguzzini, papal
architect under Benedict XIII and leading exponent of the Rococo in Rome” (John
Varriano - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
No comments:
Post a Comment