On this cool and rainy Photo Friday, Susan Sanders presents us with some stunning photographs of the Spada Chapel in the church of San Girolamo della Carita.
Located on Via Monserrato, near Piazza Farnese, the church is notable for the fact that it served as the first meeting place for St. Philip Neri’s Oratorians in the sixteenth century.
History and theology aside, the Spada Chapel inside the church provides an awe-inspiring display of inlaid marble that’s unparalleled in Rome. The chapel was originally purchased by Orazio Spada in 1575 (the Spada family lived right down the street from this church), and then was refurbished and brought to its present state by Virgilio and Bernardo Spada between 1654-7.
The small chapel and the altar are covered with pale orange, beige and dark red marble in a series of scroll, flower and fleur-de-lis patterns. Portraits of saints, in white marble, are placed in medallions hung by marble cords. On each side, reclining gently, members of the Spada family look on, while in front, two white marble angels hold a striped marble cloth. The effect is both sumptuous and informal: it is a little as if the Spadas had dropped in for a conversation in a particularly grand salon.
Who designed the chapel? As the great architect Borromini was a close friend of Virgilio Spada, his name has long been associated with the chapel, though most now believe that its design was directed by Virgilio himself. The sumptuous altar rail is by Bernini’s pupil, Antonio Giorgetti.
