Santa Maria della Carità, Bologna

Santa Maria della Carità is a Renaissance-style Roman Catholic church in central Bologna, Italy.

History

By mid-13th century, an administrator under Pope Gregory IX, founded a hospital at an adjacent lot. For a time, it was an orphanage. A chapel, attached to a hospital, existed by 1378. From the 15th to the 18th century, the church and convent were attached to a Franciscan order.[1]

The present layout dates from 1583, by designs of Pietro Fiorini. It was enlarged with the addition of four large chapels in 1680 under the designs of Giovanni Battista Bergonzoni, a Franciscan theologian.

The interior is decorated with paintings by prominent Baroque painters. In the first chapel on the right is a Visitation by Il Galanino. In the 3rd chapel on the right is a Vision of St Elizabeth (1685) by Marc Antonio Franceschini. The third chapel to the left has a Holy Family with St Anthony of Padua(1680) by Felice Cignani.[2] The most prominent work in the church is the altarpiece by Annibale Carracci in the 1st chapel on the left: this work by a 23 year old Annibale depicts the Crucifixion (1583).[3]

Crucifixion by Annibale Caracci.

Other artists include Giovanni Valesio; Flaminio Torre (Virgin and Saints); Giovanni Battista Fiorini; Antonio Crespi; Luigi Quaini; and Luigi Crespi. The sacristy, designed also by Bergonzoni, has paintings by Gaetano Gandolfi, Jacopo Alessandro Calvi, and sculptures by Giovanni Francesco Bezzi.

References

  1. ↑ Le chiese parrocchiali della diocesi di Bologna, ritratte e descritte, Volume IV, by Bologna diocese, Lithography by Enrico Corty, Published by San Tommaso D'Aquino, Bologna, 1851. #40.
  2. ↑ Emilia Romagna, by the Touring Club Italiano, Touring editore srl, 1991, page 213.
  3. ↑ Bologna Welcome Official Tourist site.

Coordinates: 44°29′51″N 11°19′53″E / 44.49758°N 11.33135°E