Tuesday, February 26, 2019

St. LAWRENCE AT THE SOURCE

S. LORENZO IN FONTE
Known as Oratory of St. Lawrence since 1318
1543 Domenico De Ario from Ticino for Cardinal Juan Alvarez de Toledo
Renovated in 1630 by Domenico Castelli (1582/1657) for Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44)
The church is also known as Sts. LAWRENCE AND HIPPOLYTUS and it seems that originally there were two separate oratories in the area dedicated to the two saints: the Oratory of St. Hippolytus of the fourth century and the Oratory of St. Lawrence corresponding to this church
SMALL BELL TOWER of 1734

It was rebuilt in the nineteenth century
In the basement dating back to the ancient Roman times there is the well in which, according to tradition, St. Lawrence was imprisoned in the year 258 AD
The urban prefect had ordered him to deliver the riches of the church and he showed up with a group of poor people. With the water of the well he had baptized his jailer Hippolytus who converted and was executed also

COUNTER FAÇADE
“Madonna and Child” an early work by the Venetian Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620)

Restored in 1951
Above the entrance of the chapel “Funerary memory of Cardinal Giustino Olivieri” 1632 by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

In the vault fragment of a fresco with “Eternal God”, the only remnant of the disappearance decoration of about 1628 by G.B. Speranza (about 1600/40)

“The painting is a typical example of the Roman Classicism of the thirties of the seventeenth century, and it took place in the cultural area that referred to Domenichino and Nicolas Poussin, the leading exponent of which was Andrea Sacchi” (Sandra Suatoni)
On the right “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence” and on the left “Charity of St. Lawrence” by Marco Marco aka Marco del Ruspoli from Civita Castellana (1712/78) little known pupil of Marco Benefial
“Judging from the rare works attributed to him (the only other painting that is certainly his is the Blessed Joseph Calasanz in the Church of the Stigmata), Caprinozzi was an eclectic artist who mixed components of the seventeenth century derived from Bologna with strong references to Benefial and Trevisani in the coloring and in the pathetic cadences” (Sandra Suatoni)
CHAPEL OF THE LEFT
Altarpiece “The Martyrdom of Sts. John and Paul” by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist
ON THE LEFT WALL
“Virgin Mary between Sts. Margaret and Elizabeth of Hungary” by an anonymous artist of the end of the seventeenth-century

SACRISTY
“Marble bust of Pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44)” by an unknown artist from the workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini

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