Maria Klementina Sobieska was buried in the Vatican Basilica. Her magnificent tomb is located there. The epitaph of her heart is located in the Santi Apostoli church, and it is probably this epitaph, in its subtle forms, that more accurately reflects the character and spirituality of the granddaughter of King John III Sobieski.

The heart of Maria Klementina

Maria Klementina Sobieska died on 18 January 1735 at the Palazzo Muti in Rome. The body of the wife of James III Stuart, the Catholic pretender to the English throne, after being embalmed, was put on public display first in the palace and then on an impressive catafalque in the church of Santi Apostoli, adjacent to the Stuart residence. They were then transferred in solemn procession to the Vatican basilica and buried there. A few years later, under the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV, the monumental tomb inside the church was completed. Maria Clementina was thus honoured as the fourth woman in history: after Charlotte of Cyprus, Matilda of Canossa and Christine of Sweden.

The wife of the pretender to the English throne also had an epitaph dedicated to her in the Church of Santi Apostoli, and this was a few years earlier. This was because an urn containing her entrails, removed from her body during the embalming process, had been deposited there. Separate burials of the hearts and internal organs of rulers, commemorated with tombstones or epitaphs, had been known in European tradition since at least the Middle Ages, but such a custom was not generally practised in Rome. If the deceased was embalmed, the internal organs were usually buried with the body, and even when this was not the case, the place where they were deposited was not particularly commemorated. For example, the organs of the popes were deposited in simple terracotta urns in the church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio. In the case of Maria Clementina, however, a different approach was taken. It seems that the decisive factor, apart from the propaganda dimension, was the widespread conviction in Rome that the deceased was worthy of elevation to the altar. For she devoted the last years of her short life to devotion and charity.

From ideas to works

The epitaph commemorating the entombment of Mary Clementina Sobieska was commissioned by the Franciscan Fathers in February 1737 and completed in October 1738. Its author was Filippo della Valle, a Florentine by origin, one of the most eminent sculptors working in Rome during the late Baroque and early Classical periods. This was not his first work associated with the Sobieski family - ten years earlier he had been engaged by his master Camillo Rusconi to realise the tombstone of Alexander Sobieski in the Capuchin church in Rome (1727-1728). It is also worth mentioning that Filippo della Valle often created on behalf of Pope Clement XII, who was associated with the Stuarts, and it was thanks to his financial support that Maria Clementina's funeral took place.

A design sketch preserved in the Archivio Chigi in the Vatican Library shows the crystallisation of the concept for the epitaph. The final shape of the composition was undoubtedly influenced by the suggestions of the Franciscans in charge of the Santi Apostoli church, and perhaps by the opinion of Clement XII himself. This is indicated not only by the consistency of the figural composition with the content of the foundation tablet, but also by the artist's use of the motif of the royal mantle instead of the unspecified drapery still visible in the drawing design. This is most likely a reference to the mantle on which the queen's body was laid on the catafalque in the Church of Santi Apostoli; it was also used during the funeral ceremonies in the Vatican and eventually given to the Corsini. The mantle, as well as another motif present in the tombstone - an urn with a crown - can be found on the frontispiece of the publication 'Parentalia Mariae Clementinae...' commemorating Sobieska's life and ceremonial burial. The compilation and publication of this print was commissioned by Pope Clement XII.

Epitaph of a queen or a saint?

The epitaph is simple in its form - behold, an urn containing the queen's entrails rests on the cornice, above the foundation plaque. One putto, clad in a royal mantle, embraces the crown placed on the urn with its left hand, while the other presents a burning heart, illuminated by rays of heavenly glory emanating from between the clouds and three angelic heads. The work demonstrates the sculptor's mastery of both composition and technical execution. On the one hand, it is an exquisitely conceived, closed whole; on the other, it dynamically enters the space of the church through the putti's leg and a fragment of the royal mantle appearing beyond the edge of the cornice, or the turning of the head of the second putti, directing the gaze towards the frescoes on the vault of the temple. Filippo della Valle skilfully combined the various colours and textures of the marbles and, through different surface treatment, delicately differentiated the smooth white bodies of the putti around the urn and the slight roughness of the angel wings and clouds.

Although the tombstones and heart epitaphs of crowned heads often and intentionally evoked associations with translations of relics and the cult of saints, the motifs of the work from Santi Apostoli, above all the heavenly rays falling on the burning heart, relate primarily to representations of saints or ecstasies. Indeed, in parallel with the work of Filippo della Valle, the process of beatification began: between 1737 and 1738, the first testimonies and accounts of contemporaries were collected confirming the particular piety and virtues of Maria Clementina.

However, the Church forbade the veneration - not only in public, but also in private devotions - of persons not officially declared saints. Such proceedings, which were scrupulously observed in the first half of the 18th century, were multistage and stretched over a period of up to several decades. Francesco Valesio mentions, however, that the people of Rome touched Mary Clementine's body resting on the catafalque with rosaries. This discrepancy between the official recognition of sainthood and the public belief in it is reflected in the tombstone. The rays emerge not from the heart but from the heavens, but, falling on them, they clearly present the very idea of sainthood.

These subtleties are also emphasised by the text on the plaque. The play on words and meanings in the passage 'NAM COR CÆLESTIS FECIT NE SVPERESSET AMOR', which can be translated as: "the heart heavenly love did not let survive", refers us to the heart as a mortal internal organ and at the same time a symbol of fervent devotion and immortal divine love. The rays thus fall on the heart, and next to it on the urn with the mortal remains rests, against the background of the mantle, a crown - a symbol of royalty but also of temporal glory, which Mary Clementine rejected in the last years of her life. This harmonises with the view in the beatification documents that 'the true kingdom to which she aspired was not that of England, but that of Heaven'.

Epitaph of the heart of Maria Clementina Sobieska

Church of the Santi Apostoli in Rome

designed and executed by Filippo della Valle

1737-1738

marble, porphyry

Inscription on the plaque:

HIC CLEMENTINÆ REMANENT PRAECORDIA: NAM COR

CÆLESTIS FECIT NE SVPERESSET AMOR -

MARIÆ CLEMENTINÆ

MAGN - BRITANN - ET C - REGINÆ

FRATRES MIN - CONV -

VENERABVNDI PP -

Here lie the entrails of Clementina: the heart of

heavenly love did not allow to survive

Mary Clementine

Queen of Great Britain etc.

Friars Minor Conventual

With devotion they consecrate