San Andrea al Quirinale, Rome

San Andrea al Quirinale

The Church of San Andrea al Quirinale is one of the most beautiful Baroque churches in Rome. The creation of Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), it is a jewel of its kind. Like Il Gesù, it was a Jesuit foundation and, thanks to a Racconto della Fabrica, drawn up by one of the Jesuits presiding over the building project, we can reconstruct the process of building, from its inception in 1658 to its near completion in 1672.

Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, Insignium Romae templorum prospectus exteriores interioresque a celebrioribus architectis inveni nunc tandem suis cum plantis ac mensuris a Io. Iacobo de Rubeis Romano suis typis in lucem editi ad aedem pacis cum privilegio summi pontificis. Anno. 1684. (Rome, 1684), plate 23 (exterior façade of San Andrea al Quirinale).

The Jesuits had established their novitiate on the Quirinal hill in 1565-1566. At first they used the old church that was already there, but they were soon making plans for a new foundation. By the early seventeenth century this new church was no longer adequate for their needs and they turned to Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) to solve their problem. As Connors (1982) relates, Borromini’s plans for a ‘grand and sumptuous’ church fell foul of Pope Innocent X (1574-1655) who jealously guarded the views from his Quirinal palace. It was only in 1658, when Pope Alexander VII (1599-1667) relented and Bernini set to work. On 26 October 1658, Bernini’s plan of an oval church was officially approved by the papacy. Connors (1982) notes that the distinctive oval shape of San Andrea al Quirinale was not the original choice of the architect, whose first design had been a pentagon – before Alexander VII sent him back to the drawing board.

Bernini’s façade, visible in this plate, was designed quite late in the process of construction. The Raccolta relates that ‘In 1670 Prince Giovanni Battista Pamphilj resolved to build the façade in travertine, and Cavaliere Bernini made the design with something of a portico in front.’ Connors (1982), who examines the Raccolta in depth, makes the point that the semicircular portico was hardly innovative and could have come straight out of Michelangelo’s scrapbook.

Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, Insignium Romae templorum prospectus exteriores interioresque a celebrioribus architectis inveni nunc tandem suis cum plantis ac mensuris a Io. Iacobo de Rubeis Romano suis typis in lucem editi ad aedem pacis cum privilegio summi pontificis. Anno. 1684. (Rome, 1684), plate 24 (transverse section of San Andrea al Quirinale).

The façade was not the only element to be designed quite late in the process: other well-known features, such as the oculus and lantern, were also added later, as were the windows which we see in this transverse section. All three of these features allowed in more light, and in turn required decoration – we can see the fishermen and putti sitting on top of the windows in this plate, watching the ascent of St. Andrew’s soul to Heaven. More decoration was added and the order was changed from Ionic to Corinthian (again visible in this plate). All these decorative features cost money, as did the finishing of the walls and the Carrara marble floor. As Connors (1982) relates, this was possible because the Jesuits had powerful (and wealthy) patrons, none more so than Prince Camillo Pamphili (1622-1666), who took an active role in the funding of San Andrea al Quirinale.

Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, Insignium Romae templorum prospectus exteriores interioresque a celebrioribus architectis inveni nunc tandem suis cum plantis ac mensuris a Io. Iacobo de Rubeis Romano suis typis in lucem editi ad aedem pacis cum privilegio summi pontificis. Anno. 1684. (Rome, 1684), plate 25 (plan of San Andrea al Quirinale).

Bernini’s pentagon plan had much to do with the fact that the Jesuits had demanded five altars in the church and these altars can be clearly seen in his plan for the oval church. Smyth-Pinney, in her 1989 article on the geometries of San Andrea al Quirinale, makes the point that Bernini revised the relatively well-known Serlian rules for building oval constructions. She points out that Sebastiano Serlio (1475-c.1554), in his The Five Books of Architecture (not collected by Worth), had codified the geometric rules for the construction of ovals. Smyth-Pinney concludes that, though the San Andrea al Quirinale remains in the tradition of Serlio, ‘the S. Andrea oval also generates sets of whole-number dimensions and simple ratios among those dimensions, as Serlio’s diagram does not.’ This in turn emphasises the seeming simplicity of the oval church Masson (1983) rightly describes as ‘a revelation of beauty and grandeur’.

Sources

Connors, Joseph, ‘Bernini’s S. Andrea al Quirinale: Payments and Planning’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 41, no. 1 (Mar. 1982), 15-37.

Masson, Georgina, The Companion Guide to Rome (New York, 1983).

Smyth-Pinney, Julia M., ‘The Geometries of S. Andrea al Quirinale’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48, no. 1 (Mar. 1989), 53-65.

Text: Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian of the Edward Worth Library.