Santa Maria della Consolazione in Rome grew from a church first built on the site in 1470. Its icon dates to the thirteenth century. In 1385 the nobleman Giordanello degli Alberini, who was condemned to death, paid two gold florins for it, and the icon was acquired to console criminals facing execution.
Martino Longhi the Elder rebuilt the church between 1583 and 1600 and designed the altar. The article calls the church Baroque and the facade Mannerist. Pasquale Belli completed the tympanum in 1827.
Niccolò Circignani, called il Pomarancio, frescoed the presbytery walls with a Nativity and an Assumption. Side chapels hold works by Taddeo Zuccari, Livio Agresti and Giovanni Baglione. Pope Urban VIII crowned the venerated image in 1634. Capuchin friars of the Order of Friars Minor now run it as a shrine to Our Lady of Consolation.
Comments