Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, Rome.

It was commisioned by Cardinal Camillo Pamphili for the novices of the Jesuit order.

In his diary, Pope Alexander VII, reminds that Gian Lorenzo Bernini showed him the plan of the church on September 2^nd 1658 and two weeks later the wooden model.

On November 3^rd of the same year the first stone was laid. Even if the church was small the work lasted twelve years, until 1670.

To a sober facade is opposed an elliptical interior, characterized by eight colossal columns and the same number of windows, built to impress and capture the attention with marble and stuccoes more than receive.

The main altar is decorated with the martyrdome of Saint Andrew by Borgognone. The Saint is about to died and looks up. His look leads to the focal point of the church: St. Andrew by Gian Lorenzo Bernini which seats on a stucco cloud above the main altar.

This is the building Bernini was most satisfied with even if it was built in a quite long time. He refused to be paid and asked to receive, daily, only one loaf of bread from the novitiate bakery, request obviously accepted!

Domenico, his son and biographer, reminds what his father told him when they met, by chance, in this church. Gian Lorenzo was alone and Domenico asked why. That’s what the great artist said to his son: “Son, this is the only work of architecture I am satisfied with deep in the heart, and often, for relief from fatigue, I come here to console me with my work”. 

Bibliography

Jake Morrissey, Geni rivali, Laterza, Bari 2005

Rudolf Wittkower, Arte e architettura 1600 - 1750, Einaudi, Cuneo 2005