Santa Maria Sopra Minerva and Sant'Ignazio

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is worth seeking out since it is the only significant Gothic church in the city and has a treasury of lovely art inside from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Even though Rome has been a religious and artistic center for 2,500 years, during the Middle Ages it was relatively unimportant and produced little in the way of Gothic architecture that survived, except for this impressive church. Northern Europe was far more vibrant at that time. The city become so unimportant during the 14th century that seven popes who ruled the church from 1305-1378 lived in Avignon in the south of France. Though the Renaissance began in Florence at this time, Rome continued to be left out of the picture and didn’t regain artistic importance until the beginning of the 16th century with the arrival of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante and others. The city once again became a political and artistic leader for the next two centuries.

Notice the whimsical statue of an elephant in front designed by Bernini: it sports a very long trunk and has an Egyptian obelisk growing out of his back. As you walk into the church you’ll notice the pointed arches and vast space so typical of the Gothic; the interior is built in the Latin cross style with the nave longer than the transept, while the ceiling is painted like a blue heaven with stars.

Painted ceilings might seem like a modern addition, but they were common in Gothic churches and had motifs similar to the one found in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Unfortunately, very few of those paintings have survived. We have gotten used to the bare, gray stone interior of Gothic churches, but in their original state they were usually decorated with bright, colorful scenes. It is relatively dark in here because the windows are smaller than the French Gothic windows found, for example, in Notre Dame, which has large panels of stained glass that allow light to flood in. Inside, this Dominican church is a mix of Gothic architecture with some décor from the Renaissance and later, including a relatively crude statue by Michelangelo of Christ with a cross next to the altar.

Have a good look at the spectacular fresco of The Annunciation in the Carafa Chapel in the back right corner, painted by Filipino Lippi between 1489 and 1493, wherein Mary is told she’s going to be the mother of Jesus, a popular theme in Catholic art. Be sure to drop a coin in the light box to see the bright colors.

Pope Leo X is buried in this chapel and Pope Paul IV is buried elsewhere in the church, which is curious because these two 16th century popes were partly responsible, respectively for the origins of the Protestant Reformation (in no small part due to Leo’s extravagances) and the extreme backlash against the Protestants led by Paul, with the enlarged Inquisition and opposition to Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Several more works of the Baroque worth finding: a relief sculpture by Bernini of Sister Maria Raggi, on the second-from-the-front column along the left aisle, and the largest chapel on the right side, sixth from the front, highly-decorated by Maderno and della Porta.

The church is lined with many chapels along both sides to serve various purposes: expand the size of the interior, allow more light to come in, provide more places for display of artworks, and raise money by creating places for donors to be memorialized, helping the rich get to heaven. Chapels primarily furnish quiet alcoves for silent prayers, while also generating work opportunities for priests who occasionally conduct services there. The row of chapels creates a beautiful space, with the paintings, arches, architecture, windows and sculpture all blending nicely together.

The small chapel by the back door is quite appealing with its mix of three major art periods – the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. The Gothic is represented by tombs on the wall dating from the Middle Ages.

A Renaissance tomb in the floor holds Fra Angelico, an important 15th century Florentine artist most famous for a series of frescoes in the San Marco Monastery in Florence and for church paintings throughout Italy. His epitaph says “I gave all I had to the poor.” The Baroque is embodied in the elaborate decor of flying angels and carved cupids at the back of the chapel, arranged with asymmetry, energy and motion. The tomb of St. Catherine of Siena is also located next to this Chapel. [More information: Piazza della Minerva]

A handy back-door exit from this chapel will save you from walking all the way around the block, so take advantage and you will soon find yourself approaching our next under-appreciated site, Sant’Ignazio. But first, a couple of possible digressions for food and an art gallery.

Food note: If you are hungry there is a little, no-name pizzeria worth visiting behind the right side of SM Sopra Minerva near the corner of Via del Gesu and Pie di Marmo. So small, no sign, but delicious.

GALLERIA DORIA PAMPHILJ

Detour to one of Rome’s best palace museums, three blocks (250m) east on Via del Corso, the Galleria Doria Pamphilj with paintings by Velazquez, Titian, Raphael, Caracci, Caravaggio, Lippi, and a Bernini bust. This is housed in a grand palace which can be visited in under one hour. Saturday mornings at 11:00 your visit is enhanced by live music. Larger than many European royal palaces and still the residence of the Doria Pamphilj family, it is the most important inhabited building in Rome.

The Doria Gallery resembles the other Roman collections in possessing examples of different schools, but the founders have shown a preference for works of the 17th century. Among the most interesting of the older paintings will be noted the Madonnas by Niccolo Rondinelli, a little-known follower of Giov. Bellini. Raphael, the prince of cinquecentists, is represented by the portraits of two Venetian scholars. Titian’s Daughter of Herodias is an admirable Venetian work.

The colouring of the portrait of Pope Innocent X., by Velazquez, the chief boast of the collection, is strikingly rich; the skillful manner in which the three shades of red are blended should be particularly noticed. The landscape-painters of the 17th century are also well represented. In the landscapes of Annibale Caracci we observe a conflict between historic and scenic imagination, and the obtrusion of the former at the expense of harmony of effect. Claude Lorrain’s landscapes are justly admired. and the landscape with the temple of Apollo may be regarded as models of ideal landscape; the effect is produced by the beauty of the lines and the skillful gradations of distance.

SANT’IGNAZIO

If you did visit the Pamphilij Gallery, you could get to Sant’ Ignazio by walking along via del Corso a couple of blocks, then turn left on Via del Caracita to the church. Or, if you skipped Pamphilj, when you exited the back of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a left turn will quickly bring you to the front of Sant’Ignazio.

Inside, you will be astonished by the illusionistic ceiling mural painted during the 17th century by the Jesuit brother, Andrea Pozzo, which is the commanding reason why you must enter. The vivid three-dimensional perspective will shock your eyes with its realistic depiction of the heavens opening above and its painted architecture that blends magically with the building so you don’t know where one begins and the other ends. Sant’Ignazio was built during the Counter Reformation between 1626 and 1650. The ceiling paintings were added slightly later, after 1685, and the church was consecrated in 1722.

The church is part of the Jesuit College, the main university for training Jesuit priests and brothers prior to sending them on their mission of teaching throughout the world. The Jesuits order was deeply involved with the Counter Reformation, working to recover the prestige of the church, spread the faith worldwide, and compete with the growing Protestant threat.

Artistic, architectural and theatrical creations were part of the Church’s strategy to entertain the public and encourage them to keep attending mass. Sant’Ignazio is one of the two main churches of the Jesuit order in Rome; the other, il Gesu, also has a wonderful ceiling mural with deep perspective and is on our itinerary for Walk Five, on the way to the Colosseum.

When you look up at the architectural details painted on this special ceiling, there is a strange effect: it seems that all of the columns and walls are curved, leaning over as if the building is about to collapse rather than standing up straight the way a building should. But if you stand on one particular spot in the middle of the church, designated by an orange circle on the floor, everything painted on the ceiling lines up in correct perspective and those curved columns are magically straightened. Keep looking up as you walk away from that orange spot and you will see the columns start to bend over again. If you stand anywhere else in the church, the columns painted on the ceiling all appear to be curved and leaning in. This is one of the greatest tricks of illusion to be found in Rome, further enhanced by the real windows and actual arches that are part of the ceiling, so you are not quite sure what is real and what is painted. The shallow dome at the crossing was also painted by Pozzo to create an illusion that it was a normal high dome.

This stereoscopic spectacle provides a delightful frame for the middle of the ceiling, which is swirling with saints, angels, flowing garments, dangling legs, clouds, blue sky and a hint of heaven seemingly many miles above the earth. As you look up you see straight through the ceiling into a distant perspective.

A dark-robed figure is rising to the heavens: St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits experiencing his apotheosis. Pozzo painted this elaborate three-dimensional mural in trompe l’oeil (trick the eye), reportedly using a grid network of strings stretched between the upper walls to help transfer his design from sketchbooks to the ceiling. If all this looking up makes you dizzy and you’re feeling tired from the walk so far, there are convenient side benches along the nave to provide a fine respite while continuing to soak up this masterpiece.

There are also wonderful tombs with lapis lazuli coffins in the transept chapels glorifying several saints. Note the marble angels, bas relief wall carvings and green spiral stone columns, and more illusionistic ceiling murals painted by Pozzo. The Ludovico family is buried in an elaborate chapel on the right, behind the main altar, in a tomb decorated with beautiful Baroque sculptures of Pope Gregory 15th in the center and his nephew Cardinal Ludovico. They were important Church figures in the 17th century.

Upon leaving the church walk to the far right corner of the small piazza and have a look back at the façade made of white travertine stone, with its fancy scrolls on both upper sides so typical of the 17th century.

Notice the stage-setting quality of its small piazza in front, where it seems an outdoor opera could begin any moment. In the piazza you find one of Rome’s few building ensembles of rococo design, with graceful curved facades unified in earth-toned colors. Surprisingly, the central palace is actually a police station.

Piazza di Pietra

Exit that corner of the piazza along the narrow pedestrian alley to Piazza di Pietra for a quick look at some very old Corinthian columns, part of an ancient temple that once stood here.

The newer building behind the columns was an 18th-century Customs House, then Stock Exchange, and lately, an occasional art gallery. Several pedestrian lanes lead out from this peaceful little square, one of which will take you to the very busy Via del Corso.

Via del Corso is one of the main retail streets in the heart of downtown Rome, where most shops now stay open all day instead of closing from noon until 4:00pm for siesta, a laid-back tradition most shops in the rest of town still honor. Lined primarily with clothing stores for young people, the Corso is a good spot for mid-day browsing if you are so inclined, but is more interesting in the late afternoon/early evening when the locals are out in force.

Our walk now crosses Via del Corso, always busy with cars, trucks and scooters, so be careful and use the traffic light signal to cross. Continue straight ahead on the pedestrian lane, Via delle Muratte, sometimes embelished with souvenir kiosks offering a large assortment of postcards, posters, T-shirts and other fun things to see.

Walk continues to Trevi Fountain, two blocks further ahead.