| Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli | |
|---|---|
 Exterior. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| 41°53′46″N12°29′13″E / 41.8960°N 12.4869°E | |
| Location | Rome |
| Country | Italy |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Tradition | Roman Rite |
| History | |
| Dedication | Catherine of Siena |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural type | Church |
Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli is a baroque church dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena on Largo Magnanapoli on the slopes of the Quirinal Hill in Rome.
A group of Dominican tertiary nuns, living in a small house in via Santa Chiara where St. Catherine had died, were looking for larger premises. Led by Porzia Massimo whose late husband was a Conti, [1] from 1574 they successively acquired parts of properties belonging to the Conti family at Magnanapoli to establish their convent there, financially assisted by Pope Gregory XIII. [1] The originally small community thrived and quickly expanded from 27 nuns in 1574 [1] to 108 in 1626, [2] : 231 many of whom from important noble families.
The construction of a church began in 1608, initially at expense of Cardinal Scipione Borghese to a design by Carlo Maderno, but stopped in 1613.[ citation needed ] Meanwhile, the monastery acquired the Torre delle Milizie in 1619.[ citation needed ]
In 1628, the building of the current church was begun to a design by Giovanni Battista Soria. In 1631 the chancel and two adjacent chapels were completed. Building then came to a halt until the final portion of the church took shape from 1636 and concluded with the facade in 1641. [2] : 237-238 The consecration of the church by cardinal Alessandro Cesarini took place in 1640. [3]
Another Dominican nuns' convent, Santi Domenico e Sisto, is just a stone's throw away.
When the Via Nazionale was laid out in the 19th century, the street level was lowered. This raised the church entrance to a considerable height above the street. To allow access, a double staircase leading to the portico was built. Under the stairs is the entrance to the Crypt of the Fallen, constructed in 1934 and dedicated to the priests who were killed in the First World War. The crypt contains a bronze crucifix by Romano Romanelli.
Most of the convent was demolished in 1924. The Military Ordinariate, whose headquarters are adjacent to the church, took over the church, and it is now served by diocesan clergy. A restoration occurred in 1992.
The interior is a single nave with a barrel vault and three chapels on each side. The rich decoration, although carried out over a long period of time, appears very homogeneous.
The massive main altar's architecture to the design of the Maltese sculptor Melchiorre Cafà is shaped similar to church facades. It creates an elaborate frame for the large marble relief, also by Cafà and finished by the time of his untimely death in 1667, aged only 31. [4]
The relief, St Catherine in Ecstasy, shows the saint in a very indeterminate stance on a cloud pushed by an angel and some putti, all in white marble (some of the flattest parts of the cloud are in plaster). The scene is embedded in a smooth, polychrome background which forms a concave curve through which it underlines the protagonist's statuesque appearance, seemingly detached from it. Its pieces of differently coloured marble are arranged in such a way that they suggest dematerialised dark clouds opening up to let St. Catherine ascend to heaven. With her floatingly light posture and upwards gaze this ascend seems inevitable, she seems to be drawn heavenwards. [4]
Cafà's work is something new in Roman baroque sculpture. It incorporates lessons learned from Bernini, in particular his Memorial to Maria Raggi (1647) and the Ecstasy of St Theresa (ca. 1652) as well as the use of a polychrome marble background at the relic balconies in the pillars of the crossing of Saint Peter's (1630s). In addition, Cafà pulls together recently finished or contemporary solutions from within the workshop of Ercole Ferrata of which he himself was an essential part, in particular the Statue of St. Catherine for Siena Cathedral, St. Agnes on a Pyre and the concave shaped relief Martyrdom of Sant'Emerenziana (both in Sant'Agnese in Agone). From these ingredients and his own artistic power, Cafà produces a highly emotive pictorial solution unseen before, neither neatly definable as a relief nor as a statue nor as a picture. [4]
In the chancel's dome are four medallions depicting Dominican saints surrounded by a multitude of putti, all possibly also by Cafà, and the fresco The Glory of the Eternal Father by Francesco Rosa in the lantern. [4]
The decoration of the chancel was completed in the 18th century with the marble reliefs of St Rose of Lima and St Agnes of Montepulciano by Pietro Bracci on the side walls (1755). [4]
The tabernacle in the shape of a ciborium, made from lapis lazuli, agate, and gilded bronze, and the high altar on which it sits was designed in 1785 by the architect Carlo Marchionni.
The nave's ceiling fresco, Glory of St. Catherine, one of the masterpieces of Luigi Garzi, shows St. Catherine arriving in heaven and concludes the narrative started by Cafà. It was first mentioned in 1713 and is retained by some scholars to be from around that period while others date it considerably earlier. [5] Garzi had already painted an altarpiece with the subject All Saints in 1674 for the second chapel on the right. [5]
This second chapel on the right was decorated in fresco from 1700-1703 by Giuseppe Passeri who also painted two other altar paintings, Three Archangels as well as Madonna of the Rosary. [6] The latter, one of Passeri's best works, is in the third chapel on the left which also contains the tomb monuments to Giuseppe Bonanni (1648) and Virginia Primi Bonanni (1650) by Giuliano Finelli.
In the first chapel on the right, Benedetto Luti painted a fresco of Putti in the ceiling and carried out its altarpiece, Communion of St. Mary Magdalen (1706-1708).
In the corridor leading to the sacristy are remains of frescoes by Antoniazzo Romano which came from the original house of the nuns in via St. Chiara. Some time after 1637 they became part of the room of St. Catherine in the Magnanapoli convent. When this was demolished the frescoes were relocated to this corridor. Among the saints shown are St Bridget of Sweden and St Catherine of Alexandria.
The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius is a Roman Catholic titular church, of deaconry rank, dedicated to Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, located in Rome, Italy. Built in Baroque style between 1626 and 1650, the church functioned originally as the chapel of the adjacent Roman College, which moved in 1584 to a new larger building and was renamed the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Ercole Ferrata was an Italian sculptor of the Roman Baroque.
Melchiorre Cafà (1636–1667), born Melchiorre Gafà and also known as Caffà, Gafa, Gaffar or Gafar, was a Maltese Baroque sculptor. Cafà began a promising career in Rome but this was cut short by his premature death following a work accident. He was the older brother of the architect Lorenzo Gafà.
The Cerasi Chapel or Chapel of the Assumption is one of the side chapels in the left transept of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It contains significant paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Annibale Carracci, two of the most important masters of Italian Baroque art, dating from 1600 to 1601.
Santa Caterina a Formiello is a church in Naples, in southern Italy, located at the extreme eastern end of the old historic center of the city, on Via Carbonara and Piazza Enrico de Nicola, near the gate called Porta Capuana. The term Formiello comes from the forms or containers for water spouts found in the convent. Diagonally across the street and South is the Fontana del Formiello against the rear wall of the imposing Castel Capuano.
Luigi Garzi (1638–1721) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, whose work displayed heavy influences of the Bolognese painter, Guido Reni.
Caterina Ginnasi was an Italian noblewoman and painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome.
Giuseppe Passeri was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in his native city of Rome.
Santa Caterina dei Funari is a church in Rome in Italy, in the rione of Sant'Angelo. The church is mainly known for its façade and its interior with frescoes and paintings.
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.
Santa Brigida is a convent church dedicated to St Bridget of Sweden and the Swedish national church in Rome. It was also known as Santa Brigida a Campo de' Fiori since it was built on what was then part of Campo de' Fiori but is now the urbanistically distinct Piazza Farnese.
The Cybo or Saint Lawrence Chapel is the second side chapel in the right-hand aisle of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. For the beauty of its paintings, the preciousness of marble revetments covering its walls and the importance of the artists involved in its construction the chapel is regarded one of the most significant sacral monuments erected in Rome in the last quarter of the 17th century.
The Costa or St Catherine Chapel is located in the south aisle of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. This is the fourth side chapel from the counterfaçade and was dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria. The lunettes were painted by the helpers of Pinturicchio and the marble altar-piece is attributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano.
Sacro Cuore di Gesù in Prati, also known as Sacro Cuore del Suffragio, is a catholic church in the centre of Rome (Italy), rising in the rione Prati, hosting the parish with the same name, entrusted to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.
The Minor Basilica of Santi Vicenzo e Caterina de' Ricci is a Catholic church, built in the 16th to 18th centuries, and located in the town of Prato, in Tuscany, Italy. Adjacent to the church is a 16th-century monastery.
Santa Caterina da Siena is a church in Rome dedicated to Catherine of Siena. It is sited on via Giulia in the Regola district.
Santa Barbara dei Librai is a small Roman Catholic church in Rome, Italy. It was once known as Santa Barbara alla Regola after the rione in which it was located. Today it now considered within the rione of Parione, near the Campo de' Fiori.
Santa Caterina d'Alessandria or Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a Roman Catholic church with a main facade on Piazza Bellini, and a lateral Western facade facing the elaborate Fontana Pretoria, in the historic quarter of Kalsa in the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy. In front of the main facade, across the piazza Bellini, rise the older churches of San Cataldo and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, while across Piazza Pretoria is the Theatine church of San Giuseppe and the entrance to the Quattro Canti. Refurbished over the centuries, the church retains elements and decorations from the Renaissance, Baroque, and late-Baroque (Rococo) eras. This church is distinct from the Oratorio di Santa Caterina found in the Olivella neighborhood.
San Vincenzo Ferreri, also called San Domenico, is a church and convent in Racconigi, Province of Cuneo, region of Piedmont, Italy.
Madonna del Rosario is a church of Rome (Italy) in the Quarter Della Vittoria, rising in Via Trionfale, Monte Mario.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
