San Giacomo degli Incurabili

Frontal view down the nave, looking towards the High Altar; The church of S Giacomo degli Incurabili, Rome, also commissioned by Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati, is da Volterra's [Capriani's] most important and influential work; he employed an oval plan (long axis about 25.5 m, short axis about 18.7 m) in a major ecclesiastical building, which may have been a development of designs for oval churches by Vignola, particularly for S Andrea (1554). A series of drawings (1590; Stockholm, Nmus.; 1595-1596; Vienna, Albertina) shows the development from a conventional rectangular plan to a longitudinal oval with transepts and then to the final unified oval plan surrounded by chapels. The double pilasters that originally articulated the side chapels gave way to single pilasters, emphasizing the longitudinal axis, and the exterior underwent a similar change, the articulated side façades being replaced by unadorned and unarticulated walls to form a simple shell for the interior. The façade to the Via del Corso followed Vignola's unexecuted design (1568) for Il Gesù, Rome, of a two-storey façade constrained by volutes. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 1/20/2008