S. CATERINA DA SIENA
1526 maybe
by Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481/1536) for Cardinal
Giovanni Piccolomini and the banker
Agostino Chigi (1466/1520) on the Castrum Senense (Siena's camp), the
area where since the Middle Ages the Sienese carried out their business
activities
Rebuilt
1766/75 by Paolo Posi (1708/76) with the help,
as foremen, of Luca Sardi and Giuseppe Sardi (1680/1753)
Oval panels
in stucco on the FAÇADE “Seno and Aschio with the wolf and the writing
S.P.Q.S.” 1770 by Wander Elsken
According
to legend, Seno and Aschio were the twin sons of Remus who, having escaped from
their uncle Romulus who wanted to kill them as well as he did with their
father, took refuge in Tuscany, where Seno would found the city of Siena and
Aschio the town of Asciano
Marble
decorations on the façade (heraldic shield, flaming pots) and stoups inside the
church by Francesco Antonio Franzoni (1734/1818)
It is the regional church of the Sienese people
“The church
stands as one of the most interesting monuments produced by the Roman artistic
culture of the late-eighteenth-century during the transition from the last
stage of the Baroque to that of the nascent Neoclassicism. A formal unity of
intent involves both the architectural structure and the pictorial, from the
stuccos to the church vestments, that would complement a thematic decorative
unity almost entirely devoted to the glorification of the Sienese saint”
(Federica Papi)
“Angel
Musicians” by Ermenegildo Costantini (1731/91)
“The
collaboration of Costantini with Kuntz, which was renewed later also in the
church of St. Stanislaus of the Polish people, shows an affinity of style
between the two artists which is indicative of the formal scope in which
Costantini operated. Kuntz is in fact the painter who 'definitively concluded
the Roman rococo' (Schleier). So, while working in St. Catherine alongside
artists such as Lapis, Monosilio, Corvi, La Piccola, transitional painters who
were making their first neoclassical experiences, Costantini did not draw from
this closeness any incentive for a formal updating of his style, remaining an
isolated representative of a decorative language substantiated by the Rococo
grace” (Marina Coccia - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
Monochrome
figures giving the optical illusion to hold the frames by the Polish Tadeusz Kuntze aka Taddeo il Polacco (1732/93)
Stucco
decorations 1770 by Wander Elsken
OVAL PANELS
ON THE WALLS
The first
on the right “St. Catherine receiving the Stigmata” is by Giovanni Sorbi (1695/about
1764), the one in front “Christ gives his heart to St. Catherine” is by Tommaso Maria Conca (1734/1822)
Above the
confessionals on the right “Christ
gives to St. Catherine a pectoral cross” and on the left “St.
Catherine communicated by Christ” by Etienne Parrocel
(1696/1774)
Above the
doors by the presbytery, on the right “St. Catherine as a young girl in prayer”
and on the left “St. Catherine's renunciation of the golden crown for that of
thorns given to her by Christ” by the classicist painter from Bologna Pietro Angeletti (about 1737/98)
1st
CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Altarpiece “Preaching
of St. Bernardino” about 1770 by Salvatore Monosilio
(active from 1744/d. 1776)
2nd
CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Altarpiece “Apparition
of Christ to the Blessed Bernardo Tolomei” 1774/76 by Niccolò
La Piccola (1727/90)
“He reveals,
in the search for an intense luministic weft, his openness towards the new
chromatic experimentation by Domenico Corvi” (Federica Papi)
PRESBYTERY
On the high
altar “Mystic
Marriage of St. Catherine” 1768/69 by Gaetano Lapis (1706/76), a pupil of Sebastiano Conca
Oval panels
on the doors of the presbytery on the right “Christ carrying the Cross appears
to St. Catherine in penance” and on the left “Christ shows to St. Catherine the
wound in his side” 1768/69 also by Gaetano Lapis
“These works
are carried out in a language that, filtered through the work of Maratta,
refers to the seventeenth-century Bolognese classicism, hence the nickname
'Carraccetto' given to the painter” (Federica Papi)
APSE
“St.
Catherine welcomes Gregory XI Beaufort (1370/78) on his return to Rome from
Avignon on January 17th, 1377” 1773 by Laurent
Pécheux (1729/1821)
2nd
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Altarpiece”Assumption”
1768/70 by Tommaso Maria Conca (1734/1822) who
was a pupil of his uncle, the great Sebastiano Conca
1st
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Altarpiece “Gregory
VII (1073/85) puts out the fire set by the troops of Henry IV in the Vatican”
1769/70 by Domenico Corvi (1721/1803) from
Viterbo
“For this
painting the customary reference is to the work with the same subject painted
by Raphael in the Stanze. It appears built on the recurring scheme of the
diagonals and on the strong chiaroscuro contrasts that accentuate the dynamism
of composition” (Federica Papi)
On the left
wall “Memorial
plaque with bust of the architect Paolo Posi” 1778 by his
pupil Giuseppe Palazzi
SACRISTY
Vault “Angels
with liturgical objects” by the Polish Tadeusz Kuntze
aka Taddeo il Polacco (1732/93)
ORATORIO
“Resurrection
of Jesus” about 1530 by Girolamo Genga (about
1476/1551). It was formerly on the high altar of the previous church built by
Peruzzi
“View of
Rome” in the antechamber and decorations with “Fake windows with views” by G.B. Marchetti
“Plaster
Statue of St. Catherine” 1662 by Ercole Ferrata
(1610/86). It was the prototype for the statue to the Chapel of the Vow in the
Duomo of Siena
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