Santa Susanna: Central view of facade

Date

Circa 1910

Maderno's first important independent commission in Rome was the renovation (1597-1603) of S Susanna. The interior (previously restored 1475-1477) was revised with an encrustation of stucco and painting on the walls and a coffered timber ceiling over the simple rectangular nave. For the new façade Maderno used the common Roman type of two storeys joined by volutes, but he combined the compositional clarity of Vignola's unexecuted design for the façade of Il Gesù with the central concentration of Giacomo della Porta's built work (completed 1573), thus simultaneously rendering the old type with a new, lucid consistency and energy.