San Gregorio Al Celio

A design, from about 1584, found in the Naples State Archive attached to a contract for Bishop Antonio Lauro’s sepulcher in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Caponapoli casts new light on the artistic orientation of sculptor Geronimo D’Auria (docc. 1566-1623), showing his early interest in the innovations of the Tuscan architect Giovan Antonio Dosio, some five years before Dosio moved to Naples in 1590. It also suggests that the two artists may have been in contact in Rome in the early 1580s. The influence of modern trends is also evident from D’Auria’s use of Lombardian decorative forms and motifs, which he picked up in part from Guglielmo della Porta’s Roman school and in part from the big building site of the Spinelli Chapel in the Santa Caterina a Formiello’s church in Naples, where two maestros from Lombardy, Silla Longhi da Viggiù and Giovan Antonio Longhi di Galeazzo, worked between 1578 and 1582. The social legitimacy of the Lauro family may have led to a simplification of the eclecticism and superabundance of cultural references in the drawing in favor of a version of the sepulchre – which Geronimo delivered in 1586 – inspired by models that were more traditional and locally recognizable.

Questo articolo contiene nuove osservazioni di carattere paleografico che riconoscono nell’onciale latina del ms. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud. gr. 35 (sec. VI-VII) i tratti caratteristici dell’onciale romana, tipica dei manoscritti prodotti a Roma durante il pontificato di Gregorio Magno (590-604). Una serie di argomentazioni storiche e culturali si oppongono alla presunta origine sarda  di questo codice bilingue latino-greco degli Atti degli apostoli e confermano che, molto probabilmente, esso fu copiato in un monastero di Roma (forse S. Andrea al Celio) per servire come glossario, utile per l’apprendimento della lingua greca.

Only two components still survive of the chapel commissioned by the Florentine brothers Antonio and Michele Bonsi in the Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio in Rome during the second half of the fifteenth century. The first is their monumental wall-tomb, complete with a lengthy inscription and portrait-busts of its patrons. The second is a marble relief featuring three scenes from the life of Pope Gregory the Great. The imagery of the relief is engaging, as the Gregorian scenes feature a rare episode, the Mass of St. Gregory, as well as two unprecedented scenes. The tomb’s portrait busts are an innovative element in tomb design in the Urbs, although the exact level of originality depends on the monument’s dating. Since an 1893 article by Domenico Gnoli, both elements have been linked to Luigi Capponi, a Milanese sculptor active in Rome from 1485, although doubts concerning the tomb’s authorship have been expressed by later scholars. Capponi’s oeuvre is, however, notoriously problematic. Only two works of art can be ascribed to him on a documentary basis and it is arguable that even these sources may be questionable. Despite these problems, no study has specifically focused on the Celio artworks, nor tried to interpret them in connection to their patrons. This article revolves precisely around such issues.
The first part focuses on the Bonsi brothers, examining their families, devotional interests, and the specific events and personal connections that might have influenced their choice of the Celio for their patronage, as well as the form and content of the artworks they sponsored. In the second part, the information on Antonio and Michele, as well as a thorough description of the chapel and its now lost components dating from 1578, are used to reframe the imagery of both relief and tomb, as well as the latter’s inscription. It is argued that the imagery and inscription betray Antonio and Michele’s concern with their reputation, memorialization, and the promotion of their public image. The final section of the article focuses on the dating and attributional history of the Bonsi chapel artworks. Heraldry and references to events and confraternities previously introduced are used to anchor both tomb and relief to specific termini post quem, and to argue that they were likely both created in the 1490s. In order to determine if they can be assigned to Luigi Capponi, this section further assesses the type of Lombard culture manifest in the Celio artworks and compares it to the two sculptures generally accepted as by the Milanese artist.