Sant'Andrea della Valle
Encyclopedia
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
church in
Churches of Rome
There are more than 900 churches in Rome. Most, but not all, of these are Roman Catholic, with some notable Roman Catholic Marian churches.The first churches of Rome originated in places where Christians met. They were divided into three categories:...
Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy, in the rione
Rione
Rione is the name given to a ward in several Italian cities, the best-known of which is Rome. Unlike a quartiere, a rione is usually an official administrative subdivision...
of Sant'Eustachio
Sant'Eustachio (rione of Rome)
Sant'Eustachio is the VIII rione of Rome. Its logo is made of the head of a deer and of the bust of Jesus: the figures are golden on a red background.-External links:*...
. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines
Theatines
The Theatines or the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence are a male religious order of the Catholic Church, with the post-nominal initials "C.R."-Foundation:...
.
Overview
It was initially planned when Donna Costanza Piccolomini d'Aragona, duchess of AmalfiAmalfi
Amalfi is a town and comune in the province of Salerno, in the region of Campania, Italy, on the Gulf of Salerno, c. 35 km southeast of Naples. It lies at the mouth of a deep ravine, at the foot of Monte Cerreto , surrounded by dramatic cliffs and coastal scenery...
and descendant of the family of Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
, bequeathed her palace and the adjacent church of San Sebastiano in central Rome to the Theatine order for construction of a new church. Since Amalfi's patron was Saint Andrew, the church was planned in his honor. Work initially started around 1590 under the designs of Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta
Giacomo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor, who worked on many important buildings in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica. He was born at Porlezza, Lombardy and died in Rome.-Biography:...
and Pier Paolo Olivieri, and under the patronage of Cardinal Gesualdo. With the prior patron's death, direction of the church passed to Cardinal
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
Alessandro Peretti di Montalto
Alessandro Peretti di Montalto
Alessandro Damasceni Peretti di Montalto was an Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal Deacon. He received the title by his uncle Felice Peretti after the latter was elected Pope Sixtus V on April 24, 1585, in the consistory on May 13; the cardinal was then fourteen years old...
, nephew of Sixtus V. By 1608, and banked by the then enormous endowment of over 150 thousand gold scudi, work restarted anew with a more grandiose plan, mainly by Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno
Carlo Maderno was a Swiss-Italian architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His façades of Santa Susanna, St. Peter's Basilica and Sant'Andrea della Valle were of key importance in the evolution of the Italian Baroque...
. The interior structure of the church was finally completed by 1650, with additional touches added by Francesco Grimaldi.
Dome
The fresco decoration of Sant'Andrea's dome was one of the largest commissions of its day. The work was disputed by two CarracciAnnibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
pupils, Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.-Biography:Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti...
and Domenichino. In 1608, Lanfranco had been chosen by Cardinal Alessandro, but the Ludovisi papacy of Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV , born Alessandro Ludovisi, was pope from 1621, succeeding Paul V on 9 February 1621...
favored the Bolognese Domenichino. In the end, both artists were employed, and Lanfranco's lavish dome decoration (completed 1627) set the model for such decorations for the following decades. This dome was for a long time the third largest dome in Rome (only preceded by the Basilica of St. Peter and the Pantheon).
Chapels on the right side
The Ginetti Chapel, first on the right, was designed by Carlo FontanaCarlo Fontana
Carlo Fontana was an Italian architect, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.-Biography:...
in 1670, while the sculptural relief in white marble depicting Angel Urges Sacred Family to Flee to Egypt (1675) is the work of Antonio Raggi
Antonio Raggi
Antonio Raggi , also called Antonio Lombardo, was a sculptor of the Roman Baroque, originating from Ticino.-Biography:He was born in Vico Morcote on the Lake Lugano. His mentor in Rome for nearly three decades was Gianlorenzo Bernini...
. He sculpted the angel in the style of Bernini, his teacher.
In this chapel are buried Cardinal Marzio Ginetti
Marzio Ginetti
Marzio Ginetti was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and Cardinal Vicar of Rome. He was the uncle of Giovanni Francesco Ginetti....
(died 1671) and his nephew, who was also a Cardinal, Giovanni Francesco Ginetti
Giovanni Francesco Ginetti
Born December 12, 1626 in Rome, Giovanni Francesco Ginetti was nephew of Cardinal Marzio Ginetti .Under the reign of Pope Alexander VII he was appointed him Referendary of the Apostolic Signatura, later Sergeant Major of the Papal Army and then Treasurer General of the Apostolic Chamber...
(died 1691).
The second Strozzi
Strozzi
Strozzi is the name of an ancient and noble Florentine family. Palla Strozzi played an important part in the public life of Florence, and founded the first public library in Florence in the monastery of Santa Trinita...
Chapel has a Pietà, Leah and Rachel (1616), copies in bronze by Gregorio De Rossi from originals by Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
. The chapel was propbably designed by Michelangelo, but executed by Leone Strozzi (1555–1632). Beneath the statues of Leah and Rachel are two bronze bas-reliefs representing "The deposition from the Cross" and "The descent into Limbo". The cenotaphs in black marble in the side walls were erected for the Strozzi family: Cardinal Lorenzo (died 1571), Leone (died 1554), Pietro (died 1558), Roberto Strozzi (died 1566) and Maddalena Medici.
The chapel of "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart" (1887–1889) was designed by Aristide Leonori. The painting of the Madonna is by Silverio Capparoni and was blessed by Pope Pius IX.
In the right transept is the Chapel of St. Andrew Avellino with Death of the Saint (1625) by Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.-Biography:Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti...
, who also frescoed the impressive Glory of Paradise (1625–28) in the cupola, with figures of the evangelists in the spandrels (1621–1628) by his rival, Domenichino.
In the corner of the right transept are situated two chapels. The chapel of the Crucifix (1647) displays an antique wooden crucifix above a painting of the Madonna inside a radiant halo. On the right side is the tomb of the Theatine Cardinal Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi
Giuseppe Maria Tomasi
Saint Giuseppe Maria Tomasi di Lampedusa, CR , often anglicized as Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi, was born at Licata, Sicily, of a princely family. He was an Italian Theatine scholar and reformer, and cardinal. He was beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1803, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in...
. The "oratory of the Divine Love" dates from 1751.
Chapels on the left side
The Chapel of the Madonna della Purità was originally dedicated to the Holy FamilyHoly Family
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph.The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Roman Catholic Church in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family...
. In 1647 it was designated to the Madonna, patroness of the Theatines
Theatines
The Theatines or the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence are a male religious order of the Catholic Church, with the post-nominal initials "C.R."-Foundation:...
. The altar was consecrated in 1725 and shows beneath the tomb of the martyr Saint Fortunatus
Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilleus
Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilleus were 3rd-century Christian saints who suffered martyrdom during the reign of Caracalla. Felix, a priest, Fortunatus and Achilleus, both deacons, were sent by Irenaeus, to Valence, to convert the locals. It is known that they died ca...
. The four lunettes on the arches were painted by Silvio Galimberti in 1912. The painting "Madonna della Purità" above the altar is a copy from 1647 by the Neapolitan painter Alessandro Francesi from the original that was painted in 1641 by the Spanish painter Luis de Morales
Luis de Morales
Luis de Morales was a Spanish painter born in Badajoz, Extremadura. Known as "El Divino", most of his work was of religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and Child and the Passion....
"Il Divino" (situated in the Neapolitan church San Paolo Maggiore
San Paolo Maggiore
San Paolo Maggiore is a basilica church in Naples, southern Italy, and the burial place of Gaetano Thiene, known as Saint Cajetan, founder of the Order of Clerics Regular .-History:...
). It was adorned with a golden radiant halo
Halo (religious iconography)
A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
in gratitude for having saved the city from famine. On the left wall of the chapel is the tomb of cardinal Stoppani (died 1774).
The left transept is dedicated to Saint Cajetan
Saint Cajetan
Saint Cajetan , born Gaetano dei Conti di Tiene , is a Catholic Church saint and founder of the order of the Clerics Regular, better known as the Theatines...
, founder of the Theatines. The altarpiece, depicting the saint adoring the Madonna and Child, was painted in 1770 by Mattia de Mare, while the altar dates from 1912 by Cesare Bazzani. The frescoes on the side walls were painted by Alessio D'Elia in 1770. In front of the altar stand statues of Abundance and Wisdom by Giulio Tadolini
Giulio Tadolini
Giulio Tadolini was an Academic-trained Italian sculptor, who was born and died in Rome, where he passed his career in the family atelier, which he inherited from his uncle, Adamo Tadolini...
.
Over the entrance to the left circular chapel is the tomb of Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II
Pope Pius II, born Enea Silvio Piccolomini was Pope from August 19, 1458 until his death in 1464. Pius II was born at Corsignano in the Sienese territory of a noble but decayed family...
(1475), completed by a follower of Andrea Bregno
Andrea Bregno
Andrea di Cristoforo Bregno was an Italian sculptor and architect of the Early Renaissance who worked in Rome from the 1460s and died just as the High Renaissance was getting under way.-Early life:...
in 1615.
The third chapel on the left is dedicated to Saint Sebastian and was decorated with paintings by Martinucci in 1869. The altarpiece "Saint Sebastian" was painted by Giovanni de' Vecchi
Giovanni de' Vecchi
Giovanni de' Vecchi was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period.Born in Borgo San Sepolcro, He first apprenticed with the painter Raffaello del Colle, then with Taddeo Zuccari, whom he assisted in the interior decoration of the Villa Farnese at Caprarola, a major work in the Mannerist...
in 1614.
The chapel "Rucellai o Dei Beati" was designed in 1610 by Matteo Castelli de Melide, a relative of the Borromini family. The altarpiece, attributed to the Sicilian painter Francesco Manno (1754–1831), depict three Blessed Theatines : Marinoni, Burali D'Arezzo and Tomasi. On the right wall is a painting by Cristoforo Roncalli
Cristoforo Roncalli
Cristoforo Roncalli was an Italian mannerist painter. He was one of the three painters known as il Pomarancio.Roncalli was born in Pomarance, a town near Volterra...
(Pomarancio) of "the archangel Gabriel in the presence of the Eternal Father". Pomarancio also painted "the Archangel Raphael
Raphael (archangel)
Raphael is an archangel of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, who in the Judeo-Christian tradition performs all manners of healing....
and Tobias the elder" on the left wall and the fresco in the cupola "Glory of music making angels". The other paintings are by Ambrogio Buonvicino and depict "angels in glory". In the left wall is the sepulchral monument in black marble of Orazio Rucellai (1604–1673) and the tomb of Giovanni della Casa
Giovanni della Casa
Giovanni della Casa was an Italian poet and cleric.-Biography:He was born at Florence, in Tuscany. He studied at Bologna, Padua, Florence and Rome, and by his learning attracted the patronage of Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul III, made him archbishop of Benevento and later nuncio to Venice,...
, author of Il Galateo. The right wall houses the tomb of Annibale Rucellai (died in 1601), bishop of Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
, France.
The last chapel on the left is the Chapel Barberini, commissioned by Cardinal Maffeo Barberini (who became later Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions...
) to Matteo Castelli di Melide in 1616. The altarpiece Assumption (between four Corinthian columns in antique rose marble) and the paintings "Visitation" and Lucia collects the body of St Sebastian are by Domenico Cresti ( Passignano). The sculptural program, too, is fascinating: on the left, in the furthest niche resides Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
's "Saint John the Baptist" (1616), and in the closest niche on the right is Francesco Mochi
Francesco Mochi
Francesco Mochi was an Italian early-Baroque sculptor active mostly in Rome and Orvieto.He was born in Montevarchi and died in Rome...
's Saint Martha (1629), which is significantly larger than the other three sculptures, with Saint Martha seeming to want to leave her niche.
Apse
The apse decoration is by Alessandro AlgardiAlessandro Algardi
Alessandro Algardi was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome, where for the latter decades of his life, he was the major rival of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.-Early years:...
. In the apse half-dome the History of Sant'Andrea and Virtues are frescoed by Domenichino. In the apse walls are three frescoes Crucifixion, Martyrdom and burial of Sant'Andrea by Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti
Mattia Preti was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta.- Biography :Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was sometimes called Il Cavalier Calabrese...
(1650–1651), as commissioned by Donna Olimpia, sister in law of Pope Innocent X.
Facade
The BaroqueBaroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
facade was added between 1655 and 1663 by Carlo Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi
Carlo Rainaldi was an Italian architect of the Baroque period.Born in Rome, Rainaldi was one of the leading architects of 17th century Rome, known for a certain grandeur in his designs. He worked at first with his father, Girolamo Rainaldi, a late Mannerist architect in Rome. After his father's...
, at the expense of Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto
Francesco Peretti di Montalto
Francesco Peretti di Montalto was an Italian Catholic Cardinal.Peretti was born to an Italian noble family. By birth he was to be the successor of his father; Prince of Venafro, Venetian patrician, Marquis of San Martino, Count of Celano and Baron of Pescina. But he was also a nephew of Cardinal...
, nephew of Alessandro.
Varia
The church houses the cenotaphs of Popes Pius II and Pius III, who are buried in the church.The church contains a Saint John the Baptist by Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini
Pietro Bernini was an Italian sculptor. He was the father of one the most famous artists of Baroque, Gian Lorenzo Bernini....
(Gianlorenzo Bernini's father).
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
by Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
is set in Sant'Andrea della Valle. However, the Cappella Attavanti used was a poetic invention.
The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Andreae Apostoli de Valle is Giovanni Canestri
Giovanni Canestri
Giovanni Canestri is an Italian Catholic clergyman, currently Archbishop Emeritus of Genoa.Born in Castelspina, province of Alessandria, he was ordained priest on April 12, 1941 and began his pastoral ministry in Rome...
.
Sant'Andrea della Valle later became a model for the construction of other churches like the St.Kajetan church
Theatinerkirche (Munich)
The Theatine Church of St. Cajetan is a Catholic church in Munich, southern Germany. Built from 1663 to 1690, it was founded by Elector Ferdinand Maria and his wife, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, as a gesture of thanks for the birth of the long-awaited heir to the Bavarian crown, Prince Max...
in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and the Church of St. Anne, Kraków
Church of St. Anne, Kraków
The Church of St. Anne located at ulica św. Anny 11 street in the historic centre of Kraków, Poland, is one of the leading examples of Polish Baroque architecture. The church's history dates back to 14th century.- History :...
.
On the square in front of the church stands the fountain of Carlo Maderno, which until 1937 was situated in the now destroyed Piazza Scossacavalli in the Borgo
Borgo (rione of Rome)
Borgo , is the 14th historic district of Rome, Italy. It lies on the west bank of the Tiber, and has a trapezoidal shape. Its coat of arms shows a lion , lying in front of three mounts and a star...
.