Duomo of Fano.
The Duomo of Fano or cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is intriguing rather than beautiful. My travel guide claims that the first version of the Duomo was built as early as the fourth century.[1] If this is correct, then this cathedral must have been destroyed during the Gothic War (535-554), as it was during this fierce struggle between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy that the Fano of Antiquity was wiped off the map. The city was later rebuilt, and so was the cathedral. Bishop Rainaldo II, whose episcopate lasted from 1136 until 1165, had a new cathedral built in the Romanesque style. Around 1140 this new Duomo was consecrated. Unfortunately, not much is left of the Romanesque building. The number of chapels has been reduced considerably, the façade largely dates from 1925 and the campanile did not survive World War Two (it was blown up by retreating Germans). The current tower is a post-war construction.
In spite of all this, the Duomo still has a number of attractions. The façade is simple and mostly made of brick, but on the left we still see a couple of decorative dishes incorporated into the wall above the loggia. The Romanesque portal looks original to me. Above the entrance we see the Lamb of God, while the capitals have been decorated with plant motifs and animals. Quite striking are the Cosmatesque decorations. Parts of them are missing, so I assume they are original as well.
The Duomo has a very dark interior. This darkness does immediately draw our attention to the apse, which has modern stained glass windows. The altarpiece is an Assumption of the Virgin by the local painter Sebastiano Ceccarini (1703-1783). The canvas is not that spectacular, but as we were approaching it, we stumbled upon an item that deserves the label “special”. I am referring to the Romanesque pulpit at the end of the nave which has a number of scenes from the lives of Mary and Jesus. In chronological order we see the Annunciation, Visitation, Adoration of the Magi, Dream of Joseph and Flight to Egypt. Although the reliefs and the lions that support the columns of the pulpit are original, we are looking at an object that was only assembled in 1941. The reliefs were originally part of a balustrade or pontile much like that in the cathedral of Modena. This pontile was later taken apart, and the various parts were dispersed. The reliefs are attributed to the school of the sculptor Niccolò (or Nicholaus).
In the left aisle we marvelled at the funerary monument of Vincenzo del Signore (1881-1967), who served as bishop of Fano between 1937 and his death. What we found really amazing was not the name of the man – if your name is “Vincent of the Lord”, then you are destined to become a clergyman – but the relief that is part of the monument. This twelfth-century relief features figures with musical instruments. Among other things we see a tambourine (left) and a lyre (centre). On closer inspection the man with the lyre turns out to be David, who is playing for the Philistine king Achis. The scene on the right is possibly the Expulsion from Paradise. On the edge of the relief we read the text BALDVIN CHITARISTA, Baldwin the Lyre-player. Apparently, the decoration was once part of a sarcophagus for this Baldwin, with the image of David referring to the man’s profession.
Funerary monument of bishop Vincenzo del Signore.
We visited the beautifully decorated Cappella Nolfi last. This chapel is very colourful, much unlike the rest of the Duomo, which is rather dreary. The chapel belonged to the noble Nolfi family, which explains why we find the funerary monuments of the brothers Cesare Nolfi (died 1612) and Guido Nolfi (died 1627) opposite each other. The brothers commissioned the architect Girolamo Rainaldi (1570-1655) to remodel the chapel. Most paintings in the chapel are the work of Domenico Zampieri, more commonly known as Domenichino (1581-1641). Between 1618 and 1619 he worked on sixteen scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. However, the altarpiece of the Assumption was painted around 1606 by Andrea Lilli from Ancona. The busts of Cesare and Guido Nolfi were sculpted by Francesco Caporale.
Sources: apart from the Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021) I made use of the websites La cattedrale di Fano (about the portal and pulpit), La Valle del Metauro: Sarcofago del citarista (about the sarcophagus) and Baroque Fano – Visit Fano (about the Cappella Nolfi).
Note
[1] Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 282.