Urbino: San Domenico

San Domenico.

Our visit to the church of San Domenico started with a lot of confusion. We were not so much interested in the church itself, but rather in an adjacent chapel where one could reportedly admire a fresco by the painter Ottaviano Nelli (ca. 1375-1444). Having previously enjoyed his work in Gubbio, we were eager to see this fresco. According to our travel guide, the name of the chapel was the Cappella di San Gaetano. “Ask at the local tourist office if you want to visit”, it stated. Unfortunately, the staff at Urbino’s tourist office had never heard of this chapel. Perhaps the travel guide had not given the correct name; elsewhere we read the name of the chapel as Cappella della Madonna dell’Umiltà, which derives from Nelli’s fresco featuring the Madonna of Humility. In the end we found the chapel behind the San Domenico, on the left side, and were able to view the fresco through a glass door. This door was unfortunately locked, so we could not get any closer, and taking good-quality photos was out of the question.

The aforementioned chapel is, in fact, the sole survivor of a small church that was granted to the Dominicans in the late thirteenth century. In the middle of the fourteenth century the Dominicans also managed to acquire the terrain west of the church, where they had the present church of San Domenico built. That church was consecrated in 1365. Several centuries later it was especially members of the Albani family who showed that they cared about the building. Pope Clemens XI (1700-1721) – who had been born as Giovanni Francesco Albani – financed a restoration of the roof, while his nephew cardinal Annibale Albani (1682-1751) sponsored a thorough renovation of the interior that was led by the architect Filippo Barigioni (1672-1753). One consequence of this renovation is the remarkable contrast between the exterior and interior of the church. On the outside the San Domenico is a brick Gothic box with just one conspicuous element: a nice fifteenth-century portal. Inside the walls, ceilings and columns are all plastered white, while the large canvases are all copies of works by famous painters such as Guercino and Sebastiano Conca.

San Domenico, with the Palazzo Ducale on the right.

Exterior

The beautiful travertine portal was made between 1449 and 1454 by Maso di Bartolomeo (ca. 1406-1456) and Michele di Giovanni da Fiesole (ca. 1418-1480). The most gorgeous element of the portal is the lunette of glazed terracotta, a work by Luca della Robbia (ca. 1400-1482). What we see is, by the way, a copy; the original lunette can nowadays be admired at the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in the Palazzo Ducale. Luca della Robbia made the lunette in 1450-1451. In the centre we see the Virgin Mary with the Christ child. Christ is holding a scroll with the text EGO SVM LVX MVNDI, “I am the light of the world”, which comes from the Gospel of John (John 8:12). The other figures are famous Dominicans. On the left we see the founder of the order, Saint Dominicus (ca. 1170-1221), and the theologian Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274). The text in Thomas’ book comes from the Book of Psalms. The figures on the right are the bishop and philosopher Albertus Magnus (ca. 1200-1280) and Saint Peter of Verona, a preacher and inquisitor who was murdered in 1252 and thus became the first martyr of the Dominicans. Saint Peter was later honoured with a magnificent tomb in Milan.

Original lunette by Luca della Robbia.

In front of the church stands a remarkable object, i.e. an Egyptian obelisk. It is, in a way, the twin brother of the obelisk in front of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. The obelisk dates from the reign of the pharaoh Wahibre Haaibre, also known as Apries in Greek sources, or Hophra, the name given to him in the Book of Jeremiah. Wahibre Haaibre ruled from his capital of Sais in the Nile delta and was pharaoh from 589 until 570 BCE. The obelisk was originally erected in Sais, but was probably taken to the Eternal City by the Roman occupiers of Egypt in the first century. They re-erected it at the Isaeum and Serapaeum, the temple dedicated to the deities Isis and Serapis, whose origins lay in Egypt. When the temples dedicated to the pagan cults were closed in the late fourth century, the obelisk disappeared without a trace, only to be rediscovered in several pieces in the seventeenth century. It was cardinal Annibale Albani, already mentioned above, who gifted the obelisk to Urbino. The object is currently crowned by the Albani coat of arms, which consists of three mountain tops and a star.

Portal of the church.

Obelisco di Urbino.

Interior

In order to see the artworks in the church, we first had to push through a flea market, of which the proceeds were intended for projects in Africa. We inspected the large canvases on the walls and concluded that there was not much to look at. Of much greater interest was a large crucifix on the left side that at first glance appears medieval. But if we take a closer look, it turns out to be a modern work (from 2002) by the painter Piero Casentini (1963). He found inspiration in the thirteenth-century crucifix by Cimabue (ca. 1240-1302) that hangs in the church of San Domenico in Arezzo in Tuscany.

Interior of the church.

Crucifix by Piero Casentini.

For the most interesting artworks we once again had to visit the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (fortunately the Palazzo Ducale is opposite the church). I am referring to a series of detached frescoes from the fourteenth century. They represent the Coronation of the Virgin, the Assumption of the Virgin, and Saints Matthew, Jerome and Gregorius the Great. Although no longer fully intact, enough of the frescoes has been preserved to be able to interpret the scenes. The museum informs us that there has been much debate in academic circles about both the identity of the painter responsible for the frescoes and their dating. Nowadays the name of Antonio da Siena is often dropped as the painter who was probably involved. Experts point out the influences of the famous Sienese painters Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. With regard to the dating, these experts argue that in 1342-1347 a certain Marco Rognoni (or Roncioni) served as the Dominican bishop of Urbino. It is very well possible that he commissioned these frescoes in honour of the Virgin Mary. The museum therefore dates the frescoes to ca. 1343.

Frescoes from San Domenico.

Saint Gregorius the Great.

Coronation of the Virgin.

Witnesses to the Coronation of the Virgin.

Orchestra of angels.

Sources: Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 271, Chiesa di San Domenico (Urbino) – Wikipedia and the information panels in the church and Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.