MOST HOLY NAME OF MARY

SS. NOME DI MARIA
Foro Traiano 89

Begun in 1732 by Mauro Fontana (1701/67) for the Confraternita del SS. Nome di Maria (Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Mary) established on the occasion of the Christian victory against the Turks in 1683
It was built on the former church of S. Bernardo of the fifteenth century

In 1735 Antoine Dérizet (1697/1768) succeeded to Fontana and he totally changed the design and added the DOME, which was completed in 1738

The FLOOR was completed in 1742

It seems that during the crucial meeting for the approval of the project by the monks, the French architect had cunningly folded the sheet to hide the structure of the dome

“Dérizet imagined for this new church a building where could go together Manneristic ideas, inspired by the nearby S. Maria di Loreto, with the academic classicist style. Interested in the problems of architectural proportion and supporter of the theory of structural relations between music and architecture, Dérizet tried in his project to create a structure where there would be no contrasts between the internal space and the external structure” (Luigi Gallo)

In 1751 Mauro Fontana was reinstated. He closed the two side entrances for static problems caused by the weight of the dome and added the presbytery

EXTERNAL BANISTER
“Eleven statues of saints and prophets” 1739/41 carried out by eleven different artists such as Pietro Paolo Campi (known 1702/40) (“Ageo”) and Michelangelo Slodtz (1705/64) (“St. Matthew” and “Obadiah”)

INTERIOR
Decorated in 1743 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758)
Interior lining in faux marble 1858 by Luigi Gabet (active 1858/78), who also restored dome and pillars, while he was working at the same time in the adjacent Palazzo Valentini

IN THE RIBS OF THE DOME
Eight medallions in stucco “Stories of the Virgin Mary” about 1750 by Carlo Tandardini (1677/1748), Francesco Queirolo (1704/62), Filippo Della Valle (1698/1768), G.B. Maini (1690/1752), Bernardino Ludovisi (about 1713/49) and Michelangelo Slodtz who also made the stuccos in the lantern

1^st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Above the altar “St. Aloysius Gonzaga” by Antonio Nessi (active 1739/73)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Above the altar “St. Anne and the Virgin Mary” about 1757 by Agostino Masucci (1691/1758)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Stucco decoration by Andrea Bergondi (active in Rome in the XVIII century)
Above the altar “Death of St. Joseph” 1755 by the Roman Stefano Pozzi (1699/1768)

MAIN ALTAR
1750 designed by Mauro Fontana (1701/67)
Spectacular “Glory of Angels” by Andrea Bergondi that includes “Virgin Mary and Child” painting of the first half of the thirteenth century by an artist of the Roman school from the Sancta Santorum in the Lateran Palace

ON THE FLOOR IN FRONT OF THE CHAPEL OF THE MAIN ALTAR
“Tomb of Cardinal Ludovico Pico della Mirandola” d. 1743 indefatigable supporter of Antoine Dérizet

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernard” 1751 by Nicolò Ricciolini (1687/1772)

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
Above the altar “Sts. Peter and Paul” by Lorenzo Masucci (?/1785), son of the painter Agostino Masucci
On the left “St. Joseph with the Child” by an artist of the Roman school of the eighteenth century

SACRISTY
1839 neoclassical façade
There is preserved a carpet removed from the tent of the Grand Vizier after the 1683 defeat of the Turks in Vienna
Bas-relief “Madonna and Child” by an unknown artist of the second half of the sixteenth century