San Giacomo Scossacavalli

Church of San Giacomo Scossacavalli
Chiesa di San Giacomo Scossacavalli

Piazza Scossacavalli with Palazzo Torlonia and San Giacomo in a 18th-century etching of Giuseppe Vasi
Basic information
Location Rome, Italy
Geographic coordinates 41°54′8.5″N 12°27′41.5″E / 41.902361°N 12.461528°E / 41.902361; 12.461528Coordinates: 41°54′8.5″N 12°27′41.5″E / 41.902361°N 12.461528°E / 41.902361; 12.461528
Affiliation Roman Catholic
Year consecrated Before 8th century;
23 November 1777
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Parish (1275–1825)
Status Destroyed in 1937
Patron St. James
Architectural description
Architect(s) Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
Architectural style Renaissance, Mannerist
Direction of façade West
Groundbreaking About 1520
Completed 1592
Specifications
Materials Stone, Brickwork

San Giacomo Scossacavalli (also San Giacomo a Scossacavalli) was a church in Rome, important for historical and artistic reasons. The church, facing the Piazza Scossacavalli, was demolished in 1937, when Via della Conciliazione (the grand avenue leading to St. Peter's Basilica) was erected, causing the destruction of the piazza together with the central part of the rione Borgo.

Location

The shrine was located in Rome, in rione Borgo, along the east side of Piazza Scossacavalli, its main front facing west and opposite to the Palazzo dei Convertendi.[1] Its southern side ran along the Borgo Vecchio road.[1]

History

Middle Ages

In 1513 Pope Leo X acknowledged the Confraternity of the SS. Sacramento, which in 1520 was entrusted with the care of San Giacomo

The church's name gave birth to a pious legend. When Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, returned from her trip to the Holy Land, she brought back, among other relics, two stones: supposedly the one where Jesus was presented at the Temple of Solomon, and that on which Abraham bound Isaac.[1] The empress wanted to donate both stones to Saint Peter's Basilica but, when the convoy arrived at the place where the future church would stand, the horses (Italian: cavalli) refused to move further, although they were being shaken (Italian: scossi) several times.[2][3] On that place, a chapel was built, which hosted the two stones, and gave origin to the church.[3][4] The story has no foundation, the most probable reason for the name being the discovery, near the square, of a fragment of an Equestrian statue of Roman Age representing a horse thigh, in Vulgar Latin Coxa Caballi.[3][5]

The church had an ancient origin: in the Middle Ages, it was first dedicated to the Redeemer (Italian: Salvatore), and was mentioned as San Salvatoris de Coxa Caballi in Papal Bulls of Popes Sergius I (r. 687–701) and Leo IV (r. 847-55).[3][6] Moreover, the church is mentioned in the main medieval catalogues of Roman churches, like that of Cencio Camerarius and of Paris.[3]

According to some sources, the church could be identified with San Salvatore de Bordonia, where a bordone was the staff borne by the pilgrims coming to St. Peter.[3][4] These would have left their staffs in San Giacomo before entering Saint Peter,[7] exactly as they did after completing the Way of St. James, and this fact would explain also the late dedication to Saint James.[8]

In 1250 the relics of St. James were brought to the church, which changed its dedication correspondingly.[3] Its usual appellation in contemporary documents is S. Jacobus de Portico, where the Porticus par excellence in medieval Rome was the covered passage linking Saint Peter with the Tiber, named Porticus Sancti Petri.[3] In 1198 Pope Innocent III (r. 1198–1216) entrusted the Chapter of Saint Peter (Italian: Capitolo di San Pietro) with the church's care.[3] In 1275 the church became parish.[3]

Renaissance

Piazza Scossacavalli with San Giacomo and the fountain of Carlo Maderno in a 17th-century etching by Giovanni Battista Falda

In 1520 the confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (Italian: Confraternita del Santissimo Sacramento) was entrusted with the care of the church.[3] This association was born in Borgo in 1509 because of the following episode: on a windy evening of 1506, a Carmelite coming from the old Santa Maria in Traspontina church (lying near Castel Sant'Angelo), followed by a lay brother bearing a candle, was bringing the sacramental bread to a sick person. Since the wind had put the candle out, the layman went into a nearby shop asking for fire, so that the priest was left alone.[3] At the sight of the lone priest bearing the blessed Sacrament, several passers-by were moved, gathered around him and accompanied him, bearing a baldachin and torches.[3] The group grew with time, until on 3 September 1509 the members formed a compagnia. The Carmelites assigned to it a chapel in Santa Maria in Traspontina, and in 1513 Pope Leo X (r. 1513–21) acknowledged the association, which in 1520 moved to San Giacomo, entrusted to it by the Capitolo di San Pietro.[2][9]

The brethren wore a kind of sackclothes (Italian: sacchi) made with white fabric.[9] These had a small figure on the left shoulder, representing a vermilion chalice with an image of Christ with open arms.[9] The confraternity was committed to give a doctor and a barber to the poor living in the parish, and each Holy Thursday it organized in the church a representation of the dead Christ with wax sculptures.[9] Each year, there was a solemn procession, first to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in rione Pigna, later to the Pauline Chapel in the Apostolic Palace and finally to St. Peter. In 1578 Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572–85) accorded the association the status of archconfraternity.[9] Due to that, duties and privilegies of the association grew: since 1580 the brothers dowered each year four poor girls of the parish with a white dress and twenty-five scudi.[9] In 1590 Pope Sixtus V (r.1585–90) granted to the archconfraternity the privilege of setting free each year a person condemned to death.[9]

Shortly after their assignment to San Giacomo, the brethren started to reconstruct it, choosing as architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, but due to lack of money in 1590 the facade was still unfinished.[9] In that year Ludovico Fulgineo, Apostolic Referendary and Governor of the archconfraternity died, leaving his inheritance to the association.[9] Thanks to his legacy two years later the construction could be finished.[9]

In 1601 an oratory dedicated to San Sebastiano was erected behind the church, its facade facing Borgo vecchio.[9]

Baroque and Modern Ages

The church in Piazza Scossacavalli and the Borgo Vecchio road towards east during the Tiber flood of 15 February 1915

San Giacomo underwent thorough restorations during the first half of the 17th century and the second half of 18th century. On 23 November 1777 the church was consecrated again by Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart.[10]

The church was damaged during the French occupation of Rome under Napoleon, and restored again in 1810 and 1880, when all the stone socles were removed.[10] In 1825 San Giacomo lost its status of parish.[5][11] In 1927 the shrine was hit by a fire which damaged several artworks,[12] and in 1929 it was assigned to the religious institute of the Sons of Divine Providence.[11]

In 1937 the building was demolished (terminus ante quem for the end of the works is 30 September 1937), in the context of the works for the construction of Via della Conciliazione.[5][10] While all the artworks were given into custody first to the Capitolo di San Pietro, then to the Museo Petriano, some frescoes decorating a chapel have been detached and are on display at the Museo di Roma.[10] Some elements of the facade, included the 17th-century travertino portal decorated with cherubs heads, are kept in the communal storehouse at the Bastione Ardeatino.[5][10] The two alleged stones of the sacrifice of Isaac and of the presentation of Jesus to the Temple of Solomon have been removed, and at the beginning of the 1990s have been placed in the church of the Santi Michele e Magno (the national church of the Dutch in Rome) in Borgo: the latter is now used as the main altar of this church.[13]

Description

The artistic importance of the church derives mainly from its design by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and from its frescoes and paintings, above all those by Piemontese mannerist painter Giovanni Battista Ricci and his scholars.[5]

Architecture

The church in the late 16th century, in a woodcut by Girolamo Franzini, from Cose maravigliose dell'alma città di Roma, first published in 1588

When Antonio da Sangallo was commissioned to rebuild the church, the main problem he had to cope with was related to the shape of the building: the width of the church, facing Piazza Scossacavalli was longer than its length, placed along Borgo Vecchio.[11] Several drawings kept in the Uffizi show different solutions to this problem: a single-nave plan oriented along the long side with a side entrance, an octagonal plan, and an oval plan.[11] The latter was adopted by Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola for the church of Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, and became very popular during the 17th century.[11] Sangallo did not adopt any of these plans, instead deciding to reduce the area of the church, whose plan became a rectangle with its long side normal to Piazza Scossacavalli.[11] The nave was flanked by four large niches, and from the remaining space the architect obtained four rooms, two for each side, used as sacristy.[11]

The appearance of the church towards the middle of the 16th century (shortly before its completion) is known from a woodcut of Girolamo Franzini.[10] The facade of the church appears as almost square – at its center there was a portal with a tympanum surmounted by a large fanlight opened by a round window.[10] At its side lay three rows of pilasters with two pairs of niches placed one on the top of the other.[10] On one side of the roof there was a bell-gable.[10]

When the facade was completed, at the pilasters' base were added high plinths, and a second order was added.[14] This consisted in a tympanum having at the center a large panel adorned with frescoes and delimited by a mixtilinear frame.[14] At the slopes' edges lay two candelabra, and at the base of the second order, two Oriflammes.[14] All these elements gave to the facade, which since 1592 bore also the coats of arms of Pope Clement VIII (r. 1592–1605) and of the confraternity, an upward swing.[10] Moreover, the facade was adorned with frescoes of sacred subject: among them, "faked figures of yellow Saints made of golden metal" attributed to Giovanni Guerra or Cristoforo Ambrogini.[11][15]

The church, without apse and transept,[14] maintained the original single nave plan at least until 1627. In 1662 the naves had become three, separated by two rows of square pillars made with brickwork and surmounted by vaults.[11][14] In 1627 the shrine had five altars, increasing to six in 1649.[11] In 1726, the closing of the church's side gate along Borgo Vecchio made room for another altar.[11]

Interior

The alleged altar of the Temple of Solomon kept in a chapel of the church in an engraving of 1623

On the right side:

On the bottom wall of the right nave there was a 16th-century fresco depicting the Pietà among a Choir of Angels.[12]

On the left side:

Above the main altar, dedicated to Jesus the Redeemer, there was a painting of Giovanni Battista Ricci representing the Last Supper.[12][15] Moreover, in 1662 a detached fresco portraying the Virgin with Child was transferred there.[12] The Cardinals Ardicini had this image painted on the facade of their palace in Borgo Sant'Angelo.[12] This image was highly venerated by the people of Borgo because of the many miracles attributed to her intercession.[12] On the altar lay a tabernacle made with African marble, work of Giovanni Battista Ciolli,[12][15] while to the right of the entrance there was a holy water font presented to the church in 1589 by Francesco Del Sodo, eminent member of the archconfraternity.[11]

The church was the burial place of several people, whose tombstones adorned the floor: among them, the son and the mother-in-law of Pirro Ligorio and Battista Gerosa, son of Antonio, the architect of the Oratory of San Sebastiano.[4][16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gigli (1992) p. 7
  2. 1 2 Baronio (1697) p. 65
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Gigli (1992) p. 8
  4. 1 2 3 Delli(1988) p. 857
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Cambedda (1990) p. 50
  6. ↑ Lombardi (1996), sub voce
  7. ↑ Borgatti (1926) p. 156
  8. ↑ Castagnoli (1958) p. 242
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Gigli (1992) p. 10
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Gigli (1992) p. 12
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Gigli (1992) p. 14
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Gigli (1992) p. 16
  13. ↑ Gigli (1994) p. 32
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cambedda (1990) p. 51
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Baronio (1697) p. 66
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 Gigli (1992) p. 18

Sources

External links

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