Baroque around the Clock

Rome, October 2017.

We left J L-M’s exploration of Roman architecture at the Tempietto on Thursday. He chooses one more example of the Renaissance style: Palazzo Pietro Massimo alle Colonne.

It is probable that you have walked past it without taking it in. It is on the busy Corso Vittorio Emanuele. The palazzo is only open one day a year and the perfect facade, in the opinion of J L-M, does not look striking unless you are an architectural historian. I’m not an architectural historian and I agree with him. For an expert its interest lies in its form and, especially, the ingenuity used in curving the facade to fit the small available foot print, so do glance at it as you hurry along to have a drink nearby in the Piazza Navona.

The next course on J L-M’s menu is a double helping of Baroque; two churches only about a hundred metres apart on the Via del Quirinale. Both are architectural show stoppers that catch and delight the eye. Their beauty is not monumental like, say, English cathedrals because they are rather small. It is said, though I doubt it, that San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane is no bigger than one of the piers supporting the dome of St Peter’s.

Both are domed and Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale has two additional features. First the panelled sacristy with a trompe l’oeil ceiling that exceeds in quality any larger efforts that you may have seen elsewhere. Secondly a sculpture of St Stanislaw Kostka, a Jesuit priest who died aged eighteen in 1568. Different marbles make it very realistic: his black robe, white face and feet, and different marbles used for his bed. It is a funerary monument to rival anything in England, tucked away upstairs and easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it

St Stanislaw Kostka, Rome, October 2017..

For pudding J L-M offers up the Trevi Fountain as a Baroque bonne bouche. For years it was being restored so you may be interested to see it now – pristine – but besieged by tourists.

Trevi Fountain, October 2017.

At the beginning of this tour of the buildings in Roman Mornings I dismissed the Pantheon as being too familiar to merit discussion. However, on taking another look guided by J L-M I saw that the three columns on the left of the portico are 17th century replacements, identified on their capitals by the insignia of the Popes Barberini (bee) and Chigi (star). He has been a rewarding companion on this visit augmented by The Companion Guide to Rome which is indispensable. Between them they have shed fresh light on a city where there is still so much more for me to discover.