The Churches and Basilicas of Rome

When thinking of Rome, many folks think of a skyline packed with domes of churches and basilicas, and they would be right. Yesterday was the Feast of St. Peter and Paul, a Roman holiday that celebrates these two early Christian sains. Since most businesses were closed but churches were open, we went on a morning walking tour of a few of the "big name" places we had not yet been in town. I wanted to share some of them with you.

Called the "only gothic church in Rome" by my guidebook, the similarities between Santa Maria sopra Minerva and what we think of as gothic cathedrals stop at pointed arches. Minerva is really more of a typical basilica than anything. It has a cruciform plan shape with side aisles and side chapels, and smaller sized circular windows in the clearstory instead of a cathedral's massive light-admitting windows. It was still pretty cool. Minerva is one of two main types of early Catholic orders in Rome, Dominican.

The second place we went to was Il Gesu, a 16th century basilica who's construction was funded by Cardinal Farnese (a name you may recognize as a person who would become one of the most powerful Popes in all of history). Gesu is a Jesuit church, the second "main type" of early Catholic building in Rome. It is interesting in many ways, but what I found fascinating is that many of these early churches were NOT supposed to be adorned as lavishly as they currently are. Many were originally design very simply to reinforce the humbleness of the Catholic Church. They would eventually be guilded almost beyond belief 100 or 200 years later, becoming the highly decorated buildings we see today. Jeffrey called this building "Baroque at its best".

Next we visited Sant' Ignazio, a baroque church built in 1626. The most interesting thing abotu this church is that fact that when built, the church could not afford to build a large dome. Instead, they hired Andrea Pozzo, a painter who was known for his perspective work, to paint what would look like a dome at the crossing of the nave and main cross axis. As you enter the church, it looks as though there is a vaulted space at this intersection. As you start to move into the basilica, you start to notice a perspective shift. As you stand directly under the "dome", this is what you see. Not a dome at all, but a cleverly asymmetrical painting that, from the entry, makes it look as though there is a dome. Very, very cool.

We went to a few more but the last one I'm going to let you know about was Sant'Agostino, another 15th century basilica. We spent a lot of time yesterday talking about the famous artist Caravaggio and Sant'Agostino has one of his more famous paintings, the Madonna di Loreto. Caravaggio was an extremely troubled man, suffering from major depression through his entire life. He eventually committed suicide by running a sword through his gut, but lived long enough to dictate to someone the entire event. His use of extreme light/dark contrast is extremely emotional and really, really creepy. Secretly, I kind of like it ;-)
PS Carin made it here yesterday SAFE AND SOUND! WOO HOO!