Design and Graphical Analysis of the Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia in the Verano Cemetery in Rome

This contribution describes the graphical analysis of the Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia, a building situated at the back of the scenic area of the first layout of the Verano Cemetery in Rome, which was designed by Virginio Vespignani during the pontificate of Pio IX in the first half of the 1800s. This religious building is therefore an integral part of a single ‘urban complex’ that also includes the four-sided portico [Quadriportico] situated in front, which acts as a porticoed square, and the building to access the cemetery area, a symbolic door situated at the border with the city of the living. The study was based on graphical results deriving from survey campaigns made in the 2012–2015 period, the purpose of which was to build knowledge and documentation regarding the current state of the complex. Considering the complete absence of original graphical material related to the elevations and the reduced reliability of the plan found in the archives - rather summary in that it is contextualized within a broader area - geometric/proportional studies had still not been made. The analysis also has value given the particular historical/cultural period. The designed space is regulated by a rigorous geometrical logic that, for as much as it lacks unique stylistic references overall, is posed as a solution typical of the Enlightenment formulated in the cultural wake of figures such as Poletti and Camporese, but interpreted and proposed anew by Vespignani ‘on the human scale’.