Sant'Agostino

A few blocks north of Piazza Navona sits one of Rome's earliest Renaissance churches. The simply elegant facade was designed by Giacomo di Pietrasanta and was constructed with travertine taken from the Colosseum. The volutes on the sides of the clerestory bring to mind Alberti's Santa Maria Novella in Florence, completed just a decade earlier. If Pietrasanta did not make up up to Florence he might have just walked a little north and seen the new facade of Santa Maria del Popolo which was completed in 1477, disegned by Andrea Bregno, who we know was heavily influenced by Alberti.

I went into the church on a Sunday evening while there was a mass going on so I did not get see all of it and will only comment on the parts I did get a good look at, albeit the more interesting ones.



If you enter the church from one of the two smaller side entrances (ideally the right) the first thing you will notice is the bright blue ceiling of the sides aisles, dotted with gold stars. With gaze fixed upwards as you wonder into the nave, the elaborately decorated vaults will keep your eyes to the sky. Let your eye come back to earth along the third column on the left side of the nave and you will find a pleasant surprise.



I was told about this fresco by the owner of a small English bookstore in Trastevere (The Almost Corner Bookstore) who I have come to know through my purchases of various art and history books. A few months ago I bought biographies of Leonardo and Michelangelo there which have been very interesting reads. I stopped back in looking for a biography of Raphael, which he did not have, and said he has never actually seen. However he asked if I had ever seen Raphael's fresco of the Prophet Isiah in Sant'Agostino. I confessed I had not. He said it is particularly interesting because it blatantly shows the influence that Michelangelo and his hulkingly muscular figures of the Sistine ceiling had on Raphael, who was working in the room next door, painting a masterpiece of his own. If you did not know that it were a work of Raphael, it could easily be mistaken as a Michelangelo. Although, in my opinion, Raphael's ability to use slightly varying shades of blue shines as his singular touch.



The light's a little tough, but you can still get the idea.

Another gem in the church is Caravaggio's Madonna di Loreto (Madonna of the Pilgrims). The myth behind this story goes that Caravaggio fled to the church seeking asylum for the murder of the father of a girl that he had seduced. In those times a criminal, once he stepped into a church, could not be followed inside by the police. Apparently Caravaggio stayed so long in the church that he had time to paint this piece. (On a side note, the opening act of Tosca is supposedly set in the church of Sant Andrea della Valle with a criminal who had fled to the church seeking asylum, I haven't seen the opera yet, but hopefully will later this summer).

I know little about this piece in particular but Caravaggio's strength's are evident in this lesser known work. Some say he was the master of white, because he used so little of it but when he did it had a drastic effect. Even in this blurred photo you can see the light, creamy skin of the Virgin and Child contrasted with the dark background and the dirty pilgrims at their feet. Another characteristic of Caravaggio was his incredible realism. Here you can see the dirt on the bottoms of the pilgrims feet, in other works of his, namely in Santa Maria del Popolo you can even see dirt under fingernails.



Also of note in the church is the main altar executed by Bernini, it is currently under restoration and covered in scaffolding, not to mention the mass I would have seriously interrupted if I tried to get a better look.

As I walked out of the church I heard music coming from the building next door. I have developed an penchant for poking my head through open doors, nudging doors that are slightly open, or even just checking to see if closed doors are looked, to see what might lie on the other side. So far only good has come of this tendency, and in this case it was especially true.

The building just to the right of Sant'Agostino is the Bibloteca Angelica (Angelican Library?) which was opened in 1604 and contains over 2500 Latin, Greek and Middle Eastern original works, and some 20,000 Renaissance works. However, not knowing the library even existed in the first place, the reason I was drawn there was the music I mentioned earlier. It turned out there was a concert going on in the library that day. I arrived just at the very end up it and heard the last two and half pieces, but nonetheless is was amazing. At one point I turned to look at the books behind me and the first book I saw was a commentary on Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) that looked as if it was at least as old as the library itself.

I took a copy of the program for the concert, but of course have lost it, so I will have to poke my head in the library again to see if there are any more concerts, or, how one goes about getting access to the treasures the library itself contains.