Central Doorway - Santa Maria sopra Minerva - Roma, Italy
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denben
N 41° 53.882 E 012° 28.664
33T E 290771 N 4641531
Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Saint Mary above Minerva) is one of the major churches of the Roman Catholic Order of Preachers (better known as the Dominicans) in Rome, Italy.
Waymark Code: WM10P42
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 06/05/2019
Views: 5
Maderno designed the present façade of the basilica in 1600, changing the triangular pediments of the side entrances to the present semi-circular tympani. He also put screen walls over the aisles to create a rectangular composition, and removed Caprina's cavetto cornice. The decorative elements that he intended were never added, and the façade was tidied up and rendered in its unfinished state in 1725.
The façade has a single storey, with three entrances the central one of which is much larger than the other two. Over each entrance is an oculus (a round or rose window), the central one being slightly larger and much higher. The frames of these are molded, with dentillations.Six doubletted blind pilasters in shallow relief on very high plinths support an entablature the cornice of which forms the roofline.
The central entrance has a doorcase with barleysugar twisted molding and an inscription on its lintel commemorating Andrea Capranica (1582-1634), who put up money for the 1600 restoration: Andreas Caprianica Dominici F[anum] restituit A. D. MDCX. The triangular pediment, embellished with dentillations and egg-and-dart, is over a frieze having swags and putto's heads. The doorcase lintel cracked and sagged a long time ago.
Above the door is the Caprianica coat-of-arms.
The tympani over the side entrances contain what look like 19th century frescoes of St Dominic, with Christ on the left and Our Lady on the right.
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