Trinità dei Monti
Encyclopedia
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:...
in 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...
, central Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It is best known for its commanding position above the Spanish Steps
Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church at the top. The Scalinata is the widest staircase in Europe...
which lead down to the Piazza di Spagna. The church and its surrounding area (including the Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
) are the property of the French State
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
History
In 1494, Saint Francis of PaolaFrancis of Paola
Saint Francis of Paola was an Italian mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of the Minims.-Biography:...
, a hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
from Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
, bought a vineyard from the papal scholar and former patriarch of Aquileia
Patriarch of Aquileia
The Patriarch of Aquileia was an office in the Roman Catholic Church. During the Middle Ages the Patriarchate of Aquileia was a temporal state in Northern Italy. The Patriarchate of Aquileia as a church office was suppressed in 1752....
, Ermolao Barbaro
Ermolao Barbaro
Ermolao or Hermolao Barbaro, also Hermolaus Barbarus , was an Italian Renaissance scholar.-Education:Ermolao Barbaro was born in Venice, the son of Zaccaria Barbaro, and the grandson of Francesco Barbaro...
, and then obtained the authorization from Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
to establish a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
for the Minimite Friars
Minim (religious order)
The Minims are members of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy...
. In 1502, Louis XII of France
Louis XII of France
Louis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...
began construction of the church of the Trinità dei Monti next to this monastery, to celebrate his successful invasion of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. Building work began in a French style with pointed late Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
arches, but construction lagged.
The present Italian Renaissance church was eventually built in its place and finally consecrated in 1585 by the great urbanizer Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...
, whose via Sistina connected the Piazza della Trinità dei Monti (outside the church) to the Piazza Barberini across the city. The architect of the facade is not known for certain, but Wolfgang Lotz suggests that it may have originated in a design by 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:...
(a follower of Michelangelo), who had built the church of San Anastasio dei Greci, which has similarities, a little earlier. The double staircase in front of the church was by Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana
Domenico Fontana was a Swiss-born Italian architect of the late Renaissance.-Biography:200px|thumb|Fountain of Moses in Rome....
.
In front of the church stands the Obelisco Sallustiano, one of the many obelisks in Rome
Obelisks in Rome
The city of Rome harbours the most obelisks in the world. There are eight ancient Egyptian and five ancient Roman obelisks in Rome, together with a number of more modern obelisks; there was also formerly an ancient Ethiopian obelisk in Rome....
, moved here in 1789. It is a Roman obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
in imitation of Egyptian ones, originally constructed in the early years of the Roman Empire for the Gardens of Sallust
Gardens of Sallust
The Gardens of Sallust were Roman gardens developed by the Roman historian Sallust in the 1st century BC. The landscaped pleasure gardens occupied a large area in the northwestern sector of Rome, in what would become Region VI, between the Pincian and Quirinal hills, near the Via Salaria and later...
near the Porta Salaria. The hieroglyphic inscription was copied from that on the obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo.
During the Napoleonic occupation of Rome, the church, like many others, was despoiled of its art and decorations. In 1816, after the Bourbon restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
, the church was restored at the expense of Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
.
Interior
In the first chapel to the right is a Baptism of Christ and other scenes of the life of John the Baptist by the Florentine ManneristMannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
painter Giambattista Naldini. In the third chapel on the right is an Assumption of the Virgin by a pupil of Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra
Daniele da Volterra
Daniele Ricciarelli , better known as Daniele da Volterra, was an Italian mannerist painter and sculptor.He is best remembered for his association, for better or worse, with the late Michelangelo. Several of Daniele's most important works were based on designs made for that purpose by Michelangelo...
(the last figure on the right is said to be a portrait of Michelangelo). In the fourth chapel, the Cappella Orsini, are scenes of the Passion of Christ by Paris Nogari
Paris Nogari
Paris Nogari was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period, a minor pupil of Cesare Nebbia active mainly in Rome. He painted in the library of the Vatican in a style resembling Raffaellino da Reggio and was among the painters who frescoed Santa Susanna.-References:...
and the funeral monument of Cardinal Rodolfo Pio da Carpi by Leonardo Sormani
Leonardo Sormani
Leonardo Sormani was an Italian sculptor of secondary reputation, originally from Savona, who is recorded as living in Rome from the 1550s until about 1590...
. In a chapel near the high altar is a canvas of the Crucifixion painted by Cesare Nebbia
Cesare Nebbia
Cesare Nebbia is an Italian painter from Orvieto who painted in a Mannerist style.-Biography:He trained with Girolamo Muziano, and under this master, he helped complete a flurry of decoration that was added to the Cathedral of Orvieto in the 1560s...
.
In the Cappella Pucci, on the left, are frescoes (1537) by Perino del Vaga finished by Federico
Federico Zuccari
Federico Zuccari, also known as Federigo Zuccaro , was an Italian Mannerist painter and architect, active both in Italy and abroad.-Biography:Zuccari was born at Sant'Angelo in Vado, near Urbino ....
and Taddeo Zuccari
Taddeo Zuccari
Taddeo Zuccari was an Italian painter, one of the most popular members of the Roman mannerist school.-Biography:...
in 1589. The second chapel on the left has a well-known canvas of the Deposition in grisaille
Grisaille
Grisaille is a term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many grisailles in fact include a slightly wider colour range, like the Andrea del Sarto fresco...
, by Daniele Volterra, which imitates in trompe l'oeil
Trompe l'oeil
Trompe-l'œil, which can also be spelled without the hyphen in English as trompe l'oeil, is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.-History in painting:Although the phrase has its origin in...
a work of sculpture; flanking it are frescoes by Paolo Céspedes and Cesare Arbasia
Cesare Arbasia
Cesare Arbasia was an Italian painter of the Mannerist period.Born and active in Saluzzo and active in Rome and Spain , including Malaga and Córdoba in a Mannerist style. He trained with Federico Zuccari. In Córdoba, he painted in the ceiling of the cathedral; while in Savigliano, the ceiling of...
. The first chapel on the left has frescoes by Nebbia. In the sacristy anteroom are more frescoes by Taddeo Zuccari: a Coronation of the Virgin, an Annunciation, and a Visitation.
The frescoes in the dome are by Perino del Vaga
In a niche along a corridor that opens onto the cloister, is the fresco (reputed to be miraculous) of the Mater Admirabilis
Mater Admirabilis
Mater Admirabilis is a fresco depicting the Virgin Mary, at the Trinità dei Monti, a church in Rome. It was painted by a young French girl, Pauline Perdrau, and has been associated with several miracles....
, depicting the Virgin Mary, painted by a young French girl in 1844.
Convent
The refectory has a frescoed ceiling by Andrea PozzoAndrea Pozzo
Andrea Pozzo was an Italian Jesuit Brother, Baroque painter and architect, decorator, stage designer, and art theoretician. He was best known for his grandiose frescoes using illusionistic technique called quadratura, in which architecture and fancy are intermixed...
. In the cloister there is an astronomical table by E. Maignan (1637). Along a corridor are the anamorphic frescoes (steeply sloping perspectives that have to be viewed from a particular point to make pictorial sense) portraying St John on Patmos and St Francis of Paola as a hermit. An upper room was painted with ruins by Charles-Louis Clérisseau
Charles-Louis Clérisseau
Charles-Louis Clérisseau was a French architectural draughtsman, antiquary and artist. He had a role in the genesis of neoclassical architecture during the second half of the 18th century....
.
Religious affiliations
The kings of France remained patrons of the church until the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and the church continued to be the church of the Minimite Friars until its partial destruction in 1798.
It has been a titular church since the Titulus Santissimae Trinitatis in Monte Pincio was established by Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V , born Felice Peretti di Montalto, was Pope from 1585 to 1590.-Early life:The chronicler Andrija Zmajević states that Felice's family originated from modern-day Montenegro...
in 1587 and has been held ever since by a French 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...
. The current (2010) Cardinal Priest is Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of the Gauls.
By the Diplomatic Conventions of 14 May and 8 September 1828 between the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
and the Government of France
Government of France
The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
the church and monastery were entrusted to the 'Religieuses du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus' (Society of the Sacred Heart), a French religious order, for the purpose of educating young girls.
In 2003 the French government were proposing to make funds available for necessary work on the church but was concerned that the Society might find it difficult to continue their work there in the future and in March 2003 the Society decided that it would withdraw from the Trinità no later than the summer of 2006. On July 12, 2005, the Vatican and the French Embassy to the Holy See announced that the Church, Convent and school would be entrusted, from 1 September 2006 to the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem
Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem
The Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem were founded in 1975 by Brother Pierre-Marie Delfieux with the aim of promoting the spirit of the monastic desert The Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem were founded in 1975 by Brother Pierre-Marie Delfieux (currently prior general) with the aim of promoting...
.
Books
- Hutton, Edward: Rome (1911. 7th revised & enlarged edn:1950)
- Lotz, Wolfgang: Architecture in Italy 1500-1600. (1974. Yale U.P.edition 1995)
- Macadam, Alta: Rome (Blue Guides. 6th edition. London. 1998)