If you want to visit the church of San Domenico in Casale Monferrato, make sure you plan your visit well. The immense and impressive church is unfortunately often closed to the public, but on a Sunday morning between 9:30 and 11:30 the doors should be open. When we arrived at the church this was indeed the case. Inside the church a number of people were busy preparing for a musical performance. They had clearly counted on visitors, as we were welcomed by a friendly lady who told us a thing or two about the San Domenico and the art that can be admired inside. Visitors will furthermore find several information panels in the church, or rather laminated information sheets.
History
In 1472 marquess Guglielmo (William) VIII Paleologo started the construction of a large church for the Dominicans in Casale Monferrato. As Guglielmo did not have a male heir, he was succeeded by his younger brother Bonifacio (Bonifatius) III Paleologo upon his death in 1483. Bonifacio passed away in 1494 and was succeeded by his young son Guglielmo (William) IX Paleologo, whose rule ended in 1518. During the reign of this ninth Guglielmo the construction of the San Domenico was completed. In 1506 the building was finished and in 1513 it was consecrated. The church had both Gothic and Renaissance elements. See for instance the remarkable façade of the building, with Gothic pointed arches and pinnacles and a grey sandstone portal in Renaissance style. It is often said that the Milanese architect Bartolomeo Suardi, more commonly known as Bramantino (ca. 1465-1530), was involved in the construction of the church. However, in 1472 he was still a child, so he must have joined the project at a later stage.
Next to the church two cloisters were built, of which only the first one – the Chiostro dei morti – can be visited. The second cloister was sold to private individuals in 1822. The church furthermore has a bell-tower that is 40-45 metres high.[1] The building originally had four naves, but in 1675 the Dominicans decided to make the church symmetrical by hiding the fourth nave behind the chapels on the right. In the eighteenth century Baroque elements were added by the local architect Francesco Ottavio Magnocavalli (1707-1789), who focussed on the rear area of the church, including the choir (1748-1753). The marble high altar of the church dates from 1770 and was built in Brescia. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the San Domenico became a parish church.
Portal and lunette
The aforementioned sandstone portal dates from 1505. Part of it is a very special lunette into which a sculpture group has been placed. In the centre of the group we see the Madonna and Child. They are flanked by two Dominicans, one of whom is no doubt Saint Dominicus himself, the founder of the Order of Preachers. The sculpture group also comprises four kneeling figures. The adult men must be the brothers Guglielmo VIII and Bonifacio III Paleologo. That would make the boy Guglielmo IX Paleologo and the woman his mother Marija Branković, a Serbian princess who had married Bonifacio III. During the illness and after the death of her husband she acted as a regent for her son, then still a minor, until her own death in 1495.
The March of Montferrat was created in the tenth century. For more than three centuries it was ruled by the dynasty of the Aleramids, who were heavily involved in the crusades.[2] In 1305 marquess Giovanni (John) I Monferrato died. He had no children and therefore no heirs. His sister Yolande was married to the Eastern Roman emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, whose reign lasted from 1282 to 1328. In order to wed Andronikos, Yolande had converted to Orthodox Christianity and had taken on the name Irene. Several children were born from the marriage, but since it was Andronikos’ second marriage and his first marriage had already produced two sons, Irene’s children could never hope for the Byzantine throne. Taking over the March of Montferrat, on the other hand, was a serious option, and so in 1306 her third son became marquess Teodoro (Theodore) I Paleologo. We may assume that he adhered to the Catholic faith, the same faith as his Italian wife Argentina Spinola from Genoa. In 1533 the rule of the Paleologo dynasty came to an end (see below).
Interior
Once they are past the threshold, visitors will see sky blue cross-vaults and large chandeliers. The San Domenico has a lot of interesting paintings and funerary monuments. There is so much to see that I must confine myself to a number of highlights. At the front, on the left side, we find a fresco by the local painter Giovanni Martino Spanzotti (ca. 1455-before 1528). It represents the Madonna and Child together with Saint Dominicus and Saint John the Baptist. Lying on the floor before Dominicus is a red cardinal’s hat, apparently symbolising his refusal to accept one. The fresco is dated to 1512. Spanzotti has remained relatively obscure, but he was the master of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (1477-1549), Il Sodoma (see Rome: Villa Farnesina).
Against the counter-façade we find the remnants of another fresco. It was painted by Giovan Francesco Caroto (ca. 1480-1555), who among other things is known for his painting of a boy with a drawing, currently in the Castelvecchio in Verona. The fresco in Casale shows us a Madonna and Child with several Dominican saints, but these are so damaged that they can no longer be identified. Below the Madonna and Child Caroto painted a Last Supper, of which only thirteen weathered heads survive. The fresco probably does not belong in the church: it was detached from its original spot and then put on the wall here. Judging by its theme of the Last Supper, it may once have adorned the refectory of the Dominican convent.
Caroto’s fresco hangs above the funerary monument for Benvenuto San Giorgio, who died in 1527. This nobleman and Knight Hospitaller served as president of the Senate of Casale Monferrato. The funerary monument was made by the sculptor Matteo Sanmicheli (or Sammicheli; 1480-?). He was a cousin of the much more famous architect Michele Sanmicheli (1484-1559) from Verona. The street running along the left side of the San Domenico is named after Matteo Sanmicheli. His funerary monument for Benvenuto San Giorgio is beautiful, with the effigy of the deceased and the statue of Saint John the Baptist with the Lamb of God as the most eye-catching elements.
Another interesting object is the Neoclassicist funerary monument from 1841 for Luigia Incisa di Santo Stefano (1786-1838; image above). She was the sister of Carlo Vidua (1785-1830), a globetrotter from Casale Monferrato about whom we can learn more at the municipal museum of the town. The monument is a work of Abbondio Sangiorgio from Milan (1798-1879). This sculptor was also responsible for the equestrian statue of King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia that has been erected in the central square of Casale Monferrato, the Piazza Mazzini.
Charles Albert is also mentioned on the monument next to that for Luigia. This monument commemorates the marquesses of Monferrato from the Paleologo dynasty (image above). In 1835 the remains of a number of them were translated from the demolished church of San Francesco to the San Domenico. The last marquess from the dynasty was Giovanni Giorgio (John George) Paleologo, the brother of Guglielmo IX. He was initially bishop of Casale Monferrato and was merely put forward in an attempt to stop a succession crisis. Upon his death in 1533 he was succeeded by his cousin Margherita Paleologa, but in reality it was the Spaniards who were calling the shots in the town. Then in 1536 the Emperor Charles V granted the March to Margherita’s husband Federico II Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantova (see Mantova: Palazzo Te). The text on the monument is by Carlo Boucheron (1773-1838).
The San Domenico possesses a number of works by the local painter Pier Francesco Guala (1698-1757). The two enormous canvases in the choir are his work and so is the large painting above the monuments for Luigia Incisa di Santo Stefano and the Paleologo dynasty. The latter work represents the Defeat of the Albigensians, members of a heretical sect that was violently oppressed during a Crusade in 1209-1229. On the opposite wall we find a depiction of the Battle of Lepanto by Giovanni Crosio (ca. 1583-1654). One last work by Guala can be found at the front of the church. It represents Mary with Jesus, Joachim and Anne. Below them we see Saints John of Nepomuk and Antonius of Padova.
I will end this post with three more pieces of trivia. The wooden crucifix above the high altar with a Christus Patiens (suffering Christ) presumably dates from the fifteenth century. The Cappella della Madonna del Rosario to the left of the choir has recently been restored and looks fresh and bright again. If you leave the San Domenico, you will notice a second church on the Piazza San Domenico, i.e. the former church of the Misericordia. Parts of the church are now overgrown with vegetation. Unfortunately the church appears to be closed to the public.
Sources
- Casale Monferrato (AL) | Chiesa di San Domenico (chiesacattolica.it)
- Chiesa di San Domenico (Casale Monferrato) – Wikipedia;
- Città di Casale Monferrato – Chiesa di San Domenico (casale-monferrato.al.it);
- Information panels in the church;
- Trotter travel guide Northwest Italy, p. 209.
Notes
[1] Remarkably, different sources mention different heights.
[2] Guglielmo (William) V participated in the Second Crusade, his son Corrado (Conrad) in the Third. Corrado’s brother Bonifacio (Bonifatius) was one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which led to the capture of the Christian city of Constantinople.