Santa Maria della Pace

Santa Maria Della Pace

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Santa Maria della Pace

Santa Maria della Pace is one of the churches in

Churches of Rome

There are more than 900 Churches in Rome. Most, but not all, of these are Roman Catholic, with some notable Roman Catholic Marian churches....
Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, not far from Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It follows the plan of an ancient Ancient Rome Circus , the 1st century Stadium of Domitian, where the Romans came to watch the agones : It was known as 'Circus Agonalis' ....
. (GIS coordinates are +41.899906°, +12.471701°)

The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing church of Sant'Andrea de Aquarizariis in 1482, commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV

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Santa Maria della Pace is one of the churches in

Churches of Rome

There are more than 900 Churches in Rome. Most, but not all, of these are Roman Catholic, with some notable Roman Catholic Marian churches....
Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
, not far from Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. He founded the Sistine Chapel where the team of artists he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance to Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age....
. The church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary to remember a miraculous bleeding of a Madonna image there in 1480. The author of the original design is not known, though Baccio Pontelli

Baccio Pontelli

Baccio Pontelli was an Italy architect. Baccio is an abbreviation of Bartolomeo.Pontelli was born in Florence. Passing the phase of artistic formation with Giuliano da Maiano and Benedetto da Maiano in Florence, and influenced by Francesco di Giorgio Martini during the trip to Urbino , he was an in-layer in Florence and later in Urbino....
has been proposed.

In 1656-1667 Pope Alexander VII

Pope Alexander VII

Pope Alexander VII , born Fabio Chigi, was Pope from April 7, 1655, until his death....
had the edifice restored by Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona

Pietro da Cortona, byname of Pietro Berrettini was an Italian artist and architect of High Baroque. He is best known for painting fresco ceilings, a pursuit in which he had ample competition in the Rome of his day, but he was equally adept and masterful with architectural design....
, who also added the famous Baroque façade projecting from its concave wings: this, devised to simulate a theatrical set, has two orders and is entered by a semi-circular pronaos with paired Doric columns

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the Classical order of Architecture of Ancient Greece or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic order and the Corinthian order....
. The church presses forward almost to fill its tiny piazza; several houses had to be demolished by Pietro da Cortona to create even this miniature trapezoidal space. This newly formed piazza, focussed on the church facade even in its architectural detailing, had the additional benefits of facilitating the turning of coaches which had become so fashionable with the Roman nobility of the time and creating an ingenious unified ensemble of the church in its urban setting . The play of concave and convex forms at varying scales in and around the predominant main facade masks the neighbouring buildings, extends the apparent breadth of the facade and so increases the visual impact on the spectator physically confined by the small trapezoidal piazza. The monumental effect of the plasticity of forms, spatial layering and chiarascuro lighting effects belies the actual scale of this urban intervention.

The inscription around the porch architrave is taken from Psalm 72

Psalms

Psalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim....
: SUSCIPIANT MONTES PACEM POPULO ET COLLES IUSTITIAM ("The mountains shall bring peace to the people and to the hills, justice"). This reference to the 'mountains' of the coat of arms of the Chigi family, to which both Sixtus IV and Alexander VII belonged, presumably is an allusion to the benefits of their papal reigns. Oak leaf motifs, another Chigi family emblem, can also be found on the facade. On the upper facade, Cortona had the curved travertine panels cut to make grained matching patterns, in an unusual use of this particular material. Through the tall central window, the circular window of the Quattrocento church facade is visible.

Interior

The interior, which can be reached from the original fifteenth-century door, has a short nave with cruciform vaulting and a tribune surmounted by a cupola. Cortona articulated the interior of the dome with octagonal coffering and a series of ribs radiating from the lantern. This is an early example of combining these two forms of dome decoration and was employed by Gianlorenzo Bernini in his later churches at Ariccia

Ariccia

Ariccia is a town and comune in the Province of Rome. It is in the Alban Hills of the Lazio region and could be considered an extension of Rome's southeastern suburbs....
and Castelgandolfo.

Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno

Carlo Maderno was an Italy-Switzerland architect, born in Ticino, who is remembered as one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. His fa?ades of Santa Susanna, St....
designed the high altar (1614) to enframe the venerable icon of the Madonna and Child.

Raphael

Raphael

Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone was an Italy Painting and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings....
began to fresco the four Sibyls receiving angelic instruction (1514) above the arched doorway leading to an inner chapel, commissioned by Agostino Chigi

Agostino Chigi

Agostino Andrea Chigi was an Italy banker and patron of the Renaissance.Born in Siena, he was the son of the prominent banker Mariano Chigi, a member of an ancient and illustrious house....
, the papal banker. . The Deposition over the altar is by Cosimo Fancelli

Cosimo Fancelli

Cosimo Fancelli was an Italy sculptor of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. He was the son of the artist Carlo Fancelli from Arezzo....
.

The second chapel on the right, the Cesi Chapel, was designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger

Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, born Antonio Cordiani was an Italy architect active during the Italian Renaissance....
, and has a very fine Renaissance decoration on the external arch by Simone Mosca

Simone Mosca

Simone Mosca , also known as Simone Moschini and as Il Moschini, was an Italian sculptor who was born in Settignano. His son was sculptor Francesco Mosca ....
, as well as two small frescoes, the Creation of Eve and the Original Sin by Rosso Fiorentino

Rosso Fiorentino

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italy Mannerism Painting, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school....
.

The first chapel on the left (Ponzetti Chapel) has noteworthy Renaissance frescoes by Baldassarre Peruzzi, who is better known as an architect. The second chapel has marble taken from the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

The tribune has paintings by Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was an Italian painter of the High Baroque period, active mostly in Rome....
, Peruzzi, Orazio Gentileschi

Orazio Gentileschi

Orazio Lomi Gentileschi was an Italy Baroque painter, one of more important painters influenced by Caravaggio . He was the father of the painter Artemisia Gentileschi....
, Francesco Albani

Francesco Albani

Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italy Baroque Painting....
and others.

The main feature of the church is however the Bramante cloister. Built in 1500-1504 for Cardinal Oliviero Carafa

Oliviero Carafa

Oliviero Carafa was an Italian cardinal and diplomat of the Renaissance....
, it was the first work of Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante

Donato Bramante was an Italian architect, who introduced the Early Renaissance style to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rome, where his most famous design was St....
in the city. It has two floors, the first with arcades on pilasters, the second with arcades on pilasters and columns.

Santa Maria della Pace

Interior

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