Sunday, July 14, 2019

St. NICHOLAS OF THE PREFECTS

S. NICOLA DEI PREFETTI
Maybe built in the eighth century. Mentioned in the sources for the first time in the twelfth century
The name probably derives from some relationship with the nearby headquarters of the Prefecture of Rome
In the years 1524/26 it was occupied by St. Cajetan of Thiene and his companions becoming the first church of the order of the Regular Clerks also known as Theatins founded in 1524 by St. Cajetan of Thiene and Gian Pietro Carafa, later Paul IV (1555/59)
1729 rebuilt and rededicated by Pope Clement XIII Orsini (1758/69)

1674 inserted between the wings of the former Dominican convent

1860/62 restoration by Paolo Belloni
Pictorial decoration 1914/17 by Cleto Luzzi (1884/1952)

VESTIBULE
“Funerary epigraphs of the poet Francesco Lorenzini and the Canon Giuseppe Paolucci, one of the founders of the Academy of Arcadia” 1746

Paintings “St. Pius V in prayer” between “Angels musicians” in monochrome by Cleto Luzzi

In the center “Glory of St. Nicholas of Bari” about 1730 by Giacomo Triga (1674/1746), a pupil of Benedetto Luti, who maybe also painted the boards with the “Stations of the Cross”
Six medallions “Four Cardinal Virtues” and “Two angels with inscriptions” by Cleto Luzzi

1st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Modern plaster statue of the “Sacred Heart”

2nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Above the altar “St. Nicholas of Bari resurrecting three children” by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

TO THE RIGHT OF THE ALTAR
“Funerary monument of Giovanna Ripario” who died in 1863, when she was twenty years old exactly on the day of her wedding, with a bust by an anonymous nineteenth-century artist

On the altar most venerated “Seventeenth-century wooden Crucifix” of the Confraternita del Santissimo Crocifisso Agonizzante (Brotherhood of the Holy Cross in Agony)
It is related to a miracle which occurred in 1740: the Crucifix remained unharmed during a fire in the Oratory at St. Nicholas in Arcione that melted down even the bronze candlesticks and a bronze medallion hung on the Crucifix. It was moved here in 1848
Under the Crucifix there is a painting of the Virgin Mary known as “Mater Misericordiae” by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist
Walls painted on the right “Pietà”, on the left “Agony in the Garden” and in the lunette “Choir of Angels” 1914/17 by Cleto Luzzi

TO THE LEFT OF THE ALTAR
Monumental “Funerary memory of the spouses Antonio Cassetta and Maria Teresa Sturbinetti” 1868 by Luca Carimini (1830/90) inspired by the Renaissance monuments of Andrea Bregno

2nd LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE ROSARY
Gorgeous “Altar frontal in gilt bronze” of the second half of the nineteenth century by unknown Roman craftsmen
Eighteenth-century altar sculpture “Madonna of the Rosary” with dress decorated in silver and gold

1st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “Madonna and Child with Sts. Joseph and James” 1859 by Vincenzo Pasqualoni (1819/80), a pupil of Tommaso Minardi

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