All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in July 2021.
All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in July 2021.
Links to this page can be found in Book
7, Map C2, Day 4, View C5, Rione Parione and Rione Ponte.
The page covers:
In 1656-1658 Pope Alexander VII, born Fabio Chigi commissioned Pietro da Cortona to revisit the design and facilities of S. Maria della Pace, a church founded in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV, where the Chigi had a family chapel. Pietro da Cortona proposed to improve the access to the church by enlarging the street leading to it and by opening a small square in front of the church in order to allow coaches to turn around; his project, notwithstanding the cost for expropriating and pulling down several houses, was endorsed by the Pope, who personally visited the building yard; the final result is regarded as a masterpiece of urban design, for the monumental effect it achieves in a narrow space.
Pope Alexander VII issued a formal notification prohibiting alterations to the size and decoration of the buildings surrounding the church, so the only noticeable change is the erasing of the coat of arms of the Pope during the French occupation of Rome at the beginning of the XIXth century.
A small church on the site of S. Maria della Pace is recorded in the XIIth century; according to tradition in 1480 a sacred image in the porch of this medieval church bled when hit by the knife of a gambler who had lost his money. Pope Sixtus IV went to the site of the miracle and made the vow to build a new church if the wars which plagued Italy came to an end (as a matter of fact the Pope himself caused some of these conflicts). When a truce in the war against Ferrara was agreed, he fulfilled his promise; there is uncertainty about the architect who designed the new church, which was completed in 1525 by the construction of a small dome. You may wish to see the church as it appeared in a 1588 Guide to Rome.
The portico is one of Cortona's
most fertile inventions. By projecting it into the small piazza and absorbing much space
there, a powerful plastic and at the same time dramatically effective motif is created that
mediates between outside and inside. Wittkower I consider the Roman High Baroque of Bernini, Borromini, and Pietro da Cortona the most
exciting years of the century and a half (1600-1750) under review and one of the most creative periods of the
whole history of Italian art. Wittkower I went to the Church de la Pace, a
neat Church, and adorned with excellent Painting and Statues. Here many famous Painters
have signaliz'd their Memories, as Peruzzi of Siene, Vasari (..) and
Raphael Urbin himself, who painted the Prophets
and Sybils in the Chappel of Augustino Chigi:
and some think that he made the little Boys that
are so well done.
Virgil - Aeneid - Book VI - Translation by A. S. Kline
Pietro da Cortona was the leading painter of his time, but he decided that the new chapel should not be decorated with other paintings than those by Raphael. The statues and reliefs were made by some of the best pupils of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, to whom Pope Alexander VII commissioned the completion/redesign of the other Chigi chapel at S. Maria del Popolo.
S. Maria della Pace is a small church, but its chapels are worth a careful visit. Angelo Cesi was a consistorial lawyer. The college of consistorial lawyers was limited to 12 members. They were the only ones who could discuss cases before the Pope himself. His family came from a small town by the same name. In 1540 the Cesi acquired the fiefdom of Acquasparta where they built another funerary chapel. In Rome they had palaces in Rione Ponte and Rione Borgo. Members of the family built the façades of S. Maria in Vallicella and S. Caterina dei Funari and embellished Todi.
Ferdinando Ponzetti was the physician of Pope Innocent VIII. It was a risky but well paid job and he could afford to commission a family chapel. Other papal physicians of his time were able to build small palaces. In 1517 Ferdinando Ponzetti was made cardinal. He was renowned for the riches he had amassed in his house. He lost them all during the 1527 Sack of Rome.
Pietro Paolo Mignanelli was the son of a cardinal, because his father Fabio entered the ecclesiastical career after the death of his wife and was soon made cardinal, owing to his experience as consistorial lawyer. The Mignanelli had a palace in Piazza di Spagna, opposite which Colonna dell'Immacolata was erected in 1857.
The construction of S. Maria della Pace was followed by that of the nearby friary which was promoted by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa in ca 1500-1504; the Carafa are best known for Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa who became Pope Paul IV in 1555; after the Pope's death the Romans destroyed all references to him and his family, but they spared this coat of arms of Cardinal Oliviero, perhaps because he had given them Pasquino, the most famous talking statue of Rome.
The cloister of the friary was designed by Donato Bramante, but it is significantly different from the courtyard of Palazzo della Cancelleria, which is attributed to him. You may wish to see the fine 1497 funerary monument of Bishop Giovanni Andrea Bocciaccio in the cloister.
The small church of S. Biagio della Fossa was demolished in 1812 during the French annexation of Rome. It was located on the site now occupied by the orange building.
S. Maria dell'Anima is the church of the German Nation. The name comes from a little statue of the Virgin Mary between two souls (It. anima) in Purgatory.
The church was built at the beginning of the XVIth century partly based on the design of an unknown German architect; during the construction it is thought that Donato Bramante and Jacopo Sansovino were asked for advice. The façade is unusual in Rome because it reflects the structure of the interior where the two side aisles have the same height and width of the nave, a characteristic of German Hallenkirche. The decoration of the bell tower reflects northern patterns too; a bronze double-headed eagle, the symbol of the Austrian emperors, was placed at its top in the late XIXth century (you may wish to see the church as it appeared in a 1588 Guide to Rome).
The church has many interesting monuments and chapels of the XVIth century.
Willem van Enckenvoirt, another Dutchman, was the only cardinal appointed by Pope Adrian VI and he arranged for the construction of the monument to the Pope and for his own which was placed opposite it in the presbytery.
The presbytery was modified in the XVIIIth century. In 1883 other changes were made to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of the Siege of Vienna at the initiative of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. The double-headed eagle and the crown above the main altar are symbols of the Austrian Emperors.
Francois Duquesnoy was a Flemish sculptor who worked in Rome at the time of Bernini and who was asked by the latter to execute a gigantic statue of St. Andrew for the Octagon of S. Pietro. Probably Duquesnoy was more talented when he worked at smaller sculptures, as his two monuments in S. Maria dell'Anima show.
His putti had a great influnce on many
other contemporary baroque artists, including Bernini and Rubens.
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
S. Maria della Pace
S. Biagio della Fossa and Palazzo Gambirasi
S. Maria dell' Anima
S. Nicola dei Lorenesi
Tor Millina
The Plate (No. 121)
In this 1756 etching Giuseppe Vasi showed a luxury coach going to the church to remind the viewer of the original purpose of the square.
The view is taken from near the green dot in the small 1748 map here below (it is close to "8" of "598").
In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Entrance to the Monastery;
2) Buildings which form a sort of theatre; 3) Rear entrance to S. Maria dell'Anima.
The small map shows also 4) S. Maria della Pace; 5) S. Biagio della Fossa; 6) Palazzo Gambirasi; 7) S. Nicola dei Lorenesi; 8) Tor Millina. The dotted line in the small map delineates the border between Rione Ponte (upper part) and Rione Parione (lower part).
Today
The view in June 2010
The new facade, placed in front of the Quattrocento
church, together with the systematization of the small piazza is of much greater importance than the changes in the interior. Although regularly laid-out piazzas had a long
tradition in Italy, Cortona's design inaugurates a new departure, for he applied the experience of the theatre to town-planning; the church appears like the stage, the piazza
like the auditorium, and the flanking houses like the boxes. It is the logical corollary of
such a conception that the approaches to the piazza from the side of the church are
through a kind of stage doors, which hide the roads for the view from the piazza.
Rudolf Wittkower - Art and Architecture in Italy 1600-1750 Penguin Books 1958
S. Maria della Pace
Upper part of the façade
(left) Side view; (right) detail of the structure linking the church to the nearby buildings including a portrait of Pope Sixtus IV
Pope Alexander VII was a descendant of Agostino Chigi, a rich banker who paid for having a chapel in the church. Six mountains and a star were the heraldic symbols of Agostino Chigi who was allowed to add the oak which was the symbol of Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew Pope Julius II; for this reason Pietro da Cortona based the decoration of the new façade on mountains and oak branches; also the inscription dictated by the Pope had a reference to mountains: SUSCIPIANT MONTES PACEM POPULO ET COLLES IUSTITIAM (Let the mountains receive peace for the people: and the hills justice. Psalm LXXII:3 Douay-Rheims Bible).
The image used as background for this page shows a detail of the door with the Pope's mountains.
The three architects designed the stucco decoration of domes of churches for Pope Alexander VII approximately at the same period; you may wish to compare the dome of S. Maria della Pace with those of S. Maria dell'Assunzione at Ariccia (Bernini) and S. Ivo alla Sapienza (Borromini).
Richard Lassels' The Voyage of Italy, or a Compleat Journey through Italy in ca 1668
The Madonna della Pace is another Small, Old Dark Church, and the
Doors little as of a Common Room, but 'tis Neat. Here are the Prophets and Sibyls of Raffaele.
In all the Roman Catholick Churches are Chapels belonging to particular Families, some
as large as a small Church, others as a great
Room; others as it were let into the Wall so
as to admit only the Altar, and the Priest that
officiates, the People remaining in the Body of
the Church: This Church being but a little
one, the Chapels are of this latter kind, and
the Pictures are over and on the Sides of the
Arch that opens into one of these Chapels.
Jonathan and Jonathan Richardson - Account of Some of the Statues, etc. in Italy - 1722
Agostino Chigi involved Raphael in the decoration of his chapel at S. Maria della Pace as he did for another Chigi chapel at S. Maria del Popolo and for his villa by the River Tiber. The fame of Raphael was such that Pietro da Cortona did not dare to touch the frescoes the master had painted above the chapel.Cappella Chigi: frescoes by Raphael portraying Sibyls receiving instruction from Angels (see the Sibyls his master Perugino painted at Perugia)
O most sacred of prophetesses,
you who see the future, (I ask for no lands not owed me
by my destiny) grant that we Trojans may settle Latium,
with the exiled gods and storm-tossed powers of Troy.(..)
Only do not write your verses on the leaves, lest they fly,
disordered playthings of the rushing winds: chant them
from your own mouth.
In antiquity Sibyls were priestesses who foretold the future. Because of this gift during the Renaissance they were assimilated to the Prophets, as Michelangelo did in the ceiling of Cappella Sistina.
(The Chigi Chapel is) first on the Right-hand as you come in at the
Principal Door; they are in four several Divisions, two on each side; the two uppermost
have in each two Prophets holding Cartels,
and those below have each a Sibyl; all these
are accompany'd with Boy-Angels, and those
of the other kind. (..) These Admirable Paintings are in Fresco
but very much Damaged, specially towards the top on the side farthest from the Door of the Church, even pieces of the Mortar are broken off in some places. One sees a Greatness of Style throughout, and the General Design; but as for Airs of Heads, Contours, and other such Particularities, they are almost gone. (..) Raffaele seems not to have contented himself with a sort of mere Portraits of these
Messengers of Heaven to Mankind, he has enrich'd his Subject with Angels of
both kinds. (..) Vasari says, this Work was esteem'd to be
the Best Raffaele ever did. Richardson
Cappella Chigi: (left) lower part designed by Pietro da Cortona with works by Cosimo Fancelli and Antonio Raggi; (right) St. Bernardino by Antonio Raggi
Cappella Cesi: Monuments to Angelo Cesi and his wife by Simone Mosca (the sphinxes, ca 1525) and Vincenzo de Rossi (the dead, ca 1560). They bring to mind the monuments to Silvestro Aldobrandini and his wife Lisa Deti at S. Maria sopra Minerva
Cappella Ponzetti: (left) Fresco by Baldassarre Peruzzi showing the donor with Mary and Child, St. Bridget and St. Catherine of the Wheel (Peruzzi was a leading architect and painter of his time and he designed and decorated La Farnesina); (right) 1509 funerary monuments of members of the Ponzetti family (school of Luigi Capponi, a pupil of Andrea Bregno)
Cappella Mignanelli: (left) Monument to Girolamo de Giustini, another consistorial lawyer (d. 1548); (right) Monument to Pietro Paolo Mignanelli (d. 1568 fighting on Crete against the Ottomans at the age of 33), nephew and heir of Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro
(left) XVIth century entrance to the monastery with the coat of arms of Cardinal Oliviero Carafa; (right) XVIIth century entrance
Cloister of S. Maria della Pace
S. Biagio della Fossa and Palazzo Gambirasi
(left) Site of former S. Biagio della Fossa; (centre) Palazzo Gambirasi; (right-above) detail of the lintel with the heraldic symbol of Donato Gambirasi (a shrimp holding a cross); (right-below) detail of a window
Pope Alexander VII authorized Pietro da Cortona to pull down the houses which caused difficulties to the coaches going to S. Maria della Pace; in their place Giovanni Antonio de' Rossi designed a narrow palace which was bought by Donato Gambirasi, a prelate (but according to others a rich merchant) from Bergamo. Gambero is the Italian word for shrimp and a shrimp holding a cross was the heraldic symbol of Donato Gambirasi. In the design of the palace de' Rossi had to comply with the requirement established by Pietro da Cortona not to obstruct the view of S. Maria della Pace. Palazzo Gambirasi is one of the many palaces of Rome which have been repainted in the light colours which prevailed in XVIIIth century Rome (see a page on this topic)
S. Maria dell'Anima
(left/centre) Views of the church; (inset) statues in the pediment of the entrance by Bartolomeo Lante; (right) bell tower
(left) Monument to Pope Adrian VI; (right) Deposition by Francesco Salviati
The monument to Pope Adrian VI is the last monument to a pope where the deceased is portrayed lying down in a gisant posture, although the posture is not exactly that of a traditional gissant. Pope Adrian VI, a Dutchman, was the last non-Italian pope for many centuries. The inscription on the monument says: Proh Dolor! Quantum refert in quae tempora vel optimi cuiusque virtus incidat (Oh disgrace! The actions of even the best of men depend on the times he lives in), a reference to the turbulent period of his pontificate.
The influence of Michelangelo on the artists of his time is evident in a 1550 painting by Francesco Salviati in one of the chapels. Salviati was a Florentine painter who joined the Roman Misericordia brotherhood and decorated its oratory with portraits of its members.(left) Monument to Cardinal Willem van Enckenvoirt by Giovanni Mangone (originally in the presbytery); (right) Cappella Fugger: Nativity by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta
The Fugger were a family of very rich German bankers and Jacob Fugger the Rich commissioned the decoration of a chapel at S. Maria dell'Anima, in addition to financing that of the whole church. The altarpiece by Giulio Romano was eventually moved to the main altar.(left) Presbytery; (right) main altar by Giovanni Mangone (1536) with additions by Paolo Posi (1743)
(left/centre) Monuments to Ferdinand Van den Eynde and Adrian Vryburch by François Duquesnoy; (right) 1710 monument to Bishop Georgius Meisellius
Memento Mori (Remember that you will die)
You may wish to see fine monuments by Alessandro Algardi and Ercole Ferrata or a dramatic painting portraying
the martyrdom of S. Barbara in S. Maria dell'Anima.
Small courtyard on the rear of the church with a small collection of ancient and medieval exhibits including a Roman sarcophagus which is almost identical to one at Palazzo Altieri
(left) Façade; (right) ceiling by Corrado Giaquinto (you may wish to see other works by this painter at S. Giovanni Calibita and S. Croce in Gerusalemme)
In 1473 Pope Sixtus IV assigned a small church (S. Maria della Purificazione) to the brotherhood of the Four Transalpine Nations (France, Lorraine, Burgundy and Savoy); over time however these foreign communities grew and each "nation" (Lorraine, Burgundy and Savoy were not part of the French Kingdom) decided to have its own church in Rome (also the community of those coming from Brittany did the same).
In 1622 a brotherhood of people from Lorraine was given a small church opposite S. Maria dell'Anima which was rebuilt in 1635-1636. It was designed by François du Jardin, a member of the brotherhood which included the famous painter Claude Lorrain.
(left) Ceiling of the dome by Corrado Giaquinto; (right) Prudence
In 1733 the ceiling and the apse were decorated by Corrado Giaquinto, a Neapolitan painter who later on worked in Turin and Madrid.
Lorraine as an independent nation ceased to exist in 1766 when the Duchy of Lorraine was annexed by France, but until 1797 the church continued to belong to the Lorraine brotherhood. S. Nicola dei Lorenesi is now part of the French religious institutions in Rome (Pieux Etablissements de la France) which include also S. Luigi dei Francesi, S. Ivo dei Brittoni, SS. Andrea e Claudio dei Borgognoni and SS. Trinità dei Monti.
(left) Interior; (right) detail of the ceiling.
As stories about St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra multiplied, incidents were told to give witness to his holiness. In one of them, Nicholas must have been in the desert of the soul, as he asked God for a revelation. Then Nicholas could be confident of God's presence and have renewed confidence in God's call to serve as a bishop, loving and caring for the people. He made his way up a mountain where he prayed. As he prayed, a river - a hidden treasure of water - gushed forth, flowing down the mountainside. Nicholas rejoiced at the sight. He came down the mountain renewed and refreshed to live out his call to serve God and God's people. Note: This scene is fairly unusual in iconographic representations of St. Nicholas of Myra and is thought to have roots in the life of St. Nicholas of Sion
Doctoral dissertation by Alexander Boguslawski, University of Kansas, 1980.
(left/centre) Tor Millina; (right) detail of the upper part of the tower which retains some graffito paintings
Tor Millina was a medieval tower which in the late XVth century became part of the house of the Mellini (or Millini), a Roman family of some importance (Palazzo Mellini al Corso, Villa Mellini a Monte Mario and Cappella Mellini in S. Maria del Popolo). On the occasion of the marriage of Mario Mellini with Ginevra Cybo, niece of Pope Innocent VIII in 1491, the tower was entirely decorated with paintings similar to those which can be seen on other buildings of that time, e.g. Casa di Vicolo Cellini.
Next plate in Book 7: Ospizio dei Frati Eremiti.
Next step in Day 4 itinerary: Piazza Navona.
Next step in your tour of Rione Ponte: Palazzo sul Monte Giordano.
Next step in your tour of Rione Parione: Piazza Navona.
Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:
Chiesa di s. Maria della Pace
Si chiamava anticamente s. Andrea degli Acquarenarj, ovvero Pescatori, la quale essendo
parrocchiale, vi era un piccolo portico con una immagine della ss. Vergine, in cui messisi
a giuocare un giorno due giovani, uno di essi tanto si infierì per la perdita del danaro,
che oltraggiò la santa Immagine con un sasso, ed uscendo dalla percossa prodigiosamente il
sangue, corse il popolo a quello spettacolo con tanta compunzione,che saputosi dal Papa,
che in quel tempo era Sisto IV. vi accorse anch'esso processionalmente per implorare per
l'incercessione della ss. Vergine la Pace, e quiete dell'Italia, in quel tempo vessata
dalla guerra; ed essendo stata esaudita la preghiera, nell'anno 1482. eresse la nuova
chiesa in onore della ss. Vergine sotto il titolo della Pace, ponendovi sull'altare maggiore
l'Immagine miracolosa, e la concedè ai Canonici Lateranensi.
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