Ancient Titulus
Lucinae mentioned by the sources on the year 366 AD, perhaps built on the
house of the Christian matron Lucina
It was
transformed into a Christian basilica in the fifth century by Sixtus III
(432/440)
The
basilica was rebuilt by Paschal II (1099/1118)
It was
consecrated in 1196 by Celestine III Orsini (1191/98)
1281/87
construction of the PALAZZO CARDINALIZIO (Palace of the Cardinal) known as PALAZZO FIANO ALMAGIÀ to the
left of the church
The palace
passed in 1624 to the Peretti family, then the Ottoboni Dukes of Fiano and
finally in 1898 to the Almagià family
Radical
restoration of the church 1650/52 by Cosimo Fanzago
(1591/1678) continued up to 1675, after it was assigned in 1606 to the Regular
Minor Clerics of St. Francis Caracciolo
Further
radical restoration in the years 1856/58 by Andrea
Busiri Vici (1818/1911)
Twelfth
century, with six granite columns plus another embedded in the left side
proving that the porch was originally open on that side
At both
sides of the entrance “Marble Lions”
maybe dating back to mid thirteenth century
On the
right “Funerary monument of Clelia
Severini” by Pietro Tenerani
1825 (1789/1869)
It was the
first work in Rome by Tenerani, a student of Bertel Thorvaldsen, and it was
placed here (in the place for which it was executed) only in 1955, after a long
stay in the villa of the family, which had inspired the ode Sopra un
bassorilievo antico sepolcrale (On an ancient burial bas-relief) to the
Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi
“Epigraph of Anacleto
II Pierleoni antipope” 1130
“Epigraph
to commemorate the rededication of the church in 1196”
“Saints” between the windows and ceiling “Ascension of Christ with Sts.
Lawrence, Damasus, Lucina and Francis Caracciolo”
1856/60 by Roberto Bompiani (1821/1908)
“Ten rounds monochrome in tempera
with stories of St. Francis Caracciolo” 1807 by Francesco
Manno (1752/1831)
FLOOR 1734
COUNTER
FAÇADE
On the left
“Funerary monument of Cardinal
Silvio Passerini from Cortona” titular cardinal of the
church from 1517 to 1520
1st
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. LAWRENCE
Urn with grill where St. Lawrence was cooked
Tradition
has it that he told his tormentors: “This side I am done, turn me around and
eat me”
Above the
altar “St. Lucina showing St. Lawrence
the plan of the church” 1716 by Sigismondo Rosa
On the left
“Presentation of the poor to the
prefect of Rome” and on the right “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence”
nineteenth-century paintings by G. Creti
2nd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. ANTHONY
1651 Cosimo Fanzago (1591/1678), continued in the years
1652/55 by Carlo Rainaldi (1611/91)
Above the
altar “Sacred Heart of Jesus”
1918 by Mario Aironi, which replaced a painting
by Massimo Stanzione now disappeared
Oval on the
pediment of the altar “Holy Family”
by Domenico Rainaldi, cousin of Carlo Rainaldi
On the
sides miracles of St. Anthony: on the left “Healing of the foot”
and on the right “Mare worshipping the Holy Host”
by the painter from Antwerp Jan Miel (1599/1663)
ON THE 2nd
PILLAR
“Monument to Nicolas Poussin
(1594/1665)” 1829/32 by Louis Vaudoyer for François
-René de Chateaubriand. The bust is by Paul Lemoyne
(1794/1873) and the bas-relief with “Discovery of the Tomb of Sappho” is by Louis Desprez (1799/1870)
3rd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO
On the
altar “St. Francis Caracciolo adoration
of the Eucharist” 1750 by Ludovico
Stern (1709/77) son of Ignazio Stern (1679/1748)
The plaque on the left
reminds that the artists Ludovico, Veronica and Raffaele Stern were buried in
this church, and that the altar piece of this altar was placed here in 1974 to
mark the bicentenary of the birth of Raffaele Stern, (son of Giovanni Stern, in
turn, son of Ludovico Stern), the architect of Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)
Pendentives
“Stories of St. Francis Caracciolo”
by Teodoro Matteini (1754/1831)
Under the
altar relics of the sixth Pope St. Alexander I (105/115)
4th
CHAPEL FONSECA or CHAPEL OF THE ANNUNCIATION
1660/64 Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)
Above the
altar “Annunciation”
by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97) son of Giacinto
Gimignani. It is a copy of an original by Guido Reni kept in the Chapel of the
Annunciation in the Quirinal Palace
“Bronze Angels” that replaced in 1691 the originals
angels in white stucco
On the
right “Prophet Elisha purifies the
waters of the river of Jericho” 1664 by Giacinto Gimignani (1606/81)
On the left
eighteenth-century copy of “Our Lady Salus Populi Romani
(Health of the People of Rome)”, which replaced the disappeared
painting “King Ahab and the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel” by Guglielmo
Courtois aka Borgognone
First bust
on the left “Luigi de Witten”
d. 1868, Interior Minister of Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78)
Second bust
on the left “Gabriele Fonseca”
1675 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Gabriele
Fonseca was a Portuguese doctor at the service of Pope Innocent X Pamphilj
(1644/55)
The busts on the right
are maybe by artists of the Bernini school
“Towards the
end of his life Bernini had a tendency to replace the diagonals, predominant
during his middle period, with horizontal and vertical lines, to let them play
with serpentine curves or to break suddenly in angular folds and to deepen fissures
and grooves. The bust of Fonseca clearly shows how strongly these compositional
gimmicks accentuate the emotional tension expressed in the head. Fonseca's
fervent devotion and his spiritual abandonment are evoked by the mystery of the
Annunciation, painted on the altar; an intangible link therefore between
Fonseca and the altar covers the space in which the viewer moves” (Rudolf
Wittwoker)
RIGHT
TRANSEPT
“Bust of
Cardinal Giovanni Antonio De Via” by Agostino Corsini
(1688/1772) the only remaining part, along with the plaque, of a disappeared
monument by Ferdinando Fuga
LAST CHAPEL
AT THE RIGHT END - CHAPEL OF THE CROSS
“Wooden crucifix” of the sixteenth century
On the
right “Umberto II of Savoy Memorial (1904/83)”,
the last king of Italy, who reigned for only a little over a month, from May 9
to June 12, 1946
Baroque
machinery 1669 by Carlo Rainaldi (1611/91)
Above the
altar very famous and iconic painting “Crucifixion”
1637/38 by Guido Reni (1575/1642)
In the
choir “Madonna between Sts. John of Nepomuk and Michael” by Onofrio Avellino (about 1674/1741), a pupil of
Francesco Solimena
To the
right of the main altar “Candelabra for the Easter candle” about 1225/50 by Vassalletto III
Behind a
small door “Papal Chair of Paschal II (1099/1118)”
TRIUMPHAL
ARCH
Frescoes by
Roberto Bompiani (1821/1908)
LAST CHAPEL
AT THE LEFT END - CHAPEL OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
Eighteenth
century painting “Immaculate Conception”
Above the
altar “St. Francis appears to S.
Giacinta Marescotti at the time of death” 1736
masterpiece by Marco Benefial (1684/1764)
“He showed
aptitude for painting since he was a youth and was therefore entrusted to the
teaching of Bonaventura Lamberti, a painter of Carpi, good follower of the
Carraccis, who from 1698 until 1703 directed the steps within a cultural
context that was based on the study of ancient sculpture, Raphael and
seventeenth-century Bolognese painting, welcoming the modern experiences of
Maratta, Luti and Chiari. (...) The death of Giacinta Marescotti is
characterized by a strong and passionate naturalism, definitely something quite
new for those years in Rome”(Evelina Borea - Dizionario Biografico degli
Italiani Treccani)
“The Roman
Marco Benefial was an unconventional artist, who advocated a return to the
sources of the seventeenth-century Classicism against the graceful affectations
of the followers of Trevisani and the mannerist painting with no contacts with
reality of the more predictable pupils of Maratta. Benefial led his controversy
at the very heart of the Academy and ended up being ousted. However, beside the
ecclesiastical style of the Arcadia, often sweetish and conventional, popular
at the time, these paintings stand out for their freshness and truth in the
narrative of suffering, free from rhetoric ennobling or languid sentimentality”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
On the cyma
“Virgin Mary of the Grace” by Girolamo Siciolante da
Sermoneta (1521/80)
On the
pillars “Saints” maybe 1807 by Francesco Manno (1752/1831)
Paintings
on the vault and on the lunettes “Eternal God, angels and stories
of the Virgin Mary”
Pendentives
“Evangelists”
Walls on
the right “The donning of St. Francis”
and on the left “Temptation of St. Francis”
all works painted in the years 1623/24 by the French Simon
Vouet (1590/1649)
“This whole
series of paintings by Vouet has absolutely extraordinary importance for the
history of Roman art of the early seventeenth century, because it is one of the
most ambitious attempts to meditate the lesson from Caravaggio, resulting in a
highly personal synthesis” (Francesca Bertozzi)
4th
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
On the
altar “The Holy Family”
by Alessandro Turchi aka Orbetto (1578/1649)
“Bust of Cardinal Carlo Cremonesi
(1866/1943)” by Giuseppe Tonnini (1875/1954) who had
carved the winged lions on the steps of the Victor Emmanuel Monument and the
Monument to St. Francis of Assisi at the Basilica of St. John Lateran
BETWEEN 4th
AND 3rd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
“Marble pulpit” 1651 by Cosimo
Fanzago (1591/1678)
3rd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. JOHN OF NEPOMUK
“Statue of St. John of Nepomuk” 1737 by Gaetano
Altobelli
On
the right “St. John of Nepomuk dead on the
banks of the Vltava” and on the left “St. John of Nepomuk taken before
King Wenceslas” by an unknown eighteenth-century artist
2nd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. CHARLES BORROMEO
Altarpiece “St. Charles Borromeo carrying in
procession the Holy Nail Cross” about 1613 by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620)
“The
dynamism of the composition is perfect, a crescendo that leads to the precious
relic enhanced by the open arms of the cleric. The crucifix lit on the top
right is made with masterful and almost alive strokes, while the saint, heir of
Ambrose, makes a gesture loaded with eloquence, looking at the faithful outside
the painting. (...) The cross supporting the old reliquary is lifted like a
banner (the thrust desired by the painter is expressed by his repentance in the
position of the hands).The canvas can now be dated to 1613, thanks to the
cleaning for the exhibition in 2013 at Palazzo Venezia, particularly revealing
of colors and veiling, of the four shades of red, white and blue-black, of the
totally obscured background from which the relic at the center and the crucifix
in the upper part emerge” (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
Paintings on the sides maybe by Gregorio
Preti (active in the seventeenth century), Mattia Preti's Brother
1721 Giuseppe Sardi (1680/1753), maybe from a project by Francesco De Sanctis (1693/1740)
“Interesting
opening on the European 'rocaille' taste, inspired by a careful rereading of
the Roman Baroque style. Due to the tight integration between structure and
decoration, it is likely that the stuccos (unfortunately in very poor condition
due to infiltration of water) have been carried out from the design of the same
artist responsible for the architecture” (Francesca Bertozzi)
Above the
altar “Baptism of Christ”
1722 by Giuseppe Nasini (1657/1736)
Canvas on
the left “Baptism of St. Lucina”
and on the right “St. Peter baptizes St. Savina”
by Giovanni Antonio Grecolini (1675/1725)
SACRISTY
“Reliquary
of the chains of St. Lawrence” of the sixteenth century
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATIONS
Building of
the second century AD of uncertain identification inserted in the area of the
monuments of Augustus, traces of which remain in two rooms with black and white
floor mosaics and wall paintings
An insula
(apartments' block) was superimposed in the third century AD also used for
Christian activities in the fourth century, as a source mentions that here (in
Lucinis) the election of Pope Damasus (366/384) took place
The
perimeter of the insula was used for the construction of the early Christian
Basilica of the fifth century built by Pope Sixtus III (432/440) of which
traces of the baptistery remain
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