Sept 2015 revision[]
The page as revised on 1 September 2015, by a contributor claiming familarity with the church's history, is copied after this note. Please could we have debates on the talk page, and not mutilate the text of the Wikia page in this way so as to make it difficult for subsequent editors. Some of the points are good, and will be addressed later. Thank you. Administrator. Basilwatkinsosb (talk) 12:49, September 2, 2015 (UTC)
Santa Lucia della Tinta is an originally 13th century, heavily restored former confraternity church at Via di Monte Brianzo 61. This is in the rione Campo Marzio.
Be very carefull!!!! This article is very bad and the dates and the names not exact. It would be better cancelled it of this web side, please.
Anne Cécile Brame (I wrote the book on this church)
address of the church: "Via Monte Brianzo
Saint[]
The dedication is to "St Lucy". This is now taken to refer to St Lucy of Syracuse in Sicily, but she is listed in the Roman canon of the Mass. The suspicion is that this listing, and the dedication of this church, were originally referring to a local Roman martyr called Lucy who used to be commemorated on 6 July ?? with twenty-three companions.
History[]
Origins[]
the first documentary evidence for the church is an epigraph of 1002, found under a staircase ?? on the premises in the 17th century. Back then, the church was known as Santa Lucia Quattuor Portarum or "Four Gates", which is thought to have referred to doorways in an ancient wall defending the riverbank hereabouts.
The circumstances of the foundation are unknown, but a good guess is that the church was one of many small parish churches established in the city in the 10th century ??. This is supported by the later presence of a graveyard next to the church, which was a prerogative of a parish church until the 19th century.???
Middle ages[]
The original name was used in papal bulls in 1278 and 1289???, granting indulgences to worshippers there. However, an alternative name used was Santa Lucia dei Galletti???! after a noble family who lived locally and who obviously patronized the church.
From the evidence of the surviving fabric, it seems that the church was rebuilt in this century. It did not have a single priest, but a college of secular prebendaries which later had the name of Santa Maria Regina Coeli. The establishment of this by a Pope Nicholas IV is recorded in a long epigraph preserved in the church on 1280.
The name Tinta emerges in the 16th century ??, when the status of a parish church becomes certain. It literally means "dye", and is thought to have been derived from the locality, which contained dyeworks in the Middle Ages.
Restorations[]
The church was taken over in 1580 by the Confraternity of Coachmen (Compagnia dei Cocchieri), which arranged a major restoration. In this period, many of the little parish churches in the mediaeval area of the city were shut down, and given over to other purposes such as being headquarters of guilds or confraternities. The last census revealed that the parish only had 360 persons (including children) in 72 families, which was too small a number to support the institution.
The Confraternity was not in charge for long, because in 1628 ??? the Borghese family (which lived locally) arranged another major restoration after being granted the patronage. About this time, the college of secular canons was moved to the church of Santa Maria in Montesanto. The Confraternity eventually settled at Santa Maria in Cacaberis (now demolished), and still exists as the Sacra Fraternitas Aurigarum Urbis (having mutated from coachmen to charioteers, apparaently). It has a website -see "External links".
Modern times[]
In 1715, the present façade was added. The architect was Tommaso Mattei - It's not certain. The Borghese paid for a new ceiling in 1781.
In 1826, responsibility for the church passed to the Procuratori della Curia Romana.
There was a restoration in 1911, when parts of a Cosmatesque floor were uncovered under the present floor level.
Frome 1971, the church was attached to a pilgrimage hostel run by the Sorelle Missionaria Fraterna Domus, that restaured the all church betwwen 1980 and 2014 (the roof painted by Taddeo Kunz on 1781). The exterior has recently been given an overdue re-painting.
The Fraterna Domus published a booklet on the church in 2005, La Chiesa di S. Lucia della Tinta by Anne Cécile Brame.
Exterior[]
Layout and fabric[]
The building is a long, narrow brick box under a pitched and tiled roof. There is a semi-circular exterior apse. The façade, with a campanile to the left, are architecturally distinct and are added onto the front.
The church is bounded by domestic buildings on both sides, so most of the exterior is invisible. However, it is worthwhile going round to the back in Vicolo del Leonetto to see the 13th century mediaeval apse. It has a little stone arrow-slit of a window, and a decorative cornice with brick dentillations below a row of stone modillions.
The really interesting thing about this, is that the interior of the apse is not part of that of the church. Above it is a window, and if you go into the church you will see that this is in the back wall of the tiny sanctuary. What is in the apse now?
Façade[]
The façade was added in 1715, and is incorporated into the larger domestic building which occupies the corner of Via di Monte Brianzo and Via del Cancello. It is a poor design, now painted orange with the architectural details in white.
Four thin blind pilasters on two high block plinths support an entablature containing four posts in lieu of pilaster capitals. The inner two of these have tassels. On the frieze of the entablature is a mutilated inscription reading:
Insignis Collegiata S. M. Regina Coeli in ......
This refers to the college of priests??? that was in charge until the early 17th century.
Over the inner two pilasters is a little triangular pediment, above which is a horizontal projecting cornice supported on a pair of flanking posts.
The single doorway has an unmolded grey marble doorcase with a pair of little curlicues on the sides near the top, and a raised segmental pediment. Above this is a large blank Baroque tablet with the bottom edge curved to match the entablature, in a sunk panel with a stepped edge. The side zones in between the pilasters have a central oval tondo each (the left hand one is a window) bounded by two similarly styled panels above and below.
Campanile[]
The campanile is attached to the left hand side of the façade, and its design is just as boring. The street frontage has a doorway and a single window in a wide frame, a thin string course at the level of the pediment cornice and a bellchamber above the façade roofline which has a round-headed soundhole in each face in a recessed panel within a wide frame. There is a pyramidal tiled cap.
Interior[]
Layout and fabric[]
The narrow rectangular nave has two side altars on each side, within shallow arched niches. There is a small, shallow sanctuary.
Apart from the ceiling frescoes, the artworks in this church are anonymous and of liitle importance.
[]
The nave has Corinthian pilasters made to look like red stone in between the side chapel arches, and these support the ceiling cornice via posts (not directly).
The ceiling is flat, wooden and coffered in panels with some acute angles. The three fresco panesl were executed in 1781 by Taddeo Kuntze (1732-93), a Polish expatriate painter. The central one depicts The Assumption of Our Lady, with St Lucy looking on, while the two smaller ones flanking this show putti in heaven (one group is playing with an umbrella).
The long 13th century epigraph announcing the foundation of the college by "Pope Nicholas" is over the door.
Sanctuary[]
The tiny sanctuary has its walls painted to resemble polychrome marble decoration. Two Ionic pilasters in what is meant to be yellow Siena marble ??? support a horizontal entablature with egg-and-dart on its projecting cornice, and above this is a large window containing stained glass with the monogram of the name of Mary .
The altarpiece is a palimsest. A fresco fragment of the Madonna and Child, which looks 15th century, is set in an oil painting !!!!! (it's a frescoe) featuring two saints, s Giuseppe and s Catherina d'Alessandria. Nibby in 1839 wrote that the image was antichissima, e molto divota.
A portion of the Cosmatesque floor discovered in 1911 has been re-laid in front of the altar.
Side chapels[]
The side chapels are shallow arched niches, with the archivolts and wall surfaces in the same fake polychrome marble as the sanctuary. The altarpieces are affixed to the walls without aedicules.
The first on the right is dedicated to the Crucifixion. XVIII century.
The second on the right is dedicated to St Lucy. The altarpiece is anonymous, 17th century.
The second on the left is dedicated to S Maria Mater Infirmorum, and the 18th century altarpiece shows three saints interceding with the Madonna and Child on their behalf.
The altarpiece of the first chapel on the left depicts S Lucia and S Geminiano, roman matyrs (note the putti above holding palm branches). This is anonymous of the 17th century, too.
A memorial to Pietro Brenda, 1848 has a good double cameo portrait relief.
Access and liturgy[]
During 2014, the church will be in the hands of the builders in order to repair the roof and make good the damage caused by rain ingress.
The edifice is open on:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 16:00 to 18:00.
Mass was being celebrated 18:45 Tuesday ??? and Friday ????, and 11:00 Sunday.
Despite the controversy over which St Lucy the church commemorates, nowadays it is dedicated to St Lucy of Syracuse and her feast-day is 13 December.
The article has been revised to answer the criticisms and points raised. Basilwatkinsosb (talk) 07:24, September 5, 2015 (UTC)
January 2016 vandalism[]
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