A perfect
example of the harmonic blending of Renaissance painting
and architecture is the church of Santa Maria di Campagna,
which looks over the so-called Square of the Crusades,
where in 1095 Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade.
Going along via Campagna, we find another imposing
Renaissance church, San Sepolcro, built from a design
by Alessio Tramello. Erected between 1513 and 1533
for the Olivetan monks, it was turned into a military
hospital under Napoleon and only in 1903 did it resume
its function as a place of worship.
Next to the church is the former convent
of the Olivetan monks, with its two fine cloisters
taken over by the Town Hospital. The church apparently
takes its name from a local man who came back from
a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and,
in 938, founded a shrine on this site, which was later
destroyed. The faÁade, with a Baroque portal, is divided
by buttresses enhancing its vertical thrust. The interior
space is vast, divided by four sets of columns supporting
impressive pointed arches, and decorated throughout
with chiaroscuro frescoes.
Going back towards Santa Maria di Campagna,
we can see a long section of the sixteenth-century
city walls, the mura farnesiane, which surrounded the
entire city with its rampart. Following the walls up
to Porta Borghetto, we arrive at the church of San
Sisto, which can also be reached via the city centre,
through Piazza Cittadella and vicolo Angilberga which
ends in a magnificent pointed vault in brickwork. This
remarkable example of Renaissance architecture dates
from the times of the mpress Angilberga, wife of Ludovic
the Pious, who in 874 founded the church and the annexed
convent of Benedictine nuns, of which she became the
abbess in 882. She died there and was buried in the
church.
| The Benedictine monks
succeeded the nuns and began the construction of
the present building towards the end of the fifteenth
century. The present church, the first religious
architectural project by Alessio Tramello, was
built between 1499 and 1511. The faÁade, altered
in the seventeenth century, has an ample courtyard
with an open gallery in front. The interior, with
three aisles, is a fine example of early Renaissance
architecture and contains beautiful paintings by
Procaccini, Pittoni, Palma Giovane, and the Campi
brothers. On display above the high altar is a
copy of Raffaello's masterpiece Madonna Sistina,
which the maestro had painted expressly for the
church of San Sisto in Piacenza. The original canvas
was sold in 1754 by the Benedictine monks to August
III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, for
10,000 pieces of gold, and is now the highlight
of the Dresden museum. Of remarkable beauty are
the choir-stalls in carved wood by Bartolomeo Spinello
of Busseto and Giampiero Panbianchi of Colorno
(1514). The backs of the stalls depict floral,
musical, architectonic and perspective motifs,
together with almost metaphysical sketches of the
towns of Piacenza, Ferrara and Rome. |
Chiesa di S. Sisto
|
Piazza Cittadella (citadel, stronghold)
is just a short walk away from San Sisto. It is dominated
by the Palazzo Farnese and the nearby remains of a
small fortress erected in 1373 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti
of Milan, then lord of Piacenza, to protect the town
and its neighbouring territories from the attacks of
rival feudal lords. Of the original Visconti fortress
only the donjon, two corner towers and some curtain
walls are left. It was from this building that the
first Farnese duke Pier Luigi began to rule Piacenza
only to die a few years later, in 1547, the victim
of a plot of city nobles who killed him and threw his
body in the moat below.
Mole farnesiana
|
Palazzo Farnese, which
nowadays houses the Town Museums, started its life
in the mid-sixteenth century, when Pier Luigi's
son, Ottavio, and his wife Margherita decided to
build their palace and had the Visconti stronghold
pulled down almost completely. Work started in
1558 on a design by Francesco Paciotti of Urbino
and from 1564 continued under the supervision of
Jacopo Barozzi, known as Vignola, who had been
appointed official architect to the House of Farnese.
But the palace was never completed and what is
left is only half of the original plan. It is a
huge, unfinished building on three floors and a
vast basement. Two elegant loggias on the ground
and the first floor, with corner niches and exedrae,
look on to the inner courtyard. Of outstanding
beauty and value is the seventeenth-century wrought-iron
gate with the Farnese lilies and the ducal crown,
the work of expert local artisans. The gate opens
onto the grand staircase leading to the throne
room. The octagonal ducal chapel decorated with
stuccoes is the work of Bernardino Panizzari of
Piacenza, known as Caramosino: it has an elegant
spherical vault and a small presbytery overlooked
by two balconies. Of great interest is the spiral
staircase going from the basement to the look-out
tower on the roof. The aery volumes of the palace,
brought to new life by careful restoration work,
create quite an impression on the beholder. |
As for the furnishings, after Charles
of Bourbon became King of Naples in 1731, taking with
him pictures, tapestries and furniture, the palace
began its rapid and inexorable decline. Used as a barracks,
and as emergency accommodation for evacuees during
the war, it fell into a state of increasing neglect
and deterioration. It was only as late as 1965 that
the difficult and expensive restoration work began.
Amongst other Renaissance palaces mention should be made of Palazzo Barattieri
of San Pietro in Cerro at 70, via Taverna, dating from the end of the fifteenth
century, but almost entirely rebuilt in 1795 on a design by the architect Lotario
Tomba. It has a double courtyard, with coat of arms and inscriptions, and the
interior decoration is characterized by the recurring theme of fruit, particularly
citrus. At 37, via Taverna is Palazzo Scotti of Fombio, now housing the Collegio
Morigi and the Natural History Museum. Built in the first half of the fifteenth
century and altered throughout the centuries, it has a brickwork faÁade with
friezes, a classical portal in Candoglia marble (1497) and corner figures supporting
the coat of arms. Of interest is also the Palazzo Rossi Trevani in via Scalabrini,
although extensively altered.
Amongst the sixteenth-century churches
which have suffered a number of alterations is that
of Sant'Agostino, at the corner between Stradone Farnese
and via Giordani. This imposing church, closed to the
public, has a neoclassical faÁade in granite blocks
by Camillo Morigi (1785-93). The interior, of astonishing
grandeur and harmonic proportions, consists of five
aisles separated by columns and pillars, the only such
plan in the whole town. Fragments of frescoes by Malosso
can be seen on the transept walls. Closed to the public
for about two centuries, the church has only recently
returned to its original splendour. Two more religious
buildings deserve a mention: the church of San Vincenzo
(1612), founded in 1100, but entirely rebuilt in 1510
by the Theatines, who took it over (closed to the public,
it contains paintings by Galluzzi, pupil of the Bibiena
brothers, De Longe and Draghi, and a fine Baroque altar);
and the church of San Pietro, founded before the year
1000, repeatedly destroyed and given to the Jesuits
who rebuilt it in 1587 (the faÁade is a 1935 reconstruction
in the original style). It contains a beautiful Baroque
altar which was once in the Cathedral. Close by is
the Palazzo del Collegio dei Gesuiti, completed around
1593 and incorporating part of the church. Its right
wing houses the Passerini-Landi library, which has
been operating since 1774 and contains, amongst other
valuable works, the earliest dated codex of the Divine
Comedy (1336), copied by an amanuensis, and Angilberga's
Psaltery on parchment.
Santa Maria di Campagna
Santa Maria di Campagna, the
masterpiece of architect Alessio Tramello of
Piacenza, is a gem of Renaissance architecture.
It was built between 1522 and 1528 as a shrine
for the polychrome wooden statue of a real-size,
miraculous Madonna della Campagnola, which
was previously housed in a humble chapel. In
ancient times, this was probably the site of
a pozzo (pit), an underground tomb of Christian
martyrs who had died during the persecutions
by the emperor Diocletian, at the end of the
second century.
The building, characterized by a majestic octagonal lantern, originally
had a Greek cross plan as favoured by Bramante and his followers, but
in 1791 a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, with valuable paintings
by the Campi brothers, was pulled down and the presbytery extended, so
that the original plan changed into an upside down Latin cross.* |
S. Maria d Campagna - cupola
|
The faÁade is geometrically neat, divided
on two superimposed floors; its plain shapes contrast
with the lavish pictorial decoration of the interior,
which covers columns, pilaster strips, ribbing and
beams alike. Of outstanding quality is the cycle
of frescoes by the painter Giovanni Antonio Sacchi,
known
as Pordenone, who decorated the dome and the first
two chapel on the left-hand side with some of his
most significant works (1529-31), recently restored
to their
original splendour under the patronage of the Town
Council.
The frescoes in the chapels depict St.Augustine,
The Marriage of St. Catherine, The Adoration of the
Magi,
The Adoration of the Shepherds, and The Flight into
Egypt. Those on the dome above the lantern represent The Eternal Father,
prophets, sybils and biblical characters; mythological
scenes are depicted along the
base of the ribs, and eight apostles on the pilaster strips dividing the
gallery. By
Pordenone is also the host of rosy-faced putti and little Hercules with their
hair blowing in the wind, who seem to play a merry ring-a-ring o'roses on
the ribs and the listel of the lantern, part of a
repertory of pictorial images
which, alongside Correggio's legacy, was to be employed by most Emilian and
Lombard painters of the next generation.
The lower part of the dome barrel
was completed by Gervasio Gatti, called Sojaro.
The church
contains works by Galeazzo, Antonio, Giulio and
Bernardino Campi, Camillo Procaccini, Guercino, Malosso,
De
Longe, F. Bibbiena, Stern and Avanzini; a Baroque
wooden group
inspired by The Lamentation before Christ Crucified
by Jan Hermann Geernaerth (1757); a statue attributed
to Mochi representing Ranuccio Farnese on his knees;
and the organ choir.**
* Next to the church is the former convent
of the Franciscan monks (1555), built on the remains
of the ancient church of Santa Vittoria.
** Behind the altar, two tombstones commemorate the burial of Isabella Farnese
and that of the heart of her brother Francesco, who was buried in Parma.
Palazzo Landi - portale
|
The Palaces of the Aristocracy
An early Renaissance palace
of oustanding beauty is Palazzo Landi, at the
corner with via Giordano Bruno. This fifteenth-century
building, now housing the court of justice,
was once the residence of the Farnese family,
who confiscated the palace in retaliation against
the owners known to have taken part in the
plot against the first duke Pier Luigi. The
Emperor Charles V was another famous resident.
The Lombard master masons A. de Fondutis and
G. Battagio worked on the faÁade, the former
having already worked with Bramante on the
church of San Satiro in Milan. Of great interest
is the terracotta frieze on the elevations,
ornate with sirens, arms and medallions, and
the marble doorway, decorated with statues
of warriors, putti with musical instruments,
floral motives, allegories of Concord, Harmony,
Music, Poetry and Painting, and a scene representing
the fight between Hercules and Antaeus. |
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