PALACE OF PROPAGANDA FIDE - CHURCH OF THE THREE WISE MEN (third part)

Chiesa dei Re Magi

1660/66 masterpiece by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667)

It replaced the church built in 1634 by Bernini which was elliptical with a main entrance directly on Via di Propaganda

“It is a radical revision of the structures of St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows and of the Oratorio dei Filippini. Articulation is here in an order large and small derived from the Capitoline Palaces. A continuous system ties together all parts of the building in all directions. The line-skeleton structure has become of the utmost importance - there is almost no wall between the tall pillars! - and even the dome was sacrificed to the structure. No post-Renaissance building in Italy has come so close to the Gothic structural principles. It was truly a new and challenging solution and its compelling simplicity and logic ends properly Borromini's activity in ecclesiastical architecture” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Borromini's stuccos completed after his death by Francesco Fontana (1668/1708) Carlo Fontana's son

Subsequent interventions in 1815 and 1955 painted arbitrarily Borromini's surfaces

Restoration in 1955 by Clemente Busiri Vici (1887/1965) who got rid of some nineteenth-century additions

According to an unconfirmed anecdote Borromini would have taunt Bernini sculpting a papal Chigi coat of arms with the donkey ears on a corner facing the Palace of Bernini

The coat of arms was actually made and was present until at least 1722, when Filippo Juvarra (1678/1736) drew it. Bernini would have replied by carving a penis on the shelves of a balcony of his palace overlooking one side of the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide

 1^st CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Conversion of St. Paul” about 1634 by Carlo Pellegrini (1605/49) although some sources cite it as designed by Bernini

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

“Madonna with Sts. Charles Borromeo and Filippo Neri” about 1665 by Carlo Cesi (1626/86)

MAIN ALTAR

“Adoration of the Magi” by Giacinto Gimignani (1606/81)

Above “Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter” about 1673 by Lazzaro Baldi (about 1624/1703)

Stuccos in the upper part and over the window of the choir by Cosimo Fancelli (1620/88)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Crucifixion between Sts. Francis Xavier and Francesco di Paola” by Ludovico Gimignani (1643/97) son of Giacinto

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“The Calling of Sts. Peter and Andrew” 1634 by Andrea Camassei (1602/49) copy from the original of Giorgio Vasari

IN THE NICHES

“Six seventeenth-century busts of benefactors of the Congregation” of high quality and generic attribution to school of Alessandro Algardi with “Basis of black marble from Belgium” by Francesco Borromini

PROPAGANDA FIDE PALACE - MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF PROPAGANDA FIDE (second part)

Museo Missionario di Propaganda Fide

It opened in December 2010 by the will of the new prefect, Cardinal Ivan Dias

Multimedia temporary exhibit space on the missionary activities of the Catholic Church and rooms with an interesting collection of paintings owned by the congregation

The interiors were largely designed by Francesco Borromini, with beautiful decorative solutions

Among the works:

“Pentecost” by Corrado Giaquinto (1703/66)

“Flood” by Salvator Rosa (1615/73)

“Romulus and Remus” by Marco Tullio Montagna (1594/1649)

“Massacre of the Innocents” maybe by Marco Benefial (1684/1764)

“In 1750, Count Nicola Soderini had assured his protection to the painter: this allowed Benefial to paint quietly during the last period of his life, drinking again and again at the inexhaustible source of the Bolognese seventeenth century art, impetuous and raw in tragedy as in the Massacre of the Innocents now in the Palace of Propaganda Fide, idyllic and almost frivolous in the mythological scenes now in Palazzo Corsini, but always aiming to search for historical truth, in a clarification of the detail, never giving in to decorative frills, and proceeding alone on the scene of contemporary painting. He died in April 1764, without pupils of merit and, if not forgotten, certainly underestimated until today” (Evelina Borea - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

“Annunciation” maybe by the Flemish Denijs Calvaert (1540/1619)

“St. George” maybe by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri aka Guercino (1591/1666)

“Portrait of Ezzelino Romano” by Antonio Canova (1757/1822) who made this portrait as a joke trying to make it look as a sixteenth century painting

Some “Landscapes” by Jan Frans Van Bloemen aka Orizzonte (1662/1749)

BORGIA ROOM

Some objects and paintings from the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731/04) from Velletri distantly related to the infamous Spanish family

It was an extraordinary collection of antiques of all kinds and origins disparate now dispersed between the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Library, the Museum and the Museum Luigi Pigorini Capodimonte in Naples

BARBERINI LIBRARY

Monumental shelving of the eighteenth century and seventeenth-century ceiling in wooden beams with bees of the Barberini family. The anteroom by Francesco Borromini is spectacular in its simplicity

NEWMAN CHAPEL

Refined room by Francesco Borromini with questionable small later adjustments. Dedicated to the English Cardinal John Henry Newman who was declared blessed in 2010

PROPAGANDA FIDE PALACE (first part)

PALAZZO DI PROPAGANDA FIDE

Piazza di Spagna 48/Via di Propaganda 1

1586 for Bishop Bartolomeo Ferratini

In 1626 Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44) seconded the request of Bishop Juan Baptista Vives, one of the subsequent owners, and assigned it to the CONGREGAZIONE DI PROPOGANDA FIDE (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), powerful propaganda tool of the Church which was established in 1622 by Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621/23)

The congregation moved into the palace in 1633

WING ON VIA DUE MACELLI 1639/45 by Gaspare De Vecchi (active 1628/1643) for Cardinal Antonio Barberini

FAÇADE ON PIAZZA DI SPAGNA 1644 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680)

Extraordinary FAÇADE ON VIA DI PROPAGANDA and FAÇADE ON VIA CAPO LE CASE 1646 by Francesco Borromini (1599/1667)

“As in the Oratory of the Filippini the façade, parallel to the longitudinal axis of the internal church, is at the same time the front of the church and of the palace. Borromini continues here his studies about making the most of the available space, taking into account the urban location of his building: the narrow Via di Propaganda Fide gives a dramatic tone to the strong plasticity of the façade” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“The overwhelming weight of this façade produces an almost nightmarish effect. Everything here is outside the norm. The movement of the window frames is not dictated simply by a desire for picturesque variety, but it is set up as a fugue, with the subject, response and variations. By these means Borromini created a surprising and alarming palace façade that has no precedent or followers” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Since 1967, the congregation took the name of CONGREGATION FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF PEOPLES

In this palace all the missionary activity of the Catholic Church is organized

In the historical center of Rome there are large and expensive real estate belonging to the Vatican which refer to both the congregation and the APSA, the heritage of the Apostolic See. Added to this are the numerous extraterritorial buildings that are part of the Vatican City State

In 2010, Cardinal Sepe, prefect of the congregation from 2001 to 2006, was entered in the register of suspects by prosecutors in Perugia, with the former Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi, for inconsistencies regarding maintenance of the façade of the Palace of Propaganda Fide. Investigations are still ongoing