Two Churches: St. Louis Of The French And SM Sopra Minerva

Both are only a few blocks from the Pantheon and we traditionally do them all the same day. (Traditionally=maybe once or twice before, I think). Again, there were surprises along the way, things new to us.

Now we are in the church of St. Louis (Luigi) of the French [sic];
ever seen an austere Baroque church?

The feature attraction, however. is Caravaggio's Matthew cycle;
above, the calling of Matthew (I usually caption this as "who's
driving the green Plymouth...?" but since it's Holy Week, I won't
do that and also won't refer to Caravaggio as Mr. Frutti Butt Pants)

Matthew taking dictation from the angel (Guido
Reni's Matthew is the best)

Martyrdom of St. Matthew

On the other side of the church, in the St. Cecelia chapel, are
several Domenchinos, which I'll skip, and two Renis of note;
above his fresco (!) copy of Rafael's St. Cecelia distributing her
clothes to the poor

And Reni's St. Cecelia in Ecstasy...quoting from
the description "Saint Cecelia in ecstasy, participates
in the angels' song, surrounded by St. Paul, St. John,
St. Augustine, and St. Mary Magdalene"...
I guess this would be an example of the sacred
conversation genre, but it could be of the sacred
sing-along genre

Another reason to like this church is its
tribute to Claude Lorrain, the 17th century
French landscape painter who spent nearly
all his career in Rome; Turner's favorite

Now we are approaching SM Sopra Minerva; "above Minerva"
because it was thought to have been built over a temple of Minerva;
now argued to have been built over a temple of Isis

The elephant-supported obelisk in the piazza has its own story...
brought from Egypt in the second century for the temple of Isis,
found in the Dominican garden many centuries later; its current
composition designed by Bernini...note kids playing futbol in
the piazza...two adults against about ten kids...note also a rare
dorsal view of the Pantheon, left

So we get to the construction fence at the front of the church 
and notice it is dark inside and empty...oh no!

It's open after all, well the apse anyway, and all you have to do
is follow the yellow arrows down the road, turn after a few blocks,
turn again up an alley, and you're there at the back door of the
church (note ecclesiastical use of Google Earth)

En route, I look up a cross street and see this,
a giant sandaled foot in marble; just standing 
there

I was thinking what a strange place for a "Just Do It!" ad when
Vicki pointed out the signage below

Which explains that this area contained several Egyptian temples
and that the foot in the alley was all that was left of a colossal
statue of Isis from one of the temples; again, for us, another 
completely new find 

So now we have gotten into SM Sopra Minerva through the
back door and are appreciating as well as we can the architecture
of one of Rome's few Gothic churches, as well as some of its
major art

Filipino Lippi's Annunciation with St. Thomas Aquinas, another
sacred conversation, of sorts

Michaelangelo's Christ the Redeemer; not one of his
biggest hits; the bronze loin cloth was a later addition

One critic wrote that the knees alone were worth more than
anything else in Rome; probably not a good idea mixing knee
fetish with art criticism

Tomb of Fra Angelica, 15th century mostly
Florentine painter of note