Santa Maria Maddalena.
The principal reason to visit the small church of Santa Maria Maddalena first during our visit to Fabriano was the presence of a large and free car park in the vicinity. The Parcheggio del Torrione is an excellent spot to leave your car before starting a tour of this charming town in the Marche. Santa Maria Maddalena was once part of a hospital for travellers and pilgrims. The history of the church goes back to the first decade of the fourteenth century. It has for centuries been associated with the Pia Università dei Cartai. As I have explained previously, the Italian word università can mean both “university” and “guild”, and in this case it has the latter meaning. The Pia Università dei Cartai is the paper-makers guild, founded in 1326 and the only medieval guild still in existence in Fabriano. We would later become more acquainted with Fabriano as a paper-making town when we visited the fascinating Museo della Carta e della Filigrana, but here at the church of Santa Maria Maddalena we could already admire a statue of a paper-maker. On the statue we may read part of Fabriano’s motto, “Olim cartam undique fudit”, “once he spread paper everywhere”.
The special bond between the paper-makers and Saint Mary Magdalene reportedly goes back to 1599. On the 22nd of July of that year, the saint’s feast day, she is said to have saved the life of a paper-maker who was about to be crushed by a paper press. The church was only formally assigned to the Pia Università dei Cartai in 1839 by Pope Gregorius XVI (1831-1846). This decision was followed by a restoration between 1839 and 1858. During a new restoration in 1932 a couple of fourteenth-century frescoes were rediscovered, and these frescoes are one of the two main reasons to visit this church. My travel guide claims they are the work of the local painter Allegretto Nuzi (ca. 1315-1373), but the information panel in the church attributes them to a predecessor, the mysterious Maestro di Campodonico (Campodonico is a town some 12 kilometres south of Fabriano, near the border with Umbria). The frescoes feature, from left to right, Saint John the Evangelist, the Crucifixion and lastly the Annunciation.
Fresco by the Maestro di Campodonico.
The second main reason for a visit to the church of Santa Maria Maddalena is the painting of the saint that hangs above the high altar. It was painted in 1612-1615 by Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639). This painter was originally from Pisa and grew up in an artistic family. His father was a goldsmith, while two of his older brothers – of whom Aurelio Lomi (1556-1624) is the most famous – were also painters. Orazio Gentileschi’s actual name was Orazio Lomi, but he tended to use his mother’s last name. His successes ultimately led him to Paris and lastly to London, where he died. He was also the father of Artemisia Gentileschi (ca. 1593-1656), one of the best-known female painters of the seventeenth century. Some art historians assert that Orazio gave his Mary Magdalene in Fabriano the face of Artemisia. Whether this is true or not, the painter made a magnificent and intense work. We see a kneeling Magdalene, her hair dishevelled. She is holding a crucifix, while on the rock next to her we see a book and skull, symbol of mortality. On the ground is a jar of ointment, her regular attribute. We visited the church in August of 2024 and were very lucky: it turned out that the painting had been restored between November of 2023 and July of 2024 and had only just been returned to the church.
Sources: Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 253, the information panel in the church and the brochure “Santa Maria Maddalena penitente”.