SANTA MARIA DEL POPOLO
Few churches are such perfect primers on Roman art and architecture. Masters from the Early Renaissance (Bramante, Pinturicchio), High Renaissance (Raphael), and Baroque (Caravaggio, Bernini) exercised their genius in all disciplines here: painting, sculpture, architecture, and decoration. It’s also one of the few churches with major chapels still intact, preserving the artworks that together tell a complete story.
NEED TO KNOW
Piazza del Popolo 12 • 06 361 0836 • Open 7:30am–12:30pm, 4–7pm Mon–Thu; 7:30am–7pm Fri–Sat; 7:30am–12:30pm, 4:30–7pm Sun
- Canova and Rosati cafés are both on Piazza del Popolo.
- Some of the church’s treasures are behind the high altar in the choir and apse. When Mass is not in session, go behind the curtain to the left of the altar and switch on the lights to see them.
Church Floor Plan
1. Pinturicchio’s Adoration
Raphael’s contemporary retained more of his teacher Perugino’s limpid Umbrian style in this 1490 work in the della Rovere chapel. Also in the chapel is Cardinal Cristoforo’s tomb by Francesco da Sangallo (1478), while Domenico’s tomb (1477) features a Madonna with Child by Mino da Fiesole.
2. Crucifixion of St. Peter
Caravaggio has avoided the gore of his earlier works and filled this chiaroscuro work (1601) with drama. The naturalistic figures quietly go about their business—the tired workers hauling the cross into place; Peter looking contemplative.
3. Conversion of St. Paul
Again, Caravaggio leaves all drama to the effects of light, depicting an awe-struck Paul transfixed by blinding light (1601).
4. Sansovino Tombs
Tuscan Andrea Sansovino (c. 1467–1529) gave a Renaissance/Etruscan twist to the traditional lying-in-state look (1505–07). These effigies of Cardinal della Rovere and Cardinal Sforza recline on cushions as if asleep.
5. Daniel and Habakkuk
Sculpture as theater by Bernini, as an angel seizes Habakkuk by the hair to fly him to the imprisoned, starving Daniel, shown kneeling with a lion licking his foot.
6. Raphael’s Chigi Chapel
Pagan and Christian imagery are fused in this exquisite chapel designed for Agostino Chigi. The skeleton inlaid in the floor plays a role in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons.
7. Marcillat’s Stained-Glass Window
The only Roman work by Guillaume de Marcillat (1470–1529), the undisputed French master of stained glass, this depicts the Infancy of Christ and Life of the Virgin.
8. Sebastiano del Piombo’s Nativity of the Virgin
This altarpiece in the Chigi Chapel (1530–34) is in contrast to the dome’s Neo-pagan themes, the Eternal Father blessing Chigi’s horoscope of planets symbolized by pagan gods.
9. Bramante’s Apse
The Renaissance architect’s first work in Rome, commissioned by Julius II around 1500, was this beautiful light-filled choir and scallop shell–shaped apse.
10. Delphic Sibyl
Pinturicchio, one of the most fashionable artists of the early 16th century, decorated the apse with antique grotesqueries including Sibyls and an intricate tracery of freakish and fantastic beasts.
THE PEOPLE’S CHURCH
The ghost of Emperor Nero, buried in the Domitia family crypt on the Pincio, is said to have terrorized this neighborhood in the form of demon crows that lived in a cursed tree. Pope Paschal II reassured the locals in 1099 by replacing the tree with a chapel paid for by the people (il popolo). It was enlarged in 1227 and rebuilt in Lombard style in 1472–7. Andrea Bregno may have added the Renaissance façade, and Bernini a Baroque touch to the interior.
