Santa Croce in Gerusalemme
with Three Paintings by Rubens (Two Now at the Cathedrale du Puy in Grasse, France, Another One Now Lost)

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MAGGI, Giovanni; GREUTER, Matthaeus.

S. Croce in Gierusalemme. Septima ecclesia S. Crucis in Hierusalem una ex VII.

Rome, Giovanni Maggi, [c1625].

Engraved broadside [41.8 x 56 cm]. A few light spots on the upper left corner and upper center of the sheet, some finger stains on verso; faint fold along center of the sheet; ca. 17th-18th century ink annotation in French on the verso regarding the role of Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, in enriching the basilica with holy relics from Jerusalem, including a nail from the cross and portions of the crown of thorns.

A separately published rare architectural folio-size broadside for pilgrims visiting Rome and offering to visitors a plan of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, one of the seven pilgrim churches of Rome. This print is  part of a series of ten broadsides by Giovanni Maggi on the pilgrim churches in Rome published around 1625. The Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome include four patriarchal basilicas and three minor basilicas, including Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The tradition of visiting these seven churches arose only with the work of St Philip Neri (1515-1595) and was thus a relatively recent phenomenon at the time of the publication of the present ‘souvenir’ broadsheet.

The church is prominently displayed at the center of the print, surrounded by vignettes highlighting the sacred art and artifacts within (the “must-see” items) – a design which may have been inspired, appropriately, by the concept of the retable common to altars throughout the Christian world. A key at the bottom of each print relates the founding history of each church, its reliquaries, art, associated indulgences, visiting days, etc. The series, which could easily function as a “paper museum” of pilgrimage culture, is of considerable “documentary value for preserving in some cases the only visual evidence for works now lost” (Treccani, DBI, under “Maggi”).

Surrounding the architectural view of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme are nine vignettes depicting the most important art pieces inside the church: the high altar (upper central vignette), altars in the six side chapels (the two groups of three vignettes on the left and right of the engraving), and two additional altars (to the left and right of the upper central vignette). Some of the depicted artworks have been destroyed, making this print one of the only (if not the only) visual representations of the lost art.

The three vignettes on the upper right corner feature works by Peter Paul Rubens, which were commissioned by Archduke Albert of Austria in 1601 during Rubens’ first stay in Rome. Rubens painted his first altarpiece, St. Helena with the True Cross, for one of the side chapels (vignette on center right), as well as another panel, The Mocking of Christ (right, next to high altar), both of which are now in the Cathedrale du Puy in Grasse, France. Rubens’ third panel, The Elevation of the Cross (corner right), is now lost.

* MacDonald, The Paper Museum of Cassiano Dal Pozzo, Series C- Prints, Part 2, Volume 1: M 1924-33; M. Fagiolo, Roma sancta. La città delle basiliche (1985), pp. 266-288; “Maggi, Giovanni” in Treccani .

Price: $1,950.00