San Paolo Maggiore, also known as San Paolo Decollato, is a Baroque-style, Roman Catholic basilica church located on Via Carbonari #18 in Bologna, region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
The church was commissioned between 1606 and 1611 by the Barnabites from the architect Ambrogio Magenta or Mazenta. Patronage for this church was mainly derived from the Prince Virgilio Spada, brother of Cardinal Bernardino Spada. The Barnabites, also known as the Clerics Regular of St Paul, named this church as Maggiore to distinguish it from two other San Paolo's in Bologna. Between 1634 and 1636 the facade was built to designs by Ercole Fichi. The facade, in brick and stone, has statues of St Peter and Paul, respectively by Domenico Maria Mirandola and G. Cruventi. [1]
During the Napoleonic invasion, the Barnabites were suppressed, and the church was made a parish church in 1819. Closed again later, it was reconsecrated in 1878. In 1959 it was restored to the Barnabites, and two years later raised to the designation of Minor Basilica by Pope John XXIII. [2]
Inside the building, the vaults were frescoed with scenes of the St Paul in the Areopagus of Athens by Antonio and Giuseppe Rolli. Antonio died after a fall from a scaffold, and the work was completed by his brother. The cupola, apse, sacristy and two chapels in the transept were frescored with quadratura by Pietro Farina, and figures by Giuseppe Antonio Caccioli [3]
The main altar (1643-1650) features a dramatic marble sculptural group Beheading of St Paul (sculpted in Rome in 1634, but not in place till 1644) by Alessandro Algardi. Algardi also completed the bronze plaques on the altar. His works were commissioned by the Prince Spada. [4] The architectural setting of the altar, described by some as a Baldacchino, has Corinthian columns and a protruding portico is based on a design attributed to the architect Borromini. [5] [6]
The church altars have masterpieces by Guercino and Giuseppe Maria Crespi. In the second chapel is a canvas depicting Paradise by Lodovico Carracci. [7] Nicolo Tornioli painted a Cain Killing Abel and Jacob wrestling with angel for the church.
In the third chapel has a Nativity and Adoration of the Magi by Giacomo Cavedoni, with a Flight to Egypt, Circumcision, and Jesus among the Doctors in the ceiling. The fourth chapel has a St Gregory shows God the Father to the Souls in Purgatory by Guercino. The wooden choir stalls are highly decorated with engravings. The eighth chapel has a Communion of St Jerome by Lucio Massari. The ninth chapel has a Baptism of Jesus, Birth, and Death of St John the Baptist by Giacomo Cavedoni. [8]
Alessandro Algardi was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome. In the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the major rivals of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in Rome. He is now most admired for his portrait busts that have great vivacity and dignity.
Giacomo Cavedone was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School.
Sant'Andrea della Valle is a titular church and minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the seat of the general curia of the Theatines and is located on the Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Rinascimento. It is one of the great 17th century preaching churches built by Counter-Reformation orders in the Centro Storico.
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian Baroque painter.
The Basilica of San Petronio is a minor basilica and church of the Archdiocese of Bologna located in Bologna, Emilia Romagna, northern Italy. It dominates Piazza Maggiore. The basilica is dedicated to the patron saint of the city, Saint Petronius, who was the Bishop of Bologna in the fifth century. Construction began in 1390 and its main facade has remained unfinished since. The building was transferred from the city to the diocese in 1929; the basilica was finally consecrated in 1954. It has been the seat of the relics of Bologna's patron saint only since 2000; until then, they were preserved in the Santo Stefano church.
The Bolognese school of painting, also known as the school of Bologna, flourished between the 16th and 17th centuries in Bologna, which rivalled Florence and Rome as the center of painting in Italy. Its most important representatives include the Carracci family, including Ludovico Carracci and his two cousins, the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci. Later, it included other Baroque painters: Domenichino and Lanfranco, active mostly in Rome, eventually Guercino and Guido Reni, and Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna, which was run by Lodovico Carracci. Certain artistic conventions, which over time became traditionalist, had been developed in Rome during the first decades of the 16th century. As time passed, some artists sought new approaches to their work that no longer reflected only the Roman manner. The Carracci studio sought innovation or invention, seeking new ways to break away from traditional modes of painting while continuing to look for inspiration from their literary contemporaries; the studio formulated a style that was distinguished from the recognized manners of art in their time. This style was seen as both systematic and imitative, borrowing particular motifs from the past Roman schools of art and innovating a modernistic approach.
The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell'Arca and the young Michelangelo.
San Carlo ai Catinari, also called Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari, is an early-Baroque style church in Rome, Italy. It is located on Piazza Benedetto Cairoli, 117 just off the corner of Via Arenula and Via dei Falegnami, a few blocks south of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle.
Santa Maria in Vallicella, also called Chiesa Nuova, is a church in Rome, Italy, which today faces onto the main thoroughfare of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and the corner of Via della Chiesa Nuova. It is the principal church of the Oratorians, a religious congregation of secular priests, founded by St Philip Neri in 1561 at a time in the 16th century when the Counter Reformation saw the emergence of a number of new religious institutes such as the Jesuits, the Theatines, and the Barnabites. These new congregations were responsible for several great preaching churches built in the Centro Storico, the others being Sant'Andrea della Valle (Theatines), San Carlo ai Catinari (Barnabites), and The Gesù and Sant'Ignazio (Jesuits).
The Tempio della Beata Vergine della Ghiara, also known as Basilica della Madonna della Ghiara, is a church in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy. The building is the property of the comune (municipality) of the city.
San Nicola da Tolentino agli Orti Sallustiani is a church in Rome. It is referred to in both Melchiori's and Venuti's guides as San Niccolò di Tolentino, and in the latter it adds the suffix a Capo le Case. It is one of the two Roman national churches of Armenia. The church was built for the Discalced Augustinians in 1599, and originally dedicated to the 13th century Augustinian friar Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.
Lorenzo Garbieri was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period, active mainly in Bologna. He was one of the painters in the studio of Ludovico Carracci and is sometimes called il nipote dei Carracci. He was said to be one of the most successful imitators of Ludovico, to whose style he added the character of Caravaggio.
The Certosa di Bologna is a former Carthusian monastery in Bologna, northern Italy, which was founded in 1334 and suppressed in 1797. In 1801 it became the city's Monumental Cemetery which would be much praised by Byron and others. In 1869 an Etruscan necropolis, which had been in use from the sixth to the third centuries BC, was discovered here.
Italian Baroque art was a very prominent part of the Baroque art in painting, sculpture and other media, made in a period extending from the end of the sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries. The movement began in Italy, and despite later currents in the directions of classicism, the Rococo, Italy remained a stronghold throughout the period, with many Italian artists taking Baroque style to other parts of Europe. Italian Baroque architecture is not covered.
Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano is a Renaissance style, Roman Catholic church in central Bologna; it is located near the Two Towers, adjacent to the Strada Maggiore.
Santissimo Salvatore is a Baroque-style Roman Catholic church in central Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
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.
Stefano Orlandi was an Italian painter, active mainly in Bologna in the architectural perspective painting. He is known for painting fanciful architectural canvases, known as Capricci.
San Francesco is a Roman Catholic church in Città di Castello, Province of Perugia, Umbria, Italy.
Ferrara Charterhouse, of which the present Church of San Cristoforo alla Certosa was previously the monastic church, is a former charterhouse or Carthusian monastery built in Renaissance style, located on Piazza Borso 50 in Ferrara, Region of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The monastery was suppressed in the time of Napoleon, but the church was reconsecrated in 1813 and remains in use. The site also accommodates a large municipal cemetery, which was established in 1813.