Described
in 1192 in the sources as S. Andrea de Hortis (St. Andrew at the Parks)
because, at the time, it was outside town
In the Middle
Ages it belonged to the Scottish community in Rome
In 1585 it
was donated by Pope Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90) to the Minims of S. Francis of
Paola
It was
rebuilt in 1604/12 for the Marquis Gaspare Del Bufalo by Gaspare Guerra (about 1560/1622) who also designed the
façade up to the cornice
It was
continued in the years 1653/67 by Francesco Borromini
(1599/1667) for the Marquis Paolo Del Bufalo
Borromini
worked on this church until his death and designed the APSE, the DRUM OF THE DOME without lantern that was never
completed and the wonderful BELL TOWER that oscillates when the bells ring
For this
reason it ended up being nicknamed the campanile ballerino (dancer bell
tower)
“In this
late stage of his evolution Borromini loved to soften the sharp lines of
architecture with the rounded forms of sculpture and the cherubim-herms, a
personal invention of his, very far from any classical model, fascinated him in
this context. The upper element of the tower consists of four reversed volutes
wonderfully elastic: on them a crown with sharp points is precariously
balanced: all of it is a triumph of complex spatial relationships and a bizarre
concept in which the top of the tower blends with the sky and with air” (Rudolf
Wittkower)
“Bricks are
used here to be finished by plaster, but the quality of the implementation, as
well as having great significance because it highlights the technique of the
various phases of construction, has a unique charm and is reminiscent of the
unfinished works by Michelangelo. (...) Even for the tiburium Borromini had
thought of some free ribs rising up, a foregoer of the freedom of plastic
development made possible later on only by the technique of reinforced concrete”
(Paolo Portoghesi)
It was
completed in the years 1686/91 by Mattia De Rossi
(1637/95)
Completed
in 1826 by Pasquale Belli (1752/1833), designer
of the plan of the new Basilica of St. Paul
Outside the Walls
“Fourteen
Stations of the Cross” 1818 of various Italian artists of Purist orientation
and German artists of the circle of the Nazarenes including Johannes Veit (1790/1854) (1st) and his brother Philipp Veit (1793/1877) (5th), Giuseppe Capparoni (3rd and 11th) and others
In the
church there is the tomb of the painter Angelica Kauffmann and of her husband
Antonio Zucchi
AT THE
SIDES OF THE ENTRANCE DOOR
On the right:
“Gravestones of the
Duchess of Livia Grillo and of her daughter Maria Teresa Doria Tursi” in 1752 by the Genoese Francesco Queirolo (1704/62), a student of Antonio
Corradini with whom he worked in the amazing Sansevero Chapel in Naples
On the left:
“Tomb of
Cardinal Leopoldo Calcagnini” 1746/48 by Pietro Bracci
(1700/73)
“From 1600
onwards the pyramid, a symbol of eternity, was used for an increasing number of
tombs in Rome and in Italy and soon also in the rest of Europe; but the
combination with a painting was never seen before the early 1700s. Even if in
the personification of Fame Bracci used the traditional baroque language of
forms, the spirit of these tombs is very different from the one of the Baroque
period. What is expressed through the accessories of Bracci's monument, is the
rather trivial certainty that the memory of the deceased will be kept alive for
eternity” (Rudolf Wittkower)
“Temple of
wood” painted 1674/79 by Guillaume Courtois aka
Borgognone (1628/79)
Altarpiece “Baptism of Christ” 1683 and lunette “Eternal Father”
by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97)
On the left
“St. Lucia” by Domenico Jacovacci and on the
right “St. Agatha” by Marcantonio Bellavia
2nd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. MICHAEL
Altarpiece “St.
Michael the Archangel”
On the left
“Charity of St. Charles Borromeo”
On the
right “Apparition of the Virgin to St. Frances of Rome” about 1657 all painted
by Francesco Cozza (1605/82) excellent pupil of
Domenichino
3rd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF S. FRANCIS DE SALES and BLESSED JOAN OF VALOIS
Altarpiece “St.
Francis of Paola gives the cord of the Third Order to St. Francis de Sales and
to the Blessed Joan of Valois” by Marcantonio Romoli
pupil of Sebastiano Conca
On the left
“Tomb of Cardinal Pier Luigi Carafa” about 1759 by Pietro
Bracci (1700/73), designed by Paolo Posi
(1708/76)
4th
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF S. OLIVA
Altarpiece “Virgin
Mary with the Blessed Gaspare De Bono and Nicolò Saggio” by Giuseppe Cades (1750/99)
On the left
pillar “Tomb of Michaela Fauvet” d. 1845 by Giovanni
Maria Benzoni (1799/1873)
PASSAGE TO
THE CLOISTER
“Sts.
Charles Borromeo and Frances of Rome intercede for the end of the plague” by Francesco Cozza
Opposite “Tomb
of Mulai Akmet Prince of Morocco” 1739 by Filippo Baldi
1726/36 by Filippo Barigioni (about 1680/1753)
Altarpiece “St.
Francis of Paola, with the insignia and the motto of the Order of the Minims”
by Paris Nogari (about 1536/1601)
“Angels”
and “Putti” in stucco by G.B. Maini (1690/1752)
High
reliefs on the right “Ecstasy of St. Francis of Paola” by Pietro Bracci, on the left “Archangel Michael delivers
the motto Caritas to St. Francis of Paola” by G.B.
Maini
MAIN ALTAR
1728 Francesco Ferruzzi
DOME
“Redemption”
and vault of the presbytery “Multiplication of
the loaves and fishes” late 1600s by Pasquale Marini (about 1660/about 1712), a pupil of Carlo Maratta
PENDENTIVES
“Doctors of
the Latin Church and Eastern Europe” also by Pasquale
Marini even if by some scholars are attributed to Francesco Cozza
Paintings
of the years 1691/1704:
On the left
“Crucifixion of St. Andrew” by G.B. Lenardi
In the
center “Death of St. Andrew” by Lazzaro Baldi (about
1624/1703)
On the
right “Deposition from the Cross of St. Andrew” by Francesco
Trevisani (1656/1746)
AT THE
SIDES OF THE PRESBYTERY
“Angel carrying
Titulus Crucis with INRI inscription” and “Angel carrying Crown
of Thorns”
1667/69 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) for
Clement IX Rospigliosi (1667/69)
The two
marvelous masterpieces were donated to the church in 1729 by Prospero Bernini,
the grandson of the master, who had bought them from the heirs of the pope who
had them replaced with copies on Sant'Angelo's
Bridge, not to save them from the weather, as it is usually said,
but to have them shipped to Pistoia, his hometown
“The angel
with the crown of thorns is pretty solid, and combines the drapery invested by
the wind (which Bernini had previously used for the angels of St. Peter's
Chair) with the drapery's bow boldly jutting out, which echoes the shape of the
crown and almost divides the body in two. The other angel, holding the
inscription, shows a highly emotional state of mind, almost neurotic, has very
slender proportions and he is appropriately dressed in a robe whose folds are
broken, they overlap, they roll up with restless, nervous trends” (Rudolf
Wittkower)
Above the
side doors of the presbytery “St. Andrew led to Martyrdom” and “Flagellation of
St. Andrew” about 1707 maybe by Giovanni Antonio
Grecolini (1675/1725)
LEFT
TRANSEPT - CHAPEL OF S. ANNA
1749/51 Luigi Vanvitelli (1700/73) and 1822 Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) with his father Luigi Valadier (1726/85) to whom the entire work has
recently been assigned
“St. Anne,
St. Joachim and Mary child” 1759 by Giuseppe Bottani
Under the
altar reclining statue of “St. Anna” 1750/52 by G.B.
Maini (1690/1752)
Stucco and
nineteenth-century reliefs by Luigi Fontana
(1827/1908)
PASSAGE TO VIA CAPO LE CASE
“Tombstone
tomb of the Prince from Lorraine Nicolò Simone” 1734 by Filippo Baldi
4th
LEFT - Formerly SCARLATTI CHAPEL
Renewed in
1883 by Virginio Vespignani (1808/82)
“St. Joseph
with the Child” 1632 by Francesco Cozza
(1605/82)
On the
right “St. Joseph adoring the Child” and on the left “Marriage of the Virgin”
by Giuseppe Capparoni
1950 Marcello Piacentini (1881/1960)
“Our Lady
of the Miracle” by Natale Carta (1790/1884)
The miracle
in question was the apparition of Our Lady to the Jew Alfonzo Ratisbonne who
had entered the church to admire the architecture and then ended up converting
Tabernacle
by Alfredo Biagini (1886/1952)
Side
paintings: “Apparition of the Virgin to Ratisbonne” and on the left “Baptism of
the Jew” by Domenico Bartolini (1827/84)
On the
altar of this chapel the Polish priest, who later became saint, Maximilian Kolbe
celebrated his first Mass
He died in
the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1941, sacrificing himself instead of
another prisoner. He had hidden some 2,000 Jews from the Nazis in his convent
at Niepokalanòv
2nd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE CROSS
1661/73 Giovanni Somazzi
Plaques in
memory of the sailors who died in the two world wars
Vault “Eternal
Father” maybe by Guillaume Courtois aka Borgognone
(1628/79)
1st
LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE VIRGIN MARY
Altarpiece “Virgin
Mary with saints and donors” by an anonymous
seventeenth-century artist
On the
sides there are the oldest frescoes in the church: on the right “Nativity of
the Virgin” and on the left “Annunciation” by Avanzino
Nucci (1552/1629)
In the room
before the entrance to the sacristy SMALL CHAPEL OF S. FRANCIS OF PAOLA 1723
with the painting “St. Francis of Paola in adoration of the Cross” 1722 by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)
SACRISTY
“Crucifix”
by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97)
Vault “St.
Francis of Paola in the ecstasy of the three crowns” by Giacomo Triga (1674/1746) pupil of Benedetto Luti
CAPITULAR
ROOM
Fresco “Crucifix
and St. Francis of Paola” about 1640 by Francesco Cozza
(1605/82)
CLOISTER
Begun in
the years 1595/99 by Gaspare Guerra (about
1560/1622), completed in 1734
“Six
lunettes with stories of St. Francis of Paola” by Francesco
Cozza and maybe Pasquale Marini (about 1660/about 1712), Augusto
Rosa son of Salvator Rosa and Francesco Gherardi
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