Santa Maria della Scala

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Santa Maria della Scala (Italian: Holy Mary of the Staircase) is a titular church in Rome.

[edit] History

An icon of the Madonna, placed on the landing of a staircase in a private house in Trastevere, cured a deformed child whose mother often prayed before it, and so this church was built (1593-1610) in honour of Our Lady and to house that icon (now enshrined in the north transept, alongside a statue of St John of the Cross in the style of Bernini). It was sited near the private house and adjacent to a monastery famous for its 17th century pharmacy to the Papal Court - its furnishings and equipment has been preserved). Around fifty years after the church's completion, a tempietto-form baldachino (with 16 slender jasper Corinthian columns) and high altar were added, designed by Carlo Rainaldi.

Its choir, nave and north transept's vaults transepts are decorated with painting intended to resemble mouldings, whilst the south transept has actual stucco relief mouldings and an altar and relic (one of her feet) of St Teresa of Avila.

The church also contains The Beheading of St. John the Baptist by the Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst and The Death of the Virgin by Carlo Sarasceni (the latter replacing a work on the same subject by Caravaggio, because the Discalced Carmelites who then and now serve this church felt that it lacked decorum and because they suspected that the model was a prostitute who had drowned in the Tiber).