La Mostra The Making of Modern-day Rome Things Most Wondrous
The Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli
S.te Marie d'Ara-Coeli, in: François Jacques Deseine, Rome moderne, premiére ville de l’Europe, avec toutes ses magnificences et ses delices..., vol. II, Leiden 1713
The Capitol
Campidoglio, in: Bernardo Gamucci, Le antichità della città di Roma..., 2 ed., Venezia 1569
The Capitol
The landscape by Giovanni Battista Falda shows the look of piazza del Campidoglio after the accomplishment of Michelangelo's project.
Giovanni Battista Falda, Campidoglio, in: Id., Il nuovo teatro delle fabriche et edificii in prospettiva di Roma moderna..., vol. I, Roma 1665
The Capitol
Giovanni Battista Falda, Altra veduta del' Campidoglio, in: Id., Il nuovo teatro delle fabriche et edificii in prospettiva di Roma moderna..., vol. I, Roma 1665
The Capitol
Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Campidoglio,in: Id., Vedute principali e più interessanti di Roma, Roma 1799
Construction of places of worship and church enhancement under Gregory XIII
Carlo Coquelines, Delle azioni memorabili di papa Gregorio decimoterzo tratte dalle memorie originali de' suoi tempi, in: Giampietro Maffei, Degli annali di Gregorio XIII pontefice massimo..., vol. II, Roma 1742
The Pantheon before the 17th century alterations
The Pantheon, built in 27 b.C. and rebuilt by emperor Hadrian in I century a.D., is the only building of ancient Rome to have been continously used for religious reasons. At the beginning of VII century the great temple dedicated by the Romans to all gods was given by byzantin emperor Phocas to pope Boniface IV, who consecrated it to Sancta Maria ad Martyres. The engraving by Aegidius Sadeler still shows the medieval bell tower, destroyed on the occasion of seventeenth century works wanted by Urban VIII and realized by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Aegidius Sadeler, Vestigij del Pantheon..., in: Id., Vestigi delle antichità di Roma, Tivoli, Pozzuolo et altri luoghi, Praha 1601
Caravaggio, the Calling of Saint Matthew for the Contarelli Chapel
On 23 July 1599, Michelangelo Merisi signed a contract for his first major public commission at the Contarelli chapel at the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The commission was made in the run-up to the Jubilee of 1600, for which Caravaggio painted two of the three canvases in the Chapel today: the Vocation and Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.
Il Caravaggio e le sue grandi opere da San Luigi dei Francesi, text by Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua with an addendum by Mia Cinotti, Milano 1971
Caravaggio, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew for the Contarelli Chapel
On 23 July 1599, Michelangelo Merisi signed a contract for his first major public commission at the Contarelli chapel at the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. The commission was made in the run-up to the Jubilee of 1600, for which Caravaggio painted two of the three canvases in the Chapel today: the Vocation and Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.
Il Caravaggio e le sue grandi opere da San Luigi dei Francesi, text by Gian Alberto Dell'Acqua with an addendum by Mia Cinotti, Milano 1971
Saint Lewis of the French
The church of Saint Lewis of the French contains, in the Cappella Contarelli, the two paintings by Caravaggio for the Jubilee of 1600: the Vocation and the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.
S. Louis des François, in: François Jacques Deseine, Rome moderne, première ville de l'Europe, avec toutes ses magnificences et ses délices..., vol. II, Leiden 1713
The obelisk and the new fountain at Piazza Navona
Pompilio Totti, Ritratto di Roma moderna... in questa nuova editione accresciuto, e migliorato in molti luoghi, Roma 1652
Piazza Navona
Place Navonne, bâtie sur les ruines du Cirque Agonalis de l'empereur Alexandre Severe, avec la vue de ses magnifiques edifices et fontaines, embellie de la sainte memoire du pape Innocent X, in: François Jacques Deseine, Rome moderne, première ville de l'Europe, avec toutes ses magnificences et ses délices..., vol. II, Leiden 1713
The Trevi Fountain before the 18th century
Giovanni Battista Falda (dis.), Chiesa di Santi Vincenzo et Anastasio alla Fontana di Trevi de' padri religiosi di S. Girolamo, in: Il nuovo splendore delle fabbriche in prospettiva di Roma moderna, vol. III (Il terzo libro del nuovo splendore di Roma moderna con sue giuste vedute in prospettiva delle facciate, strade e chiese...), Roma 1773
The Trevi Fountain
The Trinità dei Monti hill before the construction of the Spanish Steps
During the 1500s and 1600s, the French church of Trinità dei Monti was connected with Piazza di Spagna below by steep paths that ran up a tree-lined slope. In the late 1600s, it became apparent that a staircase was needed to link the church and the square. However, the work was not tackled until the papacy of Clement XI, who commissioned designs from a number of illustrious artists of the day, including Alessandro Specchi and Francesco De Sanctis, the architect who worked for the Ordine dei Minimi (which owned the land). De Sanctis, whose works included the new façade for the Church of Trinità dei Pellegrini, was chosen by Clement XI’s successor, Innocent XII, who gave the go-ahead in 1723 in the hope that work would be completed in time for the 1725 Jubilee. The staircase was indeed inaugurated during the Holy Year, despite the fact that work had not entirely been completed. The final phase of remodelling the hill on which Trinità dei Monti sits was the erection of the Sallustian obelisk in front of the convent, which Pius VI commissioned in the late 1780s, as clearly shown in Giovanni Battista Cipriani’s engraving.
Giovanni Battista Falda, Chiesa della Santiss. Trinità de Monti de PP. minimi francesi sul monte Pincio,in: Id., Il nuovo teatro delle fabriche et edificii in prospettiva di Roma moderna..., vol. II (Il secondo libro del novo teatro delle fabriche, et edificii, fatte fare in Roma, e fuori di Roma dalla santità di nostro signore papa Alessandro VII), Roma 1665-1667
The Trinità dei Monti hill before the construction of the Spanish Steps
During the 1500s and 1600s, the French church of Trinità dei Monti was connected with Piazza di Spagna below by steep paths that ran up a tree-lined slope. In the late 1600s, it became apparent that a staircase was needed to link the church and the square. However, the work was not tackled until the papacy of Clement XI, who commissioned designs from a number of illustrious artists of the day, including Alessandro Specchi and Francesco De Sanctis, the architect who worked for the Ordine dei Minimi (which owned the land). De Sanctis, whose works included the new façade for the Church of Trinità dei Pellegrini, was chosen by Clement XI’s successor, Innocent XII, who gave the go-ahead in 1723 in the hope that work would be completed in time for the 1725 Jubilee. The staircase was indeed inaugurated during the Holy Year, despite the fact that work had not entirely been completed. The final phase of remodelling the hill on which Trinità dei Monti sits was the erection of the Sallustian obelisk in front of the convent, which Pius VI commissioned in the late 1780s, as clearly shown in Giovanni Battista Cipriani’s engraving.
SS. Trinita de' Monti, in: Fioravanti Martinelli, Roma di nuovo ricercata nel suo sito... Di nuovo con ogni diligenza corretta & accresciuta con belle figure, Roma 1702
The Trinità dei Monti hill before the construction of the Spanish Steps
During the 1500s and 1600s, the French church of Trinità dei Monti was connected with Piazza di Spagna below by steep paths that ran up a tree-lined slope. In the late 1600s, it became apparent that a staircase was needed to link the church and the square. However, the work was not tackled until the papacy of Clement XI, who commissioned designs from a number of illustrious artists of the day, including Alessandro Specchi and Francesco De Sanctis, the architect who worked for the Ordine dei Minimi (which owned the land). De Sanctis, whose works included the new façade for the Church of Trinità dei Pellegrini, was chosen by Clement XI’s successor, Innocent XII, who gave the go-ahead in 1723 in the hope that work would be completed in time for the 1725 Jubilee. The staircase was indeed inaugurated during the Holy Year, despite the fact that work had not entirely been completed. The final phase of remodelling the hill on which Trinità dei Monti sits was the erection of the Sallustian obelisk in front of the convent, which Pius VI commissioned in the late 1780s, as clearly shown in Giovanni Battista Cipriani’s engraving.
La Trinité du Mont, in: François Jacques Deseine, Rome moderne, première ville de l'Europe, avec toutes ses magnificences et ses délices..., vol. I, Leiden 1713
The Spanish Steps
This representation of the "new" staircase of Trinità dei Monti appears for the first time in a guide in 1725: la Roma ampliata e rinovata o sia Nuova descrizione della moderna città di Roma e di tutti gli edifizi notabili che sono in essa, printed and edited by Gregorio Roisecco. His heirs will keep on using it during the Eighteenth century even though new and more accurate representations of the staircase illustrate by then also the most popular guides.
La Trinita de Monti, in: Nuova descrizione di Roma antica e moderna e di tutti li più nobili monumenti sagri e profani che sono in essa e nelle sue vicinanze... Edizione seconda..., Roma 1775
The Spanish Steps
Piazza di Spagna, in: Roma antica e moderna o sia nuova descrizione della moderna città di Roma... Abbellita con duecento e più figure in rame... Accresciuta in questa nuova edizione di un tomo terzo..., vol. I, Roma 1745
Trinità dei Monti after completion of the Spanish Steps and the erection of the Sallustian obelisk
Giovanni Battista Cipriani, Piazza di Spagna, in: Id., Vedute principali e più interessanti di Roma, Roma 1799