page_title: Santa Maria del Popolo
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Maria del Popolo / Interior
caption_attribution_description: English: Dome of Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo
context_page_description: The Parish Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo is a titular church and a minor basilica in Rome run by the Augustinian order. It stands on the north side of Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous squares in the city. The church is hemmed in between the Pincian Hill and Porta del Popolo, one of the gates in the Aurelian Wall as well as the starting point of Via Flaminia, the most important route from the north. Its location made the basilica the first church for the majority of travellers entering the city. The church contains works by several famous artists, such as Raphael, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio, Alessandro Algardi, Pinturicchio, Andrea Bregno, Guillaume de Marcillat and Donato Bramante.
context_section_description: Counterfaçade
  The decoration of the counterfaçade was part of the Berninian reconstruction of the church in the 17th century. The architecture is simple with a marble frame around the monumental door, a dentilled cornice, a segmental arched pediment and a dedicatory inscription commemorating the thorough rebuilding of the ancient church that Pope Alexander VII initiated as Fabio Chigi, Cardinal Priest of the basilica, and its consecration in 1655 as newly elected Pope:
  ALEXANDER · VII · P · M / FABII · CHISII · OLIM · CARD / TITULARI · AEDE · ORNATA / SUI · PONTIF · PRIMORDIA / ANTIQAE · PIETATI / IN · BEATAM · VIRGINEM / CONSECR ·A · D · MDCLV.
  The rose window is supported by two stucco angels sculpted by Ercole Ferrata in 1655-58 under the guidance of Bernini. The one on the left holds a wreath in her hand. On the lower part of the counterfaçade there are various funeral monuments.
  Nave
  The church of Santa Maria del Popolo is a Renaissance basilica with a nave and two aisles, and a transept with a central dome. The nave and the aisles have four bays, and they are covered with cross-vaults. There are four piers on each side that support the arches separating the nave from the aisles. Each pillar has four travertine semi-columns, three of them supporting the arches and the vault of the aisles while the taller fourth supports the nave vaults. The semi-columns have Corintianesque capitals with a palmette ornament between the scrolls. There are subtle differences between the capitals in the type of the palmette and the fleuron. Unlike the column shafts, the capitals are still coated with plaster.
  The original 15th-century architecture was largely preserved by Bernini who only added a strong stone cornice and embellished the arches with pairs of white stucco statues portraying female saints. The first two pairs on the left and the right are medieval monastic founders and reformers, the rest are all early Christian saints and martyrs. Their names are written on the spandrels of the arches with gilt letters. The cross-vaults remained undecorated and simply whitewashed. The keystones in the nave and the transept are decorated with coats of arms of Pope Sixtus IV. The Della Rovere papal escutcheons were also placed on the cornice of the intrados in the first and the last arches of the nave. These stone carvings are gilt and painted. The nave is lit by two rows of large segmental arched clerestory windows with a simple Baroque stone molding and bracketed cornice. Before the Berninian rebuilding the clerestory windows were the same mullioned arched openings like those on the facade and the bell tower.
  The nave ends with a triumphal arch that is decorated with a sumptuous stucco group which was created during the Berninian reconstruction. The papal coat of arms of Alexander VII is seen in the middle flanked by two angel-like Victories holding palm branches who repose on rich garlands of flowers. This group is the work of Antonio Raggi. It should be noted the nave and the transept had a more unified Baroque appearance before the purist restoration of Antonio Muñoz in 1912. He removed the thick plaster coat from the shafts of the travertine half-columns that was painted to create an appearance of cipollino marble. Another lost Baroque feature was created by Giovanni Maria Mariani whose name was mentioned regularly in the payments between 1657 and 1658. It is not possible to reconstruct his work in the basilica but he was a specialist of sumptuous ornamental friezes with great figures, festoons and grisailles. Presumably he was tasked with the seamless integration of the real and painted sculpture in the nave and the transept.
  Pairs of saints in the nave
  Originally Bernini planned to fill the spaces between the windows and the arches with statues of kneeling angels. These figures appear in several drawings of a sketchbook from his workshop but by 1655 Bernini changed his mind and placed statues of female saints on the cornices. These saintly virgins are leading the eye toward the image of the Virgin on the main altar. The statues were
caption: The dome.
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