DOCSLIB.ORG

Maderno's Façade for St Peter's, Rome [71–74]

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Maderno's Façade for St Peter's, Rome [71–74] 10 V3 A.X Renaissance Architecture vol1 240-265_Layout 1 20/02/2013 11:30 Page 240 NEW ST PETER’S Maderno’s façade for St Peter’s, Rome [71–74] aspects of the Michelangelo façade, notably its detailing and its overall scansion of ten shafts with the four central ones being the most prominent, but also depended on Maderno’s own ground-breaking design for S. Susanna (1597) for the superimposed planes that give the centre a dramatic emphasis. When Pope Paul V ascended the throne in May 1605, St Peter’s was still unfinished after nearly a Given papal approval in September 1607, construction began, but was compromised c.1610–11 when century of construction. Until then, the building had remained largely faithful to the scheme devised the pope demanded the addition of two campanili (bell-towers), one at each end of the façade. Maderno by Michelangelo (from 1547), which was for a church with a centralised plan and a monumental had incorporated these into his design by September 1612, but they were never finished. When Paul V dome. This was intended to be given, at around the time of Michelangelo’s death (1564), a façade died in 1621, the belfries had still not been added and, although the southern one was subsequently made up of two rows of giant columns (see 4), but the design was still controversial, since it did not built to a revised design by Bernini, it had to be demolished soon afterwards because of structural provide for a benediction loggia, a time-honoured location for the pope’s traditional Easter blessing instability. Ultimately, both campanili were left in an unavoidably truncated state. Even below the Urbi et Orbi, and so would require a change to ceremonial. This was particularly problematic in an age belfries, Maderno’s scheme was slightly altered in that his attic windows are different from those when traditional practices were being reasserted in the face of Protestant opposition. Although that were finally realised [Fig. 33]. Michelangelo’s scheme had its defenders in the shape of the Congregation of St Peter’s, who were Four drawings from the Paper Museum, mounted on three consecutive folios of the Stirling-Maxwell still determined – even as late as October 1606 – to persist with it, stressing its aesthetic qualities and Architecture album, belong to this penultimate phase in the evolution of St Peter’s façade. One shows Michelangelo’s stature as an artist, Paul V overruled their decision late in 1606 and, intent on making the façade proper, one the dome with its drum, and the other two the added campanili. From the way his own mark on the design, insisted on a scheme that included a façade with a benediction loggia the four drawings match up with one another so closely it is clear they once formed one single large and also a nave behind it. drawing. When all four are put together in their original positions [Fig. 34], they conform exactly to an Carlo Maderno (1556–1629), then incumbent architect to the Fabbrica of St Peter’s, prepared a first engraving of 1613 by Matthaeus Greuter (1564/6–1638) [Fig. 35], both the reassembled drawing and the scheme by April 1607. His design (see p. $$) managed to retain much of the integrity of Michelangelo’s engraving measuring 675 mm in overall width. The original drawing was probably produced in centralised scheme by means of an internal visual barrier but, externally, transformed the church into a Maderno’s workshop and used for the production of the engraving, perhaps cut up to assist the Latin cross that entirely covered the consecrated ground of the previous Constantinian basilica, with engraver in the production of the print, while the surface damage to the four surviving fragments may a new nave that had a portico in front supporting a benediction loggia above. The latter preserved well have resulted from the rubbing they received from the engraver’s hands and tools. In June 1613 Maderno sent Greuter’s print (together with his other engravings of the St Peter’s scheme) to the head of the Congregation, Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, later Pope Urban VIII, who responded with a stinging critique of the design and complained in particular that the elevation did not show how the dome would be hidden by the addition of the nave. Maderno replied carefully (Thelen 1967a, p. 27, n.61; Hibbard 1971, p. 69f., n.4), explaining that the elevation was drawn using the conventions of orthogonal projection, although his defensive stance was a courtesy rather than a necessity since he already knew that his scheme had the pope’s full backing. The Paper Museum had two copies of the Greuter print, one in the album entitled Templa Diversa Romae (fol. 15) [Fig. 35], compiled by Cassiano in the 1630s, and another in the misnamed Popish Ceremonies II (fol. 95), a later compilation by Carlo Antonio (see p. $$). The Templa Diversa Romae album, in addition, contains many other prints showing projected designs for St Peter’s from around this same period (for description, see p. $$). bibliography: Hibbard 1971, pp. 65–75 and 155–88 Fig. 33. Façade of St Peter’s, Rome 240 241 10 V3 A.X Renaissance Architecture vol1 240-265_Layout 1 20/02/2013 11:30 Page 242 ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS IN TYPE B AND OTHER MOUNTS NEW ST PETER’S Fig. 34. Reconstruction (photomontage) of original form of 71–74 Fig. 35. Project by Carlo Maderno for the façade of St Peter’s, Rome. Engraving, 1613. London, BL, 54.i.7, fol. 15 (Paper Museum impression) 242 243 10 V3 A.X Renaissance Architecture vol1 240-265_Layout 1 20/02/2013 11:30 Page 244 ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS IN TYPE B AND OTHER MOUNTS ST PETER’S AND OTHER CHURCHES 71. Rome, St Peter’s, Maderno’s façade (1613), upper centre and dome WORKSHOP OF CARLO MADERNO (1556–1629) Private collection; previously sma, fol. 58 Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk and stylus lines on buff paper 410 × 385 mm (max.). Two sheets of paper cut from a larger composite sheet and partly silhouetted; losses along edges; rubbed and stained. Watermark: circle containing ?anchor mount sheet: type B. Watermark: fragmentary rim of circle surmounted by letter ‘V’ [cut; see 74] [*] Once part of a single image of the whole probably have been left to the engraver, as façade elevation [see Fig. 34], this drawing shows suggested by the varying position of the wording the principal drum, dome and lantern, and also on different versions of the print. the two minor domes to the front, all built under Especially obvious in this drawing and in the Michelangelo and his successors during the print is the inaccurate representation of the main second half of the sixteenth century. drum and dome. Both appear significantly flatter Although the drawing corresponds closely to than they should be, which is a characteristic the relevant sector of Greuter’s engraving [see of drawings from Maderno’s workshop (e.g. a Fig. 34], it does not include the latter’s explana- façade project for S. Vincenzo, Bassano Romano, tory captions, or if it did then they were located Archivio Giustiniani; Hibbard 1971, pl. 103b). in a different position from those in the engrav- ing and outside the edges of the present sheet. literature: Phillips cat. 1990, p. 142f., lot 339 For example, the O of the word ROMA next to the object drawn: see above, p. $$ lantern’s globe on the engraving is absent in engraved: see 71 the drawing. The layout of the captions would 71 244 245 10 V3 A.X Renaissance Architecture vol1 240-265_Layout 1 20/02/2013 11:30 Page 246 ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS IN TYPE B AND OTHER MOUNTS ST PETER’S AND OTHER CHURCHES 72. Rome, St Peter’s, Maderno’s façade (1613), lower centre and portico WORKSHOP OF CARLO MADERNO (1556–1629) Private collection; previously sma, fol. 56 Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk and stylus lines on buff paper 248 × 405 mm. Losses along edges; old vertical at centre and several other old folds; old patches on verso; rubbed and stained. Watermark: anchor in circle with indistinct pendant element (?letter) annotations: [bottom left] part of scale key in Roman palmi mount sheet: type B [*] Originally part of a larger drawing, cut up the platform on which the whole building stands, for engraving by Matthaeus Greuter in 1613 [see presumably to introduce some relief to the image Fig. 34], to which it corresponds in all its details, – and by extension monumentality – which it even to the extent that some of the façade open- would otherwise have lacked. ings are shaded while others are not. The only The strip showing the statuary adorning the difference is the scale key, which in the drawing façade balustrade is missing, possibly because is in units of 25 palmi and located on the platform this part of the drawing was damaged, or it was just above the façade steps, whereas in the print removed, so that the statuary could be included it is in units of 10 palmi and set below the steps. in another part of the Paper Museum, but was Although primarily drawn in orthogonal pro- then lost. jection, as Carlo Maderno explained in his letter to Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, the openings of the literature: Phillips cat. 1990, p. 142f., lot 339 portals and windows are given an individual object drawn: see above, p. $$ perspective, showing the inner faces of their engraved: M. Greuter, Ritratto della famosiss. jambs and the undersides of the lintels.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Michelangelo's Locations
    1 3 4 He also adds the central balcony and the pope’s Michelangelo modifies the facades of Palazzo dei The project was completed by Tiberio Calcagni Cupola and Basilica di San Pietro Cappella Sistina Cappella Paolina crest, surmounted by the keys and tiara, on the Conservatori by adding a portico, and Palazzo and Giacomo Della Porta. The brothers Piazza San Pietro Musei Vaticani, Città del Vaticano Musei Vaticani, Città del Vaticano facade. Michelangelo also plans a bridge across Senatorio with a staircase leading straight to the Guido Ascanio and Alessandro Sforza, who the Tiber that connects the Palace with villa Chigi first floor. He then builds Palazzo Nuovo giving commissioned the work, are buried in the two The long lasting works to build Saint Peter’s Basilica The chapel, dedicated to the Assumption, was Few steps from the Sistine Chapel, in the heart of (Farnesina). The work was never completed due a slightly trapezoidal shape to the square and big side niches of the chapel. Its elliptical-shaped as we know it today, started at the beginning of built on the upper floor of a fortified area of the Apostolic Palaces, is the Chapel of Saints Peter to the high costs, only a first part remains, known plans the marble basement in the middle of it, space with its sail vaults and its domes supported the XVI century, at the behest of Julius II, whose Vatican Apostolic Palace, under pope Sixtus and Paul also known as Pauline Chapel, which is as Arco dei Farnesi, along the beautiful Via Giulia.
    [Show full text]
  • 725 Clare Robertson This Exceptional Book Focuses on and Around The
    Book Reviews 725 Clare Robertson Rome 1600: The City and the Visual Arts Under Clement viii. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. Pp. 460. Hb, $75. This exceptional book focuses on and around the Holy Year of 1600, declared by Pope Clement viii Aldobrandini (r.1592–1605), and explores the distinctive artistic patronage of a period when donors and artists in Rome must have felt “in the right place at the right time.” Robertson constructs a fascinating web of overlapping points of views: the visual—a systematic analysis of works of art commissioned by Pope Clement viii, his cardinal nephew Pietro, the prin- cipal religious orders, confraternities, cardinals, and nobles; the historical—a profound literary and archival investigation of the papacy, the Aldobrandini family, the lives of the artists, and the history of the city of Rome seen through different social lenses; and the topographical—an analysis of the urban trans- formations of the abitato and disabitato through maps and documents. This is a beautifully illustrated book divided into five chapters (“Clement viii and Al- dobrandini Patronage;” “The Cardinal Nephew, Pietro Aldobrandini;” “Palaces, Villas and Gardens;” “Churches and Chapels;” and “Lives of the Artists”) that draws upon exhaustive historical and archival research, ideally synthesized by one of the most distinguished scholars in the field. With her book on the Farnese family (“Il gran cardinale”: Alessandro Farnese, Patron of the Arts [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992]), Robertson had mastered the patterns of patronage within the family of Pope Paul iii and, in particular, of the cardinal nephew Alessandro, with emphasis on Rome and the villa in Caprarola.
    [Show full text]
  • Borromini and the Cultural Context of Kepler's Harmonices Mundi
    Borromini and the Dr Valerie Shrimplin cultural context of [email protected] Kepler’sHarmonices om Mundi • • • • Francesco Borromini, S Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Rome (dome) Harmonices Mundi, Bk II, p. 64 Facsimile, Carnegie-Mellon University Francesco Borromini, S Ivo alla Sapienza Rome (dome) Harmonices Mundi, Bk IV, p. 137 • Vitruvius • Scriptures – cosmology and The Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms) cosmological • Early Christian - dome of heaven view of the • Byzantine - domed architecture universe and • Renaissance revival – religious art/architecture symbolism of centrally planned churches • Baroque (17th century) non-circular domes as related to Kepler’s views* *INSAP II, Malta 1999 Cosmas Indicopleustes, Universe 6th cent Last Judgment 6th century (VatGr699) Celestial domes Monastery at Daphne (Δάφνη) 11th century S Sophia, Constantinople (built 532-37) ‘hanging architecture’ Galla Placidia, 425 St Mark’s Venice, late 11th century Evidence of Michelangelo interests in Art and Cosmology (Last Judgment); Music/proportion and Mathematics Giacomo Vignola (1507-73) St Andrea in Via Flaminia 1550-1553 Church of San Giacomo in Augusta, in Rome, Italy, completed by Carlo Maderno 1600 [painting is 19th century] Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, 1620’s (Borromini with Maderno) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks (318r Codex Atlanticus c 1510) Amboise Bachot, 1598 Following p. 52 Astronomia Nova Link between architecture and cosmology (as above) Ovals used as standard ellipse approximation Significant change/increase Revival of neoplatonic terms, geometrical bases in early 17th (ellipse, oval, equilateral triangle) century Fundamental in Harmonices Mundi where orbit of every planet is ellipse with sun at one of foci Borromini combined practical skills with scientific learning and culture • Formative years in Milan (stonemason) • ‘Artistic anarchist’ – innovation and disorder.
    [Show full text]
  • 005-Santa Susanna
    (005/11) Santa Susanna Santa Susanna is an 15th century monastic and titular church. It is on the Piazza San Bernardo, on the Via XX Settembre just north-west of the Piazza della Repubblica and its metro station in the rione Trevi. The dedication is to St Susanna, and the full official title is Santa Susanna alle Terme di Diocleziano. (1) History A church at Santa Susanna commemorates the place where, according to St. Jerome, a young Christian woman was martyred for refusing to worship Rome's pagan gods. Around the year 290 Susanna was residing with her father, Christian presbyter Gabinus, right next door to her saintly uncle Pope Caius (283-296), and in the shadows of the Emperor Diocletian's (284-305) immense baths. After refusing to break a vow of virginity to marry her insistent suitor Maximianus Galerius (none other than the Emperor's adopted son and heir), Susanna also balked at offering a pagan sacrifice, and was beheaded in her own home. The church of Santa Susanna is one of the oldest titles of Rome. The first Christian place of worship was built here in the 4th century. It was probably the titulus of Pope Caius (283-296). The early Christian church was built on the remains of three Roman villas, and was located immediately outside the fence of the Baths of Diocletian and close to the Servian walls. (8) First church By tradition, the church was built in 330, and named San Caio after the owner of the first chapel. In 590, the church was rededicated to St Susan because of her growing popularity.
    [Show full text]
  • Italian Humanism Was Developed During the Fourteenth and the Beginning of the Fifteenth Centuries As a Response to the Medieval Scholastic Education
    Italian Humanism Was developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries as a response to the Medieval scholastic education • Growing concern with the natural world, the individual, and humanity’s worldly existence. • Revived interest in classical cultures and attempt to restore the glorious past of Greece and Rome. Recovering of Greek and Roman texts that were previously lost or ignored. • Interest in the liberal arts - grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral philosophy. • Promotes human values as distinct from religious values, mainly Roman civic virtues: self-sacrificing service to the state, participation in government, defense of state institutions. Renaissance architecture: Style of architecture, reflecting the rebirth of Classical culture, that originated in Florence in the early 15th century. There was a revival of ancient Roman forms, including the column and round arch, the tunnel vault, and the dome. The basic design element was the order. Knowledge of Classical architecture came from the ruins of ancient buildings and the writings of Vitruvius. As in the Classical period, proportion was the most important factor of beauty. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446), Florentine architect and engineer. Trained as a sculptor and goldsmith, he turned his attention to architecture after failing to win a competition for the bronze doors of the Baptistery of Florence. Besides accomplishments in architecture, Brunelleschi is also credited with inventing one-point linear perspective which revolutionized painting. Sculpture of Brunelleschi looking at the dome in Florence Filippo Brunelleschi, Foundling Hospital, (children's orphanage that was built and managed by the Silk and Goldsmiths Guild), Florence, Italy, designed 1419, built 1421-44 Loggia Arcade A roofed arcade or gallery with open sides A series of arches supported by stretching along the front or side of a building.
    [Show full text]
  • S. Andrea Della Valle (1623) Arquitecto: Carlo Maderno Maderno No Construyó La Fachada Pero Hizo El Proyecto Con El Que Se Inic
    LA LÍNEA TRASCENDENTE S. Andrea della Valle (1623) Arquitecto: Carlo Maderno Maderno no construyó la fachada pero hizo el proyecto con el que se iniciaron las obras, que posteriormente acabó Carlo Rainaldi. El proyecto final de Maderno, grabado por Regniart en 1624 (fig. 38)41, es habitualmente considerado como una síntesis de las dos soluciones del Gesù42, ya que en el nivel bajo hay un adelantamiento progresivo de los cuerpos centrales, con entablamentos ininterrumpidos, y en el alto un único plano del que se adelantan grupos de columnas pareadas, con un tramo independiente del entablamento. Sin embargo, parece más fácil considerar toda la fachada como una superficie plana, con un edículo adelantado, en el centro del nivel inferior. La fachada está formada por dos niveles de columnas pareadas colocadas en el mismo plano, que en el inferior soportan tectónicamente un entablamento continuo, y en el superior se independizan por la fractura del entablamento que se retrasa. El esquema reproduce ampliada la fachada de Volterra de S. Giacomo degli Incurabili (fig. 135). Como en el proyecto de Vignola, es más fácil ver la unidad vertical que la horizontal. Ni siquiera el edículo, integrado en la estructura global de columnas pareadas interrumpe el reparto uniforme de columnas. En vez de superponerse, las columnas del edículo se integran en el esquema global, como en el Gesù de Della Porta o la propia S. Susanna. Si observamos un dibujo de Maderno de 1623, previo a este grabado (fig. 39)43, la fachada puede entenderse como una estructura plana de columnas sobre un plano retrasado, que en el dibujo aparece oscurecido.
    [Show full text]
  • Unity and Inevitability: Classic/Baroque and the Universal Note: This Is a Copy of the Paper Delivered at the Baroque Summer
    Tim Gough Unity and inevitability: Classic/Baroque and the universal page 1 Unity and inevitability: Classic/Baroque and the universal Note: this is a copy of the paper delivered at the Baroque Summer Course June 2015 on the topic of Classic/Baroque at the Werner Oechslin Library, Einsiedeln, Switzerland. An illustrated version is available from the author [email protected] In the conclusion to his Classic Art of 1899 – a book which deals mainly with painting - Wölfflin outlines four formal characteristics of the classic: repose, spaciousness, mass and size simplification and lucidity complexity unity and inevitability The last of these is decisive. Wölfflin had begun his book with the polemical statement that “The word ‘classic’ has, for us, a rather chilly sound.”1 This coldness, I would argue, derives from its respect of the notion of unity or identity. Wölfflin's comparison of Ghirlandaio's with Leonardo's Last Supper illustrates this well. Leonardo’s work is presented as “the most popular picture in the whole of Italian art”, having a simplicity and expressiveness that “impresses itself upon everyone”.2 Its importance for Wölfflin is indicated by its position as the first example given of the classic. He makes comparison with Ghirlandaio’s fresco in the church of Ognissanti in Florence, dating from fifteen years earlier. The similarities – the frontal view, the room shown in perspective, the table – only serve to emphasise the radical differences between the styles of the two frescos. These include the centrality of Christ, the relocation of Judas to the far side of the table, and the isolation of Christ (St John no longer sleeps on his breast).
    [Show full text]
  • Shifting Definitions of Movement and Place in Early Modern Rome
    THE PALACE-CITY INTERFACE: SHIFTING DEFINITIONS OF MOVEMENT AND PLACE IN EARLY MODERN ROME by MATTHEW G. MCKINNON A THESIS Presented to the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Robert D. Clark Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts June 2019 An Abstract of the Thesis of Matthew G. McKinnon for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of History of Art and Architecture to be taken June 2019 The Palace-City Interface: Shifting Definitions of Movement and Place in Early Modern Rome Approved: _______________________________________ James G. Harper This essay considers four seventeenth-century Roman palaces in the contexts of topographical setting and city circulation, with particular attention to the façade as a definer of place. It draws on seventeenth-century guidebooks, etchings, and maps, analyzing them within the frameworks of papal urbanism and dynastic self- representation. The results of the analysis show that, during each pontificate from 1605-67, the pope encouraged his relatives to develop or redevelop the family palace in a way that would inscribe their image onto the city. Once constructed, each palace became the center of an urban node, symbolically connected with other monumental landmarks by the viewer’s movement through the city. The space around the palace façade was also subject to design, and each pope utilized different strategies to enhance the location and context of his family’s palace. Comparing the cases, the essay argues that Innocent X and Alexander VII integrated public-welfare urbanism more fully into the family palace project.
    [Show full text]
  • Sundials on the Quirinal: Astronomy and the Early Modern Garden
    Sundials on the Quirinal: Astronomy and the Early Modern Garden Denis Ribouillault Abstract This paper deals with the function and meaning of sundials in Early Modern Rome, more specifically in gardens. It concentrates on two gardens, both on the Quirinal hill and directly facing each other: the papal gardens of Monte Cavallo and the Jesuit garden of the Noviciate of Sant’Andrea del Quirinale. Set on each side of the magnificent Via Pia, these gardens represented two intersecting yet contrasting worlds, a rude juxtaposition of one cosmos clashing against another: that of a Jesuit community and that of the Papal court. Each had developed a specific language to articulate their main concerns and proclaim their truths to garden visitors. By drawing a contrasting picture of the S. Andrea garden and the Papal gardens, in which sundials were given very different meanings, the intent of this paper is to probe the awkward, contradiction-ridden, spinoso relationship between religion, science and curiosity in Early Modern Rome. In 1685, the Dutch civil engineer Cornelis Meyer devised a method to re-erect the obelisk of Augustus, which had formed part of a famous ancient sundial known as the Horologium Augusti. Published in a book on hydraulic engineering, Meyer’s method was supplemented by an entire section in which he explained how one could transform Rome’s piazze, with their obelisks and columns, into colossal sundials. He suggested that the obelisk be erected on Piazza Monte Cavallo on the Quirinal hill and that the monument be given back its ancient gnomonic function (Fig. 1). Meyer’s elaborate gnomon would determine the hours of the night through the use of the same type of pierced gnomon that would be used a century later, in 1792, when the obelisk was finally erected on Piazza D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Courtyard of Honour the Courtyard
    The Courtyard of Honour The Courtyard of Honour of the Quirinale Palace appears to be a large arcaded piazza, unified and harmonious in shape, but it is in fact the result of four separate phases of construction which were carried out between the end of the 1500s and next century. The oldest and most easily distinguishable section forms the backdrop to the courtyard with the tower rising above it. This part of the palace was originally an isolated villa, whose construction was begun in 1583 by Pope Gregory XIII who wished to pass the hot Roman summers on the Quirinal Hill, a fresher and airier location than the Vatican. The architect who designed this first building was Ottaviano Mascarino, from Bologna. The next pope, Sixtus V, decided to enlarge the structure with a long wing running down the piazza and a second building directly in front of the older villa; Domenico Fontana was in charge of these projects. The palace and the Courtyard were completed under Pope Paul V by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, who designed the wing on the side of the gardens, and Carlo Maderno, who rebuilt the Sixtus V structure in order that it could accommodate larger and more solemn ceremonial spaces. The clock-tower was originally a simple viewing tower crowning the 16th Century villa. At the beginning of the 17th Century it was fitted with a clock and bell, and towards the end of that century a mosaic of the Madonna and Child was carried out, based on a design by Carlo Maratta. Above the tower fly the Italian and European flags as well as the presidential standard, which is lowered when the Head of State is not in Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Santa Maria Maggiore St Mary Major
    Santa Maria Maggiore St Mary Major Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore Santa Maria Maggiore is a 5th century papal basilica, located in the rione Monti. and is notable for its extensive Early Christian mosaics. The basilica is built on the summit of the Esquiline hill, which was once a commanding position. (1) (i)! History Ancient times The church is on the ancient Cispius, the main summit of the Esquiline Hill, which in ancient times was not a heavily built-up area. Near the site had been a Roman temple dedicated to a goddess of childbirth, Juno Lucina, much frequented by women in late pregnancy. Archaeological investigations under the basilica between 1966 and 1971 revealed a 1st century building, it seems to have belonged to a villa complex of the Neratii family. (1) (k) Liberian Basilica - Foundation legend - Civil war According to the Liber Pontificalis, this first church (the so-called Basilica Liberiana or "Liberian Basilica") was founded in the August 5, 358 by Pope Liberius. According to the legend that dates from 1288 A.D., the work was financed by a Roman patrician John, and his wife. They were childless, and so had decided to leave their fortune to the Blessed Virgin. She appeared to them in a dream, and to Pope Liberius, and told them to build a church in her honor on a site outlined by a miraculous snowfall, which occurred in August (traditionally in 358). Such a patch of snow was found on the summit of the Esquiline the following morning. The pope traced the outline of the church with his stick in the snow, and so the church was built.
    [Show full text]
  • Joseph Connors, “Francesco Borromini. La Vita (1599–1667),” in Borromini E L’Universo Barocco, Ed
    Joseph Connors, “Francesco Borromini. La vita (1599–1667),” in Borromini e l’universo barocco, ed. RICHARD BÖSEL, CHRISTOPH L. FROMMEL, exh. cat. (Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1999–2000), Milan, Electa, vol. I, 1999, pp. 7–21 Borromini’s life began and ended at the water’s edge.1 He was born in Switzerland in 1599 a hamlet lapped by the wavelets of the lake of Lugano, and he died, by suicide, in a house overlooking the Tiber. The town of Bissone had been under Swiss dominion for eighty years when Borromini was born there on 27 September 1599.2 The territory around the lake of Lugano had been part of the duchy of Milan under the Visconti and their Sforza successors, but in the chaos following the invasion by the French in 1499 and their subsequent withdrawal the Swiss pushed steadily southward, stopping only when defeated by the French at Marignano in 1515. Thus came to be formed the jagged and illogical boundary that still separates modern Italy and Switzerland.3 1. The seventeenth-century lives of Borromini are: Giovanni Battista Passeri (d. 1679; first edition 1772) Jacob Hess, ed., Die Künstlerbiographien von Giovanni Battista Passeri (Römische Forschungen der Bibliotheca Hertziana, XI), Leipzig and Vienna, 1934 (reprint Worms am Rhein, 1995), pp. 359-66 Bernardo Castelli Borromini, Nottitia, 10 June 1685, in Florence, Bibl. Naz. Centrale, Cod. Magliab. II II 110, fols. 36r and fols. 170r-171v (Bibliography: Hempel 1924, p. 6, n. 1; Passeri- Hess, 1934, p. 361, n. 2; S. Samek Ludovici in Archivi, 1950, p. 77; Thelen, Francesco Borromini: Die Handzeichnungen, p.
    [Show full text]