more from the day of "April Fish"

2 April 2014

Dear Relations and Friends,

I shall finish up my posting started yesterday on my visit to San Pietro in Montorio up on the Gianicolo Hill. 

In case you haven't seen my posting from yesterday, April 1st, you may want to look at it first. You can find in listed below this entry on the sidebar that should be on the left of your screen. (If not, try looking past the bottom of this post.) 


I left you in the church, and shall finish up before taking you for a tour of the little Tempietto by Bramante.

Here's the main part of the church. Nice enough, and there is a decent copy of a good painting over the main altar. Imagine the impact when the next image was over the main altar.

What was once over S. Pietro in Montorio's main altar . . .

Believe it or not, this dark, seemingly modest Franciscan church off the beaten path originally had over its main altar Raphael's last major work, the "Transfiguration". Happily the painting isn't too far away in the Painting Gallery (Pinacoteca) of the Vatican Museums. More usually seen is the elaborate mosaic copy of this painting, in St. Peter's itself. (I took this photo, better lit ones are available online.) This painting is well-travelled:

"Giulio de' Medici commissioned the painting for the the French Cathedral of Narbonne, but it remained in Rome in San Pietro in Montorio after 1523. Napoleon had it taken to Paris in 1797, and it was brought back to the Vatican in 1815."

quote from http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Transfiguration/Transfiguration.htm

 These next two images were on my last post, I am repeating them only to keep the bits on this church in one place. First, a chapel by Bernini, second an overview plan. It may be a little hard to see, the entrance is at the left, the Bernini chapel is the first large one at the top, the main altar is at the far right.

Bernini (and his extensive workshop) did this chapel, structure, decorations and statuary, probably between 1638 and 1648. Anthony Blunt relates this was one of the first times Bernini used concealed sources of (natural) lighting. We moderns may not think much of this, being used to electric lighting, but it made a big impact back then, especially since the lighting was structured to seem like heavenly blessings. This time it was done to emphasize the altarpiece of "St. Francis in Ecstasy".

I didn't notice at the time that both funerary monuments in the chapel show the deceased as a lively person and praying (not unusual for Bernini) and both persons are also shown as a corpse in the sarcophagus, which was very rare at the time. Blunt has many more interesting things to say about this, but I must press forward. 

The church has a large sign up at the chapel with an altarpiece by Antoniazzo Romano, (ca. 1435-1508). (There was a major exhibition last winter in a leading Roman museum about this talented Renaissance painter.) Below these two are a four other views of the church's decorations.

 

I was impressed by the transept of this church. 

{for you non-church goers, the transept is the arm of the church that makes the (usually) longer nave into a cross-shape.} 

These two chapels were done by Daniele da Volterra, (1509-1566), who was a close friend of Michaelangelo. Even in a gloomy church, these two, nearly identical chapels popped out at me announcing Michaelangelo's influence. 

Domes of churches connect the nave and the transept, let in needed light,
and lift one's gaze if not one's spirits, upwards. 

 references:  http://romeartlover.it/Vasi90a.htm#S. Pietro in Montorio,

Anthony Blunt, "Guide to Baroque Rome", 1982.

Outside the Church and onto the Cloister with the Tempietto.

Signboard (cleaned of graffiti), is a very good plan and text.
The Tempietto is in the cloister to the right of the church.

Here's the teaser photo I left you with yesterday,
the Tempietto framed by its entrance door.

This small building is called
"one of the undisputed masterworks of
Western architecture"*. 

   

       


   





You can see it is in a fairly small cloister. I have read that Bramante designed this with the intention of having a circular cloister surrounding it, with concentric circles in the courtyard paving. This was intended not merely for esthetics, but to represent the Divine Truth and the Cosmos, and it all would be centering on the supposed martyrdom site of St. Peter. 

I keep learning things all the time. I've just discovered a 56 page paper by Jack Freiberg on this church and monastery and the Spanish Monarchy. 

*   https://www.academia.edu/2166148/Bramantes_Tempietto_and_ the_Spanish_Crown    (you have to sign up with the website to access this. They are not picky, they even let me join!)


A few factiods from Jack Freiberg's paper on academia.edu:  

1. small traces of ancient Roman ruins are beneath the monastery and also nearby. 
2. there was a religious establishment here in the 1200's or so, but the site was deserted when plans for this San Pietro were put forth in the late 1400's.
3. Pope Sixtus IV, in 1472, entrusted this site to his confessor and fellow Franciscan Amadeo Menes de Sylva.
4. Amadeo was no ordinary monk; beyond his considerable spiritual gifts was his capacity to convince large donors to pledge contributions to various projects -- and then collect the pledges. 

{Perhaps Adameo could become a "patron saint" for fund raisers? I hope I'm not being too irreverent; there were miracles attributed to his large tomb in Santa Maria delle Pace in Milan.}

I was curious how such undoubtedly substantial sums 
could be raised for works by the best artists, sculptors, and architects. 

Again, as written by  Jack Freiberg, Adameo's sister was a close friend 

of Queen Isabella of Castille (and later the united Spain), which
may help explain the Spanish Monarchs' generosity to the project.

The coats of arms of the Spanish Monarchy   and of the Borghese pope are on the church and this small temple.

The temple is decorated
in a very classical style. 
To the right is
one of the two side entrances; 

below is the view through 
the main entrance,
which is also
 not very large.

View through entrance door. 

The floor mosaic is in
a style from a few
hundred years before.

View from a side door.

The altar, with a statue of St. Peter with his keys, 
symbols of the the Church's power and authority.
(see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08631b.htm for more on this.)

In the center of the Tempietto's floor
 is a grate to allow looking down
into the crypt unto the then-believed
martyrdom spot of St. Peter.

These external 
stairs were 
added in the 1800's.

This inscription above the entrance to
 the crypt tells of Indulgences for visitors, 
granted by Pope Paul III, in 1536.

Through the grill of the crypt's door one can see the covering 

above the martyrdom spot. 

This was the start of a series of proposed concentric circles, 

perhaps implying the center of the Cosmos. 

The stonework is quite lovely, done in the most valuable of 

re-used ancient marbles and stones.

further info:
http://www.arte.it/opera/tempietto-293 ;
www.romeartlover.it/Vasi90a.htm

Here's the spoiler photo, to illustrate
how small and intimate a space this is.
The main entrance is at the right, the main altar's step is at the left.

It was after high noon, and the monastery and church were shut.
Time to head back.
Here's another of my potential "shortcuts" down,
but this has a locked gate securing it. If one were to throw a stone
from this path, one would hit the Spanish Embassy,
which is probably why it is locked off.

So it was back down the 80 plus steps and loads of ramps.
Had I waited 18 minutes for a bus,
I could have ridden down,
but my patience expired after 16 minutes.

A small side street at the start of those "shortcuts". 

Oops, back to the "real world". Obama had visited Rome
the week before and this poster was left over.
There were major traffic disruptions over two days
for the heightened security needed to ferry him across
town to visit the Pope, the President of Italy, the Premiere of Italy,
and the Colosseum.
It says
"Roma sides with Putin.
Obama is an unwelcome guest."

This week Obama's visit seems to be largely forgotten. 

Wait until the Romans see what traffic disruptions 

arise tomorrow for the visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth!

Later note:  My husband was concerned that someone might think ALL Romans are anti-Obama, which is not the case. However, I did see at least two dozen of these posters on the day before and during his visit the prior week, and only one on April 1st. Additionally, these posters are covered over regularly by "breaking events" or by groups with different viewpoints,  different products to sell or other events to announce. 

Ciao, Carol  2 april 2014