Santa Maria della Vittoria
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Santa Maria della Vittoria is a small basilica church in Rome, on Via XX Settembre.
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[edit] History
The church was begun in 1605 as a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul for the Discalced Carmelites. After the Catholic victory at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, which reversed the Reformation in Bohemia, the church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary. (Turkish standards captured at the 1683 siege of Vienna hang in the church, as part of this victorious theme.)
The order itself funded the building work until the discovery in the excavations of the Borghese Hermaphroditus. Scipione Borghese appropriated this sculpture but in return (and to make up for his loss of influence due to the death of his uncle and patron) funded the rest of work on the facade and granted the order his architect Giovanni Battista Soria. These grants only came into effect in 1624 however, though work was completed two years later.
[edit] Overview
[edit] Architectural
The church is the only structure designed and completed by the early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno, though the interior suffered a fire in 1833 and required restoration. Its façade, however, was erected by Soria during Maderno's lifetime, 1624–1626, showing the unmistakable influence of Maderno's Santa Susanna nearby.
Its interior has a single wide nave under a low segmental vault, with three interconnecting side chapels behind arches separated by colossal corinthian pilasters with gilded capitals that support an enriched entablature. Contrasting marble revetments are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels and putti in full relief. The interior was sequentially enriched after Maderno's death; its vault was frescoed in 1675 with triumphant themes within shaped compartments with feigned frames: The Virgin Mary Triumphing over Heresy and Fall of the Rebel Angels executed by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini.
[edit] Sculptural
The masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the altar, is Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Scipione's favoured sculptor Bernini. The statues depict a moment described by Saint Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid vision of an angel piercing her heart with a golden shaft, causing her both immense joy and pain. The flowing robes and contorted posture abandon classical restraint and repose to depict a more passionate, almost voluptous trance.
Other sculptural detail abounds: The Dream of Joseph (left transept, Domenico Guidi, flanked by relief panels by Pierre Etienne Monnot) and the funeral monument to Berlinghiero Cardinal Gessi. There are paintings by Guercino, Nicolas Lorrain, and Domenichino.
[edit] Tituli
Santa Maria della Vittoria is a titular church. The Cardinal Priest of the Titulus S. Mariae de Victoria was Giuseppe Caprio until his death in October 2005. On 24 March 2006, Pope Benedict XVI elevated Sean O'Malley to the titulus.
[edit] References in popular culture
The church has seen a surge in tourism thanks to the widespread popularity of author Dan Brown's novel Angels and Demons, which features the church (but for purposes of his novel, he moved its location down to the Piazza Barberini).
[edit] Sources
- Rendina, Claudio (1999). Enciclopedia di Roma. Rome: Newton Compton.
[edit] External links
- Chris Nyborg, "Churches of Rome: Santa Maria della Vittoria"
- Roberto Piperno, "santa Maria della Vittoria"
- "Santa Maria della Vittoria" (in Italian)
- Roma SPQR: "Santa Maria della Vittoria"
- Aerial view of the church. The church is inconspicuous from this view, but it is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Largo Santa Susanna and Via XX Settembre.
- smARThistory: Ecstacy of Saint Teresa, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
