Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

 

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

View of the chapel.

The Carafa Chapel(Italian: Cappella Carafa) is a chapel in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, Italy, known for a series of frescoes by Filippino Lippi.

History

The chapel, located in the right side of the basilica and dedicated to St. Mary and St. Thomas of Aquino, was built in the late 15th century by will of Cardinal Oliviero Carafa. He was a member of the Dominicans, who at the time administrated the church, and his palace was located nearby.

Lorenzo de’ Medici of Florence recommended to Cardinal Carafa that he grant the commission to decorate the chapel to Filippino Lippi, then in his thirties. In order to fulfill the order, the artist had to halt the works at the Filippo Strozzi Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, which he had begun in 1487 and which he would complete in 1502. Documents attest Lippi’s presence in Rome as early as 27 August 1488, working with his assistant Raffaellino del Garbo. For the painter it was the first large fresco cycle, and his first (and only) work in Rome.^[1] The paintings were already completed in 1493, when they were visited by Pope Alexander VI.

Raffaellino also decorated a smaller room annexed to the chapel, which would house Carafa’s body after his death, with the Stories of Virginia and other chastity-related themes.

Description

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

The vault.

Vault

The decoration began from the vault, which was divided into four angular sectors in which Filippino depicted four Sibyls. In the middle is the coat of arms of the Carafa familyinside a medallion. The frame of the scenes include a pattern of branches twisting in rings and diamonds (this a symbol of Lorenzo de’ Medici, intermingled with books and palms. The allusion of the Medici family is generally considered as a thanksgiving for Lorenzo’s intercession towards Carafa in favour of the painter, and for his pacification work during the Baron’s conjure which had torn apart Carafa’s homeland, the Kingdom of Naples, in 1485. The books refer to the Cardinal’s intellectual interests.

In the Sibyls, Filippi was the first Florentine painter to adopt the sotto in su (« from below ») perspective. In this he was likely inspired by the Ascension of Mary fresco by Melozzo da Forlì, then in the Santi Apostoli basilica. The Sibyls were symbols of wisdom and knowledge; they are portrayed holding cartouches with St. Thomas’ statements.

Central walls

The end wall is decorated with a frescoed high altar with the Annunciation within a stucco frame and the Assumption of the Virgin at the sides and in the upper section. The scene is located within a fake arch supported by pilasters with agave-decorated columns (candelabre). The subjects portrayed include a Roman ship with an olive tree branch, an allusion to Oliverio Carafa’s command of the papal fleet (1472) against the Turks. Lippi copied the ship from a Roman relief in the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura (now in the Musei Capitolini).

The frieze, which is now only partially preserved, shows other subject related to the Cardinal’s activities, while on the upper frame are angels with the Carafa coat of arms.

Annunciation

For the Annunciation, Lippi adopted a rather unusual composition with St. Thomas presenting to Mary the kneeling Cardinal Carafa. The presence of the donor was a common theme, as in Antoniazzo Romano‘s Annunciation in the same church. Here, however, Mary is depicted as both glancing at the angel, and at the same time, addressing and blessing with her right hand, Carafa. The scene is set in an interior location where Mary is kneeling on a chair next to a bookrest filled with books. Behind a curtain is a still life depiction, including a shelf with books, a carafe (a symbol for transparent purity), and an olive tree branch. The two latter elements form a rebus of Oliviero Carafa’s name.

On the left is a hall with a barrel vault, showing the Carafa coat of arms, perhaps taken from the Cardinal’s palace. The scene is framed by a rich frieze decorated with vases, fruit, columns and grottesche, the latter thought to be inspired by the recently discovered paintings in the Domus Aurea.

Assumption.

Assumption

The Assumption, flanked by the depictions of saints staring at its scene, shows the Virgin ascending on a cloud which is pushed upwards by a group of angels; at her sides are burning candles, angels spreading incense and by a luminous mandorla of cherubims. The two thuribles are inspired to those painted by Sandro Botticelli in the Punishment of the Rebels fresco in the Sistine Chapel, and to which Lippi perhaps collaborated.

Detail of an angel with drum.

The Virgin is portrayed in a traditional fashion, from a frontal point of view; more original are the angels dancing around her, depicted da sotto in su such as those of Melozzo da Forlì. The angels, in clockwise order, hold a drum, a trumpet, a psaltery, torches (the three ones who are pushing the cloud), a drum (at the wais), a triangle of trapezoidal shape, and a cornamuse in colors which hint at the Carafa’s crest. The instruments are typical of the time’s military bands, and are another allusion to Carafa’s naval success in Turkey.

In the lower sector, behind the apostles is a procession of exotic characters and animals, which is perhaps a reference to the triumph conceded to the cardinal after his return from the naval expedition. Lippi had likely seen in Florence a giraffe after it had been donated to Lorenzo de’ Medici a few years before, and had created the popular enthusiasm.

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Right wall.

Left and right walls

On the left wall is the funerary monument of Pope Paul IV, another member of the Carafa family, by Pirro Ligorio. For its creation, Lippi’s frescoes of Vices and Virtues were destroyed and are now known only through Giorgio Vasari‘s description.

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Dispute of St. Thomas, detail.

The right wall is characterized by a painted architecture similar to those in the central wall, but is divided into a lunette and a central scene by a frieze. They portray respectively The Dispute of St. Thomas and the Miracle of the Book.

The scene of St. Thomas is enclosed within across-vaulted pavilion with a round arch, which leads to a terrace; this is annexed to an edifice from which a group of characters is leaning out. In the niche is St. Thomas of Aquino surrounded by symbolic characters and others forming two further, symmetrical groups at the feet of the pavilion.

Thomas is holding a cartouche with the inscription in Latin Sapientiam sapientum perdam (« I will destroy the scholar’s knowledge »), taken from St. Peter‘s words in the bible. At his feet his a figure covered by books, symbolizing the Sin, with the cartouche Sapientia vincit malitia(« Knowledge defeats Malice »), an allusion to the importance attributed by Dominicans to knowledge in the fight against heresy and vice. The women at the saint’s sides are, as recognizable by their cartouches, personifications of Philosophy, Theology (with a crown), Dialectic (with the snake) and Grammar, portrayed while teaching a youth (the stick would be used to punish any sign of laziness).

The characters in the foreground are mostly heretics (also identified by golden inscriptions on their garments) including Man with a finger on his lips, Eutyches with a pearl earring, Sabellius (whose figures resembles the depiction of Dacian prisoners in the Arch of Constantine), Arius and others. The books on the ground are the heretics’ book, about to be burned. On the right is a Dominican friar, who has been identified as Gioacchino Torriani, at the time prior of the order. On the right is Niccolò di Pitigliano, then commander of the papal army, shown before executing the Saint’s condemnation.

The two buildings on the sides resemble contemporary examples in Umbrian painting, such as the Pinturicchio‘s Funerals of Saint Bernardino in the Bufalini Chapel of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. On the left is a cityscape including a depiction of Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which at the time was in the Lateran and was believed to portray the emperor Constantine.

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Carafa Chapel, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

The lunette.

The lunette contains further episodes of the life of St. Thomas, such as the Miracle of the Book. In the right background is a loggia, behind which is a city, and which a character is descending from a staircase. The characters have been variously interpreted. The small dog attacking a boy is usually a representation of the Devil attempting at the youth’s purity. The woman with monastic garments and a rosary inside the belt has been seen as a personification of the Catholic Church, and in this case the man on the stairs would be her husband, Christ, whose passion is symbolized by the red cloak (and, accordingly, the child would represent the clergy borne by them).

The character on the right, dressed as a Muslim, is addressed by a man pointing at the woman (an allusion to the man’s need to convert). The woman in the background would be a personification of the Synagogue, an allusion also contained in Botticelli’s Trials of Christ in the Sistine Chapel.

• Bufalini Chapel

References

1. Jump up^ Gail L. Geiger, « Filippino Lippi’s Carafa « Annunciation »: Theology, Artistic Conventions, and Patronage » The Art Bulletin 63.1 (March 1981:62-75) p. 71.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Rome) – Carafa chapel.

Sources

• Cosmo, Giulia (2001). Filippino Lippi. Florence: Giunti. pp. 13–30. ISBN 88-09-02031-6.
• Geiger, Gail L. (1986). Filippino Lippi’s Carafa Chapel : Renaissance art in Rome. Kirksville, Mo.: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers. ISBN 0-940474-05-0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carafa_Chapel

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Apparition of Christ to the Virgin, Alte Pinakothek

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Apparition of Christ to the Virgin, Alte Pinakothek

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI: Apparition of Christ to the Virgin, Alte Pinakothek
Artist	Filippino Lippi
Year	c. 1493
Medium	Oil on panel
Dimensions	156.1 cm × 146.7 cm (61.5 in × 57.8 in)
Location	Alte Pinakothek, Munich

The Apparition of Christ to the Virgin is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Filippino Lippi, executed around 1493 and now housed in the Alte Pinakothek of Munich, Germany.

The work dates to around to the period after Lippi’s return to Florence after his works in the Carafa Chapel at Rome. It is perhaps to be identified with the panel mentioned by the Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari in the church of San Francesco al Palco of Prato. In the 19th century, Ludwig I of Bavaria acquired the paintings, which later, together with the other royal collections, was included in the Alte Pinakothek.

Description

The painting portrays Mary kneeling under the God, shown in a golden disc amongst the clouds in the sky. She is flanked by the apparitions of the Angel of the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary. The unusual iconography was perhaps a precise request of the commissioners, who would be also referenced by the monastery on the hill at the left.

Mary, according to the preachings by Girolamo Savonarola which were popular in Florence at the time, is aged and with a dramatic expression on her face. Her larger figure is perhaps connected to the particular worship she received in the original location of the painting.

The landscape in the background is depicted using aerial perspective, with echoes of the early Netherlandish paintings through Italian predecessors of Filippino, including his father Filippo Lippi. There are some small characters such as a few monks, depicted on a river view (perhaps the Bisenzio near Florence) commanded by rocky formations on the right. Far away is a misty city, identifiable most likely with Florence due to the presence of a large dome resembling that of Santa Maria del Fiore.

The panel has a predella with Christ Hold by an Angel and Six Saints.

The predella.

Sources

• Cosmo, Giulia (2001). Filippino Lippi. Florence: Giunti. ISBN 88-09-02031-6.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparition_of_Christ_to_the_Virgin

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHEL- ANGE : David

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHEL- ANGE : David

Leonardo da Vinci, studio del David di Michelangelo (dettaglio), Royal Library, Windsor

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHEL- ANGE : David

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHEL- ANGE : David

 

 Giacobbe Giusti, MICHEL- ANGE : David

Artiste	Michel-Ange
Date	1501–1504
Commanditaire	Opera del Duomo
Type	Statue en marbre
Technique	Sculpture
Hauteur	434 cm
Mouvement	Haute Renaissance
Localisation	Galerie de l’Académie de Florence, Florence (Italie)

Le David est un chef-d’œuvre de la sculpture de la Renaissance, réalisé par Michel-Ange entre 1501 et 1504. Il mesure 4,34 mètres de hauteur (5,14 mètres avec le socle) et il est tiré d’un bloc de marbre blanc de Carrare, laissé à l’abandon après l’échec d’autres sculpteurs. Michel-Ange a su tirer parti de l’étroitesse du bloc de marbre et contourner un de ses défauts (une brèche dans laquelle il a creusé l’espace entre le bras droit et le torse). Michel-Ange a représenté David, une fronde (lanière de cuir servant de lance pierre) à la main, juste avant son combat contre le géant Goliath.

Initialement placé devant le palazzo Vecchio pour symboliser la détermination d’une jeune république face au tyran, l’original est, depuis 1873, exposé dans la Galleria dell’Accademia de Florence. Le David que l’on peut voir devant la façade du Palazzo Vecchio n’est qu’une réplique installée là en 1910.

Histoire

Avant Michel-Ange

En 1463, une commande est faite à Agostino di Duccio pour sculpter la figure géante d’un prophète qui prendrait sa place dans une des niches de la tribune nord à l’extérieur de la cathédrale Santa Maria del Fiore de Florence, aux côtés des deux prophètes réalisés par Nanni di Banco (Isaïe) et Donatello (Josué)¹. Elle devait être le pendant de la statue de Josué conçue par Donatello cinquante ans plus tôt. Duccio a extrait et dégrossi un bloc de marbre des carrières de Carrare, mais il abandonne au bout de trois ans devant l’ampleur de la tâche. Dix ans plus tard, Antonio Rossellino entreprend d’achever son travail, puis renonce à son tour². C’est que le bloc de marbre « n’était pas assez compact, il présentait beaucoup de veinures, et par-dessus tout il était très étroit ; il convenait mieux aux sculptures gothiques qu’à celles, musculeuses et massives de la Renaissance »³. Le bloc reste ainsi quarante ans dans l’atelier de la cathédrale, à moitié travaillé¹.

1501 – 1504 genèse du David

David, détail.

David, détail.

David, détail.

David, détail.

Le 2 juillet 1501, les responsables de l’Opera del Duomo (le conseil de fabrique, chargé de superviser la construction et l’aménagement de la cathédrale Santa Maria del Fiore) se réunissent pour décider du sort du bloc de marbre. On apprend dans leur délibération que celui-ci, « mal dégrossi » (male abrozarotum) gisait « sur le dos » dans une cour de l’Opera del Duomo. Ils prennent la décision, d’abord de le redresser, et ensuite de désigner un sculpteur capable de l’achever⁴. Bien qu’Andrea Sansovino se soit montré intéressé⁵, c’est Michel-Ange qui reçoit la commande du David, le 16 août 1501, de l’Opera del Duomo, et de l’Arte della Lana(la plus importante maison de commerce et de banque de Florence au xiv^e siècle, liée aux tisserands). Il érige une structure en bois autour du bloc pour le cacher et travaille ainsi jusqu’au 23 juin 1503 (fête de la saint Jean-Baptiste, patron de Florence), jour où la statue est dévoilée⁶.

Cependant, l’emplacement initialement prévu, au sommet de l’un des piliers du Dôme de Florence, n’était plus envisageable, « ne serait-ce que pour des raisons techniques et statiques, eu égard aux dimensions gigantesques de l’œuvre, et qu’en outre, la nudité du personnage paraîtrait peut-être déplacée en pareil lieu⁷. »

Le 25 janvier 1504, une commission composée des plus grands artistes florentins (entre autres, Léonard de Vinci, Piero di Cosimo, Simone Pollaiuolo, Filippino Lippi, Cosimo Rosselli, Sandro Botticelli, Giuliano et Antonio da Sangallo, le Pérugin et Lorenzo di Credi) est chargée de déterminer l’emplacement du David de Michel-Ange. Léonard de Vinci et Giulano da Sangallo se prononcent pour l’intérieur de la Loggia dei Lanzi, mais on décide finalement, devant l’insistance de Michel-Ange⁸, de l’installer devant le Palazzo Vecchio⁹. Sa statue prend ainsi la place de la Judith et Holopherne de Donatello, qui rejoint, elle, l’intérieur du Palais.

Le David quitte, le 14 mai 1504, de nuit, car il avait de nombreux détracteurs¹⁰, l’atelier de Michel-Ange à Santa Maria del Fiore pour rejoindre le Palazzo Vecchio. Au bout de quatre jours, la statue atteint la place et il faut encore attendre juin 1504 pour qu’elle soit correctement installée sur l’ancien socle de la Judith. Elle est inaugurée officiellement le 8 septembre 1504¹¹.

Depuis la mort de Savonarole en 1498, Florence connaissait une parenthèse républicaine. Le nouveau gonfalonier, Piero Soderini, voit donc dans le David l’exaltation des valeurs républicaines. La statue devient le symbole de Florence, cette Cité-État menacée de tous les côtés par des états rivaux puissants, cette interprétation étant renforcée par son emplacement devant le Palazzo Vecchio, siège municipal de Florence.

De la Piazza della Signoria à l’Accademia

Réplique du David de Michel-Angedevant le Palazzo Vecchio.

Le 26 avril 1527, le peuple florentin s’empare du Palazzo Vecchio, contraignant la Seigneurie à déclarer les Médicis rebelles. Ceux-ci rassemblent cinq mille soldats qui investissent la Piazza della Signoria. Les assiégés se défendent en lançant divers projectiles sur les troupes des Médicis. L’un d’eux atteint le David de Michel-Ange, brisant son bras gauche en trois morceaux. Vasari, accompagné de son ami Francesco Salviati, les auraient récupérés. En 1543, sur ordre de Cosme de Médicis, le bras gauche de la statue est restauré.

On prend conscience, dès le début du xix^e siècle, de l’état de dégradation du David, causé par son exposition en plein air. Entre 1808 et 1815, des restaurateurs croient le protéger en le traitant à l’encaustique. Trente ans plus tard, en 1843, Aristodemo Costoli constate les dommages ainsi créés. Malheureusement, le remède est pire que le mal : il nettoie la statue avec une solution composée à 50 % d’acide chlorhydrique, détruisant ainsi la patine d’origine de la statue.

Une commission décide en 1866 que le Davidtrouverait désormais refuge derrière les murs de la Galleria dell’Accademia. Il faut cinq jours, du 31 juillet au 4 août 1873, pour déplacer la statue de la Piazza della Signoria à l’Accademia, sur un chariot spécialement conçu pour l’occasion par les ingénieurs Porra et Poggi. Une copie est ensuite placée devant la façade d’entrée du Palazzo Vecchio.

Analyse

L’adolescent qu’a sculpté Michel-Ange est un athlète puissant, « magnification du nu viril¹² », là où l’on avait vu dans le David de Donatello, sculpté soixante ans plus tôt, « un héros androgyne à la beauté d’éphèbe¹³. » Le David de Donatello et celui de Verrocchio montrent le jeune héros exhibant le glaive avec lequel il vient de trancher la tête de Goliath, et foulant celle-ci à ses pieds. Michel-Ange, lui, a choisi de représenter David avant le combat, au moment où il défie le géant Goliath. Son attitude, un contrappostonerveux (le poids du corps repose sur une seule jambe et la ligne des hanches fait opposition à celle des épaules), trahit une « violence contenue¹⁴ ». Il s’apprête à lancer, avec sa fronde (dont la courroie passe au-dessus de son épaule et le long de son dos), la pierre qui va frapper au front son ennemi.

La statue de Michel-Ange devint l’incarnation de la virtus fiorentina, la vertu républicaine florentine, au sens où l’entendait Leonardo Bruni¹⁵, lorsqu’il écrivait que « les vertus ancestrales des Romains et des Étrusques avaient été préservées dans les lois sacrées de Florence. » Du reste, le David fut lui-même comparé aux modèles de l’Antiquité. Pourtant, sur le moment, des citoyens florentins avaient reproché à la Seigneurie d’avoir déplacé la Judith de Donatello, qui leur semblait être le vrai symbole de la République¹⁶.

Style

Dans le droit fil de l’esthétique de l’inachevé (non finito)¹⁷, propre à Michel-Ange, le sommet de la tête montrerait un peu de la surface initiale du bloc avec une lézarde, non travaillée. De même Michel-Ange utilise de la disproportion dans les mains.

Répliques

• Piazza della Signoria, devant le Palazzo Vecchio, réplique en marbre
• Piazzale Michelangelo, réplique en bronze
• Statue de David à Marseille, réplique en marbre
• Victoria and Albert Museum, réplique en plâtre.

Sources d’inspiration

Alors que le David médiéval est écrivain et musicien, dessiné barbu, c’est à la Renaissance qu’il est représenté juvénile et orgueilleux, d’abord entre 1430 et 1440 par Donatello avec une statue en bronze de 1,58 mètres de haut. Andrea del Verrocchio réalise autour de 1476 une autre statue en bronze (1,25 mètres), enfantine et presque androgyne, avec la tête de Goliath à ses pieds¹⁸.

Galerie d’images

 Cliquez sur une vignette pour l’agrandir.

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de face)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de face)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de face, situé Piazza della Signoria, devant le Palazzo Vecchio, réplique en marbre)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de face, situé Piazzale Michelangelo, réplique en bronze)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de face)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue de dos)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (détail main droite et sexe)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (détail pied droit)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (détail tête)

• 

  David de Michel-Ange (vue du côté gauche)

Notes et références

1. ↑ ^a et b Monteira 2017, p. 64.
2. ↑ Charles Seymour, Jr., MichelAngelo’s David : A search for identity, 1967.
3. ↑ Laura Ciuccetti, il David
4. ↑ Délibération conservée aux Archives de l’Opera del Duomo, à Florence.
5. ↑ Ascanio Condivi, dans sa Vita di Michelagnolo Buonarrotti (1553) en fait le récit suivant : « Puisque d’un tel morceau de marbre, ils [les responsables de l’Opera del Duomo] ne pouvaient tirer chose qui fut bonne, il parut possible à un Andrea del Monte a Sansavino de l’obtenir d’eux, et il sollicita qu’ils lui en fassent présent, promettant qu’en y rajoutant certaines pièces, il en extrairait une figure : mais, eux, avant de se disposer à le lui donner, envoyèrent chercher Michel-Ange, et lui narrant le désir et l’avis d’Andrea, et ayant entendu l’opinion qu’il avait d’en tirer une bonne chose, finalement c’est à lui qu’ils le confièrent »
6. ↑ Monteira 2017, p. 65.
7. ↑ Rolf C.Wirtz, Art et Architecture, Florence, Könemann, 1999
8. ↑ Il aurait demandé que sa statue s’élève « dans la lumière de la place ».
9. ↑ Vecce, C., Léonard de Vinci, Flammarion, 1998.
10. ↑ Sans doute parce que, dans la Florence de 1504, encore marquée par le bûcher des Vanités de Savonarole, sa nudité « soulevait l’indignation populaire » Jean-Claude Bologne, « les Arts plastiques et la pudeur », dans Histoire de la pudeur, Olivier Orban, 1986.
11. ↑ On possède ces détails grâce au journal (le Diario Fiorentino) que tint de 1450 à 1516 Luca Landucci.
12. ↑ André Chastel, les Ignudi de Michel-Ange, in Fables, formes, figures, 1978.
13. ↑ Rolf C. Wirtz, Art et architecture, Florence, Könemann, 2000.
14. ↑ Kenneth Clark, le Nu, édition française, 1969.
15. ↑ Leonardo Bruni, Historiarum Florentini populi libri XII, 1420.
16. ↑ En fait, ce choix fut aussi dicté par d’autres motifs, comme le prouve le discours du Filarète, lors du débat sur le futur emplacement du David, le 25 janvier 1504 : « La Judith est un symbole morbide qui ne nous convient pas, à nous dont les insignia[pluriel du substantif latin insigne : emblème] sont la croix et le lys, et il ne sied pas davantage de voir une femme tuer un homme. » (cité par Jaynie Anderson, in Judith, 1997, Éditions du Regard)
17. ↑ Propos et analyses de Delacroix
18. ↑ Monteira 2017, p. 66.

Voir aussi

Sur les autres projets Wikimedia :

• David (Michel-Ange), s

Bibliographie

• Inés Monteira, « Le David de Michel-Ange », Histoire & Civilisations, n^o 27,‎ avril 2017, p. 62-73. .

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michel-Ange)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome

Chapelle Carafa

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome

Madonna and Child Giving Blessings by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1449

 Minerve.

Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique de la Minerve, Rome
Facade de l’église de la Minerve
Présentation
Nom local	Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva
Culte	Catholicisme
Type	Basilique
Début de la construction	1280
Style dominant	Architecture gothique
Site web	http://www.basilicaminerva.it/ [archive]
Géographie
Pays	Italie
Région	Latium
Ville	Rome
Géolocalisation sur la carte : Rome

La basilique sur la Minerve, ou église Sainte-Marie sur la Minerve (Santa Maria sopra Minerva) est une basilique située à Rome, place de la Minerve, dans le quartier du Panthéon.

Fondée au viii^e siècle, reconstruite au xiii^e siècle, souvent modifiée jusqu’au xix^e siècle, c’est une des rares églises romaines de style majoritairement gothique. Comme d’autres églises romaines antiques, elle fut construite sur les fondations d’un lieu de culte antérieur, dédié à la divinité romaine Minerve, ce qui explique son nom.

Devant la façade, se trouve l’obélisque de la piazza della Minerva, installé sur le dos d’un éléphant conçu par le Bernin.

Histoire

On sait peu de chose sur le temple de la Minerve, qui aurait été construit par Pompée vers 50 av. J.-C.. Un temple dédié à Isis et Sérapis aurait également existé sur les lieux actuels de l’église, puisqu’en 1665 un obélisque égyptien fut retrouvé dans le jardin du couvent dominicain attenant à l’église. La crypte de l’église renferme quelques vestiges antiques. Il est probable que le temple ait existé jusqu’au règne du pape Zacharie (741-752), qui offrit le lieu à des moines venus d’Orient. Cette première église du viii^e siècle a aujourd’hui disparu. L’édifice actuel doit son existence aux dominicains, qui en reçurent la propriété du pape Alexandre IV au xiii^e siècle, et y bâtirent une église et un couvent.

En effet, les dominicains voulurent bâtir une église nouvelle et moderne pour abriter leur quartier général romain. Deux religieux, Fra Sisto Fiorentino et Fra Ristoro da Campi, qui avaient travaillé à la construction de l’église Santa Maria Novella de Florence, commencèrent la construction du nouvel édifice en 1280, sous le pontificat de Nicolas III. Le pape Boniface VIIIfinança largement les travaux, et l’église fut achevée en 1370.

Par la suite, elle fut rénovée et modifiée par Carlo Maderno, entre autres, qui lui donna une façade classique, puis de nouveau restaurée au xix^e siècle, dans le style néo-gothique. Les portes de l’église datent du xv^e siècle.

En 1557, le pape Paul IV érige le titre cardinaliceSanta Maria sopra Minerva qui est rattaché à cette église.

Sainte Catherine de Sienne est enterrée dans l’église Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Derrière la sacristie, la chapelle qui lui est dédiée fut construite en 1637 sur la décision du cardinal Antonio Barberini, en transportant les murs de la pièce où la sainte mourut en 1380 depuis le couvent voisin des Dominicaines.

Fra Angelico, le peintre de la Renaissance, mourut dans le couvent attenant et fut enterré dans la chapelle à gauche du chœur. De même, les papes Paul IV, Léon X et Clément VII sont enterrés dans le chœur dans des tombeaux d’Antonio da Sangallo le Jeune réalisés en 1541. En effet, avant la construction de l’église Saint-Jean-Baptiste-des-Florentins, la Minerve était l’église de la nation florentine à Rome et abrite à ce titre de nombreuses sépultures de prélats, seigneurs et citoyens toscans. Étrangement, Diotisalvi Nerone, qui avait pris part à la révolte des Florentins contre Pierre de Médicis, fut enterré en ces lieux, où le rejoignirent par la suite les dépouilles de nombreux membres éminents de la famille des Médicis.

La sacristie de l’église fut le lieu de deux conclaves. Le premier se tint en mars 1431, et aboutit à l’élection du pape Eugène IV, le second, en mars 1447, à celle du pape Nicolas V.

Décoration intérieure

  Chapelle Carafa.

Dans la nef de droite, deux chapelles méritent l’attention : la sixième chapelle contient les tombeaux de membres de la famille de Clément VII par Giacomo della Porta tandis que la chapelle suivante, la chapelle de Raymond de Peñafort, contient celui du cardinal Giovanni Diego de Coca par Andrea Bregno (1477) et une célèbre fresque par Melozzo da Forlì, Jésus-Christ entre deux anges.

Le transept droit abrite la chapelle Carafa, construite de 1489 à 1493 et revêtue de fresques de Filippino Lippi représentant sur les trois murs la vie de Saint Thomas d’Aquin, l’Assomption et l’Annonciation où le saint présente à la Vierge le cardinal Oliviero Carafa. Sur l’une des parois de la chapelle, se trouve le mausolée du pape Paul IV, membre de la famille Carafa, réalisé par Pirro Ligorio dans la deuxième moitié du xvi^e siècle.

Devant le pilastre gauche du chœur figure une statue du Christ ressuscité dit Christ de la Minerve(1519-1521) commencée par Michel-Ange à Florence et achevée par ses élèves. On note un pudique voile doré ajouté après coup sur la statue, la nudité de Jésus étant assez peu répandue dans les églises.

Le cardinal Howard de Norfolk, mort en 1694, y est inhumé. Une dalle de marbre blanc honore sa mémoire.

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  Intérieur de l’église

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  Mur de droite de la chapelle Carafa avec Saint Thomas triomphant des hérétiques de Filippino Lippi.

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  Le Christ rédempteur de Michel-Ange

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  Nef

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  Rosace

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  Chapelle Aldobrandini

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  Chapelle du Rosaire

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  Chapelle Carafa

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  Chapelle Cafarelli

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  Chapelle Capranica

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  Chapelle San Domenico

Façade

À la fin du xvi^e siècle, Carlo Maderno réalise la façade baroque de l’église. Celle-ci a été restaurée à la fin du xix^e siècle et son caractère néo-médiéval préservé depuis.

Cloître

Le cloître, du xiii^e siècle, abrite de magnifiques fresques.

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Voir aussi

Bibliographie

• I. Taurisano, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, 1955.

Articles connexes

• Santa Maria sopra Minerva (titre cardinalice)
• Liste des églises de Rome
• Nécropoles papales hors basilique Saint-Pierre
• Liste des basiliques italiennes

Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva Basilica of Saint Mary above Minerva(in English) Basilica Sanctae Mariae supra Minervam (in Latin)
Santa Maria sopra Minerva façade by Carlo Maderno
Basic information
Location	Rome, Italy
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Year consecrated	1370
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Minor basilica
Leadership	Vacant
Website	www.basilicaminerva.it
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Fra Sisto Fiorentino, Fra Ristoro da Campi, Carlo Maderno
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Gothic
Groundbreaking	1280
Completed	1370
Specifications
Direction of façade	W
Length	101 m (331 ft)
Width	41 m (135 ft)
Width (nave)	15 m (49 ft)

Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Saint Mary above Minerva, Latin: Sancta Maria supra Minervam) is one of the major churches of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers(better known as the Dominicans) in Rome, Italy. The church’s name derives from the fact that the first Christian church structure on the site was built directly over (Italian: sopra) the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva.^[1]

The church is located in Piazza della Minerva one block behind the Pantheon in the Pigna rione of Rome within the ancient district known as the Campus Martius. The present church and disposition of surrounding structures is visible in a detail from the Nolli Map of 1748.

While many other medieval churches in Rome have been given Baroquemakeovers that cover Gothic structures, the Minerva is the only extant example of original Gothic church building in Rome.^[2]Behind a restrained Renaissance style façade^[3] the Gothic interior features arched vaulting that was painted blue with gilded stars and trimmed with brilliant red ribbing in a 19th-century Neo-Gothic restoration.

The church and adjoining convent served at various times throughout its history as the Dominican Order’s headquarters. Today the headquarters have been re-established in their original location at the Roman convent of Santa Sabina. The titulus of Sanctae Mariae supra Minervamis now vacant with the death of Cormac Murphy-O’Connor who died on 1 September 2017.

History

Santa Maria sopra Minerva interior

In Roman times there were three temples in what is now the area surrounding the basilica and former convent buildings: the Minervium, built by Gnaeus Pompey in honour of the goddess Minerva about 50 BC, referred to as Delubrum Minervae; the Iseumdedicated to Isis, and the Serapeum dedicated to Serapis.^[4] Details of the temple to Minerva are not known but recent investigations indicate that a small round Minervium once stood a little further to east on the Piazza of the Collegio Romano.^[1] In 1665 an Egyptian obelisk was found, buried in the garden of the Dominican cloister adjacent to the church. Several other small obelisks were found at different times near the church, known as the Obelisci Isei Campensis, which were probably brought to Rome during the 1st century and grouped in pairs, with others, at the entrances of the temple of Isis.^[5] There are other Roman survivals in the crypt.

The ruined temple is likely to have lasted until the reign of Pope Zachary (741-752), who finally Christianized the site, offering it to Basilian nuns from Constantinople who maintained an oratorium there dedicated to the « Virgin of Minervum ».^[6] The structure he commissioned has disappeared.

In 1255 Pope Alexander IV established a community of converted women on the site. A decade later this community was transferred to the Roman Church of San Pancrazio thereby allowing the Dominicans to establish a convent of friars and a studium conventuale there. The Friars were on site beginning in 1266 but took official possession of the Church in 1275. Aldobrandino Cavalcanti (1279), vicarius Urbis or vicar for Pope Gregory X, and an associate of Thomas Aquinas ratified the donation of Santa Maria sopra Minerva to the Dominicans of Santa Sabina by the sisters of S. Maria in Campo Marzio.^[7] The ensemble of buildings that formed around the church and convent came to be known as the insula sapientae or insula dominicana (island of wisdom or Dominican island).^[8]

The Dominicans began building the present Gothic church in 1280 modelling it on their church in Florence Santa Maria Novella. Architectural plans were probably drawn up during the pontificate of Nicholas III by two Dominican friars, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi.^[1] With the help of funds contributed by Boniface VIII and the faithful the side aisles were completed in the 14th century.

In 1453 church interior construction was finally completed when Cardinal Juan Torquemada ordered that the main nave be covered by a vault that reduced the overall projected height of the church.^[3] In the same year of 1453 Count Francesco Orsini sponsored the construction of the façade at his own expense. However work on the façade remained incomplete until 1725 when it was finally finished by order of Pope Benedict XIII.^[8]

In 1431, the Church and the adjacent Convent of the Dominicans was the site of a Papal conclave. The city of Rome was in an uproar upon the death of Pope Martin V(Colonna), whose family had dominated Roman political life for fifteen years, and enriched themselves on the wealth of the Church. There was fighting in the streets on a daily basis, and the Plaza in front of the Minerva, because of the configuration of streets, houses, church and monastery, could easily be fortified and defended.^[9] The Sacristy of the Church served as the meeting hall for the fourteen cardinals (out of nineteen) who attended the Conclave, which began on 1 March 1431. The dormitory of the monks in the Convent to the immediate north of the Church, served as the living quarters for the cardinals and their refectory and kitchen. On 3 March they elected Cardinal Gabriele Condulmaro, who took the name Eugenius IV.^[10] A second Conclave was held at the Minerva, on 4-6 March 1447, following the death of Pope Eugenius, once again in the midst of disturbances involving the Orsini supporters of Pope Eugenius and his enemies the Colonna. Eighteen cardinals (out of a total of twenty-six) were present and elected Cardinal Tommaso Parentucelli da Sarzana as Pope Nicholas V.^[11]

The Minerva has been a titular church since 1557,^[12] and a minor basilica since 1566. The church’s first titular cardinal was Michele Ghislieri who became Pope Pius V in 1566. He raised the church to the level of minor basilica in that same year.

In the 16th century Giuliano da Sangallo made changes in the choir area, and in 1600 Carlo Maderno enlarged the apse, added Baroque decorations and created the present façade with its pilastered tripartite division in Renaissance style.^[3] Marks on this façade dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries indicate various flood levels of the Tiber 65 feet (20 metres).

Between 1848 and 1855 Girolamo Bianchedi directed an important program of restoration when most of the Baroque additions were removed and the blank walls were covered with neo-gothic frescos giving the interior the Neo-Gothic appearance that it has today.

The basilica’s stained glass windows are mostly from the 19th century. In 1909, the great organ was constructed by the firm of Carlo Vegezzi Bossi. The organ was restored in 1999.^[13]

The inscriptions found in S. Maria sopra Minerva have been collected and published by Vincenzo Forcella.^[14]

Convent and Studium

In 1288 the theology component of the provincial curriculum for the education of the friars was relocated from the studium provinciale at the Roman basilica of Santa Sabina to the studium conventuale at Santa Maria sopra Minerva which was redesignated as a studium particularis theologiae.^[15] At various times in its history this studium served as a studium generale for the Roman province of the Order.

College of Saint Thomas

The late 16th century saw the studium at Santa Maria sopra Minerva undergo transformation. Thomas Aquinas, who had been canonized in 1323 by Pope John XXII, was proclaimed the fifth Latin Doctor of the Church by Pius V in 1567. To honor this great doctor, in 1577 the Spanish Dominican Msgr. Juan Solano, O.P., former bishop of Cusco, Peru, generously funded the reorganization of the studium at the convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva on the model of the College of St. Gregory at Valladolid in his native Spain.^[16] The result of Solano’s initiative, which underwent structural change shortly before Solano’s death in 1580, was the College of Saint Thomas (Latin: Collegium Divi Thomae) at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). The college occupied several existing convent structures and new construction was required. At that time the convent underwent considerable reconstruction to accommodate the college and the cloister was redesigned so that side chapels could be added to the church’s northern flank. A detail from the Nolli Map of 1748 gives some idea of the disposition of buildings when the Minerva convent housed the College of St. Thomas.

Offices of the Inquisition

On 14 September 1628, by papal decree, the convent of Minerva was designated as the seat of the Congregation of the Holy Office. It thus became the place where the tribunal of the Roman Inquisition set up by Paul III in 1542 held the Secret Congregation meetings during which the sentences were read out.^[17] It was in a room of the Minerva Convent on 22 June 1633 that the father of modern astronomy Galileo Galilei, after being tried for heresy, abjured his scientific theses in favour of the Copernican theory.^[17]

In the late 18th and early 19th century the suppression of religious orders hampered the mission of the Order and the College of St. Thomas. During the French occupation of Rome from 1797 to 1814 the College declined and even briefly closed its doors from 1810 to 1815.^[18] The Order gained control of the convent once again in 1815, only for it to be expropriated by the Italian government in 1870.

In 1873 the Collegium Divi Thomæ de Urbe was forced to leave the Minerva for good, eventually being relocated at the convent of Saints Dominic and Sixtus in 1932 and being transformed into the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.

The Dominicans eventually were allowed to return to the Minerva and part of the convent.

Interior

Among several important works of art in the church are Michelangelo‘s statue Cristo della Minerva (1521) and the late 15th-century (1488–93) cycle of frescos in the Carafa Chapel by Filippino Lippi. The basilica also houses many funerary monuments including the tombs of Doctor of the Church Saint Catherine of Siena(1347-1380), who was a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic; the Dominican friar Blessed John of Fiesole (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, born Guido di Piero) better known as Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455); and ornate monuments to the Medici Popes: Leo X (born Giovanni de Medici, c. 1475-1521) and Clement VII (born Giulio de Medici, c. 1478-1534), designed by Baccio Bandinelli. ^[19]

Carafa Chapel

 Carafa Chapel

Carafa chapel in 2010

The Carafa Chapel, with late 15th-century frescoes (1488–1493) by Filippino Lippi, was commissioned by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa in honour of Saint Thomas Aquinas. There are two Marian scenes, the Annunciation and the Assumption; over the altar is his St Thomas presenting Cardinal Carafa to the Blessed Virgin, and on the right-hand wall his Glory of St Thomas. It was inaugurated in 1493, and is also known as the Chapel of St Thomas Aquinas. The relics of St Thomas Aquinas were kept in this chapel until 1511, when they were moved to Naples. Designed by Pirro Ligorio in 1559, the tomb of Gian Pietro Carafa, who became Pope Paul IV in 1555, is also in the chapel.

Cappella Capranica

The chapel is also known as the Chapel of the Rosary. The stucco ceiling was made in 1573 by Marcello Venusti. The chapel contains the tomb of Cardinal Domenico Capranica by Andrea Bregno.

Michelangelo’s Cristo della Minerva

Michelangelo‘s Christ the Redeemer near the altar

The Cristo della Minerva, also known as Christ the Redeemer or Christ Carrying the Cross, is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, finished in 1521, located to the left of the main altar.

Cappella Aldobrandini

The Aldobrandini chapel was designed by Giacomo della Porta but it is Carlo Maderno that completed della Porta’s project (after 1602). It was consecrated in 1611. The canvas depicting the Institution of the Eucharist and dated from 1594 is by Federico Fiori. The monument to the parents of Pope Clement VIII, Salvestro Aldobrandini and Luisa Dati, is by Giacomo della Porta. The first Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament to be approved by the Holy See was established in this chapel, with St. Ignatius of Loyola as one of its earliest members. This chapel contains the Federico Barocci altarpiece depicting the Communion of the Apostles.

Cappella Raymond of Penyafort

The chapel dedicated to Raymond of Penyafort houses the tomb of Cardinal Juan Díaz de Coca, by Andrea Bregno. The ceiling fresco Jesus Christ as a Judge, between two angels is by Melozzo da Forlì.

Other major artworks

• Annunciation (1485), by Antoniazzo Romano – shows Cardinal Juan de Torquemada OP presenting girls who received a dowry by his Guild of the Annunciation to the Virgin. The cardinal is buried nearby.
• The tombs of the Popes Leo X and Clement VII by Baccio Bandinelli (1541) ^[19]
• Tomb of Urban VII
• Tomb of Fra Angelico, by Isaia da Pisa (1455)
• Tomb of Guillaume Durand the Elder, Bishop of Mende (1285-1296), the 13th-century canonist; signed by Giovanni di Cosma (1296)
• Memorial to Maria Raggi, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (between 1647–53)
• Tomb of Francesco Tornabuoni (1480), one of the best works by Mino da Fiesole

Burials

Sarcophagus of Saint Catherine of Siena beneath the High Altar

Saint Catherine of Siena is buried here (except her head, which is in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena). Beyond the sacristy, the room where she died in 1380 was reconstructed here by Antonio Barberiniin 1637. This room is the first transplanted interior, and the progenitor of familiar 19th and 20th century museum « period rooms. » The frescoes by Antoniazzo Romano that decorated the original walls, however, are now lost.

The famous early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico died in the adjoining convent and was buried in the church. (He had painted a fresco cycle in the cloister on the initiative of Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, but those paintings have not survived.)

Before the construction of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the Minerva served as the church in Rome of the Florentines, and therefore it contains numerous tombs of prelates, nobles and citizens coming from that Tuscan city. For example, the elaborate tombs of the Medici Popes – Leo X (Giovanni de Medici) and Clement VII(Giulio de Medici) – are located here, designed by Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli. ^[19] Curiously, Diotisalvi Neroni, a refugee who had taken part in the plot against Piero de’ Medici, is also buried in the church.

The tombs of Popes Urban VII and Paul IV are located in Santa Maria soprano Minerva, as are the Cardinal-nephew of Pope Nicholas III Latino Malabranca Orsini, Michel Mazarin (Archbishop of Aix) who was the brother of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the Byzantine philosopher George of Trebizond, and two Renaissance theorists and practitioners, Filarete in architecture and Mariano Santo in surgery.

Cardinal Astorgio Agnensi has his tomb monument in the cloister.

List of cardinal-priests from Santa Maria sopra Minerva

• 1557–1566 Michele Ghisleri (later Pope Pius V)
• 1566–1589 Michele Bonelli
• 1589–1602 Girolamo Bernerio
• 1602–1608 François-Marie Thaurusi
• 1621–1639 Giulio Roma
• 1643–1654 Giambattista Altieri
• 1655–1679 Jean François Paul de Gondi
• 1679–1694 Philip Howard of Norfolk
• 1694–1699 José Saenz d’Aguirre
• 1701–1729 Louis Antoine de Noailles
• 1729–1730 Agustín Pipia
• 1730–1747 Philipp Ludwig von Sinzendorf
• 1747–1762 Daniele Delfino
• 1758–1770 Giuseppe Pozzobonelli
• 1770–1782 Scipione Borghese
• 1783–1787 Tommaso Maria Ghilini
• 1787–1800 Vincenzo Ranuzzi
• 1801–1814 Giulio Maria della Somaglia
• 1816–1822 Francesco Fontana
• 1829–1832 Benedetto Barberini
• 1832–1836 Giuseppe Maria Velzi
• 1838–1850 Antonio Francesco Orioli
• 1850–1854 Raffaele Fornari
• 1857–1860 Francesco Gaude
• 1861–1864 Gaetano Bedini
• 1868–1870 Matteo Eustachio Gonella
• 1875–1885 John McCloskey
• 1887–1894 Zeferino González y Díaz Tuñón
• 1895–1896 Egidio Mauri
• 1896–1909 Serafino Cretoni
• 1911–1918 John Murphy Farley
• 1919–1922 Teodoro Valfre di Bonzo
• 1922–1926 Stanislas Touchet
• 1926–1929 Giuseppe Gamba
• 1930–1938 Giulio Serafini
• 1939–1946 Eugène Tisserant
• 1946–1965 Clemente Micara
• 1967–1974 Antonio Samorè
• 1976–1977 Dino Staffa
• 1979–1998 Anastasio Ballestrero
• 2001–2017 Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

Other churches with this name

In Assisi, another church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva was built in the 16th century within the surviving cella of a late Republican temple of Minerva. Its Corinthianportico still stands.^[20]

Minerva’s Pulcino

 Elephant and Obelisk

The Pulcino della Minerva, the famous elephant sculpture by Bernini and Ercole Ferrata, making the base of one of Rome’s eleven Egyptian obelisks.

In front of the church there is one of the most curious monuments of Rome, the so-called Pulcino della Minerva. It is a statue designed by the Baroque era sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (and executed by his pupil Ercole Ferrata in 1667) of an elephant as the supporting base for the Egyptian obelisk found in the Dominicans’ garden. It is the shortest of the eleven Egyptian obelisks in Rome and is said to have been one of two obelisks moved from Sais, where they were built during the 589 BC-570 BC reign of the pharaoh Apries, from the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. The two obelisks were brought to Rome by Diocletian, during his reign as emperor from 284 to 305, for placement at the Temple of Isis, which stood nearby. The Latin inscription on the base, chosen by the pope who commissioned the sculpture to support the obelisk found on the site, Alexander VII, is said to represent that « …a strong mind is needed to support a solid knowledge ».

The inspiration for the unusual composition came from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili(« Poliphilo’s Dream of the Strife of Love »), an unusual 15th century novel probably by Francesco Colonna. The novel’s main character meets an elephant made of stone carrying an obelisk, and the accompanying woodcut illustration^[21] in the book is quite similar to Bernini’s design for the base for the obelisk. The curious placement of the obelisk through the body of the elephant is identical.

The sturdy appearance of the structure earned it the popular nickname of « Porcino » (« Piggy ») for a while. The name for the structure eventually changed to Pulcino, the Italian for a small or little « chick ». This may have been a reference to the comparatively short height of the obelisk or, an obscure reference to the major charity of the Dominicans to assist young women needing dowries, who made a procession in the courtyard every year. The latter were once depicted in a local painting as three tiny figures with the Virgin Mary presenting purses to them.

Cultural references

The elephant and obelisk monument and the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva feature in the novel ‘The Tomb of Alexander’ by Sean Hemingway. In the novel it is claimed that a secret passageway beneath the church leads to a chamber beneath the elephant monument which contains the body of Alexander the Great, placed there in the 17th century by Pope Alexander VII. This is entirely a work of fiction and the theory is unproven.

Gallery

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  Tomb of Giovanni Vigevano by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1618–1620

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  Memorial to Maria Raggiby Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1647–1653

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  Tomb of Fra Angelico, by Isaia da Pisa, 1455

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  Cristo della Minerva by Michelangelo, 1519–1520

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  High Altar

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  Vault

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  Basilica interior

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  Madonna and Child Giving Blessings by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1449

• Roman Catholic Marian churches

Notes

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Grundmann & Fürst 1998, pp. 96–97
2. Jump up^ Unlike Naples or Palermo, Rome was never bombed in World War II, which in those cities led to some overnight « re-Gothification’. The Gothic Revival church of Sacro Cuore del Suffragio, built 1890-1917, is an anomaly inspired by the Duomo of Milan.
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b c « S. Maria sopra Minerva » (in Italian). Ministry of the Interior. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
4. Jump up^ « Official website of Santa Maria sopra Minerva » (in Italian). Retrieved 2009-03-15.
5. Jump up^ Platner, Samuel Ball (1929), « Obeliscus Isei Campensis », A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Oxford, pp. 368–369
6. Jump up^ Masetti 1855, p. 2
7. Jump up^ Bagliani, Agostino Paravicini. « Cavalcanti, Aldobrandino (Ildebrandinus) ». Treccani.it- The Italian Encyclopedia (in Italian). Retrieved 2013-02-23.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b « EUROPEAN HERITAGE DAYS 2012 – « ITALY TREASURE OF EUROPE » » (in Italian). Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2013-12-19.
9. Jump up^ Ferdinand Gregorovius, The History of Rome in the Middle Ages (translated from the fourth German edition by A. Hamilton) Volume 7 part 1 [Book XIII, Chapter 1] (London 1900) 22-26.
10. Jump up^ J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante and Conclave of 1431. Retrieved: 2016-03-13.
11. Jump up^ J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante and Conclave of 1447. Retrieved: 2016-03-13.
12. Jump up^ David M. Cheney, Catholic-Hierarchy: Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Retrieved: 2016-03-13.
13. Jump up^ The Vegezzi Bossi Organ at the Minerva. Retrieved: 2016-03-13.
14. Jump up^ V. Forcella, Inscrizioni delle chese e d’ altre edifici di Roma, dal secolo XI fino al secolo XVI Volume I. Roma: Tipografia delle scienze mathematiche e fisiche, 1869, pp. 409-539.
15. Jump up^ Mulchahey, Marian Michèle (1998). First the bow is bent in study »: Dominican education before 1350. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. p. 323. ISBN 9780888441324. Retrieved 2011-05-26.
16. Jump up^ Longo O.P., Carlo (1996). « J. Solano O.P. (1505 c.-1580) e la fondazione del « collegium S. Thomae de Urbe » (1577) ». La formazione integrale domenicana al servizio della Chiesa e della società. Atti del Congresso internazionale, Pontificia università S. Tommaso, Roma, 23-24 Novembre 1994 (in Italian). Edizioni Studio Domenicano. ISBN 9788870942460. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
17. ^ Jump up to:^a b « Palazzo del Seminario (The Seminario Palace) ». Chamber of Deputies. Retrieved 2013-12-19.
18. Jump up^ Renz, Christopher J. (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930-1980). Dominican School. p. 43. ISBN 9781883734183. Retrieved 2011-04-24.
19. ^ Jump up to:^a b c http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336013
20. Jump up^ « Temple of Minerva ». Assisi On-line. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
21. Jump up^  Media related to Elephant hypnerno at Wikimedia Commons (illustration from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili)

Bibliography

• Silvia Koci Montanari, Le Chiese papali a Roma: sulle tracce dei sepolcri dei Papi(Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000), pp. 243 ff.
• Giancarlo Palmerio and Gabriella Villetti, Storia edilizia di S. Maria sopra Minerva in Roma, 1275-1870 (Roma: Viella, 1989).
• Gianfranco Spagnesi, Antonio da Sangallo il giovane: la vita e l’opera (Roma: Centro di studi per la storia dell’architettura, 1986), pp. 109-115 (tombs of Leo X and Clement VII).
• Grundmann, Stefan; Fürst, Ulrich (1998), The Architecture of Rome: an architectural history in 400 individual presentations, Stuttgart: Ed. Axel Menges, ISBN 3-930698-60-9
• Masetti, Pio Tommaso (1855), Memorie istoriche della chiesa di S. Maria sopra Minerva e de’ suoi moderni restauri (in Italian), Rome: Tip. di B. Morini, OCLC 24239739

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_sopra_Minerva

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Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI Adoration de l’Enfant, l’Ermitage

Giacobbe Giusti, FILIPPINO LIPPI Adoration de l’Enfant, l’Ermitage

Filippino Lippi (Prato, 1457 – Florence, 1504) est un peintre italien de l’école florentine de la Renaissance, le fils du peintre Fra Filippo Lippi et d’une ancienne carmélite Lucrezia Buti qui lui servait de modèle.

 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippino_Lippi

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