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Bernini, Mattia de Rossi and the church of S. Bonaventura at Monterano

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Hellmut Hager  and
D. Laurentio Bello
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Extract

At Monterano, on the ridge of a mountain close to Oriolo in the area of Lake Bracciano, stand the ruins of a church dedicated to S. Bonaventura. It is devised on a Greek cross ground plan and forms the projecting headpiece of a longitudinally oriented monastery (Pls 12a, 12b, 13b). A faded inscription was still visible in 1964 on the architrave of the main façade ‘MDCLX’, but there was space for about two or more numerals which had disappeared. The complete inscription was probably ‘MDCLXXVII’, the date when construction began by the order of the Principe Don Angelo Altieri, nephew of Pope Clement X. The building was for the Padri delle Scuole Pie, who were called to instruct the people of the rural district surrounding Monterano in such basic skills as reading and writing, and in the elements of the Christian religion. At that time the Altieri family had only recently moved into the area, having in 1671 purchased from the Orsini the site at Monterano and the late medieval baronial palace. The building of the church and convent after 1677 was accomplished in breve tempo according to a chronicle of 1760 referred to by Ottarino Morra.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 21 , 1978 , pp. 68 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1978

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References

Notes

1 The results of my research, generously supported by a grant from the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, were first presented on 3 February 1977 at the Sixty-fifth Annual Meeting of the College Art Association in Los Angeles, California (see p. 58 of the ‘Abstracts’). I am grateful to Richard E. Spear, Oberlin College, for providing the opportunity to speak in his session, The Seventeenth Century.

2 Morra, Ottarino, ‘L’ Eremo di S. Bonaventura a Monterano’, L’Urbe, 16, 1 (1953), 14–23 Google Scholar. For an interrupted attempt to begin the building in 1675, see below.

3 Document concerning the establishment of the convent of S. Bonaventura and the agreement between Don Angelo Altieri and the Padri delle Scuole Pie (19 June 1676) in the Archivio di Stato di Roma, Fondo dei Notari del Tribunale A. C. Laurentius Bellus, 886, fols 581-84 verso, and 633-35.

4 Morra, op. cit., pp. 14 f. For the Pope’s intentions connected with this and related acquisitions, to establish firmly and perpetuate the importance of his family, see Visconti, P. E., Città e famiglie nobili e celebri dello stato pontificio. Dizionario Storico, 111 (Rome, 1847), 601 fGoogle Scholar. Visconti refers to a document in the family archives which carries the date 16 November 1671. Armando Schiavo, in his monograph on the Palazzo Altieri in Rome (Rome, 1964, p. 173), mentions a slightly earlier document dated 21 October 1671. Cf. Pinelli, A., ‘Bernini at Monterano’, Il Seicento, Documenti e Interpretazioni, Ricerche di Storia dell’ Arte, 1-2 (1976), 171 ff., 178, note 5Google Scholar.

5 ‘Si diede per tanto incominciamento all’ opera, la quale in breve tempo rimase perfezionata in ogni sua parte, poiché il Tempio riusci di bell’ architettura, e l’adiacente monistero assai vago, e quel’che più importa comodo nulla mancando di ciò che fa d’ uopo ad una communità religiosa.’ Memorie dell’ origine e progresso degli Eremi della Congregazione di Monte Senario dell’ ordine dei Servi di Maria Vergine estratte dagli annali del medesimo ordine dalle antiche memorie esistenti negli archivi de’ predetti eremi. Scritte da un eremita del Monte Senario l’anno MDCCLX, fol. 1136 ff. The manuscript is preserved in the Archivio Generale dell’ Ordine dei Servi di Maria in the Collegio S. Alessio Falconieri, Rome, Cf. Mignanti, F. M., Santuari della Regione di Tolfa (Rome, 1936), p. 129 Google Scholar; Morra, op. cit., p. 15, maintains that ‘due anni dopo 1’ inizio dei lavori un corpo di religiosi prendeva stanze nel convento, e la chiesa, dedicata a S. Bonaventura, veniva aperta al culto’, but I found no mention of this in the ‘Memorie’ which give the date 1677 for the beginning of the construction, and describes the building procedure in the form quoted above, and Morra cites no other source in this connexion. His information is somewhat difficult to reconcile with the following circumstance mentioned in the ‘Memorie’, that the Padri delle Scuole Pie, with whom Don Angelo Altieri had made a contract on 29 June 1678, refused to move into the newly erected monastery. Don Angelo had therefore to look for another religious community, and chose the Padri Agostiniani Scalzi, who, in conformity with the character of their order, were devoted to living in solitude. Contractual agreement with them occurred in 1690, and the Augustinián Fathers stepped in for the Padri delle Scuole Pie, who had withdrawn from their contract with Don Angelo a year earlier by mutual agreement. The Augustinián monks stayed at Monterano until 1710. Cf. Breue Notizie del Convento di S. Bonaventura di Monterano donato alli PP. Eremiti de’ Serui di M. a Verg.e dalla pieta dell’ Edd.mo. Sig. Pnpe. D. Girol.o Altieri, erede donatario della chiara memoria del Sig. Pnpe. D. Angelo Altieri suo Nonno, l’ anno 1719. Archivio Generale dell’ Ordine dei Servi di Maria, Rome, Sezione Analistica, MS 5. 3. IV. 3. For the establishment of the Servites at Monterano in 1719 see tomo 131, fols. 43-46 in the same archive, and Morra, op. cit.

6 The question of authorship was also left open by M. and M. Fagiolo dell’ Arco, who refer to an extensive study by Paolo Portoghesi which has not yet appeard (Bernini, Una Introduzione al Gran Teatro del Barocco (Rome, 1967), Scheda, 241. Portoghesi, P., Roma Barocca, The History of an Architectonic Culture (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1970), p. 313 Google Scholar, maintains that the ‘aged Bernini had a more direct control’ (than at the Rospigliosi chapel at Lamporecchio near Pistoja)). He gives, however, no reason for this opinion, but refers the reader (p. 537, note 74) to his long advertised monograph on Bernini. His dating of the church, 1672 (p. 540), is, however, erroneous, and disregards what had already been established by Morra.

7 A. Pinelli, loc. cit. Quotations from the letter by Giuseppe Barberi, which was published in the 1785 volume of the Giornale delle Belle Arti, pp. 172 ff., 176 f.

8 Pascoli, L., Vite de’ Pittori, Scultori, ed. Architetti Moderni, 1 (Rome, 1730), 324 Google Scholar. ‘The Prince (Don Angelo Altieri), who is the other nephew of the Pope (Clement X) intended to erect a church for the fathers of the Scuole Pie at Monterano; its design was ordered from Bernini, who endowed it with everything necessary for the fathers’ living quarters; he sent there to assist him Mattia de Rossi, who performed his task excellently.’

9 On fol. 1134 of the ‘Memorie’ cited above in note 5 (Fig. in Morra, op. cit., p. 17).

10 This coincides with the opinion of Morra op. cit., p. 23, note 9.

11 Morra, op. cit., pp. 19 ff.

12 The process of natural decay may be aggravated by a proposal for the area of Monterano. Cf. ‘In progetto la degradazione del comprensorio naturale e archeologico’, Italia Nostra, 12, 1969, fasc. 63, pp. 29-31. For a survey drawing of the church as it stands now and further views of the interior, see A. Pinelli, op. cit., figs. 3, 5-8.

13 Cod. Martinelli, 11, fol. 33. Cf. Hager, H., ‘Filippo Juvarra e il concorso di modelli del 1715 bandito da Clemente XI per la nuova sacrestia di S. Pietro’,Quaderni di Commentari, 2 (Rome, 1970), 35, 56, n. 140Google Scholar. fig. 27 (ground pian).

14 ‘La cupola poi nell’ esterno é coperta in forma ottagona, e in mezzo evvi una lanterna mirabile di nuova specie, che pare però di Borromini che del Bernini. É di figura circolare con otto risalti, e otto semicircoli, che vengono a formare gli aggetti e termina con la cua stella sferica, e croce.’ Giuseppe Barberi, loc. cit., as quoted by A. Pinelli, p. 176. For the history of this motif, see Hager, H., ‘Die Kuppel des Domes in Montefiascone. Zu einem borrominesken Experiment von Carlo Fontana’, Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 15 (1975), 144-68Google Scholar.

15 Barberi in his above-mentioned letter. See A. Pinelli, op. cit., p. 177.

16 Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, T.H.C. 6618; see H. Hager, op. cit., p. 146, fig. 3 (detail).

17 For the reconstruction drawing (Pl. 16b), I am grateful to Mr Walther Gahlert, Neuss (Germany).

18 Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale, Rome, No. E-38825. Also published by A. Pinelli, op. cit., fig. 1; for the date 1781 backed by an inscription, see p. 178, n. 8.

19 The fountain still exists (Pl. 12b), though not in its original position. It was moved probably in the nineteenth century to the nearby village of Canale; see A. Pinelli, op. cit., p. 178, n. 9.

20 Engraving by Falda, G. B. in Il Nuovo Teatro delle Fabbriche, et Edificij in Prospettiva di Koma Moderna, 111, pl. 19 Google Scholar. For bibliographical references and a brief building history, see Tiberia, V., Giacomo della Porta, Un Architetto tra Manierismo e Barocco, 1, (Rome, 1974), 36 ffGoogle Scholar.

21 See Eimer, Gerhard, La Fabbrica di S. Agnese in Navona. Römische Architekten, Bauherren und Handwerker in Zeitalter des Nepotismus, 11 (Stockholm, 1971), 435 Google Scholar.

22 For the dating of Juvarra’s drawing, which is in the National Library in Turin (Riserva 59.4, fol. 95), see Rovere, L., Viale, V., Brinckmann, A. E., Filippo Juvarra (Milan, 1937), p. 52, pl. 3Google Scholar, and Boscarino, Salvatore, Juvarra Architetto (Rome, 1973), p. 153, and pl. 38Google Scholar.

23 For the planning history, see Brauer, Heinrich - Wittkower, Rudolf, Die Zeichnungen des Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Berlin, 1931, reprint New York, 1969), pp. 122-26Google Scholar.

24 See also Morra, ‘L’Eremo di S. Bonaventura’, figs on pp. 14, 20, and 21, and Pinelli, op. cit., fig. 2, for a view by Giuseppe Barberi of the Altieri Palace as it still existed in the late eighteenth century (Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale, Rome, No. E-38809).

25 Fagiolo dell’ Arco, Bernini, scheda 225; Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 313.

26 Pascoli, Vite, 1, 324: ‘Ebbe parimente ordine di fare il disegno d’ un palazzo, che S.S. fabbricar voleva in una sua villa a Lamporecchio, pocche miglia lontano da Pistoja; ed avendolo fatto il Bernini, vi fu mandata Mattia a edificarlo.’ (He was also ordered to make a design for a palace which the Pope wanted to build in his villa at Lamporecchio, a few miles from Pistoia; Bernini having made it, Mattia was sent there for the construction.) The author of the present article intends to return on another occasion to the subject of the chapel at Lamporecchio, and Mattia de Rossi’s church of the Ospizio di S. Galla in Rome, which was finished in 1688 (see Braham, A. and Hager, H., Carlo Fontana. The Drawings at Windsor Castle, London, 1977, p. 138)Google Scholar.

27 Rome, collection of Professor Valerio Cianfarani. It is a pen drawing in slightly greenish grey ink on a laid down sheet of white paper which has been cut on all sides and measures 19.6 cm. vertically and 21.2 cm. horizontally. The provenance is unknown. It has to be dated after 1671, when the Altieri took possession of the site, and before 1675, the date of the beginning of the church after Mattia de Rossi’s project. I should like to express my gratitude to Dr Cianfarani for his kind permission to publish the drawing, and to thank Italo Faldi for his kind, though unsuccessful, attempts to obtain for me access to the Archives of the Altieri family in Rome.

28 H. Brauer- R. Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen, pp. 163-65, pl. 124a and 124b; Fagiolo dell’ Arco, Bernini, scheda 217.

29 Brauer- Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen, p. 86.

30 Brauer- Wittkower, Die Zeichnungen, pl. 78.

31 Kitao, T. K., ‘Bernini’s Church Façades: Method of Design and the Contrapposti ’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XXIV (1965), 266-72Google Scholar.

32 Kitao, op. cit., p. 272, connects these modifications with a change in the dedication of the church of S. Tomaso di Villanova at Castelgandolfo, originally dedicated to S. Nicola.

33 Hager, H., ‘Carlo Fontana’s Project for a Church in Honour of the Ecclesia Triumphans in the Colosseum, Rome’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXXVI (1973), 328 f., pl. 46a and 46bGoogle Scholar; Marconi, P., Cipriani, A., Valeriani, E., I Disegni di Architettura dell’ Archivio Storico dell’ Accademia di S. Luca (Rome, 1974), nos. 2178, 2179, 2180Google Scholar.

34 The time span available for the dating of Carlo Fontana’s first project for the church in the Colosseum is 1676-79. See H. Hager, ‘Carlo Fontana’s Project for a Church’, p. 325, pl. 45c.

35 Journal du Voyage en France du Cavalier Bernini par Chantelou, Preface de Charensol, G. (Paris, 1930), pp. 45 fGoogle Scholar.

36 Hager, Filippo Juvarra, p. 35, and fig. 27.

37 Kerber, B., Andrea Pozzo (Berlin, New York, 1971), pp. 192-94, pls 94 fGoogle Scholar.

38 For a detailed building history of this church see Caiola, A. Federico, S. Maria delle Grafie alle Fornaci e S. Michele Arcangelo al Torrinoe, Le Chiese di Roma Illustrate, vol. 109 (Rome, 1970)Google Scholar.

39 Rovere, , Viale, , Brinckmann, , Filippo Juvarra (Turin, 1937), p. 115 and pl. 4Google Scholar.

40 Boscarino, Juvarra Architetto, pp. 204-20.

41 For the façade project for the church in Oriolo see Berliner, R., ‘Zeichnungen des römischen Architekten Giuseppe Barberi’, Münchner Jahrbuch der Bildenden Kunst, XVII (1966), 179, 181, 183 f., 185, fig. 29Google Scholar.

42 Berliner, op. cit., pp. 189 f., 192, fig. 35. The niches in the lower stories of the campanili might also be reminiscent of Bernini’s project.

43 For the bibliography and a reference to an illustration of this church, which was dedicated to the Nativity of the Holy Virgin but no longer exists, see A. Pinelli, op. cit., p. 179, n. 13.

44 Eimer, La Fabbrica di S. Agnese in Navana, p. 210.

45 Wittkower, R., Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750, 3rd edition (Baltimore, Md. and Harmondsworth, 1973), p. 370, n. 37Google Scholar, lists Mattia de Rossi ‘among the lesser figures in Rome at this period’. Cf. Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 313.

46 Carlo Fontana again became Principe of the Academy because Mattia de Rossi, in the Congregation of 10 January 1694, declined to continue to serve in that office ‘con tutto che gli fusse a uiua uoce offerta’, Archivio dell’ Accademia di S. Luca, MS 45, fol. 15 5. Cf. A. Braham and H. Hager, Carlo Fontana, p. 14.

47 Pascoli, Vite, 1, 328.