Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Mosaic of the vault of the chapel of San Zeno (IX century)
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Byzantine mosaics, years 817-824 – Santa Prassede Church in Rome
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede | ||
Entrée principale de la basilique |
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Présentation | ||
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Nom local | Basilica di Santa Prassede | |
Culte | Catholique romain | |
Type | Basilique mineure | |
Début de la construction | viiie siècle | |
Site web | www.stpudenziana.org [archive] | |
Géographie | ||
Pays | Italie | |
Région | Latium | |
Ville | Rome | |
Géolocalisation sur la carte : Rome |
La basilique Santa Prassede (en français : Basilique Sainte-Praxède) est une basilique mineureromainesituée dans le rionede Monti sur la via di Santa Prassedeprès de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Majeure. Elle est dédiée à la sainte romaine Praxède.
Historique
La basilique Santa Prassede fut construite principalement au viiie siècle sur commande du pape Adrien Ier en 780. Elle est élevée sur les ruines d’une structure datant du ve siècle consacrée à recueillir les restes de sainte Praxède et sainte Pudentienne qui moururent en martyres et étaient les filles de saint Pudens, considéré comme le premier converti chrétien de saint Paul à Rome. La basilique a été agrandie et décorée d’importantes mosaïques par le pape Pascal Ier vers 822. Ce dernier fit retrouver les os de nombreux martyrs chrétiens sous les Romains et les transporta dans cette église.
Le titre cardinaliceSainte Praxède a été établi par le pape Évaristevers 112 et assigné à cette église plusieurs siècles plus tard.
Architecture et décorations
L’architecture extérieure de cette église est de nos jours quasiment invisible en raison de ses restructurations successives au cours du temps et de son intégration au sein de différents immeubles et échoppes sur ces flancs. L’entrée principale se fait par une porte latérale à droite, et la façade n’est visible que depuis une petite cour accessible par l’intérieur de l’église. La basilique est en riche de très nombreuses mosaïques paléochrétiennes réalisées sous le pape Pascal Ier. La chapelle latérale dite de Saint-Zénon (San Zenone) est particulièrement intéressante car elle accueille une représentation du Jardin du Paradis (Giardino del Paradiso). Comme beaucoup de basiliques paléochrétiennes, cette église possède un ciborium.
Selon la tradition légendaire1, la basilique abrite un fragment de la colonne de la Flagellation du Christ (inventée par sainte Hélène, mère de l’empereur Constantin) en marbre noir veiné de blanc, contre laquelle il fut torturé avant la Crucifixion. Cette relique attribuée à Jésus a été apportée à Rome par le cardinal Jean Colonna en 12232. Dans la crypte se trouve le tombeau de Sainte Praxède et une antique fresque la représentant.
La basilique abrite également la tombe de l’évêque Giovanni Battista Santoni décorées par un buste qui constitue la première œuvre du Bernin.
Notes et références
- (en) Marcello Craveri, The life of Jesus, Secker & Warburg, , p. 404
- Pierre Maraval, Lieux saints et pèlerinages d’Orient, Cerf, , p. 257-258
Source
- (en) Cet article est partiellement ou en totalité issu de l’article de Wikipédia en anglais intitulé « Santa Prassede » (voir la liste des auteurs).
Basilica of Saint Praxedes Basilica di Santa Prassede all’Esquilino(in Italian) Basilica Sanctae Praxedis (in Latin) Giacobbe Giusti, Basilique Santa Prassede |
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Ceiling of the San Zeno chapel.
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Basic information | |
Location | Rome, Italy |
Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Country | Italy |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Minor basilica |
Leadership | Paul Poupard |
Website | Chiesa Rettoria Santa Prassede |
Architectural description | |
Architectural type | Church |
Groundbreaking | 780 |
Completed | 822 |
Specifications | |
Direction of façade | SSE |
Length | 45 metres (148 ft) |
Width | 30 metres (98 ft) |
Width (nave) | 17 metres (56 ft) |
The Basilica of Saint Praxedes(Latin: Basilica Sanctae Praxedis, Italian: Basilica di Santa Prassede all’Esquillino), commonly known in Italian as Santa Prassede, is an ancient titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, located near the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major. The current Cardinal Priest of Titulus Sancta Praxedis is Paul Poupard.
History
The church in its current form was commissioned by Pope Hadrian Iaround the year 780, and built on top of the remains of a 5th-century structure and was designed to house the bones of Saint Praxedes(Italian: S. Prassede) and Saint Pudentiana (Italian: S. Pudenziana), the daughters of Saint Pudens, traditionally St. Peter‘s first Christian convert in Rome. The two female saints were murdered for providing Christian burial for early martyrs in defiance of Roman law. The basilica was enlarged and decorated by Pope Paschal I in c. 822.
Pope Paschal, who reigned 817-824, was at the forefront of the Carolingian Renaissance started and advocated by the emperor Charlemagne. They desired to get back to the foundations of Christianity theologically and artistically. Paschal, thus, began two, linked, ambitious programs: the recovery of martyrs’ bones from the catacombs of Rome and an almost unprecedented church building campaign. Paschal dug up numerous skeletons and transplanted them to this church. The Titulus S. Praxedis was established by Pope Evaristus, around 112.
The inscriptions found in Santa Prassede, a valuable source illustrating the history of the church, have been collected and published by Vincenzo Forcella.[1]
The church provided the inspiration for Robert Browning‘s poem « The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed’s Church. »
Interior
The main altarpiece is a canvas of St Praxedes Gathering the Blood of the Martyrs (c. 1730-35) by Domenico Muratori.
Mosaic
The most famous element of the church is the mosaic decorative program. Paschal hired a team of professional mosaicists to complete the work in the apse, the apsidal arch, and the triumphal arch. In the apse, Jesus is in the center, flanked by Sts. Peter and Paul who present Prassede and Pudenziana to God. On the far left is Paschal, with the square halo of the living, presenting a model of the church as an offering to Jesus. Below runs an inscription of Paschal’s, hoping that this offering will be sufficient to secure his place in heaven.
On the apsidal arch are twelve men on each side, holding wreaths of victory, welcoming the souls into heaven. Above them are symbols of the four Gospel writers: Mark, the lion; Matthew, the man; Luke, the bull; and John, the eagle, as they surround a lamb on a throne, a symbol of Christ’s eventual return to Earth.
Santa Prassede (Praxedes), Smarthistory |
Those mosaics, as well as those in the Chapel of Saint Zeno, a funerary chapel which Pope Paschal built for his mother, Theodora,[2] are the best-known aspects of the church. Also noteworthy are ancient frescoes. Ascending a spiral staircase, one enters a small room, covered in scaffolding; on the wall is a fresco cycle, dating most likely from the 8th century. The frescoes probably depict the life-cycle of the name saint of the church, Praxedes.[citation needed]
Pillar of the Flogging
Santa Prassede also houses an alleged segment of the pillar upon which Jesus was flogged and tortured before his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The relic is alleged to have been retrieved in the early 4th century by Saint Helena (mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I) who at the age of eighty undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where she founded churches for Christian worship and collected relics associated with the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary.
Among these legendary relics retrieved by Helena, which included pieces of the True Cross (now venerated at St. Peter’s Basilica[3]with fragments in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, also in Rome) and wood from the Jesus’ crib enshrined at S. Maria Maggiore. The authenticity of these relics, including the Santa Prassede pillar, is disputed by historians and Christians alike, due to lack of forensic evidence and the proliferation of falsified relics during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.[citation needed]
Titulus
Among known titulars of this see are Lambertus Scannabecchi (later Pope Honorius II, c. 1099), Ubaldo Allucingoli (later Pope Lucius III, 1141), Alain de Coëtivy (1448), Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte (later Pope Julius III, 1542-1543), Saint Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), Rafael Merry del Val (1903-1930).[4]
Gallery
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Pope Paschal I, presenting a model of the church to Christ. His square haloindicates he was alive when the mosaic was made.
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Funerary monument of Bishop Giovanni Battista Santoni(† 1592). Bust by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini(c. 1612).
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Tomb of Giovanni Carbone(14th century)
References
- Jump up^ V. Forcella, Inscrizioni delle chese e d’ altre edifici di Roma, dal secolo XI fino al secolo XVIVolume II (Roma: Fratelli Bencini, 1873), pp. 489-524.
- Jump up^ « The Chapel of Saint Zeno at Santa Prassede: mosaic revival and survival ». ArtTrav. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
- Jump up^ Basilica of St. Peter,
- Jump up^ S. Prassede (Cardinal Titular Church)
Bibliography
- B. M. Apollonj Ghetti, Santa Prassede (Roma: Edizioni Roma, 1961).
- Gillian Vallance Mackie, The Iconographic Programme of the Zeno Chapel at Santa Prassede, Rome [M.A. University of Victoria (B.C., Canada) 1985].
- Marchita B. Mauck, “The Mosaic of the Triumphal Arch of Santa Prassede: A Liturgical Interpretation.” Speculum 62-64 (1987), pp. 813-828.
- Rotraut Wisskirchen, Mosaikprogramm von Santa Prassede in Rom (Münster: Aschendorff, 1990).
- Anna Maria Affanni, La chiesa di Santa Prassede: la storia, il rilievo, il restauro (Viterbo: BetaGamma, [2006]) [Testimonianze di restauri, 5].
- Mary M. Schaefer, Women in Pastoral Office: The Story of Santa Prassede, Rome (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013).
- Maurizio Caperna, La basilica di Santa Prassede: il significato della vicenda architettonica(Roma: Edizioni Quasar, 2013).
- Benedictine Monks of Vallombroso, The Basilica of Saint Praxedes, in memory of their eighth century of presence at Saint Praxedes: 1198-1998(Genova, Italia: B.N. Marconi, Fourth Edition, January 2014).
Basilica di Santa Prassede (Roma). |
- Kunsthistorie.com, photogallery.
- Santa Prassede Mosaics
- High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of Santa Prassede | Art Atlas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Prassede
The Chapel of Saint Zeno at Santa Prassede: mosaic revival and survival