Begun in
1495 and continued slowly maybe by an unknown artist
follower of Bramante or by Giulio Pippi aka Giulio
Romano (1499/1546) for the CONFRATERNITY OF THE TWELVE COLLEGES OF
ARTS AND CRAFTS: Merchants; Brokers of the port; Mills owners and their apprentices;
Grocers; Vegetables sellers; Fruits sellers; Pasta artisans and retailers and
their apprentices; Chicken sellers; Cobblers; Chestnut sellers; Wine sellers;
Barrels handlers at the port
Finished
without façade in the years 1554/60 by Guidetto Guidetti
(about 1498/1564)
1566/68 Jacopo Barozzi
aka Vignola (1507/73), finished in the upper part 1576/77 by Francesco
Capriani aka Francesco da Volterra (1535/94)
It is the church
of the Japanese community in Rome that celebrates a Mass here every third
Sunday of the month
The
connection with Japan goes back to a miracle happened on June 8, 1585: the
first -ever embassy from Japan, during the visit to Gregory XIII Boncompagni
(1572/85), had gone to take a trip to the sea near the coast
The pope
wanted to surprise his guests and sent his musicians to meet them on many
small boats with full sails , flags and flames, gilded stern s and bows covered
by beautiful pavilions
Once they
arrived at sea a terrible storm struck them and the Japanese guests. At that
time the musicians remembered Our Lady of the Vegetable Garden to whom they
said a short prayer as they were going past the church, because at the time the
church was still visible from the Tiber River
The invoked
her and immediately the storm subsided. Since then and for many years, the
popes' musicians every June 8 used to gather at St. Mary of the Vegetable
Garden to sing Mass in memory of the grace received
Decorated
by Luigi Barattoni (active first quarter of the
eighteenth century) and Gabriele Valvassori (1683/1761),
who designed the stucco CEILING and the beautiful FLOOR laid out over
the years 1747/56 with friezes of fruits, vegetables and working tools
“About the
stuccos decorating the vaults of the church, it should be added that an old
legend passed down orally - but that for some time found hospitality in some
publications - wants that such lavish ornamentation was mixed in with the first
gold that came from America with Christopher Columbus. Suggested probably by
the particular year of foundation of the Brotherhood (1492), the legend is
actually devoid of any possible foundation. A much more authoritative
tradition, in fact, wants that gold used as decoration for the coffered ceiling
of S. Maria Maggiore, although even in this case there isn't any document to
confirm the tradition. However, on purely theoretical basis, the legend about
St. Mary of the Vegetable Garden may have some truth. It seems, indeed, that
the work at S. Maria Maggiore had produced several parings and scraps, all of
which were carefully preserved, so that some infinitesimal amounts could be
donated by the Reverend Chapter - for devotion, with symbolic purpose - to
those who had made the request in order to mix paints, fillers and anything
else needed for the decoration of other churches” (Web Site of the Venerable
Confraternity of St. Mary of the Vegetable Garden - www.santamariadellorto.it)
Central
nave “Assumption of the Virgin Mary” 1706 by Giacinto
Calandrucci (1646/1707), a pupil of Carlo Maratta
Gilded
wooden balcony with organ of the mid-1800s
To the left
“Dream of St. Joseph” and on the right “Adoration of the Shepherds” by Giuseppe Orazi (seventeenth
century) and Andrea Orazi (1670/after
1724)
“Glory of
Mary, St. Catherine and St. Bartholomew” 1708 by Giuseppe
Orazi and Andrea Orazi
1st
RIGHT - ANNUNCIATION CHAPEL (College of the Merchants and of the Brokers of the Port)
Above the
altar “Annunciation”
in 1561 by Federico Zuccari (about 1542/1609)
On the
right “Archangel Gabriel” 1875 by Virginio Monti (1852/1942)
On the left
“St. Joseph” 1878 by Giovanni
Capresi (1852/1921)
2nd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF St. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA (College of the Pasta Artisans)
Above the
altar “Mystic
Marriage of St. Catherine”, on the right “St. Peter” and on
the left “St. Paul” 1711 by Filippo Zucchetti
(active 1694/1712)
In the
vault “Angels with the symbols of martyrdom” 1711 by Tommaso
Cardani
3rd
RIGHT - CHAPEL OF Sts. JAMES, BARTHOLOMEW AND VICTORIA (College of landlords, tenants
and sharecroppers of vineyards)
Above the
altar “Virgin
Mary and Sts. James, Bartholomew and Victoria” and side
paintings “Martyrdom of Saints” 1630 by Giovanni
Baglione (1566/1643)
RIGHT
TRANSEPT - CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CRUCIFIX (College of the Chicken Sellers)
“Wooden
crucifix” of
the seventeenth century
On the
walls “Stories
of the Passion” 1595 by Nicolò
Martinelli aka Trometta (about 1540/1611)
Under the
arch “Resurrection of Christ” 1703 by Giacinto
Calandrucci
“Descent of
the Holy Spirit” 1704 by Andrea Procaccini
(1671/1734) and “Angels” in stucco by Leonardo Retti (active
1670/1709)
Designed by
Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602)
“Venerated
image of the Madonna and Child” of the fifteenth century which, believed to
having miraculous healed an incurable infirmity in 1488, motivated the
construction of the church
APSE
(College of the Fruits Sellers)
“Life of
the Virgin Mary” about 1560 by Taddeo Zuccari
(1529/66) and Federico Zuccari
Lateral
walls and lunettes “Life of the Virgin Mary”:
On the
right “Birth
of the Virgin Mary” and on the left “Presentation
at the Temple” 1598 by Giovanni
Baglione (1566/1643)
“The fresco
on the left with the Presentation in the Temple has a special feature: besides
the Renaissance clothes of the characters, the scene takes place at the foot of
a staircase that ends with the glimpse of a building, which is precisely the
church...of St. Mary of the Vegetable Garden” (Web Site of the Venerable
Confraternity of St. Mary of the Vegetable Garden - www.santamariadellorto.it)
In the
upper part STAINED
GLASS WINDOW with Marian Crest curiously formed by fruits and
vegetable
“Immaculate
Conception” and in the spandrels “Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary” in 1703
by Giuseppe Orazi (seventeenth
century) and Andrea Orazi (1670/after
1724)
Stucco
statues on the triumphal arch 1704 by Leonardo Retti
(active 1670/1709)
OVER THE
DOOR OF THE SACRISTY
“Meeting of
Joachim and Anna” 1704 by Andrea Procaccini
(1671/1734) and “Angels” in stucco by Leonardo Retti
LEFT
TRANSEPT - CHAPEL OF St. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (College of the Mills' Owners)
“Statue of
St. Francis” by an unknown artist of the seventeenth
century
On the
walls “Stories
of St. Francis” in 1595 by Nicolò
Martinelli aka Trometta (about 1540/1611)
Under the
arch “Glory of St. Francis” 1703 by Mario Garzi
son of Luigi Garzi (1638/1721)
“Glory of
St. Sebastian, St. John the Evangelist and St. Charles Borromeo” 1706 by G.B. Parodi (1674/1730)
3rd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF Sts. CHARLES BORROMEO, AMBROSE AND BERNARDINO OF SIENA (College
of the Cobblers)
Above the
altar “Madonna and Child with saints”, on the right “St. Ambrose on horseback
sending away Aryans from Milan” and on the left “St. Charles Borromeo attends
the plague sufferers” 1641 by Giovanni Baglione
(1566/1643)
2nd
LEFT - CHAPEL OF S. JOHN THE BAPTIST (Company of the young grocers)
Architecture
by Gabriele Valvassori (1683/1761)
Above the
altar “Baptism
of Jesus” 1750 by Corrado Giaquinto
(1703/66)
On the
right “St. John the Baptist Preaching” and on the left “Beheading of St. John
the Baptist” 1749 by Giuseppe Ranucci
1st
LEFT - CHAPEL OF St. SEBASTIAN (College of the vegetable sellers)
Above the
altar “St.
Sebastian cured by Angels”, on the right “St.
Anthony of Padua” and on the left “St.
Bonaventure” 1624 by Giovanni
Baglione
“Above the
altar there is a remarkable St. Sebastian Tended by Angels (painted in 1624, as
can be seen from a preparatory drawing in the Louvre), which inserts in a
Carracci-like formal composition generic formal references to Caravaggio and a
neo-Venetian color quality, probably derived from Domenico Fetti, definitely studied
by Baglione during his recent visit to Mantua” (Carla Guglielmi Faldi -
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)
ORATORY
It stands
on the spot where the hospital once stood
Sixteenth-century
wooden ceiling
There is a
SMALL MUSEUM with emblems and banners of the various colleges
Paintings
maybe by Giovanni Odazzi (1663/1731)
The
interior of the church appears in the 1945 film directed by Roberto Rossellini Roma Città Aperta (Rome
Open City). In the fiction it is the parish of Don Pietro played by Aldo
Fabrizi
The
exterior of the church as shown in the movie is that of St. Helena outside Porta Maggiore
in the Casilino neighborhood instead
