Confessio (Santa Francesca Romana)

Last updated
Confessio of Santa Francesca Romana
Confessio of Santa Francesca Romana 04.jpg
Artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Year1638–49 (1638–49)
TypeSculpture
MediumMarble
Subject Frances of Rome
Location Santa Francesca Romana, Rome
Coordinates 41°53′28.21″N12°29′19.87″E / 41.8911694°N 12.4888528°E / 41.8911694; 12.4888528
Preceded by Memorial to Maria Raggi
Followed by Raimondi Chapel

The confessio of Santa Francesca Romana is the confessio, the enclosed area below the altar, of the Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana in Rome.

Contents

It was built between 1638 and 1649 to a design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, including a sculptural group of St Frances and the angel. Bernini's sculpture was taken during the French occupation in 1798 and is now lost.

The current marble sculpture was created in 1866 by Giosuè Meli.

Description

The confessio is flanked by two tiers of steps. The curvilinear marble balustrade is decorated with marble drums. In the center of the balustrade is a two-door bronze gate decorated with leaf volutes and polychrome enamel roundels. [1] [2]

Inside the confessio is the sculptural group depicting St Frances and the angel, behind four columns of Sicilian red jasper. [3]

St Frances and the angel

Confessio of Santa Francesca Romana 05.jpg

Bernini's sculptural group of St Frances and the angel was taken during the French occupation in 1798 and is now lost. [4]

The current marble sculpture was created in 1866 by the Bergamo sculptor Giosuè Meli in the Neoclassical style. [5] Meli sculpted extensive detail on the angel's robes.

History

The confessio was built between 1638 and 1649 to a design by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. [6]

During the French occupation in 1798, Bernini's sculptural group of St Frances and the angel was taken and is now lost. [7]

In 1866, the confessio was restored by the Oblate Maria Gertrude Pallavicini. Giosuè Meli created a marble sculpture to replace the lost Bernini one. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gian Lorenzo Bernini</span> Italian sculptor and architect (1598–1680)

Gian LorenzoBernini was an Italian sculptor and architect. While a major figure in the world of architecture, he was more prominently the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. As one scholar has commented, "What Shakespeare is to drama, Bernini may be to sculpture: the first pan-European sculptor whose name is instantaneously identifiable with a particular manner and vision, and whose influence was inordinately powerful ..." In addition, he was a painter and a man of the theatre: he wrote, directed and acted in plays, for which he designed stage sets and theatrical machinery. He produced designs as well for a wide variety of decorative art objects including lamps, tables, mirrors, and even coaches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Clement IX</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1667 to 1669

Pope Clement IX, born Giulio Rospigliosi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 20 June 1667 to his death in December 1669.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome</span> Roman Catholic basilica, a landmark of Rome, Italy

Santa Maria della Vittoria is a Catholic titular church and basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Rome, Italy. The church is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. The church is in the Rione Sallustiano, on number 98 via XX Settembre, where this street intersects with Largo Santa Susanna. It stands to the side of the Fontana dell'Acqua Felice. The church mirrors the Church of Santa Susanna across the Largo. It is about two blocks northwest of the Piazza della Repubblica and Teatro dell'Opera metro stop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sant'Andrea della Valle</span> Roman Catholic basilica, a landmark of Rome, Italy

Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Rinascimento.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chigi Chapel</span> Chapel designed by Raphael in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

The Chigi Chapel or Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto is the second chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It is the only religious building of Raphael which has been preserved in its near original form. The chapel is a treasure trove of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and is ranked among the most important monuments in the basilica.

<i>Ecstasy of Saint Teresa</i> Sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is a sculptural group in white marble set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. It was designed and completed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the leading sculptor of his day, who also designed the setting of the Chapel in marble, stucco and paint. It is generally considered to be one of the sculptural masterpieces of the High Roman Baroque. The sculpture depicts Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish Carmelite nun and saint, swooning in a state of religious ecstasy, while an angel holding a spear stands over her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Battista Gaulli</span> Italian painter (1639–1709)

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, also known as Baciccio or Baciccia, was an Italian artist working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods. He is best known for his grand illusionistic vault frescos in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, Italy. His work was influenced by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi</span> Fountain designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi is a fountain in the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. It was designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini for Pope Innocent X whose family palace, the Palazzo Pamphili, faced onto the piazza as did the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone of which Innocent was the sponsor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Fontana</span> Italian architect (1634/1638–1714)

Carlo Fontana (1634/1638–1714) was an Italian architect originating from today's Canton Ticino, who was in part responsible for the classicizing direction taken by Late Baroque Roman architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certosa di Pavia</span> Monastery and complex in Lombardy, Italy

The Certosa di Pavia is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, Northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Pavia. Built in 1396–1495, it was once located on the border of a large hunting park belonging to the Visconti family of Milan, of which today only scattered parts remain. It is one of the largest monasteries in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Francesca Romana</span> Roman Catholic basilica, a landmark of Rome, Italy

Santa Francesca Romana, previously known as Santa Maria Nova, is a Roman Catholic church situated next to the Roman Forum in the rione Campitelli in Rome, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guglielmo della Porta</span> Italian architect and sculptor

Guglielmo della Porta was an Italian architect and sculptor of the late Renaissance or Mannerist period.

<i>St. Peters Baldachin</i> Monument by Gianlorenzo Bernini

St. Peter's Baldachin is a large Baroque sculpted bronze canopy, technically called a ciborium or baldachin, over the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the city-state and papal enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy. The baldachin is at the center of the crossing, and directly under the dome of the basilica. Designed by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, it was intended to mark, in a monumental way, the place of Saint Peter's tomb underneath. Under its canopy is the high altar of the basilica. Commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, the work began in 1623 and ended in 1634. The baldachin acts as a visual focus within the basilica; it is itself a very large structure and forms a visual mediation between the enormous scale of the building and the human scale of the people officiating at the religious ceremonies at the papal altar beneath its canopy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ippolito Buzzi</span> Italian artist

Ippolito Buzzi (1562–1634) was an Italian sculptor from Viggiù, near Varese, in northernmost Lombardy, a member of a long-established dynasty of painters, sculptors and architects from the town, who passed his mature career in Rome. His personality as a sculptor is somewhat overshadowed by the two kinds of work he is known for: restorations to ancient Roman sculptures, some of them highly improvisatory by modern standards, and sculpture contributed to architectural projects and funeral monuments, where he was one among a team of craftsmen working under the general direction of an architect, like Giacomo della Porta - in projects for Pope Clement VIII, or Flaminio Ponzio - in projects for Pope Paul V - who would provide the designs from which the work was executed, always in consultation with the patron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1644–1725)</span> Italian sculptor (1644-1725)

Giuseppe Mazzuoli was an Italian sculptor working in Rome in the Bernini-derived Baroque style. He produced many highly accomplished sculptures of up to monumental scale but was never a leading figure in the Roman art world.

Angelo Gabriello Piò was an Italian sculptor, active in Bologna in a Rococo style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Maria Mazza</span>

Giuseppe Maria Mazza was one of the leading sculptors of Bologna, Italy, in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was trained as a painter, but is best known for his fine sculptural work in terracotta and stucco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montemirabile Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)</span>

The Montemirabile or Saint John the Baptist Chapel, otherwise the Baptistery is the first side chapel in the left aisle in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo.

The Sanctuary of Santa Maria di Galloro is a church located on the via Appia Nuova, near Ariccia on the road to Genzano di Roma, in the region of Lazio, in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santo Angelo Custode, Alcamo</span> Church building in Alcamo, Italy

Santo Angelo Custode is a Catholic church located in Alcamo in the province of Trapani, Sicily, southern Italy.

References

Notes
  1. "altare di Bernini"
  2. "balaustrata di Bernini"
  3. "altare di Bernini"
  4. "S. Francesca Romana e l' Angelo"
  5. "S. Francesca Romana e l' Angelo"
  6. "altare di Bernini"
  7. "S. Francesca Romana e l' Angelo"
  8. "altare di Bernini"
Bibliography