Texts by Caterina Napoleone, Alfredo Marchionne Gunter
2001 / 96 PAGES
Magnificent and stately, the Corsini chapel in San Giovanni in Laterano flaunts an elegant profusion of marbles, stuccos, gilded bronzes and decoration that a select group of artists worked on.
The Corsini chapel, an undisputed masterpiece of Roman architecture of the first half of the 18th century, is an expression of the enlightened patronage of pope Clement XII (Lorenzo Corsini, 1730-40), who dedicated it to his illustrious ancestor. The monument was designed and built by the Florentine architect Alessandro Galilei, who achieved harmonious effects by employing well-chosen ratios of proportions, finesse in the lines, and material sumptuousness in perfect marble encrustations.
It is a small museum of the Roman sculpture of the era, a masterpiece of elegance, harmony and magnificence.
The volume illustrates it with a wealth of images, and an unprecedented choice of photographic reproductions offers us a privileged view, far beyond the usual glance granted to the common visitor who crosses the chapel's actual threshold.