Certosa di Pavia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the Italian commune, see Certosa di Pavia (PV)
Certosa di Pavia is the name of a famous monastery complex in Lombardy, Italy, situated near a small town (in Province of Pavia) with the same name, 8 km north to Pavia. It was once located on the border of a large hunting park of the Visconti family of Milan, of which today only scattered parts remain.
Certosa is the Italian name for Charterhouse, which relates to the cloistered monastic order.
Contents |
[edit] History
The construction of the Certosa was commissioned by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who inaugurated the works on August 27, 1396 laying personally the cornerstone (as told by a bas-relief on the edifice). The position of the site was strategically chosen midway from Milan to the second city of the Duchy, Pavia, where the the duke held his court.
The church, the last edifice of the complex to be built, was to be the family mausoleum of the Visconti family. It was designed as a grandious structure with a nave and two aisles, a type unusual for the Carthusian Order. The nave, in Gothic style, was completed in 1465. However, Renaissance has spread in the meantime in Italy, and the remaining of the edifice (including some new cloisters, redisgned by Guiniforte Solari) was built according to the new style. Solari was followed by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo as director of the works (1481-1499). The church was consecrated on May 3, 1497. The lower part of the façade was completed only in 1507.
The construction contract obliged the monks to use part of the revenues of the lands received to continue to improve the edifice. Consequently, the Certosa include a huge collection of artworks from all the centuries from the 15th to the 18th. The Carthusians were expelled in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II of Austria, and were succeeded by the Cistercians in 1784 and then the Carmelites in 1789. In 1810 the monastery was closed until, in 1843, the Carthusians reacquired it. In 1866 it was declared national monument and sequestrated by the Italian State, although some Benedictines inhabited it until 1880. The monks currently living in the monaastery are Cistercians admitted in it in the 1960s.
[edit] The church
The façade of the church is famous for its exuberant decorations, typical of the Lombard architecture. The sculptors which worked on it include Cristoforo Mantegazza and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo himself. The portal, in classicistic style, is by Benedetto Briosco (1501): it has double columns and bas-reliefs with the Histories of the Certosa. The first and more sober plan for the façade can be seen in a fresco by Ambrogio Bergognone in the right transept's apse (1490-1495), portraying Gian Galeazzo Visconti offering the model of the Certosa to the Blessed Virgin.
The plan is on the Latin cross, with a nave and two aisles with apse and transept, covered by crossed vaults on ogival archs and inspired, on a reduced scale, to the Duomo of Milan. The vaults are alternatively decorated with geometrical shapes and starry skies. The transept and the main chapel end with quare plan chapels with smaller, semi-circular apses on three sides.
The interior includes noteworthy painting masterworks by Bergognone: the Panel of St. Ambrose (1490), the Panel of San Siro (1491) and most of all the Crucifixion (1490). Other Bergognone's work are now in other museums in Europe. Other paintings include: a Holy Father, last remain of a polyptych by Perugino, panels by Giovanni Battista Crespi, Il Morazzone, Guercino, Francesco Cairo and Daniele Crespi. Also by Bergognone is a fresco in the apse celebrating the Incoronation of Mary between Francesco and Ludovico Sforza. Other frescoes with saints and prophets were executed by Lombard artists, including a young Bernardino Zenale.
In the southern transept is the tomb of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, begun in 1494-1497 by Giovanni Cristoforo Romano and Benedetto Briosco, but completed only in 1562. The northern transept houses the tomb of Ludovico Sforza ("The Moor"), 7th Duke of Milan, and his wife Beatrice d'Este. The suclptures on the tomb were carried here in 1564 from the Milanese church of Santa Maria delle Grazie: these statues are generally considered the masterwork of Cristoforo Solari.
[edit] Glassworks and other works
The Certosa possesses an important collection of stained glass windows, executed on cartoons by important masters active in Lombardy in the 15th century, including Zanetto Bugatto, Vincenzo Foppa, Bergognone and Hans Witz. Numerous are also the carved wooden (the choir), marble (frontals of altars) and bronze (candelabra by Annibale Fontana) artworks. Also notable is the high altar from the late 16th century. In the hold sacristy is a triptych in ivory and hippopotamus' tooth by Baldassarre degli Embriachi, donated by Gian Galeazzo Visconti.
[edit] Small and Grand cloister
An elegant portal, with sculptures by the Mantegazza brothers and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, leads from the church to the Small Cloister (Italian: Chiostro Piccolo. This has a small garden in the center. The most striking feature are the terracotta decorations of the small pilasters, executed by Rinaldo de Stauris between 1463 and 1478. Some arcades are decorated by frescoes by Daniele Crespi, now partially ruined. Also noteworthy is the late-14th century lavabo in stone and terracotta, with scenes of the Samaritan Woman at the Well.
Similar decorations characterizes also the Gran Cloister (Italian: Chiostro Grande), which measures c. 125 x 100 meters. The elegant cells of the monks open to the central garden. The arcades have columns with precious decorations in cotto, with tondoes portraying saints, prophets and angels, alternatively in white and pink Verona marble. There were once also paintings by Vincenzo Foppa, now disappeared.
[edit] Other
The so-called New Sacristy contains a vivid cycle of frescoes by the Sorri brothers, belonging to the late Senese Mannerism. The walls have paintings by Francesco Cairo, Camillo Procaccini, il Passignano and Giulio Cesare Procaccini, while by Andrea Solario is the altarpiece (1524), later completed by Bernardino Campi.
Also notable is the refectory, initially used as church during the construction, which has maintained a fresco with the Last Supper (1567) by Ottavio Semino and, in the vault, a Madonna with Child and Prophets by Bergognone. In the Foresteria or Palazzo Ducale, built in the 17th century by Francesco Richino, are frescoes and paintings by Vincenzo and Bernardino Campi, Bartolomeo Montagna, Bergognone and Bernardino Luini.
[edit] References
- L. Beltrami, La Certosa di Pavia, Milan, 1911
- R. Bossaglia, M. G. Albertini Ottolenghi, F. R. Pesenti ed., La Certosa di Pavia, Milan, 1968
- R. V. Schofield, J. Shell, G. Sironi, Giovanni Antonio Amadeo/ I documenti, New Press, Como, 1989
- R. Battaglia "Le "memorie" della Certosa di Pavia", in Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe di Lettere e Filosofia, 3.Ser. 22.1992 No. 1, p. 85-198
- "La Certosa di Pavia tra devozione e prestigio dinastico: fondazione, patrimonio, produzione culturale", in Annali di Storia Pavese, 1997
- Ambrogio da Fossano, detto il Bergognone, un pittore per la Certosa, M. G. Albertini Ottolenghi, Milano 1998
