Journal articles on the topic 'San Giovanni Crisostomo (Church)'

The oeuvre of the sculptor Paolo Callalo (Venice 1655-1725) is a paradigmatic example of how the oeuvres of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian sculptors have been expanded, supplemented and revised during the last twenty years. Until Simone Guerriero’s ground-breaking article of 1997, Paolo Callalo was almost completely unknown. In his search for Callalo’s earliest preserved work, Simone Guerriero suggested that Callalo was responsible for the stipes of the altar of St Joseph, featuring the relief of the Flight into Egypt flanked by two putti which are almost free standing, which was made between 1679 and 1685 for San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice. However, another significant sculpture can now be added to the catalogue of Callalo’s early works: a memorial monument to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi (Chioggia, 3 October 1667 – Zadar, 29 January 1677) which is located on the left presbytery wall in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta at Chioggia. As we learn from its commemorative inscription, the monument was commissioned by Paolo Grassi, the nephew of the deceased who was a prominent member of this aristocratic family from Chioggia. The Grassi (de Grassi) family produced as many as three bishops of Chioggia: Pasquale (1618-1639), Francesco (1639 -1669) and Antonio (1696-1715) who was a brother of Francesco, the Bishop of Nin, and a great-nephew of the first two. The monumental memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in the presbytery of Chioggia Cathedral consists of a rectangular marble plaque topped with a semi-circular pediment with two reclining putti. Immediately below, two more putti are depicted flying and drawing a curtain in front of an oval niche containing the bishop’s bust, the commemorative inscription and the bishop’s coat of arms set in a wreath. All the elements of this excellent work point to Paolo Callalo’s hand. The bishop’s bust was most probably created posthumously by relying on one of the portraits of the bishop as a source model. It depicts him as having a somewhat square face with a lively mouth opened in a melodramatic way and as having probing eyes with emphasized pupils, all of which characterize Callalo’s sculpting technique. A direct parallel for such a physiognomy can be found in the 1686 sculpture of St Michael in San Michele in Isola at Venice. Two remarkably beautiful and skilfully modelled putti which are drawing the curtain can be connected to the putti on the stipes of the altar of St Joseph in San Giovanni Crisostomo at Venice, but also with a putto on the keystone of a niche on the 1684 altar of St Teresa in the Church of the Scalzi. The richly draped marble curtain being drawn by the two flying putti is an example of Callalo’s thorough knowledge of contemporary sculptural innovations and trends in Venice. He could have seen a similar curtain on the 1677 monument to Giorgio Morosini in San Clemente in Isola at Venice, which belongs to the oeuvre of Giusto Le Court, the most important Venetian sculptor of the second half of the seventeenth century. That Callalo was no stranger to this type of decoration is also demonstrated by one of his later works, now sadly lost, the contract for which set out the terms for the sculptural decoration of the high altar in the old Venetian church of La Pietà. In 1692 Callalo agreed to make for this high altar ‘a curtain out of yellow marble of Verona being held by putti’.The stylistic analysis of the memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi indicates that it was erected in a relatively short period of time after the bishop’s death in 1677. It seems highly likely that it was made in the early 1680s or around 1686 at the latest because in that year Callalo made the statue of St Michael in San Michele in Isola. The memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in Chioggia Cathedral is the first monument on the left-hand side of presbytery wall which would in time become a ‘mausoleum’ of the Grassi family. Around the same time or perhaps somewhat later, the Bishop of Chioggia by the name Francesco Grassi was honoured posthumously with a memorial containing a bust portrait that can be attributed to Giuseppe Torretti (Pagnano, 1664 – Venice, 1743). This group of episcopal memorials in the presbytery of Chioggia Cathedral ends with 1715 when Alvise Tagliapietra (Venice, 1680 – 1747) made the tomb for Bishop Antonio Grassi while he was still alive.Callalo’s Dalmatian oeuvre is relatively modest and consists of the following works so far identified as his: two marble angels set next to the high altar in the Parish Church at Vodice and four music-making putti at the sides of the high altar as well as those on a side altar in the Parish Church at Sutivan on the island of Brač. However, Callalo’s hand can also be recognized in a statue from a large-scale sculptural group which adorned the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in Zadar Cathedral. The altar structure was built by Antonio Viviani in 1719 while Francesco Cabianca (Venice, 1666-1737) carved the majority of the altar’s rich sculptural decoration. At the centre of the altar is a niche with a relatively small marble statue of Our Lady of Sorrows with the dead Christ in her lap. It is difficult to find a place for this marble Pietà from Zadar in Francesco Cabianca’s catalogue especially with regard to his Pietà above a door in the cloister of the Frari Church at Venice in 1714. Compared to the Zadar Pietà, Cabianca’s Venetian Pietà displays a number of differences: a crisper chiselling technique, a certain roughness of workmanship, robust bodies as well as a different treatment of the figures’ physiognomies and drapery. However, the Pietà from Zadar can be added to the catalogue of Paolo Callalo’s works. The carefully modelled figure of Our Lady of Sorrows and the soft drapery which spreads outwards in a radial fashion around her feet can be compared to the statues of Faith and Hope on the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in Udine Cathedral, which was made after 1720. The statue of the Risen Christ on the tabernacle of the aforementioned altar from Udine provides a parallel for the modelling of Christ’s body and, in particular, his face with a restrained expression. The same can be said for the Risen Christ on the tabernacle of the Parish Church at Clauzetto, which I also attribute to Callalo, as well as for earlier, more monumental, examples such as the Christ from the 1708 altar of the Transfiguration in the Parish Church at Labin.Callalo’s memorial to the Bishop of Nin Francesco Grassi in Chioggia is an important indicator of his personal stylistic development. He transformed his stylistic expression from the robust energy of this ‘youthful work’ at Chioggia to the lyrical poetics characterized by softness which can be seen in his late work, the Pietà on the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the Cathedral of St Anastasia at Zadar. It is likely that future research in Venice, Dalmatia and the rest of the Adriatic coast will expand Paolo Callalo’s already rich oeuvre and confirm the important place he holds in Venetian sculpture as one of its protagonists during the late Seicento and early Settecento.

II monachesimo in Siria pure inizió all'inizio del IV secolo, e si espresse nella forma di vita anacoreta. Afrate ii Siro, Sant'Efrem e San Giovanni Crisostomo furono i propagatori della vita anacoreta in Siria. I monaci che vivevano in questo paese erano caratterizzati da una vita molto dura e da inusuali pratiche ascetiche. Secondo lo storico Sozomeno, il primo monaco eremita fu Aones. San Gerolamo sostiene peró che il primo eremita fu sant'Ilarione. Famoso stilita fu Simeone il maggiore. Elemento caratteristico del monachesimo siro era il fatto che gli anacoreti in una certa fase della propria vita entravano in monastero, e viceversa. In Siria esistevano anche monasteri femminili. In questo paese c'erano inoltre donne che conducevano vita eremitica. Le piu famose fra loro furono Marana, Syra e Domnina. Occorre sottolineare come San Girolamo visse da eremita in Siria. Durante un breve periodo della sua vita fu ad Antiochia Paola romana. In questa citta visse la famosa asceta diaconessa Sabiniana, zia di san Giovanni Crisostomo.

Ministers of the Church, whose characters were well defined in the second half of the fourth century, were more and more identified as the perfect believers. In the texts of John Chrysostom several models of “spiritual man” emerge on the basis of his personal experience and the evolution of his works: the monk, the presbyter, and the bishop. One notes that the relation of the Church to secular institutions is of greater importance in the works of Chrysostom, paying as he does particular attention to the autonomy of the Church. In an original way he refrains from criticizing political institutions, preferring to express a balanced view. He holds that a coexistence with political authorities is possible, and he urges a moral conver-gence with them. Ecclesial ministries find a more solid basis in the Chrysostom’s complex and sometimes pained statements, both in their ideal expressions and in their concrete effects on the society of the fourth century.

The study is devoted to the first publicly accessible opera house Teatro San Cassiano (Venice, 1637), the establishment of which became a cardinal factor in the transformation of opera from aristocratic court entertainment to creative industry. The author considers the issues related to the history of the theater’s construction and the actions of its owners, the Venetian nobles, the Tron brothers, aimed at turning opera into a profitable business. The article reveals possible prototypes and reasons for the constructive solutions in the theater, in particular the boxes and the U-shaped audience hall. The author gives the parametric characteristics of the components of the Teatro San Cassiano building — the stage, the audience hall, and the boxes. It is noted that the tiered Theatro San Cassiano became a prototype for other theatres not only in Venice, but also in other cities of Italy and Europe. Thus, among the Venetian theaters of the 17th century, the public theaters, such as SS Giovanni e Paolo (1638), Novissimo (1640), San Moise (1640), and San Giovanni Crisostomo (1678), were inspired by San Cassiano; outside Venice there were Teatro Falcone (Genoa, 1652) and Teatro Tordinona (Rome, 1671). The article emphasizes market competition that was one of the key factors in the dynamic spread of opera and the formation of opera infrastructure in Europe. After the establishment of San Cassiano, the development of opera acquired a clearly defined vector: from elitist entertainment to creative industry.

La sinodalità, come dimensione costitutiva della Chiesa, ci offre la cornice interpretativa più adeguata per comprendere lo stesso ministero gerarchico. San Giovanni Crisostomo ha detto che «Chiesa e Sinodo sono sinonimi», perché all’interno della Chiesa nessuno può essere "elevato" al di sopra degli altri. Al contrario, nella Chiesa è necessario che qualcuno "si abbassi" per mettersi al servizio dei fratelli lungo il cammino. Una Chiesa sinodale è una Chiesa dell'ascolto, nella consapevolezza che ascoltare «è più che sentire». È un ascolto reciproco in cui ciascuno ha qualcosa da imparare. Popolo fedele, Collegio episcopale, Vescovo di Roma: l'uno in ascolto degli altri; e tutti in ascolto dello Spirito Santo, lo «Spirito della verità» (Gv 14,17), per conoscere ciò che Egli «dice alle Chiese» (Ap 2,7).

In the first decades of the seventeenth century the altar of the Scuola di San Giorgio e Trifone (also known as the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni), at the time situated in the Venetian church of San Giovanni del Tempio, was adorned by an altarpiece by Matteo Ponzone (today in the church of Madonna dell’Orto), mentioned in 1664 by Marco Boschini as being “di Casa Stefani.” Boschini’s definition of Ponzone’s altarpiece as belonging to the Stefani family is explained by a 1582 request by the Guardian Grande Paulo (Paolo) de Stefano, who appealed to the general chapter for permission to construct a family tomb in the church of San Giovanni del Tempio in front of the Dalmatian nation’s altar of St. George. Although the construction of a family tomb in front of the confraternity altar affected its later reception as collective confraternal property, the iconography of Ponzone’s altarpiece depicting the confraternity’s patron saints George, Jerome, and Tryphon represents a distinct statement of Dalmatian identity, which the Scuola sought to exhibit within the multicultural society of Venice.

This article retraces the history of the Confraternita di San Rocco (Confraternity of St. Roch) in Modena from its foundation in the late fifteenth century to its abolition in the eighteenth century. Thanks to newly examined archival documents, the article details the building and decorative work supported by the confraternity for the construction and decoration of the oratory. The result is a varied pic­ture of the craftsmen responsible for the work, which was carried out by minor, lesser-known artists such as the foremen Paolo Bisogni and Giovanni Battista Biavardi. The confraternity’s scarce resources were constantly invested in structural interventions on the walls, which were periodically threatened by water from the underlying ca­nal. Nevertheless, the documents also reveal the members’ commit­ment to decorating the interior. The three altars completed between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries involved stuccoists such as Sebastiano Caula and Giovanni Antonio Franchini, as well as artists Marco Antonio Mazzarini, Flaminio Veratti and the more famous Giulio Secchiari and Sigismondo Caula, who created two monumen­tal altarpieces. This article provides some new information about the patrons and their respective chronology.

The pontificate of John Paul II has remained in the history of mankind and of the Church as an important one from many points of view, known for his contribution to the construction of a more human world, closer to God. The intention of this study is to show that Pope Wojtyła was a true defensor vitae – a great defender of life –, having numerous interventions in favour of life, especially unborn life, life from the womb and threatened one, what the Second Vatican Council called an “abominable crime”, that is abortion. The article presents these interventions being structured in three parts, the milestone being the Encyclical Evangelium vitae of March 25, 1995.

In the past century there have been a number of proposed reconstructions of the First Church built in Venice to house the relics of Saint Mark, the Apostle. The proposal which follows differs from its predecessors in identifying the survival of the very large bulk of the original church. It holds that the ancient structure stands encapsulated within the surviving fabric (fig. 1) and thereby rediscovers, largely extant, the greatest Byzantine church of the Middle Ages, completed some time between 832 and 836 for Doge Giovanni Participacio (fig. 2). That church was generally held to have been destroyed by fire in 976, but rebuilt on similar lines by 978 only to have been taken down and rebuilt in its present form between 1063 and 1071 under Doge Domenico Contarini, the work continuing under Doge Vitale Falier. In the following account the Participaci church is described as the First and the Contarini-Falier church the Second. The intermediate reconstruction (976–8) is herein taken to have been a repair rather than a rebuilding. Finding that this first building still exists hidden within the second this paper suggests social reasons for its supposed loss.

This research raises the theme of clerical involvement in politics, which still creates pro and con reactions. The questions answered in this research are what, how, and to what extent clerics may engage or are prohibited from engaging in politics. What are the reasons and purposes of the Catholic Church in prohibiting its clergy from engaging in politics? What are the legal consequences for the clerics involved in practical politics? Is there any good example for clerics in engaging in politics? This research uses the normative research method of Church law. The problem is approached using the deductive method, by departing from the legal norms of the Church which are elaborated using documents issued by the Holy See. The research also uses the inductive method through a study on the testimonies of the life of St. John XXIII. The deductive and inductive approaches are combined to find the scope of meaning and the proper and wise application of the ecclesiastical norm regarding clerical involvement in politics. The study found that the clerical mission cannot be separated from politics. The call to configure oneself fully to the person and mission of Christ requires clerics to take the side of the small, the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized by conducting sharp socio-political criticism agaist unfair, unequal and discriminatory government or economic systems. The teaching of clerics should have a political impact on the lives of the faithful, especially the laity, to the point of encouraging them to become fully involved in practical politics to fight for justice, truth, peace and the common good with other members of society. However, concern for the political problems of the nation must never lead clerics to become directly and actively involved through political parties. Such involvement will divide the communion of the people, will mix politics and religion, and will run the risk of creating hostility both within the Church itself and outside the Church. Violation of the prohibition to actively participate in political parties results in the suspension of the cleric concerned. As the life witnessed by St. John XXIII, clerics are to be fathers of all people, persons of dialogue and peace, above all parties and for all parties. Clerics represent the Church that does not bind itself to any particular political system, and remains present and works in whatever political system, which is democratically selected and established by all citizens

The Main purpose of the study is an analysis of influence of the image of St. Peter's Basilica on the Roman church architecture of the 12th-13th centuries. It is possible to search the special type of the presbytery, characterized by uniting of the altar on the pedestal and the reliquary “confession” in the general vertical composition. The congregation of these churches had opportunities to see the process of worship and approach the saint relicts. The altar stood so that the Priest served the mass facing the worshippers, as it was in San Pietro. So, this important monument of Rome could be a model for the other churches of the Middle Ages. Among the churches of this period, such features have the altar space of San Giovanni in Laterano, as well as the basilicas of San Giorgio in Velabro, Santa Maria Assunta in Anagni and Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Ferentino. All these buildings was connected with the Power of Papa.

San Giovanni Crisostomo, conosciuto come un’ottimo esegeta e predicatore della Chiesa antica, fu anche un grande esperto non solo di teologia, della vita sociale, culturale ed ecclesiastica, ma anche della psicha dell’uomo. Avvertendo diversi problemi nella vita sociale indica l’educazione ed istruzione dei bambini come un vero antidoto alla degenerazione e disgregazione morale della società. Nei suoi molti scritti dunque presenta l’educazione dei bambini come il più im­portante compito dei genitori. L’importanza dell’educazione consiste nel fatto stesso dell’attività educativa dei genitori, la quale paragona con la belleza creativa ed artistica dello scultore. Poi questa suindicata importanza sta nello scopo da ese­guire che è l’educazione della persona integrale, completa, perfetta, saggia, come se fosse un vero atleta di Cristo: un vero uomo che conduce consapevolmente la vita virtuosa. La ricompensa per la fatica e tutti i sacrifici subiti durante il pro­cesso educativo è la santificazione personale dei genitori, la vera gioia di trovare i figli cresciuti nella saggezza pronti ad affrontare resposabilmente le esigenze della vita sociale, che loro stessi sono il vero tesoro della vita dei genitori e infine in futuro per la loro fatica possono giungere alla salvezza eterna nel Regno di Cristo, oppure per la loro negligenza nel campo dell’educazione dei figli saranno meritevolmente castigati.

In the first two decades of the 18th century, Cristoforo Tasca (Bergamo, 1661 – Venice, 1735) produced numerous artworks for Rijeka, Krk, and Karlobag. His oeuvre has now been complemented by a signed and dated altarpiece from 1725 at the main altar of the Collegiate, today a parish church in Rijeka. The author elucidates the complex circumstances behind the construction of the main marble altar and the role of its donators, the Orlando family, who created the altar iconography as directly related to the family’s patron saints. Based on the last will of Giovanni Michele Androcha from 1728, the presence of painter Cristoforo Tasca in Rijeka has been confirmed for the first time in a written document. A painting of the Annunciation, which originates from the former Benedictine monastery of St Rochus in Rijeka and is today preserved in the Benedictine monastery of San Daniele in Abano Terme near Padua, has been likewise attributed to Tasca. The second part of the article focuses on artworks that have been newly attributed to the Venetian painter Giovanni Battista Augusti Pitteri (Venice, between 1691 and 1695 – Zadar ?, after 1759 ?), who moved to Zadar around 1730 and left a major opus in Dalmatia. Before 1730, a large painting of the Baptism of Christ was made for the parish church of San Martino in Burano, attributable to Pitteri. Another artwork discussed in the article is the anonymous signed painting of the Virgin with the Child and Saints from the Franciscan Church of St Anne in Koper.

Stylistic changes in a sculptor’s oeuvre are simultaneously a challenge and a cause of dilemmas for researchers. This is particularly true when attempting to identify the early works of a sculptor while the influence of his teacher was still strong. This article focuses on the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Bonazza (Venice, 1654 – Padua, 1736) and attributes to him numerous new works both in marble and in wood, all of which are of uniform, high quality. Bonazza’s teacher was the sculptor Michele Fabris, called l’Ongaro (Bratislava, c.1644 – Venice, 1684), to whom the author of the article attributes a marble statue of Our Lady of the Rosary on the island of San Servolo, in the Venetian lagoon, which has until now been ascribed to Bonazza. The marble bust of Giovanni Arsenio Priuli, the podestat of Koper, is also attributed to the earliest phase of Bonazza’s work; it was set up on the façade of the Praetorian Palace at Koper in 1679. This bust is the earliest known portrait piece sculpted by the twenty-five-year old artist. The marble relief depicting the head of the Virgin, in the hospice of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, ought to be dated to the 1690s. The marble statue of the Virgin and Child located on the garden wall by the Ponte Trevisan bridge in Venice can be recognized as Bonazza’s work from the early years of the eighteenth century and as an important link in the chronological chain of several similar statues he sculpted during his fruitful career. Bonazza is also the sculptor of the marble busts of the young St John and Mary from the library of the monastery of San Lazzaro on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon, but also the bust of Christ from the collection at Castel Thun in the Trentino-Alto Adige region; they can all be dated to the 1710s or the 1720s. The article pays special attention to a masterpiece which has not been identified as the work of Giovanni Bonazza until now: the processional wooden crucifix from the church of Sant’Andrea in Padua, which can be dated to the 1700s and which, therefore, precedes three other wooden crucifixes that have been identified as his. Another work attributed to Bonazza is a large wooden gloriole with clouds, cherubs and a putto, above the altar in the Giustachini chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine at Padua. The article attributes two stone angels and a putto on the attic storey of the high altar in the church of Santa Caterina on the island of Mazzorbo in the Venetian lagoon to Giovanni’s son Francesco Bonazza (Venice, c.1695 – 1770). Finally, Antonio Bonazza (Padua, 1698 – 1763), the most talented and well-known of Giovanni Bonazza’s sons, is identified as the sculptor of the exceptionally beautiful marble tabernacle on the high altar of the parish church at Kali on the island of Ugljan. The sculptures which the author of the article attributes to the Bonazza family and to Giovanni Bonazza’s teacher, l’Ongaro, demonstrate that the oeuvres of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian masters are far from being closed and that we are far from knowing the final the number of their works. Moreover, it has to be said that not much is known about Giovanni’s works in wood which is why every new addition to his oeuvre with regard to this medium is important since it fills the gaps in a complex and stylistically varied production of this great Venetian sculptor.

Stylistic changes in a sculptor’s oeuvre are simultaneously a challenge and a cause of dilemmas for researchers. This is particularly true when attempting to identify the early works of a sculptor while the influence of his teacher was still strong. This article focuses on the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Bonazza (Venice, 1654 – Padua, 1736) and attributes to him numerous new works both in marble and in wood, all of which are of uniform, high quality. Bonazza’s teacher was the sculptor Michele Fabris, called l’Ongaro (Bratislava, c.1644 – Venice, 1684), to whom the author of the article attributes a marble statue of Our Lady of the Rosary on the island of San Servolo, in the Venetian lagoon, which has until now been ascribed to Bonazza. The marble bust of Giovanni Arsenio Priuli, the podestat of Koper, is also attributed to the earliest phase of Bonazza’s work; it was set up on the façade of the Praetorian Palace at Koper in 1679. This bust is the earliest known portrait piece sculpted by the twenty-five-year old artist. The marble relief depicting the head of the Virgin, in the hospice of Santa Maria dei Derelitti, ought to be dated to the 1690s. The marble statue of the Virgin and Child located on the garden wall by the Ponte Trevisan bridge in Venice can be recognized as Bonazza’s work from the early years of the eighteenth century and as an important link in the chronological chain of several similar statues he sculpted during his fruitful career. Bonazza is also the sculptor of the marble busts of the young St John and Mary from the library of the monastery of San Lazzaro on the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon, but also the bust of Christ from the collection at Castel Thun in the Trentino-Alto Adige region; they can all be dated to the 1710s or the 1720s. The article pays special attention to a masterpiece which has not been identified as the work of Giovanni Bonazza until now: the processional wooden crucifix from the church of Sant’Andrea in Padua, which can be dated to the 1700s and which, therefore, precedes three other wooden crucifixes that have been identified as his. Another work attributed to Bonazza is a large wooden gloriole with clouds, cherubs and a putto, above the altar in the Giustachini chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine at Padua. The article attributes two stone angels and a putto on the attic storey of the high altar in the church of Santa Caterina on the island of Mazzorbo in the Venetian lagoon to Giovanni’s son Francesco Bonazza (Venice, c.1695 – 1770). Finally, Antonio Bonazza (Padua, 1698 – 1763), the most talented and well-known of Giovanni Bonazza’s sons, is identified as the sculptor of the exceptionally beautiful marble tabernacle on the high altar of the parish church at Kali on the island of Ugljan. The sculptures which the author of the article attributes to the Bonazza family and to Giovanni Bonazza’s teacher, l’Ongaro, demonstrate that the oeuvres of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian masters are far from being closed and that we are far from knowing the final the number of their works. Moreover, it has to be said that not much is known about Giovanni’s works in wood which is why every new addition to his oeuvre with regard to this medium is important since it fills the gaps in a complex and stylistically varied production of this great Venetian sculptor.

In Naples (Italy), the passage from Renaissance to Baroque architectonic language could be identified between 1580 and 1612. During this era, one of the most significant topics of the architectonic research on the sacred space was the right compromise among the Counter-Reformation patterns, the central space and the oval plan. Giovanni Antonio Dosio and Dionisio di Bartolomeo were the most representative architects of this passage. They provide the access to new experimental varieties. So, when the architect Cosimo Fanzago arrived in Naples in 1612, the city was almost ready to use the emblematic ellipse plan of the Baroque, such as the churches Santa Maria della Sanita` and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini by Fra’ Nuvolo prove. Fanzago’s architectonic research was followed by the studies by Bartolomeo and Francesco Antonio Picchiatti, father and son, up to Domenico Antonio Vaccaro that was the most representative director of the Baroque sacred space scene. Moving from the analysis and comparison of the most representative churches of Neapolitans Baroque era, the paper proposes an unedited studio about the evolution of sacred space’s idea related to decoration, symbology and allegory, with a focus on Domenico Antonio Vaccaro’s works, such as the churches of Santa Maria della Concezione in Montecalvario neighbourhood, San Michele Arcangelo in Naples’ Piazza Dante, San Michele in Anacapri (on Capri Island), the Palazzo Abbaziale di Loreto and Saviour Church in San Guglielmo al Goleto Monastery, both near Avellino.

This article focuses on the activities of confraternities in San Giovanni in Persiceto—a small town in the contado of Bologna—in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It considers their role in the spiritual lives of the brothers and their place in local religious culture. It examines relations between the confraternity and the larger church. Its argument is that the confraternities played an integrative role in what was an often divided community, but that this role was made possible by relations with "lords superior" outside the community—lords superior who intervened to enforce devotional unity.

AbstractUsing Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici's mausoleum in San Lorenzo in Florence as a case study, this article asks why high-ranking members of Florentine society increasingly opted for burial in a sacristy in the years after c. 1350. Countering the argument that the attraction for patrons was primarily one of size, it argues that sacristies were seen as ideal burial places in which to convey the souls of the departed through purgatory, since they were both repositories for collections of saints’ relics that might intercede on the deceased's behalf and the busiest spaces in a church, where priests would have had innumerable opportunities to offer prayers for them. In discussing this choice, the article considers Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici's anxiety for the health of his soul and why he took the highly unconventional step of establishing two chapels in San Lorenzo to care for it; and it goes on to consider how the design of the so-called Old Sacristy was conceived to assist. In doing so, it offers a range of new documentary evidence regarding the early usage of the space, and it concludes with observations about the strategies employed by patrons in the siting of their tombs so as to maximise the care for their souls.

Abstract. The study presented aims a practical contribution to the use of the Terrestrial Laser Scanner and the Close Range Photogrammetry geomatic techniques and to their integration for the knowledge and development of the historical-architectural heritage, both in the step of planning a restorative conservation project, and in the subsequent step of the restoration works. In particular, these techniques and their integration were applied at the process of study, planning and execution of the restoration of the San Giovanni Battista church in Fonni (Sardinia, Italy), founded in the 16th century. The building, due to structural problems and humidity infiltrations, was subject to a serious intervention for consolidation and conservative restoration.In the first phase of the work, preliminary to the design, a TLS survey was made that allowed to obtain an accurate 3D model of the church. In a second phase, during the restoration work, CRP surveys were carried out and the accuracy of this technique was verified through a comparison with TLS surveys. The integration of the two techniques to improve the texture of point clouds detected with TLS was also tested.

Tanulmányomban a templomhomlokzat és az oltárépítmény felépítésének, tagoló rendszerének párhuzamaira kívántam felhívni a figyelmet. Mind a homlokzatoknak, mind az oltárarchitektúráknak a tervezői építészek voltak, így természetes, hogy hasonló motívumokat használtak fel mind a két esetben. A tridenti zsinat utáni katolikus megújulás fontos szereplője, Borromei Szent Károly, új tabernákulumformát és tértípust hozott létre a lombard építész, Pellegrino Tibaldi közreműködésével. Pellegrinónak kulcsszerepe volt a jezsuita templomtípus megteremtésében, tervei nyomán nem csupán Milánóban, hanem Torinóban is épült templom; hatása kimutatható a bécsi domonkos templom homlokzatán is, amelynek építésze, a bissonei Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla családjának több tagja révén közvetíthette Magyarországra az itáliai hatást. Az építészek, mint például a bécsi Kirche am Hof tervezője, a luganói Filiberto Lucchese, maguk is terveztek oltárokat, vagy közreműködtek a stukkátorokkal, akik gyakran ugyanabból a régióból érkeztek, mint a tervező építész. Így fordulhatott elő, hogy a nyugat-dunántúli stukkóoltárokat általában észak-itáliai mesterek készítették a templomhomlokzatok nyomán.Summary. This study proposes to re-examine the dynamic interaction between the frontispiece of the church and the high altar. While the façade often functions as an open-air altarpiece, the altar itself is a “gate of Paradise.” Both the frontispieces and the altar structures were designed by architects, consequently, they use similar motives. Carlo Borromeo, as a key-figure of post-tridentine church reformed the sacred space and the tabernacle of the Cathedral in Milan following the designs of Pellegrino Tibaldi. Pellegrino played an eminent role in creating a new Jesuit church-type in San Fedele, Milan, which served as a model for the Corpus Christi basilica in Torino as well as for the Santa Maria Dominican Church in Vienna. The latter one was planned by Giovanni Giacomo Tencalla from Bissone (Lugano), and from the same family stemmed well-known stuccators and painters, who also worked for Hungarian commissioners. The architect of the Jesuit church Kirche am Hof in Vienna, Filiberto Lucchese, also worked for the Batthyány family, and designed altarpieces. In this way, we are able to establish a strong interaction between the altar-structure and façade, bringing considerable novelty in analysing architectural forms and design.

The article discusses a late Gothic statue of Pietà in the permanent collection of the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka. It is a wooden statue with poorly preserved traces of polychrome painting and gilding, discovered in 1920 in the attic of the parish church of Mary’s Assumption in Rijeka. Vanda Ekl dated it to the end of the third quarter of the 15th century without specifying its circle of origin or its history. Based on a stylistic analysis, as well as a series of typological and formal analogies, the Pietà of Rijeka can now be brought into connection with the woodcarver Leonardo Thannner from Bavarian Landshut, active in Friuli during the second half of the 15th century. A crucial comparative example can be found in Thanner’s polychromatic wooden group of The Lamentation of Christ from the church of Santa Maria della Fratta in San Daniele del Friuli (1488). Rijeka Lamentation, a hitherto unknown and here for the first time published statue, can be linked with a workshop or a circle of the Friulian sculptor Giovanni Martini and approximately dated to the first quarter of the 16th century.

‘I will carry with me the best architect in Europe.’ With these bold words Robert, first Viscount Molesworth, announced to his wife his arrival in Ireland in the company of the young Italian architect and engineer Alessandro Galilei in May 1717. Lord Molesworth could not know that, twenty years later, Galilei would be indeed one of the best-known architects in Europe, after having built in Rome, to the order of Pope Clement XII Corsini (1730–40), the facade of San Giovanni in Laterano (St John Lateran), the Cappella Corsini in the same church and the facade of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini.Galilei was born on 25 August 1691, in Florence, the eldest son of the notary Giuseppe Maria Galilei and his wife Margherita Merlini. The Galilei family could trace their lineage to the Buonaiuti, who in the fourteenth century twice held the post of ‘Gonfaloniere della Giustizia’, then the most important position in the city government. They took the surname Galilei from the last Gonfaloniere in their family, the master of philosophy and medicine, Galileo (early fifteenth century). Even into the sixteenth century, members of the family belonged to the town council. The most famous bearer of the name was without doubt Galileo Galilei (1564–1641), from whom Alessandro was not directly descended but to whom he was remotely related. Although Alessandro’s father, Giuseppe, who in 1707 and 1711 was Proconsul of Notaries, counted himself as one of the nobili, the standing of the old patrician families had been considerably reduced under the Medici Grand Dukes because they did not actually hold a landed title. Financial decline seems also to have damaged the prestige of Alessandro’s branch of the family.

Free-standing archaeological walls are significantly exposed to horizontal actions (e.g., earthquakes) as they lack connections provided by floors or roofs. In such cases, the dynamic response governs the activation of local mechanisms of collapse, determining the shape of the macroblocks and their position. Engineering models of archaeological walls are developed according to the results of extensive visual inspections and on-site testing, including modal identification for calibration purposes. A modal response spectrum analysis on the calibrated model identifies the zones where the tensile stress is exceeded, which are more likely to detach as rigid macroblocks and subsequently overturn due to the expected ground spectra. The macroblocks are then assessed according to limit analysis. The case studies are the north and the apse walls of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Castelseprio (Varese, Lombardy), a 5th century Longobard fortified settlement, a part of UNESCO World Heritage. The construction quality of the apse was poorer than the north wall, but the masonry of both is very compact thanks to the good mortar. The macroblocks are identified mostly in the upper crests of the walls, and their acceleration of activation is two to six times larger than the demand (considering the dynamic amplification that the structure applies to the ground motion); therefore, no particular intervention is needed. The proposed method will require additional calibration, e.g., through nonlinear dynamic analyses, and a more precise treatment of uncertainties in masonry mechanical properties to determine the shape of the macroblocks.

AbstractUnderstanding the behavior of historic structures that have undergone structural changes, restorations, and damage over time is still a significant challenge for structural engineers, particularly in those countries subject to high seismic risk, such as Italy. The study of built heritage for its prevention and conservation is an active research topic, due to the numerous uncertainties present in historic structures. Finite element modelling has become the most common and accessible method to study the behavior of complex masonry structures, however, the gap between numerical and experimental analysis may lead to erroneous results. Model updating techniques can reduce the discrepancy between the behavior of the numerical models and the testing results. The goal of this work is to illustrate a methodology to integrate the information derived from local, global, and geotechnical investigations into the finite element model of the masonry historical church of San Giovanni in Macerata, considering the Douglas–Reid model updating method. The PRiSMa laboratory of Roma Tre University carried out local investigations such as sonic tomography, video endoscopy and double flat jack tests, along with five ambient vibration tests that were processed through the operational modal analysis to extrapolate the dynamic properties of the building (modal frequency, modal shape vector and modal damping). The combined use of global, local and geotechnical information implemented in the methodology effectively reduced the uncertainties of the model and led the refinement and validation of the most relevant structural parameters.

This article concerns the diagnostic campaign aimed at analyzing the mural painting representing the iconographic theme of the Deesis of the Church of St. Maria Annunziata, Motta San Giovanni, in the province of Reggio Calabria. In 1951, a flood caused the collapse of the building and the consequent breaking of the apse into two parts. The present study focused on the left side of the apse, hosting the figures of Christ and Mary, in order to plan the best conservation intervention strategy. For this purpose, non-invasive investigations and laboratory analytical methods were conducted in order to characterize the constituent materials and to identify the forms of alteration and degradation present on the surface of the painting. In particular, Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy coupled to the chemical analysis by an EDS probe, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and ion chromatography were employed. The results highlighted the presence of a single layer of plaster made with a lime-based binder. The chromatic palette of the painting is characterized by ochres and carbon black mixed with lime to obtain the different shades. Finally, the definition of the nature of the deposits and of the overlaid materials was fundamental in order to identify the best products and methods to restore the readability of the work.

King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458‒1490), son of the “Scourge of the Turks,” John Hunyadi, was a foremost patron of early Renaissance art. He was only fourteen years old in 1470 when he was elected king, and his patronage naturally took some time and maturity to develop, notably through his relations with the Neapolitan Aragon dynasty. In December 1476, he married Beatrice, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon, who brought to Buda a love of books and music she had inherited from her grandfather, Alphonse of Aragon.I studied the work of Beatrice’s brother John of Aragon (Giovanni d’Aragona), previously known mainly from Thomas Haffner’s monograph on his library (1997), from the viewpoint of his influence on Matthias’s art patronage. John was born in Naples on June 25, 1456, the third son of Ferdinand I of Aragon. His father, crowned king by Pope Pius II in 1458 following the death of Alphonse of Aragon, intended from the outset that he should pursue a church career. Ferdinand’s children, Alphonse (heir to the throne), Beatrice, and John were educated by outstanding humanist teachers, including Antonio Beccadelli (Il Panormita) and Pietro Ranzano. Through his father and the kingdom’s good relations with the papacy, John acquired many benefices, and when Pope Sixtus IV (1471‒1484) created him cardinal at the age of twenty-one, on December 10, 1477, he made a dazzling entrance to Rome. John was — together with Marco Barbo, Oliviero Carafa, and Francesco Gonzaga — one of the principal contemporary patrons of the College of Cardinals.On April 19, 1479, Sixtus IV appointed John legatus a latere, to support Matthias’s planned crusade against the Ottomans. On August 31, he departed Rome with two eminent humanists, Raffaele Maffei (also known as Volaterranus), encyclopedist and scriptor apostolicus of the Roman Curia, and Felice Feliciano, collector of ancient Roman inscriptions. John made stops in Ferrara, and Milan, and entered Buda — according to Matthias’s historian Antonio Bonfini — with great pomp. During his eight months in Hungary, he accompanied Matthias and Beatrice to Visegrád, Tata, and the Carthusian monastery of Lövöld and probably exerted a significant influence on the royal couple, particularly in the collecting of books. Matthias appointed his brother-in-law archbishop of Esztergom, the highest clerical office in Hungary, with an annual income of thirty thousand ducats.Leaving Hungary in July 1480, John returned to Rome via Venice and Florence, where, as reported by Ercole d’Este’s ambassador to Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici showed him the most valuable works of art in his palace, and he visited San Marco and its library and the nearby Medici sculpture garden.In September 1483, Sixtus IV again appointed John legate, this time to Germany and Hungary. He took with him the Veronese physician Francesco Fontana and stayed in Buda and Esztergom between October 1483 and June 1484. The royal couple presented him with silver church vessels, a gold chalice, vestments, and a miter.John’s patronage focused on book collecting and building. He spent six thousand ducats annually on the former. Among his acquisitions were contemporary architectural treatises by Leon Battista Alberti and Filarete, which he borrowed for copying from Lorenzo’s library. They were also featured in Matthias Corvinus’s library, perhaps reflecting John’s influence. Around 1480, during his stay in Buda (approximately 1478‒1480), the excellent miniaturist, Francesco Rosselli made the first few large-format luxury codices for Matthias and Beatrice. Both Queen Beatrice and John of Aragon played a part of this by bringing with them the Aragon family’s love of books, and perhaps also a few codices. The Paduan illuminator Gaspare da Padova (active 1466‒1517), who introduced the all’antica style to Neapolitan book painting, was employed in Rome by John as well as by Francesco Gonzaga, and John’s example encouraged Matthias and Beatrice commission all’antica codices. He may also have influenced the choice of subject matter: John collected only ancient and late classical manuscripts up to 1483 and mainly theological and scholastic books thereafter; Matthias’s collection followed a similar course in which theological and scholastic works proliferated after 1485. Anthony Hobson has detected a link between Queen Beatrice’s Psalterium and the Livius codex copied for John of Aragon: both were bound by Felice Feliciano, who came to Hungary with the Cardinal. Feliciano’s probable involvement with the Erlangen Bible (in the final period of his work, probably in Buda) may therefore be an important outcome of the art-patronage connections between John and the king of Hungary.John further shared with Matthias a passion for building. He built palaces for himself in the monasteries of Montevergine and Montecassino, of which he was abbot, and made additions to the cathedral of Sant’Agata dei Goti and the villa La Conigliera in Naples. Antonio Bonfini, in his history of Hungary, highlights Matthias’s interest, which had a great impact on contemporaries; but only fragments of his monumental constructions survive.We see another link between John and Matthias in the famous goldsmith of Milan, Cristoforo Foppa (Caradosso, c. 1452‒1526/1527). Caradosso set up his workshop in John’s palace in Rome, where he began but — because of his patron’s death in autumn 1485 — was unable to finish a famous silver salt cellar that he later tried to sell. John may also have prompted Matthias to invite Caradosso to spend several months in Buda, where he made silver tableware.Further items in the metalware category are our patrons’ seal matrices. My research has uncovered two kinds of seal belonging to Giovanni d’Aragona. One, dating from 1473, is held in the archives of the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino. It is a round seal with the arms of the House of Aragon at the centre. After being created cardinal in late 1477, he had two types of his seal. The first, simple contained only his coat of arm (MNL OL, DL 18166). The second elaborate seal matrix made in the early Renaissance style, of which seals survive in the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano (Fondo Veneto I 5752, 30 September 1479) and one or two documents in the Esztergom Primatial Archive (Cathedral Chapter Archive, Lad. 53., Fasc. 3., nr.16., 15 June 1484). At the centre of the mandorla-shaped field, sitting on a throne with balustered arm-rest and tympanum above, is the Virgin Mary (Madonna lactans type), with two supporting figures whose identification requires further research. The legend on the seal is fragmentary: (SIGILL?)VM ……….DON IOANNIS CARDINALIS (D’?) ARAGONIA; beneath it is the cardinal’s coat of arms in the form of a horse’s head (testa di cavallo) crowned with a hat. It may date from the time of Caradosso’s first presumed stay in Rome (1475‒1479), suggesting him as the maker of the matrix, a hypothesis for which as yet no further evidence is known to me. The seals of King Matthias have been thoroughly studied, and the form and use of each type have been almost fully established.John of Aragon was buried in Rome, in his titular church, in the Dominican Basilica of Santa Sabina. Johannes Burckard described the funeral procession from the palace to the Aventine in his Liber notarum. Matthias died in 1490 in his new residence, the Vienna Burg, and his body was taken in grand procession to Buda and subsequently to the basilica of Fehérvár, the traditional place of burial of Hungarian kings. The careers of both men ended prematurely: John might have become pope, and Matthias Holy Roman emperor.(The bulk of the research for this paper was made possible by my two-month Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts [CASVA] of the National Gallery of Art [Washington DC] in autumn 2019.) [fordította: Alan Campbell]

Jan Reisner (ca. 1655-1713) was a painter and architect. He was sent by King Jan III together with Jerzy Siemiginowski to study art at St. Luke Academy in Rome. He traveled to the Eternal City (where he arrived on February 24, 1678) with Prince Michał Radziwiłł’s retinue. Cardinal Carlo Barberini, who later became the protector of Regni Poloniae, was the guardian and protector of the artist during his studies in 1678-1682. In the architectural competition announced by the Academy in 1681 Reisner was awarded the fi prize in the fi class, and a little later he was accepted as a member of this prestigious university. He was awarded the Order of the Golden Spur (Aureatae Militiae Eques) and the title Aulae Lateranensis Comes, which was equivalent to becoming a nobleman. The architectural award was conferred by the jury of Concorso Academico, composed of the Academy’s principe painter Giuseppe Garzi, its secretary Giuseppe Gezzi, and the architects Gregorio Tommassini and Giovanni B. Menicucci. In the Archivio storico dell’Accademia di San Luca, preserved are three design drawings of a church made by Jan Reisner in pen and watercolor, showing the front elevation, longitudinal section, and a projection. Although they were made for the 1681 competition, they were labelled with the date 1682, when the prizes were already being awarded. Reisner’s design reflected the complicated trends in the architecture of the 1660s and 1670s, especially in the architectural education of St. Luke’s Academy. There, attempts were made to reconcile the classicistic tendencies promoted by the French court with the reference to the forms of mature Roman Baroque. As a result of this attempt to combine the features of the two traditions, an eclectic work was created, as well as other competition projects created by students of the St. Luke’s Academy. The architect designed the Barberini temple-mausoleum, on a circular plan with eight lower chapels opening inwards and a rectangular chancel. The inside of the rotund is divided into three parts: the main body with opening chapels, a tambour, and a dome with sketches of the Fall of Angels. Inside, there is an altar with a pillar-and-column canopy. The architectural origin of the building was determined by ancient buildings: the Pantheon (AD 125) and the Mausoleum of Constance (4th century AD). A modern school based of this model was opened by Andrea Palladio, who designed the Tempietto Barbaro in Maser from 1580. In the near future, the Santa Maria della Assunzione in Ariccia (1662-1664) by Bernini and Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption (1670-1676) in Paris by Charles Errard could provide inspiration. In particular, the unrealized project of Carlo Fontana to adapt the Colosseum to the place of worship of the Holy Martyrs was undertaken by Clement X in connection with the celebration of the Holy Year in 1675. In the middle of the Flavius amphitheatre, he designed the elevation of a church in the form of an antique-styled rotunda, with a dome on a high tambour and a wreath of chapels encircling it. Equally important was the design of the fountain of the central church in Basque Loyola (Santuario di S. Ignazio a Loyola). In the Baroque realizations of the then Rome we find patterns for the architectural decoration of the Reisnerian church. In the layout and the artwork of the facades we notice the influence of the columnar Baroque facades, so common in different variants in the works of da Cortona, Borromini and Rainaldi. The monumental columnar facades built according to Carlo Rainaldi’s designs were newly completed: S. Andrea della Valle (1656 / 1662-1665 / 1666) and S. Maria in Campitelli (designed in 1658-1662 and executed in 1663-1667), and Borromini San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane (1667-1677). The angels supporting the garlands on the plinths of the tambour attic are modelled on the decoration of two churches of Bernini: S. Maria della Assunzione in Ariccia (1662-1664) and S. Andrea al Quirinale (1658-1670). The repertoire of mature Baroque also includes the window frames of the front facade of the floor in the form of interrupted beams and, with the header made in the form of sections capped with volutes. The design indicates that the chancel was to be laid out on a slightly elongated rectangle with rounded corners and covered with a ceiling with facets, with a cross-section similar to a heavily flattened dome. It is close to the solutions used by Borromini in the Collegio di Propaganda Fide and the Oratorio dei Filippini. The three oval windows decorated with C-shaped arches and with ribs coming out of the volute of the base of the dome, which were among the characteristic motifs of da Cortona, taken over from Michelangelo, are visible. The crowning lantern was given an original shape: a pear-shaped outline with three windows of the same shape, embraced by S-shaped elongated volutes, which belonged to the canonical motifs used behind da Cortona by the crowds of architects of late Baroque eclecticism. Along with learning architecture, which was typical at the Academy, Reisner learned painting and geodesy, thanks to which, after his return to Poland, he gained prestige and importance at the court of Jan III, then with the Płock Voivode Jan Krasiński. His promising architectural talent did gain prominence as an architect in Poland, although – like few students of St. Luke’s Academy – he received all the honors as a student and graduate.

The polyptych for the altar of St Martin in the Zadar Cathedral, commissioned from Vittore Carpaccio by Canon Martin Mladošić, is one of those works from the painter’s oeuvre whose chronology is still not agreed upon. Various authors dated the Zadar polyptych to almost the entire range of the painter’s activities, from those who considered it a youthful work to those who considered it a late work, created at the very end of his career. The document that was recently found in the Zadar archive sheds a completely new light on the issue of dating the polyptych, excluding all dating in the early years of Carpaccioʼs work, but at the same time exposes the conditions and circumstances of its commission and creation. Namely, on September 12, 1497, in Zadar, Martin Mladošić appointed two representatives, who were supposed to demand from the painter Victor Scarpation (Vittore Carpaccio) in Venice to complete the work on the altarpiece for the altar of St Martin in the cathedral of St Anastasia in Zadar, in accordance with the contract he had previously concluded with the client. It was stated that, if the painter failed to do this, they should take from him the frame carved in Zadar and order the painting from other masters at his expense. However, if he completed and submitted the work, they should cancel the previously concluded contract. Considering Carpaccioʼs signature on the painting, it is obvious that the latter was ultimately achieved. And in the light of the fact that the client and the painter met in person, it can be assumed that the depiction of the donor in the painting is indeed a realistic portrait of a prominent Zadar canon. In combination with the previously known information from Mladošićʼs will, dated April 21, 1496, which referred to the making of the frame, it can be established that the polyptych was commissioned in 1496, and that the painting lasted until the end of 1497 or the beginning of 1498. Dated in this way, the Zadar polyptych can be precisely placed in the time between the two great Carpaccioʼs cycles, that is, after the completion of the Cycle of St Ursula and before starting work on the cycle at the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The life of Martin Mladošić, in addition to his own notarial books, is witnessed by numerous archival documents, from which it is possible to partially reconstruct his biography, especially his career progression and position within Zadarʼs ecclesiastical circles, where he stood out as one of the most important and influential members of the cathedral chapter. Despite certain disagreements between the chapter and the archbishop, he remained the closest associate and confidant of Archbishop Maffeo Vallaresso. After Vallaressoʼs death, during the vacant episcopal seat, he seems to have been the head of the Zadar church hierarchy, and he retained a key role during the episcopate of Giovanni Robobello. The rise of his ecclesiastical career was accompanied by material prosperity, a luxurious house in the city, and extensive land holdings. So, investing in his own altar in the cathedral was a logical reflection of Mladošićʼs well-being and position. Also, we can assume that Mladošić, satisfied with Carpaccioʼs work, and still connected with the Vallaresso family, played a certain role in his engagement for the work in Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni.

Emilio de Fabris's completion of the west front of Santa Maria del Fiore is the best-known of the architectural interventions carried out during the nineteenth century in the Piazza del Duomo and Piazza di San Giovanni in Florence. But this initiative was preceded by an earlier one that was more radical in character, insofar as it transformed the area around the Campanile and Duomo. A proposal of November 1823 by the architect Gaetano Baccani resulted in the demolition of a large part of the late medieval cathedral canonry and the creation of an extensive new piazza on the south side of Santa Maria del Fiore. This intervention introduced two issues that were to become fundamental to the notion of urban patrimony. On the one hand, it prompted consideration of the relationship between a historic monument and its ambience; on the other, it brought into focus the tension that was likely to exist between conservation and the creation of a modern urban environment. The present study publishes Baccani's formal submission to the Deputazione Secolare sopra l'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and draws on other documents preserved in the Archivio dell'Opera to construct a detailed history of the project. The study also introduces other literary and visual materials to establish the nature of Baccani's "systematization" of the Piazza del Duomo. Baccani's project is linked retrospectively to a Napoleonic plan for the modernization of Florence, but it is discussed also as a harbinger of later programs of urban renewal in Florence and in other Italian cities. The paper outlines the history of the canonry compound and places Baccani's reorganization of it in the context of the development of a new relationship between church and state in Florence. The piazza likewise is considered in relation to the transformation of Florence into a modern, orderly city, well-suited to the growing tourist industry. From Baccani's proposal to the Deputazione Secolare it is apparent that he wished it to be believed that his project was in keeping with the intentions of the original architects of the Duomo. The present study considers Baccani's project in this light, while also assessing the extent to which his plans were rooted in his own time. In particular, Baccani's conception of the area around the Duomo is discussed in relation to other urbanistic projects that were planned in Florence, Milan, and Rome during the Napoleonic period. Finally, Baccani's scheme is considered in relation to recent studies of the area around the Duomo by Piero Sanpaolesi, Margaret Haines, and Marvin Trachtenberg. The paper establishes that Baccani's intervention fundamentally changed the manner in which Santa Maria del Fiore and the Campanile could be seen, revealing an "ideal" view of the two buildings in juxtaposition. Baccani's vision is discussed in relation to a widespread nineteenth-century wish to consecrate the individual monument. The study concludes by introducing a number of unfamiliar images of the Campanile and Duomo and proposes that they lent authority to Baccani's concept of a "best" general view of these monuments.

RESUMENLa historia del cristianismo no se entiende sin el complejo fenómeno mariano. El culto mariano ha afianzado la construcción de identidades colectivas, pero también individuales. La figura de la Virgen María estableció un modelo de conducta desde cada contexto histórico-cultural, remarcando especialmente los ideales de maternidad y virginidad. Dentro del imaginario católico, la Europa contemporánea ha estado marcada por la formación de una cultura aparicionista que se ha generadoa partir de diversas apariciones marianas que han establecido un canon y un marco de interpretación que ha alimentado las guerras culturales entre secularismo y catolicismo.PALABRAS CLAVE: catolicismo, Virgen María, cultura aparicionista, Lourdes, guerras culturales.ABSTRACTThe history of Christianity cannot be understood without the complex Marian phenomenon. Marian devotion has reinforced the construction of collective, but also of individual identities. The figure of the Virgin Mary established a model of conduct through each historical-cultural context, emphasizing in particular the ideals of maternity and virginity. Within the Catholic imaginary, contemporary Europe has been marked by the formation of an apparitionist culture generated by various Marian apparitions that have established a canon and a framework of interpretation that has fuelled the cultural wars between secularism and Catholicism.KEY WORDS: Catholicism, Virgin Mary, apparicionist culture, Lourdes, culture wars. BIBLIOGRAFÍAAlbert Llorca, M., “Les apparitions et leur histoire”, Archives de Sciences Sociales des religions, 116 (2001), pp. 53-66.Albert, J.-P. y Rozenberg G., “Des expériences du surnaturel”, Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, 145 (2009), pp. 9-14.Amanat A. y Bernhardsson, M. T. (eds.), Imagining the End. Visions of Apocalypsis from the Ancient Middle East to Modern America, London and New York, I. B. Tauris, 2002.Angelier, F. y Langlois, C. 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The Saint Francis of Assisi with three angels crowning him in a day landscape and two donors in prayer has been known at least since the end of the seventeenth century in the church of San Francesco in Gallipoli, in the province of Lecce (currently the Saint Francis is relocated in the Diocesan Museum - section of Gallipoli “Mons. Vittorio Fusco”). In 1951 Giovanni Urbani brought it to the national attention of art history studies as the work of one of Titian’s greatest contemporaries, Giovanni Antonio de’ Sacchis known as Pordenone, based on an intuition of Sabino Jusco. Yet the provenance of the higher quality sixteenth-century work in a church in the Salento area remains mysterious. The direct inspection of the Saint Francis, including recent exhibitions and restoration interventions, made it possible to re-examine in depth or for the first time the issues concerning the genesis, chronology, paths and commissioning of the painting.

The knowledge of the design and construction practice of peculiar works that belong to the Modern heritage is an essential prerequisite for its conscious conservation. In the transition phase between Modern Italian construction and the beginning of prefabrication in the late 1960s, a significant episode is the construction of the church of San Giovanni Bosco in Bologna between 1963 and 1969, one of the most recent, and the last Bolognese work, by the architect Giuseppe Vaccaro. On the one hand, the church presents some technical features that confirm the construction practice consolidated during the Twentieth century in Italy, identifiable as a mixed construction. On the other, innovative elements were introduced to integrate three different structural technologies, such as load-bearing masonry walls, reinforced concrete frames and steel trusses. The paper proposes the repertoire of the construction techniques of the church, which represents a condition of uniqueness within the local building heritage. This complexity and the particular combination of different load-bearing materials make the structural components invisible, being an obstacle for assessing the structural performance of the existing building according to traditional methods.

The ancient church of Saint Peter in Biasca, in Canton of Ticino, preserves a pictorial cycle on the Life of St. Charles Borromeo, commissioned in 1620 by the parish priest Giovanni Basso to the painter Alessandro Gorla from Bellinzona. The twelve panels, complete with captions, which depict in an ideal order and with a lively language some episodes in the life of the Saint, can be considered an unicum, a direct reference to the presence of St. Charles in the Three Ambrosian Valleys, and a testimony of his reforming pastoral action, implemented according to the resolutions of the Council of Trent also thanks to the charismatic figure of Basso.

New scholarly insights about the sculptor and altar builder Antonio Michelazzi (Gradisca d’Isonzo, 1707 – Rijeka, 1771) have revealed him as a far more complex creative personality than it has been known so far. In this paper, the authors have attributed to him the marble statues of St John the Baptist and St Mark on the high altar of the parish church of San Biagio in Cinto Caomaggiore. Michelazzi’s authorship of the marble altar of the Holy Cross in the parish church of the Assumption of Mary in Rijeka has also been confirmed, based on a certificate from 1740 on the receipt of 150 gold coins for work on this altar. Besides Michelazzi’s statues in Cinto, there is a statue of Faith on the high altar, identified as work of the Venetian sculptor Francesco Cabianca (Venice, 1666-1737). A number of other sculptures have been attributed to him, including two marble angels in the parish church of Preganziol, which have been dated in 1697 and were originally located in the church of San Cristoforo in Udine. Cabianca is the author of four marble statues of the Evangelists (auction house), as well as of sculptural decoration on the high altar of the parish church of Sant’Andrea in Cereda. His catalogue of private commissions has been enriched with five newly attributed marble busts from the second decade of the 18th century. These include the busts of Flora and Apollo in the Winter Garden of Saint Petersburg, a bust of a girl (auction house) and two busts of girls from the convent of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice. The marble relief of Ecce Homo in the church of Il Redentore in Venice and the angels on the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in the church of St Simeon in Zadar have also been attributed to Cabianca. Finally, a terracotta sculpture of St John the Evangelist (auction house) has been identified as the first model for a large marble statue of the same saint at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice.

<p><em>We used the moderate-magnitude aftershocks succeeding to the 2016 August 24^th, Mw = 6.0, Amatrice (Italy) mainshok to asses, specially during an ongoing seismic sequence, the soil-structure interaction where cultural Heritage is involved. We have chosen as case study the</em><em> San Giovanni Battista</em><em> church (A.D. 1039) in Acquasanta Terme town, about 20 Km northeast of Amatrice. First of all we studied the soil shaking features in order to characterize the input to the monument. Then, using the recordings in the church, we tried to figure out how the input seismic energy is distributed over the different monument parts. Some preliminary results are shown and discussed.</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p>

This text presents the oratory of San Bartolomeo (1991-1996), built in Porta (Brissago) following the design by Raffaele Cavadini, and the chapel realised in Val Malvaglia (2017-2019) by Martino Pedrozzi. Since it is not possible here to fill the gap in critical studies on the sacred architecture in Ticino since the second half of the 20th century – except for two well-known works by Mario Botta: the church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, Val Lavizzara (1986-1996) and the chapel of Santa Maria degli Angeli on Monte Tamaro (1990-1996) –, we have chosen to focus on these two works because of the consistency of their design strategy and the quality of their results. But if the Brissago oratory was created in the mould of the experiences developed in Ticino since the 1960s (although it in part has an original perspective), the chapel in Val Malvaglia, conceived by an architect from the next generation, introduces a new approach, manifesting the liveliness of the architectural research in contemporary Ticino.

The paper presents a significant case study: the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Salbertrand dates back to the 16th century and constitutes one of the most interesting examples of religious architecture in the Susa Valley of the western Italian Alps. Its historic timber roof structure was once at risk of demolition, but in 2000 finally became the object of necessary preservation and reinforcement works. Here, the interdisciplinary studies carried out for the diagnosis and assessment of the state of conservation are presented, starting with the identification of the wood species used, the geometrical survey, the visual and NDT diagnosis of the timber elements, and the structural evaluation. A special section is dedicated to the dendrochronological analysis, with a comparison of different case studies regarding larch roof structures of other historic architectures located in the northwest of Italy. The tree-ring sequences obtained from the buildings presented have also been used to define a larch chronology of the Susa Valley in Piedmont. Following the first assessment phase, a second phase involved defining the restoration and reinforcement interventions. The reinterpretation of historic craftsmanship rules and traditions, which already contemplated the use of steel devices, attempted to offer alternative design solutions. This reinterpretation constituted the basis of the reinforcement interventions carried out in Salbertrand in the early 2000s. This paper highlights the importance of learning from historical treatises, showing how, even in modern reinforcement interventions, the application of traditional carpentry rules can achieve the aims of preservation and structural efficiency with overall cost-effectiveness and durability, resulting in a favorable balance between tradition and innovation.