Santi Domenico e Sisto
Santi Domenico e Sisto (Latin: Sanctorum Dominici et Sixti ), also San Sisto Nuovo , is a church in Rome . She is known for the unusual staircase and for her ceiling painting.
location
The church is located in the 1st Roman Rione Monti , about 150 meters west of the Trajan's Forum . The address is Via Panisperna, Largo Angelicum, 1, 00185 Roma. It is located on the area of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas ("Angelicum").
architecture
Building history
The current church building is the successor to the medieval church of Santa Maria a Bagnanapoli as a convent church for the Dominican Sisters of San Sisto Vecchio and is therefore also called San Sisto Nuovo. The construction activities dragged on over a period of almost 100 years, in the end a total of eight architects and builders were involved. Therefore, the attribution of individual components to those involved is difficult and not entirely clear. The design comes from Domenico de Mezzana , he probably built the floor plan and parts of the choir. Around 1579 Giacomo della Porta probably continued the construction, he probably built the presbytery , the tower and parts of the nave. After della Porta's death in 1602, Nicolo Torriani took over the construction management from 1609 and completed the construction until 1632. The attribution of the facade, it was built between 1628 and 1632, is controversial, it is attributed to Giovanni Battista Soria , but this is doubted. It may also come from Torriani, it is also possible that he built it according to Soria's designs. The staircase is the work of Vincenzo della Greca and was built between 1654 and 1657. However, this only applies to the upper, double-run part of the staircase; the lower part was only added in the 19th century when the terrain had to be lowered. This lowering and the lower staircase led to today's distorted perception of the facade, which makes it look much too steep.
Facade and stairs
The facade is initially two-story and three-axis. Due to the fact that both storeys are the same width and the number of axes in both is the same, it is typical of Soria's work; he built similar works, for example, for San Carlo ai Catinari or San Gregorio Magno . It is structured on the lower and upper floors by pilasters placed in pairs with Corinthian capitals. Decorative motifs, for example fruit garlands, and niches with figures of saints are inserted into the wall surfaces. In the basement these are the Patrone Sixtus, on the left and Dominik on the right, the two marble sculptures were created by Marcantonio Canini around 1654 . On the upper floor there are the depictions of Petrus Martyr on the left and of St. Thomas Aquinas on the right, both by Stefano Maderno . The portal is covered by an openwork segmented gable, the window above is covered by a triangular gable. A strong triangular gable crowned by flame vases completes the facade at the top. Due to the lack of staggering of the pilasters and the uncranked beams, the facade is considered to be “flat and accented”.
The staircase from the 17th century, starting from a plateau, is the first double-flight staircase in Roman architecture. Up until then, such a staircase design was only known in garden architecture ; its design was a model for the famous Spanish Steps .
inner space
The church is a single-nave hall church with side chapels under the high baroque ornate arcade arches , so it has no transept . The areas between the arches are again structured by pilasters placed in pairs. The nave is covered by a barrel vault, the triumphal arch is unusually high and rests on pedestals with upright volutes. The church is richly decorated with stucco ornamentation and gold leaf.
Furnishing
The church is known for the fresco of the barrel vault. It represents the glory of St. Dominic and is one of the main works of illusionistic painting in Rome. It was created by Domenico Maria Canuti and Enrico Haffner in the years 1674/75. It was created shortly after the likewise famous ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in the main church of the Jesuits Il Gesù and can be understood as a contribution to the competition between the two orders. A little later, both artists carried out the apotheosis of Romulus in the Palazzo Altieri in the same style .
The main altar was designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini .
On the right side altar is a fully plastic group with a Noli me tangere depiction by Antonio Raggi from 1649, the design for this also came from Bernini.
The second chapel on the right still contains a 15th century fresco, possibly by Benozzo Gozzoli .
monastery
The adjoining monastery was founded in 1575 by Dominican women who moved from San Sisto Vecchio on the Via Appia to the Quirinal . In 1871 the monastery was confiscated by the government of the Kingdom of Italy and sold again to the Dominican Order in 1928. The Dominican Sisters, who had lived in an outbuilding since 1871, moved to the monastery near Santa Maria del Rosario on Monte Mario . The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas has been using the expanded monastery building since 1932 . Santi Domenico e Sisto has been the university church ever since.
Title diakonia
On October 21, 2003, Pope John Paul II raised the church to the title diaconia of the Roman Catholic Church
- Georges Marie Martin Cardinal Cottier OP (October 21, 2003 - March 31, 2016)
- José Tolentino Cardinal Calaça de Mendonça (since October 5, 2019)
Trivia
For the film La Grande Bellezza , the funeral scene was filmed in the church.
literature
- Marco Bussagli (Ed.): Rome - Art & Architecture. Könemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2258-1 .
- Ursula Verena Fischer Pace: Art Monuments in Rome. Two volumes. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1988.
- Stefan Grundmann (Ed.): Architectural Guide Rome. Menges, Stuttgart / London 1997, ISBN 3-930698-59-5 .
- Manfred Wundram (Ed.): Reclams Art Guide, Italy. Volume V: Rome and Lazio. Reclam, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-15-008679-5 .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Mariano Armellini, Le chiese di Roma dal secolo IV al XIX, Roma 1891
- ↑ a b c Grundmann (Ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 204.
- ↑ a b c d Grundmann (ed.): Architekturführer Rom , p. 205.
- ↑ a b c d Fischer Pace: Kunstdenkmäler in Rom , p. 422.
- ↑ see description of St. Sixtus by M. Canini in the Photo Archive Photo Marburg
- ↑ a b c Wundram (Ed.): Reclams Kunstführer , p. 163.
- ↑ Bussagli (Ed.): Rom - Art & Architecture , p. 571.
- ^ Il primo monastero domenicano d'Italia. In: L'Osservatore Romano . June 23, 2010, accessed April 7, 2016 .
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 45.4 " N , 12 ° 29 ′ 16.9" E