Monuments in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo

Since its rebuilding in the 1470s by Pope Sixtus IV the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo was one of the favourite burial places for members of the papal aristocracy, clergy and literati.

The high number of tombs and monuments makes the basilica a whole museum of sculpture as Jacob Burckhardt phrased it in his famous guide of Italian art in 1855.

The tablet is set in a white marble frame with a conch in the lower part and a gable at the top with a shell, two flaming torches and another winged skull.

The upper part of the monument is a stone tablet with a long inscription and the portrait of the deceased in a tondo which was painted by a Flemish artist, Jacob Ferdinand Voet.

The wavy lines of the Latin inscription declare: "This stone is the centre, the periphery of which was a life, that the noble Samuel Raphael Globicz de Buczina of Prague in Bohemia once orbited in this turbulent circle of living, whose parent was a royal surveyor, who unhappily discovered the squaring of the circle [infelicissime quadraturam circuli invenit], when his precious son was buried under this square tombstone in 1665 on 18 August at the age of 25 years."

Vincenza Danesi The monument consists of a mixtilinear cartouche with scrolls, a black marble niche for the portrait of the deceased, flanked by two flaming stucco torches, and the coat-of-arms.

A tablet on the counterfaçade serves as a memorial to another Frenchman, Philibert Hugonet, the Cardinal of Mâcon, who was a prominent member in the court of Burgundy and the Roman Curia in the 1470s.

It was built in 1772 for the young princess, the first wife of Don Sigismondo Chigi Albani della Rovere, the 4th Prince of Farnese, who died in childbirth at the age of 20.

The stele of the inscription is flanked by two half-pillars with interesting Liberty style capitals of flowers and poppy-heads and two allegorical statues, the personifications of earthly and eternal life; the latter appearing as a serene angel holding up a burning lamp.

The base is decorated with the coat-of-arms, the middle part with the table of the eulogic inscription is flanked by Ionic pilasters and the top is crowned with an arched gable, two volutes, the sculpted head of an angel and a painted portrait of the deceased.

However their shared tomb on a pillar of the left aisle is a much later work which was erected by their relative, Cardinal Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio in 1654 for the memory of the "great-uncles" (magnis patruis) as the inscription says.

Geronimo de Borgne Another Renaissance monument on the same pillar is composed of a single table of inscription set in a coloured marble aedicula which is crowned by an arched pediment.

The simple monument was built for Geronimo de Borgne, a priest from the Diocese of Cambrai who held the positions of cubicularius, scutifer and scriptor in the Roman Curia.

The long inscription states that Parenzi, a consistorial advocate "has lived with her for thirty years in a variety of events, yet without the least breach or interruption of perfect harmony".

The location of these tombs is unfavourable, and Giovanni Battista Spada's memorial was vandalized: the bust of the deceased is missing and the oval niche was filled with plaster.

There is a carved drapery under the table of the inscription, the central niche is framed by scrolls with a winged head of an angel at its lower part, two volutes, and it is crowned with an arched gable.

The monument in Santa Maria del Popolo was built for his late descendant, Count Masci-Ferracuti from Ascoli Piceno who was appointed to the Bishop of Vieste by Pope Sixtus V in 1589.

It follows the ancient Roman models with a finely carved relief depicting the togated husband laying a wreath of roses on the bust of his wife.

[13] Philipp Zitzlsperger calls this a particularly instructive example of the separation of the body and the tomb which increasingly came to be the norm in Rome from the second half of the 16th century because the location of the cardinal's corpse has not been established but the transferral of the remains was reason enough to the relatives to erect a cenotaph in the church itself.

The architectural composition is traditional and somewhat conservative for the beginning of the 16th century; it follows the models of Andrea Bregno, a highly successful Lombard artist, who died in 1503.

The monument is a Greek stele decorated with the fine relief of an angel, holding a trumpet in his hand, and leaning on a funerary urn on the top of a pillar.

Girometti's workshop in nearby Via Del Corso 518 was a favored meeting place for members of the papal aristocracy, officials and foreign artists in the first half of the 19th century.

The relief portrait of the deceased is set in a medal, referring to his profession, and the base is decorated with the tools of his art, the compasses and the brush, encircled by a small ouroboros.

The composition is similar to the smaller Baroque monument of Samuel Rafael Globic: two putti holding a rippling drapery with the long funerary inscription and the family coat-of-arms.

Like its counterpart in the right transept, the tomb of Lodovico Podocataro, it belongs to the group of monuments from the age of Pope Alexander VI which made the basilica the shrine of the Borgia dynasty at the beginning of the 16th century.

The sarcophagus rests on three lion's paws and it is decorated with floral ornaments, the deceased cardinal wears ecclesiastical robes with a mitre on his head, and he is lying on the top of a bier.

The inscription tells that this Spanish nobleman of great probity, frugality and piety bequeathed 12'000 scudi to the Hospital of San Giacomo degli Incurabili.

There is another funerary monument on the other side of the Cerasi Chapel, high on the pillar, dedicated to Margarita Arcangeli by her husband, Tommaso Martini and her daughter, Maria Anna.

The simple stele is crowned with a scallop niche and framed by two inverted torches, there are branches of oil trees on the base carved in fine relief.

The late Renaissance monument is made of white marble and coloured stones, and decorated with the Parenzi coat-of-arms (three hedgehogs), two small putti and a cross resting on three mountains.