Rome: Sant’Agnese in Agone

It must be one of the most ignored signs in all of Rome: the pictogram in the vestibule of the church of Sant’Agnese on the Piazza Navona that announces the ban on photography inside the church. Not a single visitor respects this ban and it is not enforced by the custodians either. Rightly so, in my honest opinion. I cannot think of a single reason why it should be prohibited to take photos inside this gorgeous church. The Sant’Agnese is without a doubt the most popular church on the Piazza Navona. While hordes of tourists crash the gates here, the church of Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore on the other side of the piazza is usually completely ignored. The history of the Sant’Agnese is closely associated with the history of the Piazza Navona and with the Pamphili family. For me this is reason to discuss not only the church itself in this post, but also provide details about the piazza and the aforementioned family.

Early history

Saint Agnes is one of the best-known saints of Rome. Her name means “pure” in Greek, but the Greek word Ἁγνή also closely resembles Latin agnus, which means “little lamb”. Saint Agnes is therefore usually depicted with a little lamb in her arms or at her feet, a reference to her innocence and her Christian faith (cf. the Lamb of God). According to tradition Agnes was a Christian girl who was a mere twelve years old when she was married off to the son of the city prefect of Rome. However, Agnes wanted to remain a virgin and refused to cooperate. Soon after she was martyred in the year 304. In spite of her Greek name Agnes must have been a Roman citizen. After all, as a result of the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212 almost all freeborn inhabitants of the Roman Empire possessed Roman citizenship. This makes it rather plausible that she was decapitated by the sword, a version of her death presented to us by church father Ambrosius (ca. 340-397). This was the usual execution method if Roman citizens were involved, as is demonstrated by the death of Saint Paul the Apostle. After her execution Agnes was buried in the catacombs along the Via Nomentana. Now we find the church of Sant’Agnese fuori le Mura here, which still possesses her relics.

The story of the martyrdom of Saint Agnes has been embellished over the centuries. One version of the story claims that she was paraded naked before a hostile crowd. But lo and behold, all of a sudden her hair began growing miraculously and covered her breasts and genitals. Agnes was subsequently burned at the stake or decapitated. This is all said to have happened in a brothel near the stadium of Domitianus, Roman emperor between 81 and 96. The stadium had been built between 82 and 86. It was 275 metres long and 106 metres wide, and was mainly used for athletic contests (it was too small for chariot races). The stadium was surrounded by shops, restaurants and – it was already mentioned – brothels, so that the needs of up to 33,000 spectators could be met. The Circus of Domitianus was alternatively known as the Circus Agonalis, after the Greek word ἀγών, which means “game” or “competition”. This explains the name Sant’Agnese in Agone. Apparently ordinary Romans found it difficult to pronounce in Agone, as in later centuries the words were corrupted and became “Navona”. And so the piazza that occupies the space where the stadium used to be became known as the Piazza Navona.

A Christian oratory was built on the spot where the brothel was said to have stood and where Agnes was paraded and then killed. The construction of the oratory cannot be dated with precision, but in any case there was a sanctuary here by the end of the eighth century. Pilgrims flocked to the little building to venerate the head of the saint; the other remains are kept in the other church of Sant’Agnese outside the city walls, as was already mentioned above. In the twelfth century the oratory was converted into a proper church, which was consecrated on 28 January 1123 by Pope Calixtus II (1119-1124). This church had a different orientation compared to the current Sant’Agnese: its entrance was in what is now the Via di Santa Maria dell’Anima, while its apse adjoined the Piazza Navona. The former stadium had by now been converted into a market square by Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484). Many important Roman families had built their palaces around the piazza. And there was one family that had truly grand plans for the Piazza Navona: the Pamphili family.[1] The Pamphili were originally from the town of Gubbio in Umbria, but had relocated to Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century. In 1644 Giovanni Battista Pamphili was elected Pope Innocentius X (1644-1655). He would drastically alter the appearance of both the church of Sant’Agnese and the Piazza Navona.

Creation of the Piazza Navona

The Piazza Navona has been described as “the Pamphilis’ backyard, the family precinct”.[2] There is a lot of truth in that description. The pontificate of Innocentius X first saw the completion of the Palazzo Pamphili, which is the Brazilian embassy nowadays. This palazzo was built between 1644 and 1650 by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi (1570-1655). The most famous inhabitant of the palazzo was Olimpia Maidalchini (1591-1657), the widow of the pope’s older brother and therefore his sister-in-law. Olimpia had a rather nasty reputation. She was for instance known as olim pia, or “once pious”. Her son Camillo Pamphili (1622-1666) initially served as Innocentius’ cardinal-nephew (cardinale nipote), but later resigned this important office so that he could marry Olimpia Aldobrandini (1623-1681). Mother Olimpia – who coincidentally shared a first name with the bride – was furious and prohibited the newlyweds from moving into the Palazzo Pamphili. Partly as a consequence of Olimpia’s action, Camillo and his wife ended up in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj on the Via del Corso, the former Palazzo Aldobrandini.

A second addition by Innocentius to the Piazza Navona was the famous and intensely cherished Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers. The fountain is a creation of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), the greatest Baroque architect and sculptor of all time. However, if things had taken a different turn, Bernini would have missed out on the commission entirely. The problem was that he had been the favourite architect and sculptor of Innocentius’ predecessor Pope Urbanus VIII (1623-1644). Innocentius had always hated Urbanus and therefore also hated anyone who had been associated with Urbanus. As a consequence, Bernini was initially excluded from a competition that had been organised to further embellish the Piazza Navona. His rival Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) then presented the idea to erect a fountain in the centre of the piazza and provide it with figures representing the four famous major rivers. Admittedly the idea of a fountain was not that original, as the Piazza Navona already had two fountains, both designed by Giacomo della Porta (1532-1602). His Fontana del Moro (on the south side) and Fontana del Nettuno (on the north side) had been built in the 1570s during the pontificate of Pope Gregorius XIII (1572-1585).

Encouraged by his friend prince Niccolò Ludovisi and aided by Olimpia Maidalchini, Bernini decided to submit a model for the competition anyway. He too opted for a fountain with four rivers, with an Egyptian obelisk as the personal touch. According to tradition the model that Bernini submitted had been made of silver. Pope Innocentius X could now no longer ignore the great artist. He dumped Borromini and allowed Bernini to build the fountain, for which the latter was by the way paid an exceptionally meagre wage. Construction of the fountain started in 1648 and in 1651 work was finished. Bernini executed part of the sculpting himself, but delegated even more work to his talented assistants. After all, he was already in his fifties and was in charge of a large studio. The four figures of the fountain represent the rivers Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata. In their turn the rivers represent the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe and America. The statue of the Nile is a work by Giacomo Antonio Fancelli (1606-1674), that of the Ganges by the Frenchman Claude Poussin (died 1661). The Danube was sculpted by Antonio Raggi (1624-1686) and the Rio de la Plata by Francesco Baratta (1590-1666).

The obelisk of the fountain, which stands sixteen metres tall, comes from the Circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia. However, it was not Maxentius, emperor between 306 and 312, who had the obelisk made. Rather surprisingly, it was the emperor Domitianus, who had the thing imported from Roman Egypt and then provided it with hieroglyphs in Rome. The hieroglyphs praise the emperors and his predecessors, i.e. his father Vespasianus (69-79) and brother Titus (79-81). Although it is unclear where exactly Domitianus erected the obelisk, it is certain that it was not in his Circus Agonalis. Nevertheless, it is entirely appropriate that it later ended up there. The obelisk was placed on a mountain of travertine, which extends its height to over thirty metres. It is topped by a pigeon with an olive branch in its beak. The pigeon obviously symbolises the Holy Spirit, but it is also part of the Pamphili family coat-of-arms.

According to a popular myth Bernini incorporated all kinds of pokes and teases aimed at his rival Borromini into the statues of the fountain. Their postures and gestures supposedly indicate that they have little faith in Borromini’s contribution to the new church of Sant’Agnese. According to this myth, the Nile for instance has covered its head with a piece of cloth because it does not want to see the church. The Rio de la Plata raises a hand out of fear that the church will collapse. It looks as if the Danube deliberately looks the other way, while the Ganges also turns away from the church. Unfortunately these stories are hogwash, if only because the fountain was completed in 1651 and construction of the new church did not start until 1652, while Borromini did not join the project until 1653. The reason that the Nile is depicted with its head covered is simply that at the time its sources had not yet been located.

A new church of Sant’Agnese

The third project of Pope Innocentius X on the Piazza Navona was the rebuilding of the Sant’Agnese in Agone. The pope convinced the people who were using the church – the building had been administered by members of the order of the Caracciolini since 1597 – to move to San Lorenzo in Lucina and had the old church demolished, preserving only the remains of the Roman brothel. When construction of the new church commenced in 1652 the aforementioned Girolamo Rainaldi was the lead architect, assisted by his son Carlo Rainaldi (1611-1691). The old Rainaldi was already an octogenarian and the pope was not happy with his design. He therefore fired father and son and in 1653 hired Borromini, who was responsible for the conspicuous concave façade of the church and the two bell-towers. However, in 1657 Borromini resigned after a conflict, after which Carlo Rainaldi was hired again (his father had passed away two years previously). The dome and lantern of the church are attributed to him. By now Pope Innocentius had died and his nephew Camillo Pamphili, already mentioned above, had taken on the role of supervisor of the project on behalf of the family.

Camillo Pamphili died in 1666, aged just 44. His widow Olimpia Aldobrandini subsequently commissioned Bernini to complete the church, and the great master decided to accept (which makes it even more unlikely that he added jibes vis-à-vis the church in his Fountain of the Four Rivers; the church was, after all, in part his own creation). The upper part of the façade is by Bernini, i.e. the pediment and the attic with the balustrade above it. Because of the involvement of so many architects, Australian art critic Robert Hughes called the new church “a horse made by committee”.[3] This “horse” was consecrated on 17 January 1672. For the next 320 years it remained in the hands of the Pamphili and later Doria Pamphili families.[4] Only in 1992 did the family transfer the Sant’Agnese in Agone to the diocese of Rome. In the meantime the building was mostly left unaltered. Among the few changes are the erection of a new high altar in 1724 and a thorough restoration led by the architect Andrea Busiri Vici (1818-1911) between 1852 and 1859.

Interior

The Sant’Agnese was built in the shape of a Greek cross. In the arms of the cross and the pillars of the great dome there are several chapels and altars. What is remarkable is that we find very few paintings and frescoes inside the church, but all the more sculptures. The only painting that warrants our attention is the great fresco on the inside of the dome, which represents the apotheosis of Saint Agnes. It was painted by Ciro Ferri (1634-1689), but was not yet completed upon his death in 1689. Ferri’s student Sebastiano Corbellini – a minor painter who has to content himself with brief Wikipedia pages in French and Russian – then finished the fresco in 1693. The frescoes on the pendentives of the dome are the work of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, nicknamed Il Baciccia (1639-1709).

The high altar of the church is not dedicated to Saint Agnes, but to Saint John the Baptist. This may seem a little odd, but it becomes understandable once we realise that Pope Innocentius X was born Giovanni Battista Pamphili. Given his first name, he must have had a special relationship with Saint John. I already mentioned that the altar dates from 1724, but the sculpted altarpiece is older. It was made by Domenico Guidi (1625-1701) and unveiled in 1688. The altarpiece represents the Holy Family with young Saint John the Baptist and his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. The chapel dedicated to Saint Agnes can be found in the right arm of the Greek cross. Here stands the famous statue of the saint by Ercole Ferrata (1610-1686). See the image above. The statue refers to the version of Agnes’ martyrdom in which she dies at the stake (although admittedly there is also a version in which the flames fail to harm her, leading to a second attempt at execution by decapitation). The statue seems to have come without a little lamb.

The pillar between the high altar and the chapel of Saint Agnes has an altar that is dedicated to Saint Emerentiana. According to tradition she was the daughter of Saint Agnes’ wetnurse. The two girls were very close. After Agnes’ martyrdom, Emerentiana is said to have prayed at her tomb. A crowd took offence and began to pelt her with rocks until she was dead. The altarpiece depicts this death by stoning, a work by Ercole Ferrata and Leonardo Retti (died in 1714). The other three altars in the pillars are dedicated to Saint Cecilia, Saint Eustachius and Saint Alexius. The chapel in the left arm of the Greek cross is dedicated to Saint Sebastian, and then there are chapels of Saint Filippo Neri and Saint Francesca of Rome. Lastly, above the entrance we find the funerary monument of the man with whom the rebuilding of the Sant’Agnese in Agone started: Pope Innocentius X. It would have been fitting if the monument had been made by Bernini, but he was not in any way involved. The monument dates from 1730 and the maker was Giovanni Battista Maini (1690-1752).

Sources

• Capitool Travel Guide Rome, 2009, p. 120-121;
• Robert Hughes, Rome, p. 117-118 and 311-315;
• Luc Verhuyck, SPQR. Anekdotische reisgids voor Rome, p. 143-149;
• Sant’Agnese in Agone on Churches of Rome Wiki;
• Sant’Agnese in Agone | English – Sant’Agnese in Agone (santagneseinagone.org)

Notes

[1] The name is alternatively given as Pamphilj, the ‘j’ being a long ‘i’.

[2] Robert Hughes, Rome, p. 313.

[3] Robert Hughes, Rome, p. 312.

[4] Camillo and Olimpia’s daughter Anna Pamphili (1652-1728) married Giannandrea Doria, a scion of an old and respected Genoese family.