Rome: project plan for the Church of San Giacomo degli Incurabili, c. 1587–90

Artist/Maker

DatesMade: Executed c. 1590

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: Mått 42,7 x 57,5 cm

Inventory numberNMH CC 2072

AcqusitionGift 1941 by Eric Langenskiöld. Formerly in the Cronstedt collection, Fullerö

Other titlesTitle (sv): S. Giacomo degli Incurabili, Rom. Plan av den tidigare/gamla kyrkan med förändringar Title (en): Rome: project plan for the Church of San Giacomo degli Incurabili, c. 1587–90 Previous: S. Giacomo degli Incurabili, Rome. Plan of the earlier/old church with alterations

DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Bortolozzi, Italian Architectural Drawings from the Cronstedt Collection, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2020 (cat.no. 119) Francesco da Volterra (c. 1535–1594) Pen and brown ink over incised lines, punctured points, stylus, some black chalk, light brown and red wash, compass and straightedge, 41/42.7 × 57.5/56.5 cm NM H CC 2072 PAPER: two horizontal folds and one vertical fold. The sheet has been laid on to a secondary support of fine late 17th-century French writing paper using a starch paste. Losses along the right and left edges WATERMARK: Anchor 41 WATERMARK OF THE SECONDARY SUPPORT: Chaplet 10 INSCRIPTIONS lunga la i[n]fermaria dela donne, palmi no. 150 ½; infermeria dele donne impiagatte di .S. Jacopo deli incorabili; agiunta dela i[n]fermeria per si[...] la strada nuova apartatta la mancho inferme; [facia]tta corispondente a l’altra i[n]fermeria (in Volterra’s hand from left to right, from top to bottom, referring to the infirmary on the left); di .S. Jacopo nol lo occupassi per è belisimo e grande e comodo a tutte la abitatione; porticho overro in claustro che solo serve per caminare di torno al capertto bas[s]o alla capucina; cortile; in claustro che pasa in chiesa, sarà comodità; andito per la intratta deve entra ogni carro, larga palmi 15 (referring to the left side of the yard); altarre; capella magiorre; tribuna Aovatta riesterà belisima; lunga tutta la chiesa palmi 150; chiesa e tempio di .S. Jacopo deli incorabili i[n] mezzo lo spedalle; lunga al pilastro palmi 70; stanza da pretti curatti; chiesa vecchia, parte ora servirà per una comoda sacrestia; stanza per lavamani; schala a lumacha; stanza per capelani e prettii sotto e sopra; faciatta dela chiesa di .S. Jacopo tra le dua faciate de Dormentori e infermarie fate dal Ill.mo Cardinale Salviatti come apare (referring to the church); cortile; largo il cortile drento lo schoperta palmi 150; porticho che gira atorno atorno; comodo paso per pasare nelo spedale e fuora; andito per la entratta che è comoda per li carri (referring to the right side of the court-yard); largo p[almi] 43 ½; infermeria nuova per l’i[n]fermi del Aqua del legnio santo e purga simile; lunga la i[n]fermeria palmi 105; partte dela infermaria per custodia e guardia deli infermi e pigliano l’aqua del legnio santto; faciat[a] dela infermaria nuova conform[...] (referring to the infirmary on the right); Strada Flaminia ditta molto tempo strada del archo di porta gallo dal nome di unu Cardinale orra ditta strada del Corso per eservi i[n]tredutto il corso dali pialli che si coreno il carnovalle et ancho perchè tutto il giorno ci si corre in giostra (referring to the via del Corso); Piante diverse per la chiesa de .S. Iacomo delli Incurabili di Roma (on the verso, in a late 16th-century hand, partially visible through the secondary support) MEASUREMENTS: Roman palmi; scale at the lower right edge with 10 units (canne) = 19 cm PROVENANCE: Carl Johan Cronstedt and descendants; Eric Langenskiöld; gift to the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm 1941 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Langenskiöld, Moselius 1942, 72, Cat. no. 342; Langenskiöld 1946, 44–58 and fig. 27; Lotz 1955, 58–68 and fig. 36; Marcucci 1991, 254–257 and fig. 164; Benedetti 2011, 788 and fig. 31 EXHIBITIONS: Langenskiöld, Moselius 1942, 72, Cat. no. 342 This drawing is one of the three designs conceived by Francesco da Volterra for the church of the hospital of San Giacomo degli Incurabili and preserved in the Nationalmuseum (the others are NM H CC 2073, Cat. no. 120 and NM H CC 2071, Cat. no. 121). Volterra's proposal (outlined with red wash), is set within the site plan of the hospital (outlined with light brown wash), located on the Via del Corso and rebuilt during the 1580s by order of Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati (1537–1602). In the courtyard between the hospital’s wings running to the Via di Ripetta was the old church, a small rectangular chapel with its long side parallel to the Corso. Instead, the new building was designed with its façade on the Corso, two lateral doors leading to the hospital, and the old chapel immediately to the left of the church to be used as a sacristy. The project is a longitudinal plan with two chapels on each side, a transept closed with lateral walls and a choir with a protruding semicircular apse. On the crossing piers stands a transversal oval dome, similar to Volterra’s contemporary design for San Silvestro (Marcucci, 271–279 and fig. 179). Langenskiöld, who first published the Stockholm drawings for San Giacomo (1946, 46–48), believes that the project follows NM H CC 2073 (Cat. no. 120), a longitudinal plan with only one chapel on each side and a wider transept. By contrast, Marcucci argues (Marcucci 1991, 256) that NM H CC 2073 reveals a unity in design that anticipates the eventual solution of the built oval plan (NM H CC 2071, Cat. no. 121). However, the two longitudinal plans might already have been presented as alternative initial solutions for the church in 1587, when the first payments for construction materials are recorded, while the oval plan, which bears the date 1590, is certainly the result of a subsequent elaboration of the project. LITERATURE: Langenskiöld 1946, pp. 44–58; Lotz 1955, 58–68; Hibbard 1971, 118–121; Benvenuto, Di Cioccio 1986; Marcucci 1991, 139–142, 251–271 OTHER DRAWINGS: Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, NM H THC 8207, a copy probably in the hand of the Swedish architect Carl Hårleman (1700–1753) [end]

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