page_title: Monuments in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo
section_title: Counterfaçade
hierarchical_section_title: Monuments in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo / Counterfaçade
caption_attribution_description: English: The funeral monument of Samuel Rafael Globic in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome (1665).
context_page_description: Monuments in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo are tombs and funerary monuments ranging from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Since its rebuilding in the 1470s by Pope Sixtus IV the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo was one of the favourite burial places for members of the papal aristocracy, clergy and literati. Foreign artists were also buried in the church due to its location near their favourite quarter in Rione Campo Marzio. The high number of tombs and monuments makes the basilica a whole museum of sculpture as Jacob Burckhardt phrased it in his famous guide of Italian art in 1855. Besides the tombs in the side chapels and the choir there are many other funeral monuments in the aisles and the transept. During the centuries several monuments were demolished and others were relocated to give place to newer ones.
context_section_description: 1. Maria Eleonora Boncompagni Ludovisi
  To the right of the entrance, on the counterfacade, is the wall tomb of Maria Eleonora I Boncompagni, the sovereign Princess of Piombino. The princess died in 1745 after visiting a hospital. Her tomb was designed by Domenico Gregorini in 1749.
  The funeral monument has typically macabre, late Baroque details. The base includes a winged dragon, symbol of the Boncompagni family. The tablet of the epitaph is made of pietre dure. The inscription is surmounted by an allegory of Time (skull in wreath with wings), the coat-of-arms of the Principality of Piombino and two personifications (Charity and Humility). The tablet is set in a white marble frame with a conch in the lower part and a gable at the top with a shell, two flaming torches and another winged skull.
  2. Giovanni Battista Gisleni
  The tomb of Giovanni Battista Gisleni, an architect and stage designer who worked for the Polish royal court during 1630-1668, is another rather macabre funeral monument. It is set between a wooden booth and a stone half-column on the right side of the counterfaçade. The memorial was designed and installed by the architect himself in 1670 two years before his death.
  The upper part of the monument is a stone tablet with a long inscription and the portrait of the deceased in a tondo which was painted by a Flemish artist, Jacob Ferdinand Voet. There is a painted canopy which is supported by angels on the wall (one of them holding an hourglass, the symbol of Time). The lower part contains a shrouded skeleton, clutching his breast, as he peers through an iron grill window. The stone frame of the window is decorated with a coat-of-arms and two bronze medallions. The left one shows a tree with its branches cut but sprouting new shoots and containing a caterpillar spinning its cocoon, while the right one shows the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a moth. These are the symbols of death and resurrection. The inscriptions convey the same message: In nidulo meo moriar ("In my nest I die" i.e. in the city of Rome) and Ut phoenix multiplicabo dies ("As a phoenix I multiply my days"). There are two enigmatic inscriptions on the upper and lower part of the monument: Neque hic vivus and Neque illic mortuus ("Neither living here, nor dead there").
  On this tomb the skeleton is not the personification of Death as in other Baroque tombs but a representation of the deceased (the transi image) on his way towards the resurrection and due to this "death became a symbol for life".
  3. Samuel Rafael Globic
  Samuel Rafael Globic was a young Czech painter who died in Rome in 1665. His small monument is hidden in the corner of the counterfaçade near the wooden entrance booth. Its cryptic inscription remains an unsolved mystery. A putto is carrying the family coat-of-arms and a rippling drapery. The wavy lines of the Latin inscription declare: "This stone is the centre, the periphery of which was a life, that the noble Samuel Raphael Globicz de Buczina of Prague in Bohemia once orbited in this turbulent circle of living, whose parent was a royal surveyor, who unhappily discovered the squaring of the circle [infelicissime quadraturam circuli invenit], when his precious son was buried under this square tombstone in 1665 on 18 August at the age of 25 years."
  The parent was Samuel Globic, royal surveyor of Bohemia, who probably designed the monument for his son. Nobody knows the exact meaning of the most enigmatic part of the epitaph which refers to squaring the circle.
  4. Cristiana Duglioli Angelelli
  The monument of Marquise Cristiana Duglioli Angelelli is set in the wall of the counterfaçade. This noble woman from Bologna was the widow of Senator Andrea Angelelli. After her husband’s murder in 1643 she settled in Rome where she patronized the leading artists of the era. The marquise, who moved in the highest circles of the Roman society, established a famous art collection in her palace. She died in 1669 leaving some precious relics and alms to the monastery.
  The monument is a simple slab of white marble in a grey marble frame. It i
caption: The funeral monument of Samuel Rafael Globic
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX200V", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2015:06:24 21:33:18", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2396", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5300", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5197", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2000", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "2000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:12:28 01:09:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:12:28 01:09:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-3863/1280", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "215/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "144/25", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3672", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4896", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3672", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "4896", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "5152", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Night", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "e9a942f87e03994f0f7560f07d3224a2", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[24/5, 144, 14/5, 28/5]", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4156"}