St. MARY OF CONSOLATION

S. MARIA DELLA CONSOLAZIONE

Piazza della Consolazione 94

1470 simultaneously with the Ospedale della Consolazione (Consolation Hospital) built behind the church and abolished in 1936

It was rebuilt in the years 1583/1600 by Martino Longhi the Elder (1534/91)

FAÇADE

Completed 1827 by Pasquale Belli (1752/1833), the architect of the plan for the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls

The origin of the name of the church dates back to 1385, when a nobleman condemned to death, Giordanello degli Alberini, paid two florins of gold, so that an image of the Virgin Mary was placed here to “console” the last moments of people condemned to death

This was in fact a place for executions until 1550

1^st RIGHT - MATTEI CHAPEL

“Stories of the Passion of the Christ”

Above the altar “Crucifixion”

On the walls “Flagellation” and “Ecce homo”

On the ceiling “Washing of the Feet”, “Last Supper”, “Christ in the Garden” and “Capture of Christ”

On the lunettes “Moments of Christ's Passion”

In the corners “Evangelists” 1556 masterpiece by Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

With the work in this chapel the painter from the Marche region was so successful that he was highly regarded and received a number of job's offers

“Not only the painting technique and the colors but also the composition reveal how Taddeo was deeply fascinated by Correggio. The group on the right in the foreground in the Capture of Christ, for example, refers to a Correggio's composition. The figure of the young man clearly reveals his model, both in his movement and in the compositional intentions. Similarly to Correggio here also the diagonal slant of the figure in the foreground is replicated by the main group in the background. But this diagonal on the right by Zuccari corresponds to a similar diagonal on the left side. Just like his Florentine contemporaries, a crossing of diagonals is generated, which makes the central group stand out dramatically. Except that this solution, in contrast to the hustle and bustle of figures by Bronzino and Vasari, so hard to take in with our eyes, carries with it a clear separation of the individual scenes” (Hermann Voss)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Above the altar “Pellucchi Altar Piece: Madonna and Child with Saints and Patron” 1575 masterpiece by Livio Agresti (about 1508/79)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE RIGHT

Remarkable gate and “Stories of Jesus and the Virgin Mary” by Giovanni Baglione (1566/1643)

MAIN ALTAR

Designed by Martino Longhi the Elder

Medieval fresco “Madonna of Consolation” repainted by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniozzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

On the sides “Nativity of the Virgin Mary” and “Assumption of the Virgin Mary” by Cristoforo Roncalli aka Pomarancio (1552/1626)

Choir and organ 1674

5^th CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

“Scenes of Mary and Jesus” by Antonio Circignani aka Pomarancio (about 1568/1629), son of Niccolò Circignani who was the master for Cristoforo Roncalli

All of the three artists had the same Pomarancio nickname as they all came from Pomarance, near Pisa

4^th CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Frescoes “Stories of St. Andrew” by Marzio Colantonio Ganassini (active in Rome in the early seventeenth century)

3^rd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Frescoes “Life of the Virgin Mary” by Francesco Nappi (about 1565/1630)

2^nd CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Above the altar “St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata” by an anonymous seventeenth-century artist

1^st CHAPEL ON THE LEFT

Marble relief “Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine” 1530 by Raffaello da Montelupo (about 1505/57)

SACRISTY

Bas-relief with “Crucifixion in between the Virgin Mary and St. John” by Luigi Capponi (active at the end of the fifteenth century/beginning of the sixteenth century)

Fragments of frescoes on the walls by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniozzo Romano

FARNESE PALACE (third part)

Camerino (Dressing Room)

First to be painted for Cardinal Odoardo Farnese with “Scenes of the myths of Hercules, Odysseus and Perseus” 1595 by Annibale Carracci who followed the theme of “The Virtues prevails over Vice” thought by the humanist Fulvio Orsini

The central painting “Hercules at the Crossroads” is at the Museum of Capodimonte in Naples

“Like any great artist, Annibale created something completely new in comparison to his models; he joined the nuanced of Correggio and the warm tonal values of the Venetians to the austere compositions and figurative concepts of late Renaissance in Central Italy, while at the same time, he knew how to give his figures sculptural qualities and plasticity one would seek in vain during the late Renaissance” (Rudolf Wittkower)

Hall of Hercules

Wooden ceiling by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/73) who also designed the polychrome fireplace

On either side of the fireplace statues “Abundance” and “Peace” 1555/75 by Guglielmo Della Porta (1515/77) for the tomb of Pope Paul III in the apse of the Basilica of St. Peter, but never put in place because, as Vasari wrote, “They left to be desired in chastity

Chamber of the Cardinal

1547 frieze by Daniele da Volterra (1509/66)

Hall of the Farnese Glory

Great mannerist frescoes:

“Celebration of the greatness of the Farnese family: deeds of Paul III (pope of the Council of Trent and peace of Nice between Charles V and the French King Francis I) and celebration of Ranuccio the Elder (represented in the guise of Aeneas) and Peter V Farnese” 1522/56 by Francesco de' Rossi aka Francesco Salviati (1510/63)

“Here for the first time Salviati represented stories with costumes of his time, and we must admit that, despite all the exaggerations of his style of the late period, here dominate a grandeur and a pathos never achieved by any Florentine artist. The walls with frescoes are two, both divided by the same system: in the center, a figure on a throne with chained slaves (...), above, a canopy with allegories full of figures, on the sides, historical scenes, and as a crowning frieze, the usual naked bodies on their knees with medallions and festoons of fruit” (Hermann Voss)

The paintings were completed in 1563 by Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

ECOLE FRANÇAISE DE ROME

Cultural institution located on the top floor since 1875

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS

“Boundary stone limiting the Tiber” with the name of the censors of 54 BC

Remains of large public buildings in brick with three phases of construction of which the second, Domitian, is the most important

“Mosaics of desultores (acrobats) on horseback” in relation to the near Tarentum and to the Stabula factionum the stables of the four teams of charioteers two of which were in the vicinity

The Veneta (blue) was in the area of Piazza Farnese and the Prasina (green) in the area of S. Lorenzo in Damaso

PALACE OF GIACOMO MATTEI

PALAZZO DI GIACOMO MATTEI

Piazza Mattei 17/19

The oldest of the four buildings that make up the so-called Isola Mattei (Mattei Block), together with Palazzo Mattei di Giove, Palazzo Mattei Paganica and Palazzo di Alessandro Mattei (now Caetani)

It was built in part on the cavea of the ancient THEATER OF BALBUS of 13 BC

It consists of the union of two buildings:

The one at No. 19, the oldest, of the end of the fifteenth century with the FIRST COURTYARD featuring a white marble portal with the coat of arms of the Mattei family

The portal leads to a beautiful SECOND COURTYARD with two rows of arches, balcony and staircase

The two courtyards were used by movie director Sergio Leone for some scenes of his “spaghetti western” movies

Renovated in mid-1500s by Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni di Baccio Bigio (about 1513/68) for Giacomo Mattei, who built a single façade to combine it with the other building at No. 17

The FAÇADE was originally decorated with monochrome frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66) of 1548 representing stories of Furius Camillus, considered his first masterpiece, but now completely disappeared

On the front side there is a window which is linked to a legendary story probably not true: it is said that one of the Dukes Mattei, a compulsive gambler, one night lost a large sum playing with his future father in law who, knowing he had no money anymore, refused at that point to give him his daughter's hand

The duke, anxious to redeem the insult, bet his palace, the only thing he had left, against the hand of the girl, that he would have made a fountain appear in the square in a few hours. He invited to his palace his now no longer future father in law and organized a party until dawn

During the night he made the beautiful fountain appear. It was actually ready within easy reach and it only needed to have the pipes connected, having been prepared for the Jewish Ghetto of which the Mattei family held the keys

The next morning he invited his future father in law to look out the window, saying, “That's what a penniless Mattei is able to do in a few hours!” In this way he recovered the girl's hand but the bride had an unhappy life and had the window walled in memory of the event

The real tragedy was for the Roman Jews to whom the fountain was intended: they had to stay without water for thirty years

CAETANI PALACE

PALAZZO CAETANI

Via delle Botteghe Oscure 32

1564 maybe Annibale Lippi (active in Rome in the second half of the XVI century), son of Giovanni Lippi aka Nanni di Baccio Bigio, or Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511/92) for Alessandro Mattei

“The news about the life and the artistic activity of Annibale Lippi are fragmentary; the historiographical debate is also about the question concerning its involvement in many paternal works. Annibale, as the father Nanni, adhered fully to the style derived from the production of Antonio Cordini da Sangallo the Younger, and this has complicated the problem of attribution related to many of his works” (Maria Grazia Ercolino - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

The building was part of the so-called ISOLA MATTEI (Island Mattei), together with the other palaces of Giacomo Mattei, Mattei di Giove and Mattei Paganica

From the Mattei family in 1683 the building's property passed to the Negroni family, in 1753 to the Marquis Durazzo, in 1760 to Cardinal Serbelloni and finally, in 1776, to the Caetani family, dukes of Sermoneta and princes of Teano, to whom it still belongs today

Two courtyards with ancient fragments of sculptures

In some rooms there are frescoes including “Calumny of Apelles” by the school of Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

CAETANI ARCHIVE

Including over 5000 scrolls and about 200,000 ancient paper documents

On May 9, 1978 in Via Caetani, to the left of Palazzo Caetani, the lifeless body of ALDO MORO was found

Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and academic, five times President of the Council of Ministers and Chairman of the Christian Democrats, the relative majority party at the time. He had been killed by a terrorist group known as the Red Brigades

ZUCCARI SMALL PALACE

PALAZZETTO ZUCCARI

Piazza Trinità dei Monti 14

1592 Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) to house his art academy, the ACCADEMIA DI S. LUCA (Academy of St. Luke), established in 1577 but officially founded in 1593, of which he was also the first Director or Prince

After the death of Federico Zuccari the building was raised with two extra floors in the years 1610/18 by Girolamo Rainaldi (1570/1655) for the new owner MarcantonioToscanella

In 1702 it was leased to the queen of Poland Maria Casimira who continued the works of transformation

1904/07 rearrangement of the building by Mario Cannizzaro to house the library

PORTICO

1711 maybe by Filippo Juvarra (1678/1736)

In the EXTERNAL FRIEZE there are the symbols of the Zuccari family: sugarloaf and comets

It is commonly described as the HOUSE OF MONSTERS for the bizarre decorations around doors and windows

CORRIDOR

“Hercules at the Crossroads” by Federico Zuccari and his older brother Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66)

ROOM OF THE GLORY OF THE ARTIST

“Effigies of Federico Zuccari and his family” by Federico Zuccari and Taddeo Zuccari

 Frescoes by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio Romano (1499/1546) from Villa Lante on the Janiculum Hill

Among the personalities who lived in the palace Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717/78), Pietro Bracci (1700/73) and Louis David (1748/1825) who painted here the famous “Oath of the Horatii” now in the Louvre

With the adjacent Palazzo Stroganoff it houses the rich BIBLIOTECA HERTZIANA (Hertz Library) founded by Henriette Hertz in 1900 specializing in history of medieval and modern Italian art with over 170,000 volumes

The salon of Henriette Hertz was attended by the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio who immortalized it in his novel “The Pleasure” in 1905

In the Hertziana Library there was until 1887 a cycle of frescoes “Stories of Joseph” painted by the Nazarenes and now in Berlin

Under the building there is a large wall with semicircular niches, certainly a NYMPHAEUM, a large fountain, belonging to the Horti Luculliani

VATICAN MUSEUMS - GROOMS' ROOM

Sala dei Palafrenieri
 

Also known as Sala dei Chiaroscuri (chiaroscuri room) for the type of paintings, Sala dei Cubicularii (room of the guards) for the supervisors of the cubiculum (bedroom) of the Pope or, indeed, Sala dei Palafrenieri Grooms Room for those who used to transport the pope's chair

It was also known as Sala del Pappagallo (parrot's room) for here was the parrot in a cage, according to the custom documented since the eleventh century to keep a parrot in a room of the papal apartments wherever they were, even in Avignon

Massive and spectacular ceiling carved and gilded with Medici family symbols, maybe designed by Raphael

It had been decorated by Raphael in 1517 but it was repainted in the years 1560/82 by order of Pius IV Medici (1559/65) first and Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85) after, by the brothers Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609) and Taddeo Zuccari (1529/66) with “Apostles and Sts. Stephen and Lawrence” in fake niches and “Allegories of Virtues” in fake broken pediments

Other painters worked here including Giuseppe Cesari aka Cavalier d'Arpino (1568/1640), who debuted here with his first work (“Allegory of Fatigue” with Samson holding the door in Gaza), and the brothers Giovanni Alberti (1558/1601) and Cherubino Alberti (1553/1615

The five pillars that separate the room into two parts were inserted under Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)