Rome's Second Highest Dome

Map

The domes of Sant' Andrea della Valle and St Peter's Basilica

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The dome of Sant' Andrea della Valle is the highest in Rome after that of St Peter's Basilica. The work of Carlo Maderno (1556-1629), the dome was inaugurated on November 6th, 1622. 

One of the stone carvers who worked on the lantern was Francesco Borromini (1599-1667), a distant relative of Maderno. Borromini, who would become one of the great architects of the Baroque, is credited with the creation of the angels which surmount the capitals of the paired columns. Their wings seem to resemble the volutes of an Ionic column. 

The painting of the dome interior was one of the largest commissions of its day and the work was carried out by two rival pupils of Annibale Caracci: Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647) and Domenico Zampieri, better known as Domenichino (1581-1641).

The fresco in the cupola, which depicts the Assumption of the Virgin into the Glory of Paradise, was painted by Giovanni Lanfranco between 1626 and 1628. 

The frescoes of the four evangelists, in the pendentives of the dome, were painted by Domenichino between 1622 and 1628. 

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Dome

Dome

Lantern

Lantern

Interior of dome

Sant' Andrea della Valle