Here there is one of the many tombs in the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, near the Pantheon. I suggest to visit this church due to the story and the numerous artistic masterpieces. Imagine how for me, a local tour guide, is always a pleasure to be here, a local basilica of Rome that you should visit, even paying attention to this pretty funeral monument.

The Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva is in fact a particular place which also houses the tombs of some popes, but among its hidden wonders there is also this marble slab with the portrait of a man. It is dedicated to Andrea Bregno, an artist, architect and stonemason who worked in Rome in the course of the second half of XV century. We see the portrait of a serene and peaceful man. At the same time his expression belongs to an intelligent guy, who lived his life projecting only about art. A master who had opened a shop of success, to which many were required for the sculptures, reliefs or architectural elements, often in marble and having a funeral purpose, which still are decorating many churches and basilicas in Rome. I cite, for example, the construction of the magnificent Della Rovere and Riario tombs (the branches of the family to which belonged pope Sixtus IV who, for example, at the 80's of the XV century commissioned the Sistine Chapel during his politics named renovatio urbis) in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, but also other funeral monuments that could be found in churches such as San Pietro in Vincoli, Santa Maria in Ara Coeli or St Clement. Iconic places of worship which became almost a status symbol: to have an effigy, or an entire chapel, in one of these important places meant to have power.

However Andrea Bregno had many of the fortune at the end of the XV century with Sixtus IV, but even before  with the pope Pius II Piccolomini. In this beautiful funeral monument we see the symbols of his own art: you can see, in fact, engraved on the marble, his tools, craft objects he used every day, such as the compasses. A way to remember the life of the artist, his works and his art. Even the ancient romans used to put marble reliefs representing the work that, in life, the deceased had done. That's another way to take a look to the past of Rome, reminding a man who contributed to make more beautiful the Eternal City.