Friday, January 18, 2019

St. JOHN THE BAPTISTOF THE GENOESE PEOPLE

S. GIOVANNI BATTISTA DEI GENOVESI
1482/83 with the adjacent and now discontinued hospital
It was built according to the testament of the noble Genoese Meliaduce Cicala near the port of Ripa Grande for sick or needy sailors
Rebuilt in 1737
Restored 1843/76
National Church of the Genoese in Rome

It was rebuilt in 1864 by Francesco Cellini

TO THE RIGHT
“St. George” 1696 by Filippo Zucchetti (active in the years 1694/1712) from Rieti
“Two columns of porphyry” maybe brought here from the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls after the fire of 1823

FURTHER ON TO THE RIGHT
“Funeral Monument of Meliaduce Cicala” d. 1481 by the school of Andrea Bregno (1418/1503)
Originally it was located at the bottom of the left wall and when it was reassembled here the statues of St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine of Alexandria were probably reversed. They are now turning towards the exterior of the monument instead of toward the Virgin Mary

IN THE 5th COLUMN ON THE RIGHT
“Tombstone” reminiscent of the first palm tree imported to Rome and planted here in 1588 by a man from Savona

APSE
Painting “St. Zachary, St. John the Evangelist, St. Elizabeth with Faith and Charity” 1899 by Mario Spinetti
MAIN ALTAR
1876 Luca Carimini (1830/90) with “Two columns of porphyry” maybe also from the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls
On the altar “Baptism of Christ” about 1625 by the French artist Nicolas Régnier (1591/1667)
To the left “Tabernacle of the holy oils” end of the fifteenth century by an anonymous Florentine artist

LEFT ALTAR
“Apparition of the Virgin of Savona” by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)

CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE FIESCHI ADORNO
1728/40 by the Marquis G.B. Pittaluga who financed it and designed it
On the altar “Transit of St. Catherine Fieschi Adorno”
In the vault “Glory of St. Catherine Fieschi Adorno”
Two side panels in gray monochrome with “Stories from the Life of St. Catherine Fieschi Adorno” and four oval green monochrome with “Cardinal Virtues” all works by the Roman Odoardo Vicinelli (1683/1755)

CLOISTER
End of the fifteenth century maybe by Baccio Pontelli (about 1450/92)
It is one of Rome's most beautiful cloisters. Here are kept some architectural fragments of the original church

ORATORY
Frescoes “Stories of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist” beginning of the seventeenth century discovered after the restoration of 1975
“The frescoes on the walls of the oratory are a peculiar problem of attribution: it is a work, probably, of more than one artist, one more rough and popular, another one able to express some noble suggestions. They are dated to the beginning of the seventeenth century, but they refer (especially the Stories of the Virgin) both in the decorative plan and in the manneristic cut of some scenes, to themes of the previous century interpreted in a pleasant and lively way. The cycle in the lunettes, with stories of John the Baptist, is also the work of a painter active at provincial level, but who does not ignore certain results of contemporary figurative culture which, at least in the scenes and the Preaching and of the Beheading inspired him to obtain a dignified artistic style” (Website of the Confraternita di S. Giovanni Battista dei Genovesi - www.confraternita- sgbg.it)

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