Church interiors Rome

A follow on to my Venice post. By the time I got to Rome I was feeling a bit more confident with my camera and I played around with the settings a bit more. Also, because generally no one cares if you take lots of photos inside a Roman church I was able to put the camera on manual and experiment a bit more. I found once I trusted my own instincts I was actually able to capture some of the contrast between dark and light that you get in churches, for instance where beams of sunlight hit a column or a sculpture. Though I probably need a tripod to properly capture some images.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Similar to Venice this church has a varied collection of paintings, sculpture and tombs from various centuries. However, it is different, and more typical of Rome, with it's more unified decorative program.  Though unlike many of the major churches in Rome this one has a rather unexciting and heavy handed 19th century interior. The light that floods through the windows makes it beautiful nonetheless, and it also contains an array of beautiful works of art.

An impressive space, even if the 19th century blue and gold ceiling always strikes me as a bit silly.

I practiced capturing light and shade on some chairs.

 Statue of Pope Urban VII in the Cappella dell'Annunziata  Pope for 13 days in 1590.

 Statue of St John the Baptist, the sculpture itself is not particularly stunning, but when the lights hits it the effect is quite dramatic.

  And again from below.

Michelangelo's 'Christ bearing the cross' 1519.

Santa Maria in Valicella, or the Chiesa Nuova. The church was built for the Congregation of the Oratorians, which was founded by San Filippo Neri in 1551. Neri is one of my favourite saints, he used to make rich men who wished to join the congregation do something humiliating before they were allowed to enter, such as walk through Rome dressed only in rags. He was also Goethe's favourite saint and in his Italian Journey he described Neri as 'The Humorous Saint". The church contains some beautiful paintings including several by Federico Barocci, which Neri apparently used to swoon in front of. It was dark in the church but here are a few photos of one of the Barocci paintings.

Barocci, 'The Visitation', 1583-6.

Hello Donkey! Barocci's colours are truly amazing. It is always a little sad that many of his finest paintings are in chapels and therefore not very well lit. At the same time if you take the time to wait for them to emerge from the darkness and observe the way the candlelight or reflected sunlight pick out certain details you perhaps a more engaging experience and something closer to the original sixteenth century one that you would in a brightly lit gallery.

Always a favourite, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. I absolutely fell in love with the architecture of Borromini when I first visited Rome. It is almost impossible to photograph the architecture the way you want to, but at the same time the photos you do take are usually immensely engaging with the play of straight and curved forms banging against the strict square border of the photo. What you do miss is following the way that the architectural elements flow into one another.

These last photos are from the sacristy of Santa Maria Maddelena, near the Pantheon. The decoration dates from 1738-1741. It is a sumptuous space with playful illusionistic frescoes and rich rococo furnishings that have been painted to imitate marble and are framed by asymmetrical scrolls.

'Fake' windows painted to match the real windows opposite.

The ceiling is by Girolamo Pesci. The figures are rather large and slightly heavy in comparison to the very skillfully rendered architecture. One expects to see figures more in the style of Tiepolo, but perhaps it was necessary to imbue the space with a certain amount of gravitas and seriousness and devote appropriate space to the Virgin and other religious figures.

Snapshot, Rome

San Andrea al Quirinale, 11:30am, April 22nd 2010.

Cloister Garden and Interior of San Lorenzo, Rome

I am busy scrabbling around trying to finish up a chapter on something I originally worked on in early 2006. I have been flicking through files from that time and thought I should put up some pictures I took in Rome in February, just before a conference where I gave a paper on the topic I am currently writing on. Possibly I should have been in the library instead of wandering around old churches (just like I should now be writing instead of blogging!), but the offer was there to go with a few experts on late Roman and Early Christian antiquity, so I could hardly resist.

A few facts. The church was founded on the burial place of St Lawrence, or San Lorenzo, who was famously 'grilled' to death. A topic favoured by Baroque painters who loved nothing more than a good ole grisly martyrdom. Here is in a painting by Valentin de Boulogne (1621-2, now in the Prado, Madrid). He makes it look easy.

Via Web Gallery of Art.

There has been a church on the site since Constantine founded one there in the fourth century. The church was entirely rebuilt by Pope Honorius III in the 13th century to make it more suitable as a site for future coronations of eastern emperors (though shortly after Constantinople was retaken and there was no more of that!) It was restored in the 17th century by Pope Innocent X. It is one of the seven basilicas you would visit if you were to do a pilgrimage to Rome.

The nave. You can see the old granite columns that were salvaged from classical buildings are use as supports along the nave. Very common practice in Rome where so many churches, and other buildings, have bits and pieces of architecture from a huge range of eras. Something I always think of when I hear people spouting off in discussion over retaining 20th century architecture that if you can't keep a whole building there is no historical/cultural value in keeping anything any of the building. Clearly places like this demonstrate the ridiculousness of such theories. They also demonstrate that so many historical buildings struggle to 'fit' a specific historical era.

The throne, the decoration of inlaid stone and gold leaf is known as 'cosmati'. The throne would date to the 12th century, the columns seen behind would be from an ancient Roman building.

The pulpit.


The cloister garden, most large basilicas have these spaces, always worth seeking out.


Fragments of ancient inscriptions, columns and stonework set into the walls.


More columns, notice how the one closest and slightly cut out of the picture has a completely different base, a sign that the columns have been mostly salvaged from older buildings.
The garden, simple yet effective. Generally these gardens were (and are) used to grow vegetables and herbs that are used by the monks.

Romesick Snapshot

I get Romesick rather than Homeseick. Haven't been there in over a year and I miss it. I need to see and touch and smell the things I write about. Sometimes writing about Baroque art and gardens and architecture can seem so very alien in Melbourne.

The delicate stuccoed ceiling of a room in the Villa Doria Pamphilj, or the 'Bel Respiro.' The imagery and design are based on classical motifs.

The fine coffered ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This ceiling was designed by the artist Domenichino in 1617, the church structure itself dates to the twelfth century.

Snapshot, Rome.

I'm not in Rome, unfortunately, but I have a lot of snapshots from the past few years. This is the entrance to the cafe beneath the studio of Antonio Canova, an eighteenth-century sculptor. It is on Via del Babuino, between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. As you can see it is crammed full of plaster cast 'sketches' for sculptures, and a few marble busts as well.

Casina della Civette, Rome

I visited the Casina delle Civette in Rome in March this year. I have tagged it 'Hidden Rome' amongst other things as the Villa sits outside the historic centre in an area that originally was fields and noble villas but has now been absorbed by the suburbs.

It sits in the grounds of the Villa Torlonia, the Torlonia were a family of bankers who were amongst the richest in Rome in the 19th century. Visit the website for the Museum here.
The Casina was originally the 'Swiss Cabin' designed by the landscape designer and architect Giuseppe Jappelli. In 1908 it was transformed into a “Medieval Hamlet”, by the architect Enrico Gennari. The small building became an elaborate residence with huge windows, loggias, porticos and turrets, decorated with majolica and stained glass. It became known instead as the 'House of the Owls' or the 'Casina delle Civette.' It is a strange mish mash of architectural styles.


Inside the house is richly decorated in an art nouveau style, one of the few (maybe even the only) such interior in Rome.

The staircase of the FourSeasons which runs against the building and leads outside. The sequence on the walls (not really visible in this photo) follows the theme of the four seasons: Spring, Summer and Autumn follow one after the other.
The rhomboid panels of glass in the ceiling were designed by Duilio Cambellotti and have the theme of migratory birds: “Swallows”, “Skylarks”, “Thrushes” and “Migrating Birds”.
Only “Migrating Birds” is an original piece; it survived, although in a terrible condition, and was put back in place after restoration. The other three were made in 1997 by the Giuliani Glass Works, based on the sketches on display in the Prince’s bedroom.
The Floor with inlaid flowers.

The Ceiling Fresco in the Room of the 24 hours, painted in1909 by Giovanni Capranesi an art nouveau interpretation of the tradition fictive arbour common in Italian villas.

The house also houses a collection of beautiful stained glass works by the artists from the workshop of master glassmaker Cesare Picchiarini (1871-1943).

Swallows by Cesare Picchiarini (1871-1943)

The magnificent peacock window by Umberto Bottazzi (1865-1932).

The fairy by Duilio Cambellotti (1876-1960)

The Swallows by Duilio Cambellotti (1876-1960)