medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Tuesday, December 7, 2004, at 10:25 am, chris crockett wrote:
> > 2) Santa Chiara. Buttresses, yes. Flying buttresses, no. See:
> http://www.foto.portanapoli.com/FOTO/santachiara_alto.jpg
> http://www.na.infn.it/Images/gif/SChiara.jpg
>
> looks more than a bit like Albi.
Yes. It was built at the behest of, and with funding from, a moneyed
lady from the Languedoc, Sancia of Majorca, queen of Robert of Anjou,
king of Sicily (whose capital of course was Naples). Another view and
some English-language background are here:
http://www.italywebzine.com/viewpic.php/30.htm
> > 4) San Domenico Maggiore. Nave buttresses (if any external)
obscured by
> construction
> around the building. What you see here are external views of the
> apse:> http://www.napoletanita.it/foto/nap25.JPG
> > http://www.napoletanita.it/foto/napoli49.jpg
> > http://www.interviu.it/cards/maggio1/na75.jpg
> > http://www.interviu.it/cards/maggio1/na25.jpg
>
> curious building.
Actually, apart from what you see in these shots, it's a pretty
straightforward three-naved Gothic basilica with a Latin-cross floor
plan and chapels on both sides plus an extension at right rear
incorporating the pre-existing church of Sant'Angelo a Morfisa (which
latter was the Dominican church when Thomas Aquinas was here). The
original entrance is at the other end of the building on the former
grounds of the Dominican convent of Naples.
The Dominicans were leading figures in the medieval University of Naples
(the university's older portions are just down the hill from here).
Built from 1283 to 1324, San Domenico rises above a piazza that was the
heart of a very upper-crusty neighborhood in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries; its interior shows the effects of a lot of wealthy patronage.
Except for those of Alfonso I (removed to the family burial chuirch in
Spain by Ferdinand the Catholic early in the sixteenth century), the
remains of the Aragonese kings of (mostly mainland) Sicily repose in
glass coffins on a balcony in its sacristy. Many of the kingdom's great
and near great from the same period are on other, larger balconies in
the same room. In the late fifteenth century the royal secretary
Antonello Petrucci, who owned an adjoining palazzo, built a set of
stairs leading up from piazza level to Sant'Angelo a Morfisa and created
a public entrance to the complex there. The entrance, but not the
stairs, is visible at the church's extreme left here (next to which is
the palazzo Petrucci, now in private ownership):
http://www.napoletanita.it/foto/napoli49.jpg
After Petrucci was executed in 1487 for his role in the so-called Second
Baron's Revolt his corpse too was brought to San Domenico. In view of
his disgrace, it's unlikely that the friars put him in the sacristy.
The present main entrance (sixteenth-century) is also from the piazza:
you have to go up a set of stairs to get to the main floor.
So what one sees from the piazza is a view of the church's former
backside showing Dominican austerity modified by secular patronage.
Inside, the church is rich in Renaissance chapels. It's been
redecorated several times but a little of the original polychrome has
survived on a couple of the nave columns.
Best again,
John Dillon
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