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| Facade : unusually without traffic swirling past... |
I first met this church in the opera house as the venue for the first Act of Puccini's Tosca. Years later when I saw it day after day in the Corso Vittorio in the centre of Rome, it left a great impression. First because it is so central and unmissable and second because my first glimpse of the interior was in the dark except for sepulchral lighting with a Latin schola practicing in a side chapel. In the distance a huge fresco of the crucified St Andrew.....wow. Yet it has to be said that the vast majority of people pass by this huge monster of a building - tourists included I think - without going in. I can't wait to get another look.
This is the Mother Church of the Theatine Order. It was granted to the Order in 1584 by the Duchess of Amalfi, provided a new church was built dedicated to St Andrew, and consisted ofa chapel to St Sebastian with adjoining buildings. These were not demolished until 1590 and the new church begun in 1591. Designers were Francesco Grimaldi and \Giacomo della Porta. In 1608 Carlo Maderno took over, completed the nave, widened the crossing and built the dome, tribune and sacristy. The dome is the second largest in Rome after Saint Peter's - another reason this great building is not to be missed. The original design for the facade by Maderno was altered and completed by Carlo Rainaldi 1655-65.
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| S Andrea to left of S Peters (Crerative Commons : Gilbert Sopakuwa) |
It is believed that the Gesu was used as a model and from this the height was increased by as much as a quarter and the pillars and pilasters in the nave developed to create a much more animated effect. It is hard to describe this in words, without using very technical language : the two views enable a comparison.
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| Nave of Gesu (Creative Commons : Feng Zhong) |
The nave at San Andrea is wide and trully monumental, culminating in the tombs of the two Piccolomini Popes, Pius II and III before the crossing.
The fresco in the dome by Giovanni Lanfranco (1625-7) of the Glories of Paradise is a very early example of trompe l'oeil in Rome - a swirling mass of activity. The pendentives of the four evangelists are by Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri 1581-1641). It is Mattia Preti (1613-99) who decorated the apse with frescos from the life of St Andrew, (1650-1)including the huge crucifixion which had made such an impression on me.
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| Dome fresco by Lanfranco and pendetives by Domenichino |
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| The martyrdom of St Andrew by Matteo Preti. |
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