Built in
the fourteenth century as a chapel for the Hospice for German, Dutch and
Flemish Pilgrims at behest of the gunsmith Dordrecht and his wife
Rebuilt in
the years 1500/23 maybe by Giuliano Giamberti aka Giuliano da Sangallo (1445/1516)
Mid-1700s CHOIR renovated
by Paolo Posi (1708/76)
Fully
restored in 1843
Further
restoration 1874/75 by Emilio Stramucci with
interior decoration by Ludovico Seitz
(1844/1908) representing German personalities and Saints
Three
portals and a copy of the sculptural group “Virgin Mary between two souls in
purgatory” (original in the Chapel of the Fallen)
maybe by Andrea Contucci aka Andrea Sansovino (1460/1529) or by Bartolomeo Lante
BELL TOWER built in 1502
It is the German
national church whose model were the German Hallenkirchen
“Saints” in
the nave and stained glass window above the entrance “Virgin Mary with Child enthroned
with saints” 1875/82 by Ludovico
Seitz
TO THE LEFT
OF THE ENTRANCE
“Tomb of Cardinal Andrea d'Asburgo” 1600 by Gillis
de la Rivière (?/1602)
TO THE
RIGHT OF THE ENTRANCE
“Tomb of Cardinal Willem van
Enkevoirt” 1536/38 by Giovanni Mangone
1st
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF S. BENNO
“St. Benno receives from a
fisherman the keys of the cathedral of Meissen in Saxony” 1618 by Carlo
Saraceni (1579/1620)
“The Bishop
Benno, who lived in the eleventh century, was declared a saint in 1523 by Pope
Adrian VI (buried in this church) in opposition to the rampant Lutheran
movement, which soon after would destroy Benno's reliquary throwing it in the
Elba River; the saved relics were brought to the Duke of Bavaria (to whom
Saraceni was about to send some of his works) in the 'Bavaria Sancta' where the
Catholic cult of relics was a bulwark against the Protestant Reformation and of
which Benno was declared guardian saint. (...) The fish is a clear reference to
Christology, and the host-fisherman is almost certainly a portrait of an
influential member of the community, the merchant and patron George Piscatorius”
(Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
Altarpiece “Holy Family”
by Giacinto Gimignani (1606/81)
On the left
“Tomb of Cardinal Johann Walter
Sluse” 1687 with bust by Ercole
Ferrata (1610/86)
On the
right “Tombs of Johannes Savenier and his nephew Gualtero Gualteri de Castro”
with a bust by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654)
ON THE 3rd
PILLAR ON THE RIGHT
“Tomb of Adrian Vryburg with
cherubs” 1629 by François Duquesnoy (1597/1643)
“From 1618
he was active in Rome, where he remained until a short time before his death.
He was successful in the Roman scene, becoming one of the most prominent
figures of the Classicist style. (...) The tombs (...) in S. Maria dell'Anima
(...), enriched with figures of little angels, indicate not only his mastery in
dealing with marble but also the anti-Baroque classical composure that was his
artistic ideal” (Enciclopedia Treccani)
“Crucifix”
by G.B. Montano (1543/1621)
“Life of
the Virgin Mary” by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta (1521/80)
4th
CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT
Copy of the
“Pieta”
by Michelangelo begun in 1532 by Lorenzo Lotti aka Lorenzetto
(1490/1541) and completed by Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni
di Baccio Bigio (about 1513/68)
1937 Karl Holey (1879/1955) who rebuilt the Cathedral of
Vienna and the Salzburg Cathedral after the Second World War
MAIN ALTAR
“Fugger altarpiece: the Holy
Family with saints” 1522 by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano
(1499/1546) for the banker Jacob Fugger of Augsburg, his last work before going
to Mantua
It was
repainted in 1619 by Carlo Saraceni in 1682 by Carlo Maratta, in 1819 by Pietro
Palmaroli and in 1880 by Ludovico Seitz,
although the work is considered by Giulio Romano for about 85%
“It is
particularly significant because it seems to anticipate some of the grounds
that the artist will develop after a few years. Thus the luminous effect that
envelops the characters isolated in a dark space, recalls the night of the Sala
di Psyche at Tea Palace in Mantua, in the same way as the ' architecture in the
background with octagonal coffered vault and Doric pilasters that frame the
niches , prefigures certain architectural solutions of the palace of Mantua”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
On the
right “Nativity of the Virgin” and on the left “Death of the Virgin” mid-1700s
by Ludovico Stern (1709/77), son of Ignazio
Stern
Central
window “Trinity” by Ludovico Seitz (1844/1908)
On the
right “Monument of Adrian VI (1522/23)”
with the four cardinal virtues: “Fortitude, Temperance, Justice and Prudence”
by Baldassare Peruzzi (1481/1536)
Adrian VI
was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands and he was the last non-Italian pope
before John Paul II (1978/2005)
On the left
“Tomb of the Duke of Cleves”
1576 by Gillis de la Rivière (?/1602) and Nicolò Pippi (?/1601-1604 )
TO THE LEFT
OF THE ENTRANCE TO THE SACRISTY
“Tomb of
Lukas Holstenius” by Antonio Giorgetti (active
since 1660/d. 1669)
ON THE 3rd
PILLAR ON THE LEFT
“Tomb of
Ferdinand van der Eyden” 1631 by François Duquesnoy
(1597/1643)
4th
CHAPEL ON THE LEFT
On the
altar “Deposition”,
in the vault “Descent of the Holy Spirit” and on the walls “Sacred Stories”
1540 masterpiece by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco
Salviati (1510/63)
“Today,
unfortunately, the frescoes are so faded that even critical judgment on them
would be diminished. Anyway it is admirable the beautiful decorative texture of
the side walls, whose narrowness does not appear to have represented a major
obstacle for Salviati. On each of them the mighty figure of a saint stands in a
pose with imposing balanced gestures and rhythmic articulation, surrounded by a
rich ornamental frame. (...) The altarpiece accentuates almost too violently
the nakedness of the body taken down from the cross. What in Rome appears as a
novelty is the extraordinary exuberance of the decorative system of illusionary
type” (Hermann Voss)
“Stories of
St. Barbara” about 1538 by the Flemish artist Michiel
Coxie (1499/1592), known as the Flemish Raphael. He died 92 years
old, falling from the stairs
“Sts. John of Nepomuk and John
Sarcander” 1880 by Ludovico Seitz
There are
the relics of St. Lambert
Altarpiece “Martyrdom of St. Lambert”
1618/19 by Carlo Saraceni (1579/1620)
“The patron
Lambertus de Ursinus Vivariis placed the painting with his namesake saint in
his family chapel. He chose a subject connected with his name and with the
criminal profanation in a sacred place (the Cathedral of Liege), alluding to
the desecration of the memory of the martyrs and of the role itself of holiness
that the Protestants carried out during the wars of religion that had shocked
the Netherlands” (Maria Giulia Aurigemma)
Frescoes “Stories
of St. Lambert” 1650/53 by the painter from Antwerp Jan
Miel (1599/1663)
SACRISTY
1636 Orazio Torriani (about 1601/about 1657) and later Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649)
In the
vault “Assumption” 1636/39 by Giovanni Francesco
Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona
Paintings
on the walls with the theme of “Life of the Virgin Mary” by Gilles Hallet (1620/94), Giovanni
Maria Morandi (1622/1717), Theodor van Loon
(1581-82/1649) and Anton von Maron (1733/1808)
