Transcending Function in the Sacristy of Santa Maria Maddalena
Klarin, Lucia
Klarin, Lucia
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Abstract
The sacristy of the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena in Rome (1738–1740) serves as a unique and largely overlooked example of barocchetto illusionism in a sacred context. Among the private sacred interiors of eighteenth-century Rome, the sacristy unfolds as an immersive environment composed of quadratura, trompe l’œil windows, and faux marble furnishings in an illusionistic program unseen elsewhere in the city’s broader tradition of sacred illusionism. It stands apart for the totality of its illusionistic program, extending from the opened heaven of Girolamo Pesci’s ceiling fresco framed by Domenico Vellani’s quadratura and trompe l’œil architecture to the faux marble surfaces of Domenico Barbiani’s wooden furnishings. Overshadowed in scholarship by the church’s lavishly decorated sanctuary and recognizable Rococo façade, the sacristy has remained largely unexplored and typically reduced to a description of its ornamental character without consideration of its devotional function or ritual significance. This study addresses this gap by reconsidering the sacristy in its spiritual context as a late example of bel compost in the barocchetto style, constructing an immersive devotional environment rather than a merely utilitarian space. Through visual analysis—including a new attribution of the sacristy’s faux marble surfaces to quadraturista Domenico Vellani, proposed here for the first time— combined with theoretical frameworks of Baroque visual rhetoric, the Rococo ‘dream of happiness,’ devotional materiality, and sacred theater, the investigation demonstrates how the sacristy’s illusionistic program transformed a typically functional space into an immersive site of devotion. The findings uphold the sacristy of Santa Maria Maddalena as an unparalleled contribution to the sacred interiors of eighteenth-century Rome and open the space to the further liturgical and archival investigation its depth calls for.
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Master of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Spring 2026.
Date
2026
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S. Maria Maddalena (Rome, Italy)
Citation
Klarin, Lucia. "Transcending Function in the Sacristy of Santa Maria Maddalena". Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2026.