Icons & ex-voto
Centro Storico - Roma
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
The church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Santa Maria della Minerva) is located next to the Pantheon, a small square, Piazza della Minerva. This church is an exception, it is the only Gothic style in Rome.
Church original date of the eighth century and was built on a temple of Minerva, from which it derives its name. The church is given in the thirteenth century the Dominicans, who decide to rebuild in the Gothic style. Work began in 1280 and lasted until the fifteenth century. The church is experiencing changes in the following centuries, as its Renaissance facade but the interior is Gothic.
Inside, the church has a nave and two aisles. The set is small. Beautiful antique columns punctuate the arches and grow to the painted vaults of blue and gold.
The church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva contains several masterpieces, the best known is a set of XVth century frescoes by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa chapel. The table of the altar that represents the Virgin Saint Thomas Aquinas presents Cardinal Carafa. The mural above is a magnificent Assumption of the Virgin. The right wall is dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas. On the left wall you will find the tomb of Pope Paul IV, who was a family member Carafa. Beside the chapel, a beautiful tomb of a bishop, topped with a mosaic depicting the Virgin and Child. Under the high altar of the choir, you will find the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. The choir also houses the tombs of popes Clement VII and Leo X
left the choir a beautiful statue of Michelangelo's Risen Christ. A veil of bronze was added later to hide his nakedness. He holds the cross and the instruments of passion.
The church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva contains several masterpieces, the best known is a set of XVth century frescoes by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa chapel. The table of the altar that represents the Virgin Saint Thomas Aquinas presents Cardinal Carafa. The mural above is a magnificent Assumption of the Virgin. The right wall is dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas. On the left wall you will find the tomb of Pope Paul IV, who was a family member Carafa. Beside the chapel, a beautiful tomb of a bishop, topped with a mosaic depicting the Virgin and Child. Under the high altar of the choir, you will find the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena. The choir also houses the tombs of popes Clement VII and Leo X
left the choir a beautiful statue of Michelangelo's Risen Christ. A veil of bronze was added later to hide his nakedness. He holds the cross and the instruments of passion.
Chiesa Nuova
The Chiesa Nuova Santa Maria in Vallicella Rome is a church built in the XVI e century, following the installation in the "Eternal City" of the Congregation of the Oratory, founded by Philip Neri. This building is located on a small natural depression in the plain of the Champ de Mars by the Romans regarded as one of the entries in the Underworld and place of worship of the infernal deities, named Tarentum . It preserved a miraculous image of the Virgin: a painting in the XIV e century, initially kept outside. It is said that in 1535 the image had bled after being injured by a stone, a popular cult ensued. In 1574 the fresco was entrusted to the rector of the church in Vallicella, preserved in the sacristy, before being placed on the altar of the Chiesa Nuova .
The nave is flanked by two aisles, each adorned themselves with five chapels. On the sides of the nave above the arches that allow the connection with the aisles and on the inner wall of the facade, are fifteen oval paintings in gilt frames, conducted between 1697 and 1700, representing the "History of the salvation of mankind" through various episodes from the Old and New Testament. The vault, the dome and apse, originally just bleached by a desire of St. Filippo Neri, were then decorated with frescoes by Pietro da Cortona between 1647 and 1666.
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Plaza Navona
Dominicienne
Pantheon
"I was back to the very structure of the building in primitive times and fabulous Rome, temples round the ancient Etruria. I wanted this Sanctuary all Gods reproducing the shape of the earth and the stellar sphere, globe which all contain the seeds of eternal fire, the hollow sphere that contains all . It was also the ancestral form of the huts where the smoke of the oldest human settlement escaped through a hole at the top. The dome, built of lava and hard light, which seemed to participate more upward movement of the flames communicated with the sky by a large hole alternately black and blue. This open and secret temple was conceived as a sundial. The hours turned round on these boxes carefully polished by Greek artisans; drive of the day would remain suspended as a golden shield, the rain would form a puddle on the pavement pure prayer escape like smoke toward that void where we place the gods. "Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian, 1951, Plon
Sant'Ignazio
The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola ( Sant'Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio in Italian) is dedicated to the founder of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola. Its construction in 1626 followed shortly by the saint's canonization 1622.
The church is famous for its huge mural in trompe-l'oeil of seventeen feet wide and thirty-six meters long, which covers the ceiling of the nave. It was created in 1685 by the Jesuit artist Andrea Pozzo. It began here in practice his theories on perspective in his work met Perspectiva pictorum and architectorum . The mural represents the apotheosis of Ignatius Loyola and the allegory of the missionary work of Jesuits. The saint is welcomed by Christ and the Virgin Mary. Among the figures who surround him appear allegories of four continents transfigured by their conversion due to the Jesuit Missions, Jesuits other sanctified, separated from Ignace according to their rank, and praying. How Pozzo mixed real space almost flat of the building and the virtual space of the sky painted deep, which gives the impression of a remarkable height, making it impossible to distinguish from each other . For maximum effect, it should be placed on the circle marked in the center of the nave. Any other point of the church, the perspective is distorted. Seen from the altar, it is so one wonders how it can look right past the entrance. It is characteristic of anamorphosis to offer an image that only appears that without distortion at a specific point of view and determined. On another point a few yards in front of the circle, we discover ideally one second mural, located above the transept, representing the inside of a dome. Legend has it that the neighbors of the church have denied that a dome come to obscure the brightness of the neighborhood. In the apse, Pozzo represented scenes from the life of St. Ignatius, including the Battle of Pamplona where he was wounded.
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| Piazza della Minerva - Elephant Sculpture Bernini incorporating an Egyptian obelisk. |
© Chavanitas & Mercier Elodie
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