Milan: San Maurizio

Many people had showed up at the church of San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore. They were not just tourists, but also volunteers from the Touring Club Italiano, who were there to provide visitors with information about the building and its artworks. They had a lot to tell, as San Maurizio is a very interesting church, of a type that I had not seen before. The church is composed of two spaces. Visitors enter in the space intended for ordinary worshippers, the Aula dei Fedeli. A partition wall with grilles separates this part of the building from the second part, the space reserved for the Benedictine nuns. This is the Aula delle Monache, which is nowadays fortunately also accessible to the public. Both spaces have been beautifully decorated with colourful sixteenth-century frescoes. Completely gone, on the other hand, is the convent in which the nuns used to live, the Monastero Maggiore. As the name indicates, it was once one of the richest and most important in all of Milan. The two cloisters were largely demolished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although the remnant of the east cloister is used by the archaeological museum of the city.

History

In Antiquity this location was occupied by the north side of the circus of Mediolanum. Of the circus just a tiny part remains, i.e. the square tower behind the church. Slightly west of it there is another tower, the only remaining tower of the city walls of Roman Milan. There is no certainty as to when exactly the church and adjacent convent were founded. There was probably already a church here dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the Longobard or subsequent Carolingian era. In the twelfth century this church was dedicated to Saint Maurice, the Egyptian commander of the (likely fictional) Theban legion. Maurice was said to have been martyred along with his men in the year 287, in what is now the town of Saint-Maurice in Switzerland.

The construction of the current church started in 1503. It was completed in 1574 with the addition of the far from impressive façade. San Maurizio is tentatively attributed to two architects, Gian Giacomo Dolcebuono (ca. 1445-1510) and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo (ca. 1447-1522). The two also collaborated on other projects, for instance the famous Certosa di Pavia. From the start there was a clear division between the Aula dei Fedeli and Aula delle Monache. The Benedictine nuns lived strictly secluded and were forbidden from ever entering the space intended for the ordinary worshippers. However, two openings were made in the partition wall to allow them to see the raising of the sacred host (left opening) and to receive one from the priest (right opening). Their seclusion only ended when the convent was suppressed in 1798.

Things to see: Aula dei Fedeli

The most important artist who was active in the Aula dei Fedeli was the painter Bernardino Luini (ca. 1480-1532). All frescoes on the partition wall, painted between the 1510s and the early 1520s, were made by him (and by his assistants). On the upper level we see, from left to right, the martyrdom of Saint Maurice, the Assumption of the Virgin and Saint Sigismund who offers Maurice a model of the abbey of Agaunum, which is the Latin name of Saint-Maurice. Sigismund was a Burgundian king who died in 524. He was famous for abandoning his Arian faith and becoming an Orthodox or Catholic Christian. In 515 he became protector of the abbey of Saint-Maurice.

One level down we see, in two lunettes, a kneeling couple surrounded by saints. As captions are missing, there is still some doubt about who the man and woman are. However, it is usually assumed that they are Alessandro Bentivoglio (1474-1532) and Ippolita Sforza (1481-1521). The former was a condottiero (mercenary captain) from Bologna who served in the Milanese army, while the latter was a granddaughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan between 1466 and 1476 (her father Carlo was an illegitimate son of the duke). The Bentivoglio family made generous financial contributions to the decoration of the church and a number of the couple’s daughters entered the convent as nuns. A daughter named Bianca (“Sister Alessandra”) even became abbess of the Monastero Maggiore. Alessandro Bentivoglio is depicted on the left with three male saints. They are Saints Stephen (note the pile of rocks at his feet), Benedictus (who for obvious reasons could not be omitted in a Benedictine nunnery) and John the Baptist (with the Lamb of God). On the right Ippolita Sforza is flanked by Saints Agnes (with a little lamb), Scholastica (sister of Benedictus) and Catherine of Alexandria (with a wheel).

Below the scenes of Alessandro and Ippolita we see the openings intended for raising and giving the sacred hosts. Here four female saints have been painted, i.e. Saints Cecilia and Ursula (left), and Saints Apollonia and Lucia (right). The altarpiece with the Adoration of the Magi was not painted by Bernardino Luini, but by Antonio Campi (1524-1587). Luini’s death in 1532 prevented him from decorating all of the side chapels as well. Several of these were embellished with frescoes by his sons, of whom Aurelio Luini (ca. 1530-1593) would become by far the most famous painter. Although he was younger than his brothers Giovan Pietro and Evangelista, and although he could not have been more than two years old when his father died, Aurelio had clearly inherited Bernardino’s talent.

Bernardino Luini did live long enough to personally decorate one chapel, the Cappella Besozzi. This chapel is dedicated to the aforementioned Saint Catherine of Alexandria. On the side walls we see stories from the life of the saint, while the back wall features the Flagellation of Christ against the column. Witnesses of the Flagellation are Saints Catherine (again depicted with a wheel) and Stephen. The kneeling figure is Francesco Besozzi (ca. 1460-1539), a notary who commissioned the frescoes and gave his name to the chapel. After his death in 1539 he was buried there. The frescoes date from 1530 and should therefore be counted among Luini’s last works. The frescoes of the counter-façade are of a much later date. They were painted in 1572-1573 by Simone Peterzano (1535-1599). Peterzano’s fame is mostly based on the fact that he was Caravaggio’s teacher. He may not have been a brilliant painter himself, but his works are certainly above average. His fresco of Jesus chasing the money-changers from the temple is in fact quite good.

Things to see: Aula delle Monache

A passageway to the left of the partition wall gives visitors access to the former nuns’ choir. The Aula delle Monache appears to be slightly larger than the Aula dei Fedeli, but perhaps my eyes deceive me. The beautiful choir stalls and large organ immediately catch the eye. The front part of the Aula delle Monache is covered and is called the pontile. Its vault is beautifully painted with a fresco of God the Father with angels and evangelists. The fresco has been painted in the style of Vincenzo Foppa (ca. 1427-1515) and is probably the work of a follower.

The frescoes about the Passion of Christ are again the work of Bernardino Luini and his sons. Bernardino himself painted the saints on the partition wall. Apollonia and Lucia return on the left side and are then joined by Sebastian and Roch (centre), and Catherine of Alexandria and Agatha (right). The sons were responsible for several Passion scenes and the three scenes above the pontile, in which we recognise the Adoration of the Magi, Last Supper and Baptism of Christ. In the back of the Aula we also find some stories from the Old Testament, for instance the story of Noah’s Ark in the last chapel on the left. The best work again seems to be that of Aurelio Luini, the Benjamin of the family.

Sources: Dorling Kindersley travel guide for Milan and the Lakes (2010), p. 75, Trotter travel guide for Northwest Italy (2016), p. 378-379 and Chiesa di San Maurizio al Monastero Maggiore – Wikipedia.