Founded by Pope
Liberius and, therefore, known as the Liberian Basilica,
it was embellished by Sixtus III after the recognition,
in the Council of Ephesus (431 j, of the dogma of the
divine maternity of Mary to which the building was
dedicated. There is evidence of splendid mosaics in the
nave, mostly modified by Nicholas IV who added the
mosaic in the Torriti apse. The worship of the Holy
cradle was added to the Marian worship, tied to the
image of the Salus Populi Romani, in the oratorio
decorated by.
Arnolfo di Cambio.
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Covered by the new lacunar
ceiling by Sangallo, it was completed with the Sistine and
Pauline chapels. The reconstruction of the external apse was
followed by a reconstruction both of the falf8de and the
sumptuous ciborium on the high altar, completed for the
Jubilee of 1750. |
The Sforza Chapel, already given
to Michelangelo by Cardinal Guido Ascanio Sforza, archpriest
of Santa Maria Maggiore, was complete much later, perhaps by
Guglielmo Oella Porta. The extreme liberty of the chapel,
whose space seems enlarged thanks to the four angular
columns, comes from the central plan, drawn up in projects
for the Vatican Basilica and in the contemporary church of
the Florentine Nation in Roma (St. Giovanni dei
Fiorentini,1559-60).
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