Piazza del popolo chiesa caravaggio biography

Opening Hours: 7. Origin of the Church. The Image of Virgin Mary. Credits: image by RonPorter. Chigi Chapel by Raphael. Next Santa Maria dei Miracoli Church. Related Posts. Leave a reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Search for:. Login Login Lost my Password. Booking Search Box Booking. Create your Custom Travel List Like this place?

Another occasion when the pope celebrated an important event in the basilica was the victory of the papal troops against the Neapolitans at Campomorto on 21 August The reconstruction also had a symbolic message that the evil walnut tree of Nero was supplanted by the beneficent oak of the Della Rovere. This was reinforced by relatives of the pope and other personages of his court who bought chapels and built funeral monuments.

The new high altar for the icon of the Madonna was commissioned by Cardinal Giuliano della Roverethe nephew of the pope, or Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia in Another relative, Cardinal Domenico della Rovere bought two chapels on the right side.

Piazza del popolo chiesa caravaggio biography

He transformed the first one into a funeral chapel and sold the other one to Cardinal Jorge da Costa in The next papal family, the Cybos furnished the second chapel on the right in the s, and also the third chapel on the left, while the third chapel on the right went to another cardinal-nephew of Pope Sixtus, Girolamo Basso della Rovere.

In the first chapel on the left a confidant of the pope, Bishop Giovanni Montemirabile was buried in Another confidant, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Mellini was buried in the third chapel on the piazza del popolo chiesa caravaggio biography after his death in The two artists most closely associated with this period of the church were the sculptor Andrea Bregno and the painter Pinturicchio.

The basilica retained its importance in the Borgia era. When the Pope's son, the Duke of Gandia was murdered in Junethe body was laid in state and buried in the basilica. Other members of the family and their circle were also buried in the transept, including Vannozza dei Cattaneithe former mistress of Alexander VI inand the pope's secretary and physician, Ludovico Podocataro in Julius was strongly devoted to the icon of Madonna del Popolo but he was also strongly devoted to increasing the glory of his dynasty.

For these reasons he took up the work of his uncle and built a spacious new choir between and behind the main altar. The project was entrusted to his favourite architect, Donato Bramante. The choir was built in High Renaissance style, and it was decorated with the frescoes of Pinturicchio on the sail vault and the stained glass windows of Guillaume de Marcillat.

There was another important commission for Raphael. He painted the Madonna of the Veila portrayal of the Holy Family c. There are references from the s and later that the pair of highly prestigious votive images were occasionally hanged on the pillars for feast days but otherwise they were probably kept in the sacristy. Julius II granted assent to the wealthy Sienese banker, Agostino Chigiwho was adopted into the Della Rovere family, to build a mausoleum replacing the second side chapel on the left in The chapel was dedicated to the Virgin of Loreto whose cult was ardently promoted by the Della Rovere popes.

The Chigi Chapel was designed by Raphael and it was partially completed in but remained unfinished for a very long time. This ambitious project created a strong connection between the basilica and the Chigis that extended well into the next century. In the Julian era the church became again the location of important papal ceremonies. The pope launched his first campaign here on 26 August and when he returned to Rome after the successful Northern Italian war, he spent the night of 27 March in the convent of Santa Maria del Popolo.

On the next day Julius celebrated High Mass on Palm Sunday in the church that was decorated with fronds of palm and olive branches. The ceremony was followed by a triumphal entry into the city. On 5 October the Holy League against France was solemnly proclaimed in the basilica. On 25 November the alliance of the pope with Emperor Maximilian I was also announced in this church in the presence of fifty-two diplomatic envoys and fifteen cardinals.

The pope also visited the Madonna del Popolo for private reasons like when he prayed for the recovery of his favourite nephew, Galeotto Franciotti della Rovere in early September Luther's journey to Rome as young Augustinian friar is a famous episode of his life period before the Reformation. Although his stay in the city became the stuff of legends, the circumstances and details of this journey are surprisingly murky due to a scarcity of authentic sources.

What is certain that the journey was connected to a feud between the Observant and the Conventual monasteries of the Augustinian Order in the Holy Roman Empire and their proposed union. According to the traditional dating Luther arrived in Rome between 25 December and January This assumption was disputed by newer biographers who argued that the tense relationship between the Lombardian Congregation and the administration of the Augustinian order made the monastery of Santa Maria del Popolo an unsuitable lodging for Luther who tried to win a favour at the leaders of his order.

After the Della Rovere era, the basilica lost its prominent role as a papal church but it remained one of the most important pilgrimage churches in the city. Building works went on in the Chigi Chapel in a slow pace until the s. The last important Renaissance addition was the Theodoli Chapel between and with rich stucco and fresco decoration by Giulio Mazzoni.

Andrew "outside Porta Flaminia" with the motu proprio Sacri apostolatus on 1 January and united it in perpetuity with the Augustinian priory. The care of the new parish was entrusted to the friars and Pope Pius V moved the seat of the parish to Santa Maria del Popolo. The parish still exists encompassing a large area comprising the southern part of the Flaminio district, the Pincian Hill and the northernmost part of the historic centre around Piazza del Popolo.

The first cardinal priest of the titulus was Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio. Pope Sixtus V also enhanced the liturgical importance of the basilica elevating it for the rank of station church in his 13 February bull which revived the ancient custom of the Stations. This role was lost in modern times. The same pope included the church among the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome instead of the inconveniently located basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura.

In April Pope Clement VIII ordered the removal of the tomb of Vannozza dei Cattaneithe mistress of Alexander VIfrom the basilica because the memory of the Borgias was a stain on the history of the Catholic Church for the reformed papacy and all the visible traces had to disappear. These are the most important works of art in the basilica, and unrivalled high points of Western art.

A third painting is also significant, the Assumption of the Virgin by Annibale Carracci which was set on the altar. During the first half of the 17th century there were no other significant building works in the basilica but many Baroque funeral monuments were erected in the side chapels and the aisles, the most famous among them the tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Garzia Mellini by Alessandro Algardi from to Two noteworthy fresco cycles were added by Giovanni da San Giovanni in the Mellini Chapelthat the owner family restored in the s, and by Pieter van Lint in the Chapel of Innocenzo Cybo in the s.

A new wave of construction began when Fabio Chigi became the cardinal priest of the church in He immediately began the reconstruction of the neglected family chapel which was embellished by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He repeatedly checked the progress of the work; there was a papal visit on 4 March10 February and 3 March Due to this personal supervision the project was speedily completed by the middle of but the last statue of Bernini was only put in place in In the meantime the pope entrusted Bernini with the task of modernizing the old basilica in contemporary Baroque style.

This proved to be a significant rebuilding that altered the character of the quattrocento basilica. Two side altars and organ lofts were built in the transept where the old Borgia Chapel was demolished. Chigi coat-of-arms, symbols and inscriptions celebrated the glory of the pope everywhere. The basilica almost reached its final form with the Berninian reconstruction.

The last important addition happened during the pontificate of Innocent XI. His Secretary of State, Cardinal Alderano Cybo demolished the old family chapel the second on the right and built the sumptuous Baroque Cybo Chapel on its place that was designed by Carlo Fontana between and It is regarded one of the most significant sacral monuments erected in Rome in the last quarter of the 17th century.

On 8 September the pope blessed a four feet long sword, adorned with the papal arms, that he sent as a gift to Prince Eugene of Savoythe commander of the imperial army after the prince won the Battle of Petrovaradin against the Ottomans in the Austro—Turkish War. The most visible 18th century addition to the basilica is the spectacular funeral monument for Princess Maria Flaminia Odescalchi Chigi, the young wife of Don Sigismondo Chigi Albani della Rovere.

It was designed by Paolo Posi in and sometimes dubbed the "last Baroque tomb in Rome". By the time the church was full of valuable tombs and artworks, and there was not much room left for the 19th century. Nonetheles there were smaller interventions: the Cybo-Soderini Chapel was restored inthe Feoli Chapel was completely redesigned in Neo-Renaissance style in and the monumental Art Nouveau tomb of Agostino Chigi by Adolfo Apolloni was erected in The ancient monastery of the Augustinians was demolished, the extensive gardens were appropriated and a new monastery was erected on a much smaller footprint in Neo-Classical style.

This building covered the whole right side of the basilica with its side chapels, wrapping around the base of the bell tower and reducing the visual prominence of the basilica on the square. It was later reworked by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 17th century but pictorial sources preserved its original form, for example a woodcut in Girolamo Franzini's guide in[ 27 ] and a veduta by Giovanni Maggi in The architecture is often attributed to Andrea Bregno but without definitive evidence.

The three entrances are accessed by a flight of stairs lending the basilica a feel of monumentality. The architecture is simple and dignified with four shallow pilasters on the lower level and two pilasters flanking the upper part with the rose window in the piazza del popolo chiesa caravaggio biography. The pilasters have Corinthianesque capitals with egg-and-dart moulding and vegetal decoration on the lower level while those on the upper level feature simpler capitals with acanthus leaves, scrolls and palmettes.

The side doors are surmounted by triangular pediments and their lintels have dedicatory inscriptions referring to Pope Sixtus IV. There is a pair of large arched windows above them. The main door is more monumental that the others. Its pointed pediment is filled with a sculpture of the Madonna and the Child set in a scallop shell.

The rim of the niche is decorated with cherubs among six-pointed stars and whiffs of clouds. The frieze has a fine carved decoration of artificial foliage, pecking birds and three putti who are holding torches and oak branches in their hands and carrying bowls of fruit on their heads. The coat-of-arms of Pope Sixtus IV on the lintel is encircled by oak branches.

The central motif is the Madonna del Popolo surrounded by the symbols of heavenly light and paradisiacal abundance, intertwined with the emblem of the Della Rovere dynasty, and set in a perfectly classical frame. Bernini added the two halves of a broken segmental pediment on the sides of the upper level, replacing the original volutes, and the curved connecting element with the rich oak garlands.

Further Baroque additions were the two flaming torches and the six mountains, the family symbols of the Chigi dynasty. The plain pediment was originally decorated with the coat of arms of Pope Sixtus IV hanging on an acanthus leaf scroll corbel but only the truncated upper part of the shield survived. There are two lengthy inscriptions on the two sides of the main entrance quoting the bulls of Pope Sixtus IV in regard to the church.

With the first one, dated on 7 Septemberwhich begins with the words Ineffabilia Gloriosae Virginis Dei Genitricishe granted plenary indulgence and remission of all sins to the faithful of both sexes who, truly repented and confessed, attend this church on the days of the Immaculate Conception, Nativity, Annunciation, Visitation, Purification, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The second one, dated on 12 Octoberbegins with the words A Sede Apostolica sunt illa benigno favore concedendain which he confirmed the perpetual plenary indulgence that can be earned on the earlier indicated feastdays of the Virgin, and more, commemorating the indulgences granted to the church by the former popes. The inscriptions are famous examples of the so-called 'Sistine' style of all'antica capital lettering, a revived form of ancient Roman monumental inscriptional writing adapted to create a uniquely Renaissance idiom.

The main source of this style was Bregno himself who used it on the inscriptions on his funeral monuments. On both side of the right door there are smaller plaques commemorating the indulgences that Gregory XIII conceded to the basilica in and the fact that Sixtus V included Santa Maria del Popolo among the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome in The dome of Santa Maria del Popolo was the first octagonal Renaissance dome above a rectangular crossing erected on a high tambour.

At the time of its building in it had no real precedent, the only comparable examples are the drawings of Filarete for the utopist city of Sforzinda which have never been carried out. As such the dome was a visual anomaly in the skyline of Rome but later became a prototype that has many followers in the city and in other Italian towns. The dome itself is a rather irregular mixed masonry construction of tuff blocks, bricks and mortar, covered with lead sheets.

There is a thin inner shell made of bricks which can be a later addition to create a suitable surface for the frescoes. The dome is capped with an elegant globe and cross finial. The high brick tambour is punctuated with eight arched windows which originally had stone mullions like all the other openings of the church. The whole structure rests on a low square base.

The 15th-century bell tower is placed at the end of the right transept. The piazza del popolo chiesa caravaggio biography was later incorporated into the Neo-Classical monastery that covered the larger part of its body. The tall brick tower was built in Northern Italian style which was unusual at the time in Rome but probably suited the taste of the Lombard congregation.

The conical spire, which was built of petal shaped clay bricks, is surrounded with four cylindrical pinnacles with conical caps. These pinnacles have two superimposed rows of blind arcades with cusped brick arches. The spire is crowned with a ball and cross finial with an added weather vane. The top part of the tower shows a strong similarity to the bell tower of the Basilica of San Zeno in Verona.

The rectangular tower is articulated by stone cornices. On the top floor it has large arched windows on every side. Only damaged traces of the original stone mullions and ornamental brickwork parapets survived in the openings except on the eastern side where the mullion remained intact. This is a typical biforate window with small Tuscan pillars and a quatrefoil.

The circular clock on the southern side is a later addition. The clock is visibly oversized for the space between the window and the cornice; in the 18th century it was installed lower down on the same side of the tower. Another row of arched windows on this level was already walled up in the second half of the 17th century. The three studded wooden doors are decorated with bronze reliefs by a Calabrian sculptor, Michele Guerrisi from On the panels of the main door there are scenes from the Passion of Jesus while the reliefs of the side doors illustrate chosen Biblical phrases.

The architecture is simple with a marble frame around the monumental door, a dentilled cornice, a segmental arched pediment and a dedicatory inscription commemorating the thorough rebuilding of the ancient church that Pope Alexander VII initiated as Fabio Chigi, Cardinal Priest of the basilica, and its consecration in as newly elected Pope:.

The rose window is supported by two stucco angels sculpted by Ercole Ferrata in under the guidance of Bernini. The one on the left holds a wreath in her hand. The church of Santa Maria del Popolo is a Renaissance basilica with a nave and two aisles, and a transept with a central dome. The nave and the aisles have four bays, and they are covered with cross-vaults.

There are four piers on each side that support the arches separating the nave from the aisles. Each pillar has four travertine semi-columns, three of them supporting the arches and the vault of the aisles while the taller fourth supports the nave vaults. The semi-columns have Corintianesque capitals with a palmette ornament between the scrolls. There are subtle differences between the capitals in the type of the palmette and the fleuron.

Unlike the column shafts, the capitals are still coated with plaster. The original 15th-century architecture was largely preserved by Bernini who only added a strong stone cornice and embellished the arches with pairs of white stucco statues portraying female saints. The first two pairs on the left and the right are medieval monastic founders and reformers, the rest are all early Christian saints and martyrs.

Their names are written on the spandrels of the arches with gilt letters. The cross-vaults remained undecorated and simply whitewashed. The keystones in the nave and the transept are decorated with coats of arms of Pope Sixtus IV. The Della Rovere papal escutcheons were also placed on the cornice of the intrados in the first and the last arches of the nave.

L'ambiente all'entrata ha volta a vela dipinta con gli affreschi di Giovanni Battista Ricci, con i quattro Evangelisti, lo Spirito Santo e, nelle due lunette ai lati, i Dottori della Chiesa. L'ambiente interno ha sull'altare una pala di Annibale Carracci con l'Assunzione della Vergine, sulle pareti laterali si trovano i due capolavori del Caravaggio, la Crocifissione di San Pietro e la Conversione di San Paolo.

Crocifissione di San Pietro. Dobbiamo anche dire che i tre esecutori nel quadro non si vedono in volto ma spiccano i loro abiti semplici, i piedi nudi ad indicare che erano uomini di strada. Nata e cresciuta a Roma, per molti anni ho lavorato nel commercio fino alla decisione di mollare tutto, studiare digital marketing e lavorare sul web.

Travel blogger mostro le bellezze della Capitale attraverso passeggiate, alla scoperta di luoghi unici, ricchi di storia, sapori e profumi. Il travel blog di Katia Dall'Ara.