Santa Maria della Vittoria

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Santa Maria della Vittoria is a small basilica church in

Rome, on Via XX Settembre.

History

The church was begun in 1605 as a chapel dedicated to

Saint Paul for the Discalced Carmelites. After the Catholic
victory at the battle of White Mountain in 1620, which
reversed the Reformation in Bohemia, the church was
rededicated to the Virgin Mary. (Turkish standards
captured at the 1683 siege of Vienna hang in the church,
as part of this victorious theme.)

The order itself funded the building work until the

discovery in the excavations of the Borghese Facade of Santa Maria della Vittoria
Hermaphroditus. Scipione Borghese appropriated this
sculpture but in return (and to make up for his loss of influence due to the death of his uncle and
patron) funded the rest of work on the facade and granted the order his architect Giovanni Battista
Soria. These grants only came into effect in 1624 however, though work was completed two years later.

Overview

Architectural

The church is the only structure designed and completed by the early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno,
though the interior suffered a fire in 1833 and required restoration. Its façade, however, was erected by
Soria during Maderno's lifetime, 1624–1626, showing the unmistakable influence of Maderno's Santa
Susanna nearby.

Its interior has a single wide nave under a low segmental vault, with three interconnecting side chapels
behind arches separated by colossal corinthian pilasters with gilded capitals that support an enriched
entablature. Contrasting marble revetments are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels and putti
in full relief. The interior was sequentially enriched after Maderno's death; its vault was frescoed in 1675
with triumphant themes within shaped compartments with feigned frames: The Virgin Mary Triumphing
Sculptural

The masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the

altar, is Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Scipione's favored sculptor,
Bernini.. The statues depict a moment descr
described by Saint
Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid
vision of an angel piercing her heartt with a golden shaft,
causing her both immense joy and pain. The flowing robes
and contorted posture abandon classical restraint and repose
to depict a more passionate, almost voluptous trance.

Other sculptural detail abounds: The Dream of Joseph (left

transept, Domenico Guidi,, flanked by relief panels by Pierre
Etienne Monnot) and the funeral monument to Berlinghiero
Cardinal Gessi. There are paintings by Guercino, Nicolas
Lorrain, and Domenichino.

Tituli

Santa Maria della Vittoria is a titular church

church. The Cardinal
Priest of the Titulus S. Mariae de Victoria was Giuseppe
Caprio until
ntil his death in October 2005. On 24 March 2006, Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa.
Teresa
Pope Benedict XVI elevated Sean O'Malley to the titulus.

References in popular culture

The church has seen a surge in tourism thanks to the widespread popularity of author Dan Brown's
Brown
novel Angels and Demons,, which features the church (but for purposes of his novel, he moved its
location down to the Piazza Barberini
Barberini).

Sources

• Rendina, Claudio (1999). Enciclopedia di Roma

Roma. Rome: Newton Compton.

External links

• Chris Nyborg, "Churches of Rome: Santa

Maria della Vittoria" Wikimedia Commons has media related
• Roberto Piperno, "santa Maria della to: Santa Maria della Vittoria
Vittoria"
• "Santa Maria della Vittoria" (in Italian)
• Roma SPQR: "Santa Maria della Vittoria"
• Aerial view of the church. The church is inconspicuous from this view, but it is located on the
southwest corner of the intersection of Largo Santa SSusanna
usanna and Via XX Settembre.
 • smARThistory: Ecstacy of Saint Teresa
Teresa,, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

Coordinates: 41°54′17″N 12°29′39″E41.90472°N

41.90472°N 12.49417°E

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Vittoria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Vittoria"

Categories: Basilica churches in Rome | Titular churches in Rome | Roman Baroque | 1626
architecture | Roman Catholic congregations established in the 17th century

• This page was last modified on 7 June 2009 at 20:21.

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