October 1656 Archives
The current building was built on the foundations of the pre-existing
In 1656-1667 Pope Alexander VII had the edifice restored by Pietro da Cortona, who also added the famous Baroque façade projecting from its concave wings: this, devised to simulate a theatrical set, has two orders and is entered by a semi-circular pronaos with paired Doric columns. The church presses forward almost to fill its tiny piazza; several houses had to be demolished by Pietro da Cortona to create even this miniature trapezoidal space.
The interior, which can be reached from the original fifteenth-century door, has a short nave with cruciform vaulting and a tribune surmounted by a cupola. Carlo Maderno designed the high altar (1614) to enframe the venerable icon of the Madonna and Child.
Raphael began to fresco the four Sibyls receiving angelic instruction (1514) above the arched doorway leading to an inner chapel, commissioned by Agostino Chigi, the papal banker. [2]. The Deposition over the altar is by Cosimo Fancelli.
The second chapel on the right, the Cesi Chapel, was designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, and has a very fine Renaissance decoration on the external arch by Simone Mosca, as well as two small frescoes, the Creation of Eve and the Original Sin by Rosso Fiorentino.
The first chapel on the left (Ponzetti Chapel) has noteworthy Renaissance frescoes by Baldassarre Peruzzi, who is better known as an architect. The second chapel has marble taken from the ruins of the
The tribune has paintings by Carlo Maratta, Peruzzi, Orazio Gentileschi, Francesco Albani and others.
The main feature of the church is however the Bramante cloister. Built in 1500-1504 for Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, it was the first work of Donato Bramante in the city. It has two floors, the first with arcades on pilasters, the second with arcades on pilasters and columns.
