St. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS

ST. PAUL'S WITHIN THE WALLS
Via Napoli 58/angolo Via Nazionale

1872/76 George Edmund Street (1824/81) for Rev. Robert Jenkins Nevin

PORTAL
Mosaics “St. Paul teaching the gospel in Rome” - with quote from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians: That in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, I will rejoice and I will continue to rejoice - and on the corners of the rose window “Four evangelists” 1909 by the American George William Breck (1863/1920)

On either side of the façade “Iron gates” 1879 by George Edmund Street made in England and transported to Rome by sea

“The decorative motifs of flowers and plants of the gates anticipate solutions of Art Nouveau” (Flaminia Giorgi Rossi)

“Bronze doors” 1977 by Dimitri Hadzi (1921/2006)

American Protestant Episcopal Church

First non-Catholic Christian church built in Rome after the fall of the Papal States

COUNTER FAÇADE
Mosaics “Adoration of the Magi” and around the rose window, “Old Testament scenes”: “Creation of the World”, “Adam called to life”, “Bethlehem” and “Jerusalem” 1913 by George William Breck with glass by the firm Castelli of Murano which was responsible for all the mosaics of the church

“Compared to the atmosphere of rarefied melancholy and refined symbolism, which dominates the mosaics of Burne-Jones, one can find in the mosaics by Breck, by this time an artist of the new century, a certain vitality and optimism expressed through the use of vivid and dazzling colors which are the key features of American painting” (Flaminia Giorgi Rossi)

Rose window in glass painted with “Christ and the saints” 1876 by the British firm Clayton and Bell

“Two sarcophagi” of the second or third century AD donated by the Rev. Robert Jenkins Nevin

IN THE NAVE
Pillars with columns of red granite from Sardinia surrounded by four half-columns of Carrara marble
Thirteen stained glass windows with “Scenes from the Life of St. Paul” 1876 by the British firm Clayton and Bell

NEXT TO THE 1^st COLUMN ON THE RIGHT
“Sarcophagus” of the second or third century AD

AT THE END OF THE RIGHT NAVE
“Marble baptismal font” 1100s/1200s

APSE WITH MOSAICS:

BASIN
“Christ in glory between the archangels and the heavenly Jerusalem” 1885 with the writing in Hebrew: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and in Greek In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

WALLS OF THE APSE
“The Church Triumphant and the Church Militant” with “Five groups of people: ascetics such as St. Francis receiving the stigmata, a group of women, the most important people of the church in front of St. Paul, the procession of virgins and martyrs and Christian warriors patron saints of various countries”

WALL APSE
“Paradise on Earth with Christ on the tree of life in between Adam and Eve” 1904

TRIUMPHANT ARCH
“Annunciation” 1881/98 all works of Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833/98) with his pupil Thomas Matthew Rooke (1842/1942), who completed the triumphal arch in 1907
Burne-Jones was chosen by Street in 1881 before dying

He represented political and ecclesiastical authorities of his time:
In the role of Christian warriors Burne-Jones portrayed the US president in 1873 General Grant (St. Patrick, 3^rd from left), Giuseppe Garibaldi (S. Giacomo degli Spagnoli, 2^nd from left), Abraham Lincoln (St. Andrew, 4^th from left), Theodore Roosevelt, father of President Roosevelt, who in 1874 had made a donation for the construction of the church, and, standing with his spear, the pupil Thomas Matthew Rooke

In the roles of the most important of the church Burne-Jones portrayed himself as St. John Chrysostom, to the left of St. Paul

In the procession of virgins and martyrs St. Barbara with the tower has the features of his wife Georgiana and St. Dorothy with roses those of his daughter Margaret

“He summoned the medieval Byzantine tradition, but with imaginative tone, modern eye and unique iconography. From the gold background characters emerge evocative of an ideal beauty and of an inevitable end: key ideas of the culture of his time. The work made a strong impression on the Roman artistical scene of the end of the century suspended between symbolism and decadence. First of all, Giulio Aristide Sartorio, who considered the mosaics by Burne-Jones as the best example of the evolution of the Pre-Raphaelite style in the tradition of the Italian Renaissance” (Flaminia Giorgi Rossi)

ON THE DOOR OF THE SACRISTY
“Bronze plaque commemorating the Rev. Robert Jenkins Nevin” by George William Breck

NEXT TO THE 1^st COLUMN ON THE LEFT
“Wooden pulpit” 1909 by George William Breck

SACRISTY
Ancient and medieval pieces from the Nevin Collection including medieval friezes and a statue in marble of “Poseidon with dolphin” of the second or third century AD

RECTORATE
Adjacent to the church on the side of Via Napoli in Venetian Gothic style