12/4/2020 Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome - Wikipedia

Coordinates: 41°54′17″N 12°29′39″E

Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

Santa Maria della Vittoria (English: Saint Mary of Victory,
Latin: S. Mariae de Victoria) is a Catholic titular church and Santa Maria della Vittoria
basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary in Rome, Italy. The church Saint Mary of Victory (in
is known for the masterpiece of Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the English)
Cornaro Chapel, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. The church is in the S. Mariæ de Victoria (in Latin)
Rione Sallustiano, on number 98 via XX Settembre, where this
street intersects with Largo Santa Susanna. It stands to the side
of the Fontana dell'Acqua Felice. The church mirrors the Church
of Santa Susanna across the Largo. It is about two blocks
northwest of the Piazza della Repubblica and Teatro dell'Opera
metro stop.

Contents
History
Exterior
Interior
Cornaro Chapel
Titulus
References Façade of Santa Maria della Vittoria

Sources Religion

External links Affiliation Catholic

Ecclesiastical or Titular church,
organizational basilica
History status
Leadership Seán Patrick
The land for the church was purchased on April 20, 1607,[2] and
O'Malley[1]
built from 1608 to 1620, as a chapel dedicated to Saint Paul for
the Discalced Carmelites.[3] After the Catholic victory at the Location
battle of White Mountain in 1620, which reversed the Location Rome, Italy
Reformation in Bohemia, the church was rededicated to the
Geographic 41°54′17″N
Virgin Mary. Turkish standards captured at the 1683 siege of
Vienna hang in the church, adding to the theme of the Virgin coordinates 12°29′39″E
helping to lead Catholic armies to victory.[2] Architecture
Architect(s) Carlo Maderno,
The order itself funded the building work until the discovery of
the Borghese Hermaphroditus in the excavations. Scipione Giovanni Battista
Borghese, nephew of Pope Paul V, appropriated this sculpture Soria
but in return funded the rest of work on the façade and granted Type Church
the order his architect Giovanni Battista Soria. These grants only
Style Baroque
came into effect in 1624, and work was completed two years
later.[2] Groundbreaking 1605
Completed 1620
Exterior Specifications

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The church is the only structure designed and completed by the Length 35 metres
early Baroque architect Carlo Maderno, though the interior (115 ft)
suffered a fire in 1833 and required restoration. Its façade,
Width 19 metres (62 ft)
however, was erected by Giovanni Battista Soria during
Maderno's lifetime, 1624–1626, showing the unmistakable Website
influence of Maderno's Santa Susanna nearby. Provincia Romana dei Padri
Carmelitani Scalzi (http://www.carm
Interior elitaniroma.it/Conventi%20Provinci
a%20Romana/Roma%20-%20S.%2
Its interior has a single wide 0Maria%20della%20Vittoria.aspx)
nave under a low segmental
vault, with three interconnecting side chapels behind arches
separated by colossal corinthian pilasters with gilded capitals
that support an enriched entablature. Contrasting marble
revetments are enriched with white and gilded stucco angels and
putti in full relief. The interior was sequentially enriched after
Maderno's death; its vault was frescoed in 1675 with triumphant
themes within shaped compartments with feigned frames: The
Virgin Mary Triumphing over Heresy and Fall of the Rebel
Cantoria of the Santa Maria della
Angels executed by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini in 1675.
Vittoria church, decorated by Mattia
de Rossi
Other sculptural detail
abounds: The Dream of
Joseph (left transept,
Domenico Guidi, flanked by relief panels by Pierre Etienne
Monnot) and the funeral monument to Cardinal
Berlinghiero Gessi. There are paintings by Guercino,
Nicolas Lorrain, and Domenichino. The church is also the
final resting place of Saint Victoria, whose preserved
remains are on display inside.

Cornaro Chapel View of the interior.

The masterpiece in the Cornaro Chapel, to the left of the

altar, is Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Scipione's favored sculptor, Bernini. The statues depict a moment as
described by Saint Teresa of Avila in her autobiography, where she had the vivid vision of a Seraph
piercing her heart with a golden shaft, causing her both immense joy and pain. The flowing robes and
contorted posture abandon classical restraint and repose to depict a more passionate, almost
voluptuous trance. Although artistically a tour de force, nonetheless, during Bernini's lifetime and in
the centuries following till this very day, Bernini's Saint Teresa has been accused of crossing a line of
decency by sexualizing the visual depiction of the saint's experience, to a degree that no artist, before
or after Bernini, dared to do: in depicting her at an impossibly young chronological age, as an
idealized delicate beauty, in a semi-prostrate position with her mouth open and her legs splayed-
apart, her wimple coming undone, with prominently displayed bare feet (Discalced Carmelites, for
modesty, always wore sandals with heavy stockings) and with the seraph "undressing" her by
(unnecessarily) parting her mantle to penetrate her heart with his arrow.[4][5]

Titulus
Santa Maria della Vittoria was established as a titular church by Pope Pius VII on 23 December 1801.
The following is a list of its Cardinal-Priests:[6]

Michelangelo Luchi (1801–1802)

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Joseph Fesch (1803–1822); in commendam (1822–1839)

Ferdinando Maria Pignatelli (1839–1853)
Adriano Fieschi (1853–1858)
Joseph Othmar von Rauscher (1858–1875)
Godefroy Brossais-Saint-Marc (1876–1878)
Louis-Edouard-François-Desiré Pie (1879–1880)
Luigi Jacobini (1880–1887)
Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau (1887–1898)
Giovanni Battista Casali del Drago (1899–1908)
François-Marie-Anatole de Rovérié de Cabrières (1911–
1921)
Alexis-Armand Charost (1922–1930)
Angelo Maria Dolci (1933–1936)
Federico Tedeschini (1936–1951)
Giuseppe Siri (1953–1989)
Giuseppe Caprio (1990–2005)
Seán Patrick O'Malley, OFM Cap (2006–incumbent) The Virgin Mary Triumphing over
Heresy and Fall of the Rebel
Angels, in the vault

References
1. Official website of the vicariate of Rome (http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Ente.asp?ID=879)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20111103052356/http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Ente.asp?I
D=879) November 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
2. "Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria" (http://www.chiesasantamariavittoriaroma.it/7.aspx) (in
Italian). Padri Carmelitani Scalzi: Storia. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
3. "Chiesa di Santa Maria della Vittoria" (http://www.chiesasantamariavittoriaroma.it/default.aspx) (in
Italian). Padri Carmelitani Scalzi. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
4. For these visual details of the statue and an examination of the charge of indecency, see Franco
Mormando, 'Did Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa Cross a 17th-century Line of Decorum?
(Mormando's answer is yes): [1] (https://www.academia.edu/44401140/Did_Berninis_Ecstasy_of_
St_Teresa_Cross_a_17th_century_Line_of_Decorum).
5. Zirpolo, Lilian H. (2010). Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=VIlA0kuX5DAC&pg=PA170). Scarecrow Press. pp. 170–171. ISBN 978-1-4616-
5919-8.
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6. David M. Cheyney, Catholic-Hierarchy: S. Maria della Vittoria (http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/di

ocese/d1m23.html). Retrieved: 2016-03-14.

Sources
Rendina, Claudio (1999). Enciclopedia di Roma. Rome: Newton Compton.
Matthiae, Guglielmo (1999). The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Rome: Order of the
Discalced Carmelite Fathers. ISBN 978-88-86542-86-9.
Sturm, Saverio (2015). L’architettura dei Carmelitani Scalzi in età barocca: La ‘Provincia
Romana’. Lazio, Umbria e Marche (1597-1705). Roma: Gangemi Editore.
Hibbert, Howard (1965). Bernini. New York: Pelican-Penguin.
Susanne Juliane Warma (1981). A Study of the Iconography of Bernini's Cornaro Chapel in Santa
Maria Della Vittoria Athens: University of Georgia.
G. Matthiae (1965). S. Maria della Vittoria. Rome.

External links
Chris Nyborg, "Churches of Rome: Santa Maria della Vittoria" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060
215194156/http://roma.katolsk.no/mariavittoria.htm)
Roberto Piperno, "santa Maria della Vittoria" (http://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi148.htm#S.%20Mari
a%20della%20Vittoria)
"Santa Maria della Vittoria" (http://www.romecity.it/Santamariadellavittoria.htm) (in Italian)
Roma SPQR: "Santa Maria della Vittoria" (http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Chiese_Barocche/s_mar
ia_della_vittoria.htm)

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