Name of Monument:

Basilica dei santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano

Location:

Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Date:

1627–1694

Artists:

Giovan Battista Natali; Agostino Barelli; Giuseppe e Antonio Rolli; Angelo Michele Colonna; Giacomo Alboresi; Agostino Mitelli; Giovanni Antonio Burrini; Marcantonio Chiarini

Denomination / Type of monument:

Religious architecture (church)

Patron(s):

Theatine Fathers

History:

A long oral tradition mentions a church built here in the fifth- century by Bishop St. Petronius for the early Bolognese faithful. However, the first written documents which have been found date it to 1288. The primitive church was dedicated to St. Bartholomew and its façade overlooked Piazza di Porta Ravegnana. The church was part of a monastery of Cluniac monks.
In 1516, the prior Giovanni Gozzadini commissioned from Andrea Marchesi, known as Formigine, a project for his residence and the refurbishing of the church. With only the sandstone portico finished, the work was interrupted the following year, when Gozzadini was assassinated.
In 1627 the Theatine Fathers took charge and started the work anew following first a project by Giovan Battista Natali and later one by the architect of the Bolognese Senate Agostino Barelli. These new plans moved the façade from the square to the nearby street, Strada Maggiore. The Fathers put together the title of St. Bartholomew with that of their founder, St. Gaetano and commissioned from Marcantonio Franceschini and Luigi Quaini the decoration of the ten lunettes under the original 1sixteenth- century portico.

Description:

The church has a Latin cross plan with three naves, separated by slender fluted columns with ionic capitals.
The central nave ceiling is decorated with the Vision of St. Gaetano by Giacomo Alboresi, framed by the imposing illusionistic baroque decoration painted by Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli.
The minor naves are covered with small domes and the side square chapels with vaulted ceilings are a personal reinterpretation of the plan of the Chiesa del Gesù in Rome.
In the side chapels of the right nave we find some very important examples of baroque painting such as the Apparition of the Angel to St. Charles Borromeo by Ludovico Carracci. The frescoes on the walls, the dome and the pendentives of the third chapel are by Angelo Michele Colonna. The Annunciation is by Francesco Albani; Two Angels by Domenico Canuti and a fresco with Saint Gaetano in Glory and four Prophets are by Burrini and Chiarini.
Over the transept hovers the great round dome decorated with the Coronation of St. Gaetano and the Fathers of the Latin Church by Antonio and Giuseppe Rolli. The same painters also worked on the apse with the Glory of St. Gaetano and on the vaults of the left transept.
In the high chapel Marcantonio Franceschini and Luigi Quaini, helped by Enrico Haffner for the quadratura, painted three frescoes.
Among the left nave chapels is worth noting the Madonna del Suffragio by Guido Reni, donated in 1663 by Canon Matteo Sagaci, twice stolen and recovered, and a St. Michael by Giuseppe Rolli.
Linked to the church are a small crypt under the presbiterium, decorated with frescoes, and a sixteenth- century oratory dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and St. Gaetano. The oratory holds an old fresco of the Madonna and Child attributed to Lippo di Dalmasio, moved here in 1871 from a former church located next to the tower Garisenda.

The reference to the academic tradition created by Guido Reni and the following Baroque renovations are perfectly exemplified in this church by the works of some of the major representatives of the new wave such as Angelo Michele Colonna, Giacomo Alboresi, Agostino Mitelli, Giovanni Antonio Burrini, Marcantonio Chiarini, Antonio and Giuseppe Rolli.
The lunettes created by Cignani for the external portico were greatly celebrated from the beginning by his contemporaries. The decorations and paintings in the church are still just as impressive today, thanks to their illusionistic perspective and strong theatricality.

How Monument was dated:

Bibliography and historical documents.

Special features

View of the inside of the church

Interior, Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano

1627–1694

Giovan Battista Natali, Agostino Barelli

The church is divided in three naves. The light comes in through the ample windows and shines on the gilded decorations of the columns and arches.

View of the right nave

Interior, Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano

c. 1667–1695

Angelo Michele Colonna; Giovanni Antonio Burrini and Marcantonio Chiarini

Side chapels and small domes with baroque decorations. Especially impressive is the third one, painted by Angelo Michele Colonna, and the fifth one decorated by Burrini and Chiarini.

Crowning of St. Gaetano and Flight of Satan

Dome above the presbiterium, general view

1689–1692

Antonio and Giuseppe Rolli

Three angels lift a red drape showing the Glory of St. Gaetano, honoured by the Trinity thanks to the intercession of the Virgin. Some of the saints looking at the scene are arriving at the head of a procession exiting from the gates of Bologna. Opposite Satan is chased away.

Crowning of St. Gaetano

Dome above the presbiterium, detail

1689–1692

Giuseppe Rolli

The saint is lifted heavenwards by the angels. In ecstasy, with his arms open in a gesture of prayer, the saint receives the crown, the blue sash, the lilies and the pale blue scapular.

Angels

Dome above the presbiterium, detail

1689–1692

Giuseppe Rolli

An opening shows the viewer the angels of Paradise.

Selected bibliography:

Biondi, M., “La vita dei fratelli Rolli e la loro opera restaurata nella chiesa dei SS. Bartolomeo e Gaetano in Bologna”, Strenna Storica bolognese, LV, 2005, pp. 105-122.
Riccomini, E., Giovanni Antonio Burrini, Bologna, 1999.
Roli, R., “Giuseppe Rolli e gli affreschi della cupola di S. Bartolomeo in Bologna recentemente restaurati”, La Mercanzia, V, 1977, pp. 381-385.
Foratti, A., Aspetti dell'architettura bolognese dalla seconda metà del secolo XVI alla fine del Seicento, Bologna, 1932.
Anonimo Teatino, Descrizione minuta della Chiesa che presentemente sussiste, sue Cappelle, Pitture, Ornamenti e Sepolcri (ed. L. Gherardi), Bologna, 1987.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright images: Ufficio Beni culturali ecclesiastici della diocesi di Bologna.

Citation of this web page:

Marianna  Biondi "Basilica dei santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monument;BAR;it;Mon12;32;en

Prepared by: Marianna Biondi
Translation by: Antonella MampieriAntonella Mampieri

SURNAME: Mampieri
NAME: Antonella

AFFILIATION: Musei Civici d’Arte Antica, Bologna

TITLE: Art Hitorian

CV:
Graduated and specialised at the University of Bologna. She is a specialist in Bolognese late Baroque art, namely sculpture. Among other subjects she has been studying nineteenth-century funerary art in the Bologna monumental cemetery, la Certosa.
Translation copyedited by: Lisa Kelman

MWNF Working Number: IT2 37