An English master in a Flemish church in Rome.

October can be a lovely month in Rome, summer weather has not gone, yet the terrible heat has - a few mornings ago I was determined to get to see one of Rome's hidden secrets and yet another link with England.

The present Largo Argentina square is yet another fruit of Mussolini's demolitions in central Rome, when the Duce and previously the Savoy monarchs, tried to transform Rome into a new Haussmann's Paris - thankfully, they did not complete the project. Just nearby the piazza, we can get an idea of what the area looked like before the 1930s - here is the little Via del Sudario, which hosts one of Rome's tiniest churches - never open to the public, it is the small church of San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi.

According to legend, the history of the church goes back to the time of Pope Gregory II, in the 8th century, when the Flanders had just been converted to Christianity - soon the new converts turned into pilgrims visiting the most sacred sites in Rome. It was customary at the time for the Church, often supported by national monarchs, to provide guesthouses for the pilgrims from various parts of Europe, some of which still survive. Like the English one (Santa Maria in Saxia, then restored by Sixtus IV in the Renaissance) and many others, the first Flemish hospice was built in the proximity of the first St. Peter's Basilica, it was dedicated to Saint Julian the Hospitaller, the patron saint of the Flanders. The foundation date coincides with the visit to Rome of Robert II, Count of Flanders, in 1096, on his way to the Holy Land for the First Crusade.

The first church dedicated to the saint was established in the 15th century, its statutes and regulations date to the year 1444. With the return of the Papal Court from the exile in Avignon, and the beginning of the Renaissance, Rome once again became a hub for both pilgrims but also Flemish and Netherlandish merchants and bankers - modern banking was coming to life and therefore bankers were moving between the Flanders and Italy, especially Florence and Rome, the arts were deeply inspired by this process. 

With the Renaissance popes, Rome became a magnet for painters, sculptors, musicians and scholars, the foundation of St. Julian became an immigration hub for the Flemish between the 15th and 17th centuries. From merchants, to artists, from goldsmiths to tailors - the foundation which kept precise records, hosted over 21,213 guests over the two centuries. The institution was both cultural and religious and it acquired further prestige in 1536, when Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, born in Ghent, became a fellow. The foundation, now sponsored by the Belgian crown still maintains the same mission rooted in the fostering of culture and dialogue through the gift of hospitality.
The small church of San Giuliano dei Fiamminghi retains little of the original 15th century building, save for the architectural frame surrounding the statue of its patron on the façade. The present church was renovated in 1681-82 and in the early 18th century it got its octagonal shape, partly inspired by Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale. The church hosts some fine late Baroque and Neo-Classical Flemish artworks, including a monument by the school of Antonio Canova.

But perhaps the most interesting yet bizarre detail is the decoration of the ceiling; the central medallion of the vault depicts a fine apotheosis of Saint Julian the Hospitaller in the trompe-l'œil style. This late Baroque frenetic fresco was painted in 1717 by prominent English master William Kent. The young artist was sent to Italy to learn about antiquity, as many did during the Grand Tour, he was greatly inspired by Palladian architecture, which he later introduced to Britain, and in Rome, where he learnt both from antique and contemporary art, as seen in the fresco above, he became one of Cardinal Ottoboni's (future Pope Alexander VIII) favorite artists. He is known for working on prominent buildings such as Chiswick House in London, he is also said to be the creator of the English garden. It is during his stay in Rome that he created this almost unknown masterpiece - perhaps even more bizarre as it was painted by a genius, but nonetheless a genius who lived most of his life as an Anglican, and an Anglican at a time under the reign of William and Mary and later Queen Anne. It is perhaps surprising to see the hands that inspired the rational Georgian aesthetics, painting such an inherently emotional and irrational piece of Catholic art, on the other hand, perhaps few know that neither in the 17th nor the 18th century, high church Anglicans ever stopped commissioning iconographic and decorative art in churches, but let us leave this for another article. As of today, this bizarre fresco remains yet another testimony of the grandeur that is the marriage between the English genius and Roman pathos.