St. ROCH

S. ROCCO
Largo S. Rocco/Piazza Augusto Imperatore 6

Eleventh century as S. Martino di Posterula
Rebuilt in the years 1499/1503 for Alexander VI Borgia (1492/1503) for the Confraternity of St. Roch, established precisely in 1499

It was dedicated to the French hermit St. Roch of Montpellier (about 1346-50/about 1376-79), protector of plague victims
In those same years a hospital and a chapel were also built adjacent to the church, eventually destroyed in 1938

It was transformed in the years 1644/80 by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi (1616/95)

FAÇADE
1834 neoclassical masterpiece by Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839), a tribute to façade of S. Giorgio Maggiore in Venice by the great architect Andrea Palladio (1508/80)

“He was the best architect of his time, but he did not have ideological assumptions or social programs. He had too much taste and sense of proportion not to understand that Rome is, basically, a Baroque city. Everywhere, in numerous and timely interventions, he grasped with finesse the tone the Rome of his time, papal and bourgeoisie. His ideal was balance, a syntactically well-articulated discourse, without emphasis and without vulgarity. This is demonstrated by what is perhaps his masterpiece, the façade of St. Roch, where he combined to perfection, fitting the pieces into each other, the central section all developed in height and the two lowered wings all developed in width” (Giulio Carlo Argan)

The two “Angels holding candles” on the façade were placed here in 1984

On the right side of the church was placed in 1821 the Hydrometer of Ripetta, a bas-relief column that measures the height of the flooding of the Tiber
The worst flooding reported here is the one in 1598 with a record of 4 m (13 feet) above the current level of road

In the attached obstetrician hospital, now no longer extant, were accepted pregnant women who wanted to remain anonymous: they entered veiled, their beds were separated by curtains and were identified by numbers
They were therefore described as the celate di S. Rocco (concealed of St. Roch). Their children ended up in an orphanage

The hospital was abolished in the late nineteenth century but this activity continued in the Ospedale S. Giovanni (St. John's Hospital)

VAULT OF THE CENTRAL NAVE
“Christ, St. Peter and other saints” by Achille Scaccioni (active 1858/65)

DOME
Painted by Vincenzo Pasqualoni (1819/80), a pupil of Tommaso Minardi
Dome and vault were carried out in the artistic period defined purist
Above the entrance organ of 1721

COUNTER FAÇADE
“Tomb of the master builder Vitelli” (patron of the façade by Valadier) by Giuseppe De Fabris (1790/1860)

1^st RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. FRANCIS OF PAOLA
Above the altar “Ecstasy of St. Francis of Paola” 1719 by Antonio Amorosi (1660/1738)

2^nd RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. JOSEPH
Above the altar “St. Joseph” 1912 by Giovanni Gagliardi (1838/1924), grandson of Pietro Gagliardi

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Above the altar “St. Julian and St. Nicholas” by an unknown artist influenced by Carlo Maratta

TO THE RIGHT OF THE PRESBYTERY - CHAPEL OF OUR LADY OF GRACE
1655 masterpiece by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi for Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) with influences Borromini

“The visitor can detect a likeness with the space of San Carlino by Borromini (the inspiration is evident even if this chapel is much smaller): the side walls constrict and dilate, the intricate design is repeated on the perimeter of the frame that has a strong overhang” (Rosanna Barbiellini Amidei)

In the dome “Assumption” by Giovanni Antonio Carosi (about 1600/about 1656)

ALTAR OF THE CRUCIFIX
Paintings by Ernesto Ballarini (1845/1922)

MAIN ALTAR
“St. Roch in glory with the Redeemer” 1674 by Giacinto Brandi (1621/91)
On the sides “St. Roch visit the plagued” and “St. Martin gives his cloak to the poor” 1885 by Cesare Mariani (1826/1901)

3^rd LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. ANTHONY OF PADUA
Above the altar “St. Anthony of Padua” about 1650 by Gregorio Preti (active in the seventeenth century), brother of Mattia Preti
Frescoes “Stories of St. Anthony” by the Genoese Francesco Rosa (active since 1674/d. 1687)

2^nd LEFT - CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY
Above the altar “Nativity” second decade of the 1500s by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536) badly damaged also by a restoration of the eighteenth century by Giovanni Odazzi

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “St. Vincent Ferrer” 1721 by Antonio Gregolini (1675/1736)

SACRISTY
In the ceiling “Our Lady appears to St. Roch” maybe by Francesco Cozza (1605/82)
“Virgin Mary with Sts. Anthony Abbot and St. Roch and the Plague Victims” about 1660/65, first Roman masterpiece by G.B. Gaulli aka Baciccio (1639/1709)
“In the painting by Gaulli dominates the neo-venetian lesson of Nicolas Poussin. The vivid color range, the representation of 'feelings', even the poses of the characters, refer to prototypes common in the works by Poussin and Andrea Sacchi of the third decade of the century, as if the painter was trying independently to draw directly to the sources of Carlo Maratta” (Rosanna Barbiellini Amidei)