Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami

Even though Santa Martina ceased to be a parish church after the transfer of the Università dei Pittori there in 1588, San Giuseppe dei Falegnami remained under its longstanding jurisdiction. Because of the change in administration of Santa Martina, the carpenters tried to renegotiate their contract. In the end, after refusing to pay rent for some time, they reached an agreement with the Accademia di San Luca in 1630, when the principe was Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) and the governatore of the Arciconfraternita di San Giuseppe was Giovanni Battista Soria (1581–1651). [6] Soria may have been called upon for the successful mediation of the conflict owing to his concurrent membership in the Accademia di San Luca. [7] The effort of the Arciconfraternita to establish jurisdictional independence from the Accademia must have spawned rumors in the period if Pompilio Totti considered the issue worth mentioning in his Ritratto di Roma moderna (1638). As documents reproduced on this website demonstrate, negotiations about certain details of the concession of the site lingered even after the 1630 agreement. [8]

While Pirro Ligorio imagined the ancient building that had hosted the prison to be comparable in size with the nearby Arch of Septimius Severus [fig. 1], Étienne Dupérac’s map shows a small church with a bell tower [fig. 2]. The building on Dupérac’s map must have been the first stone Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami built on the site, constructed in 1543‒1546, with a bell tower added in 1563. [9] Although it is San Giuseppe that is delineated, the corresponding label on the map reads “Car[cere]. S. Petri,” reflecting the importance of the site as an apostolic locus, the place where Saint Peter and Saint Paul spent the last nine months of their lives before suffering martyrdom. [10]

Even later, when the new and more imposing Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami was complete, Giuseppe Vasi titled his engraving depicting the site San Pietro in Carcere [fig. 3]. When the Università dei Pittori moved to the Church of Santa Martina, the carpenters’ church looked close to the way it was rendered on Dupérac’s map. Unfortunately, on the Tempesta map, which would otherwise have shown the church just before the late 16th-century reconstruction, the site is totally blocked by the Palazzo Senatorio on the Campidoglio. Although adopting a similar angle to Tempesta’s map, Matteo Florimi included a depiction of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (c. 1590–1613; fig. 4). However, the structure lacks its standard characteristics, such as the bell tower visible on Dupérac’s map. In contrast, Florimi depicted the medieval tower that topped the neighboring Arch of Septimius Severus but changed its location to the opposite end. Thus, the generic aspect of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami on Florimi’s map conforms with his relative attention to detail.

It seems, however, that even the enlarged building was not adequate for the needs of the growing membership of the Arciconfraternita di San Giuseppe. In the summer of 1597, the Arciconfraternita decided to construct an entirely new church. Although 18th-century sources attribute the architectural concept to Giacomo della Porta, modern scholars, on the basis of archival evidence, have assigned the authorship of the project to Giovanni Battista Montano (1534–1621). [15] Montano, like Soria, was also a member of the Accademia di San Luca, where in 1594 he gave a lecture on architecture. [16] The completion date of the church is considered to be 1602, when masses began to be celebrated there. [17] Despite the delay in launching the construction, the carpenters must have originally intended to have the church finished for the Jubilee of 1600. It would have been not only a sign of institutional pride on the part of the carpenters but also a sign of economic perspicacity for, as explained above, the church had substantive pilgrimage potential. Concomitantly, the role of governor (governatore) entrusted to Montano by the Arciconfraternita in 1601 may be an indication that he received the title as a reward for bringing the church by then to a satisfactory state of completion.

Just as the artists had to raise funds to improve the derelict Church of Santa Martina, the carpenters relied on taxation and donations for new construction at San Giuseppe. In the summer of 1598, the Arciconfraternita approved unification with the Università dei Falegnami, the institution from which the Compagnia had split in 1540. [18] Approval came a year after discussions for a new church had been initiated, but talks may have started earlier. A plausible scenario is that the union triggered the initiative for a new building. In the end, the construction of the new church benefited from the union: the Università paid a one-time fee to be used for the erection of the new building. [19]

After Montano’s death, Giacomo Battista Soria became the architect in charge. [22] He was responsible for the enlargement and completion of the adjacent oratory and sacristy. The interior was frescoed in phases in the following centuries, the older decoration being the work of an unknown 17th-century painter who was visibly inspired by Pietro da Cortona. [23] The collapse of the wooden ceiling in 2018 produced incredible damage, but thanks to rapid restorative interventions the church was refurbished by January 2021.

Giovanni Battista Falda’s map (1676; fig. 6) offers the most detailed view of the complex, the shapes of both the church and the isola being well contoured. Intriguingly, Joachim von Sandrart’s view of the same area in a map published the following year (1677; fig. 7) apparently recorded an earlier phase of the site in which the church is undistinguishable from the cluster of buildings surrounding it. Taking into account his curious rendition of the Arch of Septimius Severus as an enclosed temple-type building, Sandrart’s map serves as an exercise in the use and interpretation of sources rather than as historical evidence for the site. [24] Furthermore, maps did not transmit any information about the underground spaces.

With regard to the dedication of the church, Totti (1638) was right to question the paucity of churches in Rome dedicated to Saint Joseph (only two at that time). [25] This doubtless had to do with the problematic aspects of the figure of Saint Joseph in the economy of salvation, but the post-Tridentine policy toward him was more favorable, and the number of depictions of the saint increased considerably in the 17th century. Concomitantly, a new iconography was developed: a portrait type showing Joseph holding the infant Jesus. [26]

~ Silvia Tita, revised August 2021