Saturday, March 2, 2019

St. MARY AT THE SNOW

S. MARIA AD NIVES
Known since 1192 as S. Andrea Arcus Auri probably because of the proximity with the ancient ARCUS AUREO, now destroyed
Known since the sixteenth century as S. Andrea a Portogallo (St. Andrew in Portugal) or S. Andrea a Busta Gallica and since 1726 as Ss. Andrea e Bernardino (Sts. Andrew and Bernardino)
The name Busta Gallica derives, according to tradition, from the identification of this place with the area where, according to the account of Livy, the consul Camillus would have buried the bodies of the Gauls after the reconquest of the city in 390 BC: a bustum was a place where the dead were burned and buried
Rebuilt 1706/09 by Francesco Fontana (1668/1708) (maybe with the help of his pupil Filippo Juvarra) whose father Carlo Fontana (1634/1714) completed it after his son's death
Paolo Portoghesi had suggested an attribution to Giuseppe Sardi
The church was abandoned from 1798 to 1820
In 1824 it was renamed to its present name by the Brotherhood of S. Maria della Neve which took its name from the homonymous chapel in S. Maria Maggiore
Restored 1827/28 and 1837
Today it is entrusted to the Community of St. Egidio
“The architecture, despite its simplicity, is defined by a complex rhythm that achieves the effect of a solid connection determined by a nervous and tense frame, punctuated by the arches of the barrel vault, by the two windows with lunettes near the main altar and by the strong chiaroscuro relief determined by the conspicuous overhang of the cornice and the relevant projection of the pillars” (Simonetta Ceccarelli)
ON THE RIGHT
“Baptism of Christ”

MAIN ALTAR
“Trinity with Sts. Bernardino and Andrew” with a central bust of the Virgin Mary copy from original of G.B. Salvi aka Sassoferrato (1609/85)

ON THE LEFT
“St. Francis”, “St. Frances of Rome” and “Two deacons saints adoring the Virgin Mary in Glory” all painted before 1726 by anonymous eighteenth-century artists

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