Sant’Andrea della Valle, located on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome’s historic centre, features a façade completed in 1665. This relatively late addition adorns a building whose construction spanned from 1591 to the mid-seventeenth century (Wittkower, 1999). The history of its construction encapsulates the early Baroque period in Rome.
In 1591, Cardinal Alfonso Gesualdo (1540–1603), protector of the Theatines (Clerics Regular of Divine Providence, founded in 1524 by Gian Pietro Carafa, later Pope Paul IV), commissioned the order to build the church. Architects Giacomo della Porta (c.1532–1602) and the Theatine Francesco Grimaldi (1543–1613) designed the plan, modelled on Il Gesù (Wittkower, 1999). Foundations and the convent were laid in 1591, with the main walls rising between 1594 and 1596. By 1599, the chapels and nave vault were largely complete. However, Gesualdo’s death in 1603 led to a collapse in funding, halting construction for five years (Blunt, 2025). Work resumed in 1608 under Cardinal Alessandro Peretti di Montalto (1571–1623), grandnephew of Pope Sixtus V, who entrusted the completion to Carlo Maderno (1556–1629). Maderno extended the nave and raised the dome, which, at 16.1 metres in diameter, is Rome’s second-largest church dome after St Peter’s (Blunt, 2025). The dome was finished in 1623, and a lantern, to which a young Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) contributed in 1621 while in Maderno’s workshop, was added (Wittkower, 1999). Vaults and roofs were completed by 1625, and the interior was ready for the 1650 jubilee. The façade, designed by Maderno, was completed by Carlo Rainaldi (1611–1691) and Carlo Fontana (1638–1714) (Blunt, 2025). The final phases of construction were financed by Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto (1597–1655) and Pope Alexander VII Chigi (1599–1667; reigned 1655–1667), whose patronage is recorded in the dedicatory inscription.
The interior’s decoration, begun after 1620, is the building’s most notable feature, bringing together two painters trained under Annibale Carracci (1560–1609): Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri, 1581–1641) and Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647) (Spear, 1982). The commission sparked a fierce dispute. Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632), nephew of Gregory XV (Alessandro Ludovisi, 1554–1623; reigned 1621–1623), advocated for Domenichino to paint both the pendentives and the dome. However, Cardinal Montalto, who still controlled the site, refused to concede the dome to Ludovisi’s candidate, leading to a conflict reportedly close to a duel (Haskell, 1963). The eventual compromise allocated the pendentives, apse vault, and conch to Domenichino, while Lanfranco was given the dome (Haskell, 1963).
Domenichino worked in the apse between 1622 and 1627 (Spear, 1982). The vault bay depicts John the Baptist Proclaiming Christ to Saints Peter and Andrew. The conch features The Call of Peter and Andrew at its centre, flanked by The Flagellation of St Andrew and St Andrew Being Shown his Cross, with the Apotheosis of St Andrew above. On the four pendentives, the Evangelists are depicted with a physical gravity that grounds the register below the dome (Spear, 1982). Domenichino’s compositions are legible, and his gestures deliberate. Influenced by Raphael and the Carracci reform, his apse works consistently feature figures that endure and reason rather than ascend (Spear, 1982).
Lanfranco’s dome fresco, Glory of Paradise (1625–1628), covers 622 square metres (Wittkower, 1999). The Virgin, robed in red with a blue mantle, ascends through a dense cloudscape populated by patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and biblical heroines. Two putti are poised to crown her with roses, while angelic musicians circle above. At the lantern’s base, seven cherubs support garlands of fruit and flowers. Christ, in a white robe, descends from the lantern to receive her; his light dissolves the nearest figures into pale air, gaining body lower down through tones of pink, yellow, grey, orange, green, and violet. Among the lower figures, Saint Andrew holds his cross and welcomes the Theatine Saint Andrea Avellino (1521–1608; canonised 1624, a year before the commission began) into Paradise. Saint Peter greets Saint Cajetan (1480–1547), founder of the Theatine order (Blunt, 2025). The composition draws inspiration from Correggio’s dome frescoes in Parma, adapted to a Roman scale. This fresco set the standard for illusionistic dome painting in Rome for decades and was admired by Bernini (Wittkower, 1999).
The three large apse wall frescoes — The Crucifixion, Martyrdom, and Burial of Saint Andrew — were painted by Mattia Preti (1613–1699) in 1650–1651, commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto and Donna Olimpia Maidalchini (Wittkower, 1999). Preti’s Crucifixion depicts Saint Andrew on the X-shaped saltire, diagonally positioned against a concentrated light source, echoing Caravaggio’s directness and physical weight. Although Preti’s Theatine patrons were satisfied, later critics have generally rated his contribution below those of his predecessors (Wittkower, 1999).
The artistic collaboration established between Domenichino and Lanfranco at Sant’Andrea della Valle continued in Naples. In 1631, Domenichino accepted the commission to decorate the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro in Naples Cathedral. Over a decade, he worked on pendentives, lunettes, twelve fresco scenes, and three oil-on-copper altarpieces depicting scenes from the life of Saint Gennaro (Spear, 1982). He died in Naples in 1641, leaving the dome unpainted. Lanfranco was subsequently called to complete it, painting his Paradiso in 1643, featuring figures and angels spiralling towards a radiant Christ, with the architecture yielding to light and movement (Wittkower, 1999). The same arrangement — Domenichino’s systematic work on the walls and vaults, complemented by Lanfranco’s illusionism above — played out in Naples as it had in Rome, this time to completion (Spear, 1982).
Mattia Preti ( 613-1699), The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, Fresco, 650 x 400 cm, Sant’Andrea della Valle, Rome
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Domenichino (1581–1641), The Flagellation of Saint Andrew – Above the left window, the apostle endures his scourging before martyrdom.
Domenichino (1581–1641), The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew – Above the right window, the saint is shown at the moment of crucifixion.
Domenichino (1581–1641), Saint Andrew in Glory – In the apse’s semicircular vault, the saint ascends triumphantly into heaven, completing the narrative of faith and endurance.
Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri, 1581–1641), Virtues surrounding the apse windows – Six allegorical figures representing Charity, Faith, Religion, Contempt of the World, Fortitude, and Christian Contemplation. Above the lateral windows, nude figures wreath festoons of fruit alluding to the Peretti family, the patrons of the work.
Domenichino (1581–1641), Saints Andrew, John the Evangelist, and John the Baptist – Central composition between the windows, depicting the Baptist pointing to the coming Redeemer.
Domenichino (1581–1641), Christ Calling Saints Peter and Andrew – Above the central window, Christ summons the two apostles to follow Him.
Domenichino (1581–1641), Saints Andrew, John the Evangelist, and John the Baptist – Central composition between the windows, depicting the Baptist pointing to the coming Redeemer.
Domenichino (1581–1641), Christ Calling Saints Peter and Andrew – Above the central window, Christ summons the two apostles to follow Him.
References
Blunt, A. (2025) A Guide to Baroque Rome: The Churches. 2nd edn. London: Pallas Athene
Haskell, F. (1963) Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque. London: Chatto & Windus
Spear, R.E. (1982) Domenichino. 2 vols. New Haven and London: Yale University Press
Wittkower, R. (1999) Art and Architecture in Italy 1600–1750, vol. 2: High Baroque, revised by J. Connors and J. Montagu. 4th edn. New Haven and London: Yale University Press (Pelican History of Art)