San Marcello al Corso is a church in Rome, Italy, devoted to Pope Marcellus
I. It is located just inset from Via del Corso, in ancient times called via
Lata, and which now connects Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. It stands
diagonal from the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata.
History
While the tradition holds that the church was built over the prison of Pope
Marcellus I (d. 309), it is known that the Titulus Marcelli was already present
in 418, when Pope Boniface I was elected there. The "Septiformis"
litany, commanded by Pope Gregory I in 590, saw the men moving from San
Marcello.
Pope Adrian I, in the 8th century, built a church on the same place, which
is currently under the modern church.
The corpse of Cola di Rienzo was held in the church for three days after
his execution in 1354. On 22 May 1519, a fire destroyed the church. The money
collected for its rebuilding was used to bribe the landsknechts, who were
pillaging the city during the Sack of Rome (1527). The original plan to rebuild
the church was designed by Jacopo Sansovino, who fled the city during the Sack
and never returned to finish it. The work was continued by Antonio da Sangallo
the Younger, who rebuilt the church, but a Tiber flood damaged it again in
1530. It was only in 1592–1597 that the church was completed with a facade by
Carlo Fontana, commissioned by Monsignor Marcantonio Cataldi Boncompagni. The
exterior travertine statues were sculpted by Francesco Cavallini, and the
stucco bas-relief over the entrance, with depicts San Filippo Benizio, was
created by Antonio Raggi.
Under the main altar, decorated with 12th century opus sectile, are the
relics of several saints, which include those of Pope Marcellus as well as
Digna and Emerita. The last chapel on the left is dedicated to St. Philip
Benizi. The late-Baroque decoration contains sculptures by Francesco Cavallini
and reliefs by Ercole Ferrata and Antonio Raggi. The first chapel on the left
has the double tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Michiel and his grandson Antonio Orso
sculpted by Jacopo Sansovino.
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| J. Sansovino |
Behind the facade is a Crucifixion (1613) by Giovanni Battista Ricci. The
tomb of Cardinal Cennino was sculpted by Giovanni Francesco de'Rossi (la
Vecchietta). Along the right, the first chapel of Marchese Maccarani holds an
Annunciation by Lazzaro Baldi; in the second Martyrdom of Sts. Digna and
Emerita (1727) of Pietro Barbieri (architecture by Francesco Ferrari); in the
third Madonna with the Child, a fresco from the late 14th century, episodes of
the life of the Virgin by Francesco Salviati, other fresco and paintings of Giovan
Battista Ricci;
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| F. Salviati |
in the fourth chapel a Creation of Eve and the evangelists Mark
and John, frescoes by Perino del Vaga, Matthew and Luke begun by Perino del
Vaga and finished by Daniele da Volterra. Inside is a cyborium (1691) designed
by Carlo Bizzaccheri; in the fifth chapel is a monument to the Cardinal
Fabrizio Paolucci (1726) by Pietro Bracci with an altarpiece by Aureliano
Milani and lateral paintings by Domenico Corvi; and a monument to cardinal
Camillo Paolucci by Tommaso Righi (1776) and wall paintings by Aureliano
Milani. On the left nave, in the fifth chapel, is a San Filippo Benizi (1725)
by Pier Leone Ghezzi and Gagliardi; in the fourth Conversion of Saint Paul
(1560) by Federico Zuccari and his brother Taddeo and, on the sides, of History
of Saint Paul.
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| T. Zuccari |
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| Busts in the Frangipane chapel |
Inside of the chapel has busts of Muzio, Roberto, Lelio
Frangipane by Alessandro Algardi (1630–40). In the third chapel on the left is
a Doloroso by Pietro Paolo Naldini, Sacrifice of Isaac and discovery of Moses
by Domenico Corvi; in the first, Madonna and seven Saints by Agostino Masucci.
The church is administered and owned by the Servite Order since 1369.
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