Church of Santa Chiara.
The male Franciscans settled in Sassoferrato in the thirteenth century, and so did their female counterparts the Poor Clares. In 1253, just a stone’s throw away from the church of San Francesco, they founded the nunnery that they still inhabit today, over 750 years later. For obvious reasons the nunnery and adjacent church were dedicated to Saint Clare of Assisi (ca. 1193/94-1253), who is known as Santa Chiara in Italian. The church of Santa Chiara is usually open to the public and has a number of interesting works of art in the choir. Here we find an altarpiece with a praying Madonna (Mater Dolorosa) by Giovanni Battista Salvi (1609-1685), more commonly known as Il Sassoferrato. This Baroque painter was also responsible for the canvas that hangs on the right wall and represents the Annunciation.
I personally thought the fresco on the left wall of the choir was more interesting. It represents a Nativity and according to Sassoferrato Turismo it was painted by one ‘Antonio da Pesaro’.[1] If this is the same painter as Giovanni Antonio Bellinzoni da Pesaro (ca. 1415-1478), then the fresco dates from the fifteenth century. The central scene of the Nativity itself has been preserved fairly well. In the foreground we see the Virgin Mary and the Christ child, with behind them Saint Joseph and the donkey and ox. The angels and shepherds in the background are also in fairly acceptable condition, much unlike – regretfully – the two saints flanking the Nativity. The saint on the left appears to be Saint Agatha of Sicily, a virgin who was martyred in the third century and whose breasts were reportedly amputated with a pair of pliers. In her left hand the saint seems to be holding a stick from which two amputated breasts have been suspended. Also note the bloody red spot on her white gown, exactly where the breasts were previously attached to the body. The saint on the right side can no longer be identified. Judging by the palm branch in his or her hand this is also an image of a martyr.
The Nativity.
An entrance in the right wall of the church gives visitors access to the Santuario della Madonna delle Grazie, an eighteenth-century sanctuary. Here a miraculous image of the Madonna and Child is kept. In 1739 an oil lamp placed near the Madonna kept on burning, even though it should have long run out of oil. Moreover, the oil turned out to possess a medicinal effect. Thanks to donations from a generous local marquess, a sanctuary was built for the Madonna delle Grazie that was consecrated in 1752. Inside the sanctuary products hand-made by the nuns are sold. We did not encounter any staff in the Santuario, although we did see a sign with the friendly request to honour the commandment of “Though shalt not steal”.
A mere one hundred metres down the road we find the collegiate church of San Pietro. This is the largest and most important church of Sassoferrato, which does not have its own bishop or cathedral. The history of the church presumably goes back to the thirteenth century. In 1580 the building was granted the status of a collegiate church (collegiata), a present from Girolamo Mannelli, the bishop of Nocera Umbra. The consequence of this decision was that an archpriest and eleven canons settled at San Pietro. Unfortunately their presence did not prevent the church from becoming ruinous by 1680. In 1710 the construction of a new church started, which was considerably larger than its predecessor. The new church was consecrated in 1717. 280 years later this church fell victim to the heavy earthquake that hit Umbria and the Marche on 26 September 1997, and that was especially notorious for the damage that it caused in Assisi. In Sassoferrato the roof of San Pietro collapsed. After five years of restorations and consolidations the church reopened at the end of 2002.
Collegiate church of San Pietro.
View of Sassoferrato. San Pietro is in the centre, the church on the far right is San Francesco.
Rear of San Pietro.
The oldest work of art that I found in the church was a fourteenth-century fresco of the Crucifixion. The fresco comes from another church in Sassoferrato – San Michele Arcangelo near the citadel – and was made by an unknown painter from the Marche. It is a work of mediocre quality, but the colours are pretty and the emotions of the people depicted are clearly visible. In the centre a very emaciated Christus Patiens hangs on the cross. I initially assumed that the redheaded woman on the left was Mary Magdalene, as she looks quite young and has her hair down. But according to an information sheet in the church she is the Virgin Mary as the Vergine dolorosa. The figure on the right is of course Saint John.
Crucifixion, fourteenth century.
The church has a few more interesting artworks. On the altar dedicated to Saint Crispin (San Crispino) I found a painting by Ernst van Schayck (1567-1631), known in Italian as Ernesto Schaychis. I have not been able to find much information about the man. The caption of the painting calls him a pittore fiammingo, a Flemish painter, but as Schaijk is located in the Dutch province of North Brabant, he may very well have been a Dutch painter. In any case, at some point he became a marchigiano, a naturalised citizen of the Marche. The altarpiece in the chapel was commissioned by the cobblers guild; Saint Crispin is considered their patron saint. Van Schayck depicted him next to Saint Franciscus of Assisi and provided him with all sorts of cobbler tools. In the sky we see the Madonna del Carmine, and it is quite conceivable that the town in the background is supposed to represent Sassoferrato.
The San Pietro furthermore possesses two works by the local painter Pietro Paolo Agabiti (ca. 1470-1540). I found his Madonna and Child, Saint Joseph and Saint Catherine of Alexandria on the counter-façade. To the left of it hangs the second work, the Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter. In the church I struck up a conversation with an inhabitant of Sassoferrato, who was more than happy to show me the former episcopal palace, which was used by the bishop of Nocera whenever he visited the town. The palace is attached to the church and currently serves as a storehouse for a collection of rather low-quality artworks. My guide also showed me some old registers from the eighteenth century, but much more interesting was a prison cell where seminarists who had shown poor behaviour were locked up in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The prisoners scribbled texts on the walls which are still there, as are the years they added (1792 and 1796 for instance). The gloomy cell offered very little comfort to the prisoners, but fortunately I did spot a primitive toilet in one of the corners. It looked extremely basic, but at least it was there!
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