page_title: Santa Maria del Popolo
section_title: Monuments
hierarchical_section_title: Santa Maria del Popolo / Interior / Monuments
caption_attribution_description: English: Tomb of Gisleni, at the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
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: The church was a favourite burial place for the Roman aristocracy, clergy and literati, especially after Bernini's intervention. Besides the tombs in the side chapels the most notable monuments are:
  1. Maria Eleonora Boncompagni Ludovisi
  The first monument as you enter the basilica is the wall tomb of Maria Eleonora I Boncompagni, the sovereign Princess of Piombino right by the door on the counterfaçade. The princess died in 1745 after visiting a hospital. Her tomb was designed by Domenico Gregorini in 1749.
  The funeral monument is a typical Late Baroque artwork with distinctly macabre details. On the base there is a winged dragon, the symbol of the Boncompagni family. The plaque of the epitaph is made of polished, colored stones in pietre dure. The inscription is surmounted by the personification of Time (a winged skull), the coat-of-arms of the Principality of Piombino and two allegorical figures (Charity and Meekness). The plaque 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 Italian Baroque architect and stage designer who worked for the Polish royal court during the years 1630–1668, is probably the most macabre funeral monument in the basilica. 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 plaque with a long inscription and the portrait of the deceased in a tondo which was painted by a Flemish portraitist, Jacob Ferdinand Voet. There is a painted canopy supported by angels on the wall. The lower part is more interesting: a skeleton is peeping through a window behind an iron grill. The sinister, shrouded figure is facing towards the viewer with his bony hands clutched on his breast. 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. Maria Flaminia Odescalchi Chigi
  The funeral monument of Princess Maria Flaminia Odescalchi Chigi is sometimes dubbed the "last Baroque tomb in Rome". It is probably the most visually stunning, exuberant and theatrical sepulchral monument in the basilica. It was built in 1772 for the young princess, the first wife of Don Sigismondo Chigi Albani della Rovere, the 4th Prince of Farnese, who died in childbirth at the age of 20. It was designed by Paolo Posi, a Baroque architect who was famous for his ephemeral architecture built for celebrations, and executed by Agostino Penna. The tomb is located by the pillar between the Chigi and Montemirabile Chapels.
  The monument shows the influence of Bernini's tomb for Maria Raggi in Santa Maria sopra Minerva. Posi used the heraldic symbols of the Chigi and the Odescalchi to celebrate the intertwining of the two princely families. In the lower part of the monument a white marble Odescalchi lion is climbing a mountain of the Chigi; to the right a smoking incense burner alludes to the Odescalchis again. A gnarled bronze oak tree (Chigi) grows from the mountain with a huge red marble robe on its branches. The robe is hemmed with gold and decorated with a
caption: The lower part of the Gisleni monument
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