Mantua Cathedral

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Mantua Cathedral
The facade of the cathedral in the 15th century.
Domenico Morone : La cacciata dei Bonacolsi. 1494 (Mantua, Palazzo Ducale)
Columns of the cathedral of Mantua

The Church of the Apostle Peter is the cathedral of the city of Mantua and the cathedral of the diocese of the same name .

The cathedral is located in the central Piazza Sordello, not far from the Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea .

history

The originally early Christian church was rebuilt in the Middle Ages (probably by Mathilde von Canossa ) in the Romanesque style . The bell tower dates from this time. At the beginning of the 15th century, the church was enlarged by Francesco I Gonzaga . The magnificent marble facade designed by Jacobello and Pierpaolo dalle Masegne with a covered portal , rose windows and pinnacles can be seen in a painting by Domenico Morone . At that time the cathedral was flanked by two rows of Gothic chapels adorned with towers and pediments in marble and terracotta, also designed by Jacobello dalle Masegne. This wall structure is still visible on the right. In 1545, after a fire by Giulio Romano , the cathedral was rebuilt while retaining the facade and the outer walls. The interior was significantly modified and brought into a shape similar to the early Christian version of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome before Bramante , Raffael and Sangallo intervened in the latter. This decision may be related to the evangelical sympathies of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga , who commissioned the work, which was controversial about the papal policy of the time. After the death of Giulio Romano in 1546, the work was interrupted for a long time and continued under the direction of Giovan Battista Bertani and Antonio Maria Viani , who probably changed the construction plan, especially for the choir . Following the initiative of Bishop Antonio Guidi di Bagno, today's marble facade was built between 1756 and 1761 by the Roman Nicolò Baschiera, an engineer in the Austrian army .

description

Outside

The classical facade of the cathedral has a triangular pediment on four Corinthian columns. On the right side you can still see the gables and the coronation towers from the 15th century. In the Romanesque bell tower there are seven bells that are tuned in B flat major . The largest is an outstanding work by the unsurpassed 18th century master Giuseppe Ruffini. The rest was added in the first half of the 19th century by the Verona company Cavadini .

Inside

inner space

The interior of the cathedral is shaped like a Latin cross , the space being divided into five naves by four rows of grooved Corinthian columns. While the two outer aisles and the central nave have flat ceilings, the two inner aisles have barrel vaults. Along each of the two aisles there is a series of side chapels, the altars of which are adorned with altarpieces by the most important Mannerist artists in Mantua (the most important paintings in the cycle by Paolo Veronese and Giulio Campi are no longer in Mantua). Above the crossing is the dome with an octagonal drum , without a lantern. The dome fresco with Paradise comes from the mannerists Ippolito Andreasi ("Andreasino"; 1548–1608) and Teodoro Ghisi (1536–1601).

The main altar is made of marble with a carved wooden cross. The vaulted frescos of the choir with the Holy Trinity (Italian: L'apoteosi della Redenzione ) were long considered one of Domenico Fetti's main works , but others have also ascribed to Ippolito Andreasi and the architect and painter Antonio Maria Viani (partly. with the participation of Fetti).

Among the works of art are an early Christian sarcophagus, the frescoes of the baptistery (early 14th century), the Cappella dell'Incoronata (an architecture based on the ideas of Leon Battista Alberti ), and the sacristy (once Cappella dei Voti ), with that of vaults painted by a student of Andrea Mantegna .

Works of art

Among the sculptures preserved in the Duomo of Mantua we can highlight:

  • The Trinity with the Virgin and St. John among the angels ( L'apoteosi della Redenzione ) by Domenico Fetti or Antonio Maria Viani (?), Fresco in the choir, approx. 180 m²
  • Santa Margherita (1552) by Domenico Brusasorci, painting on canvas, Sacrament Chapel
  • Saint Martin gives the poor man part of his cloak (1552) by Paolo Farinato , painting on canvas
  • Transito di San Giuseppe (1616) by Niccolò Ricciolini
  • San Domenico by Bernardino Malpizzi
  • Madonna of Itria by Antonio Maria Viani
  • San Luigi Gonzaga by Ippolito Andreasi

organ

On the choir of the right arm of the transept is the cathedral organ, which was built in 1915 by the organ builder Benzi-Franceschini from Crema and later restored and expanded several times. Regular maintenance is carried out by Micheli from Volta Mantovana .

The instrument has an electro-pneumatic action with an independent mobile console on the floor in the transept, near the presbytery, with two keyboards with 61 keys each and a concave-radial pedal construction with 32 keys. The neoclassical case made of carved and gilded wood comes from the previous instrument from the first half of the 19th century and was designed by Giambattista Marconi.

Graves of famous people

The cathedral of Mantua houses the graves of famous personalities of the city's history:

gallery

  • right side

  • Romanesque campanile

  • Apse and main altar

  • Interior view of the dome

literature

  • Stefano L'Occaso: Mantova . Electa, Milan 2007 (Italian).
  • Giovanni Battista Intra: L'antica cattedrale di Mantova e le tombe dei primi Gonzaga . 1974 (Italian).
  • Rosanna Golinelli Berto: Sepolcri Gonzagheschi . Associazione per i monumenti domenicani, Mantua 2013, ISBN 978-88-908415-0-7 (Italian).

Web links

Commons : Mantua Cathedral  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Giovanni Pasetti: Una mescolanza di stile , article on the cathedral of Mantua, online (Italian; accessed April 11, 2020)
  2. ↑ a b Duomo di Mantova , online at travelitalia (Italian; accessed on April 11, 2020)
  3. ↑ Fetti (also Feti), Domenico , in: Lexikon der Kunst , Vol. 4, Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen, 1994, pp. 259 and 260
  4. ↑ Studio Calzolari: Affresco - Apoteosi della Redenzione - Domenico Fetti - Mantova - Duomo - Abside - Volta , [www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/fotografie/schede-complete/IMM-2s010-0000092 Download] (Italian; accessed April 11, 2020 )
  5. ↑ Askew: The Question of Fetti as Fresco Painter - Reattribution to Andreasi of Frescoes in the Cathedral and Sant'Andrea at Mantua , in: The Art Bulletin Vol. 50 , No. 1 (March, 1968), pp. 1-10, online at Jstor (English; accessed April 11, 2020)
  6. ↑ Paolo Bertelli: Un importante restauro nel duomo di Mantova - Antonio Maria Viani torna a risplendere , in: La Reggia - giornale della società del Palazzo Ducale , Anno V, No. 2, April 1997, online at Academia (Italian; accessed on 11 April 2020)
  7. ↑ Mantova - Cathedral "San Pietro apostolo" (Duomo) .
  8. ↑ Mantegna 12 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 9 ′ 38 ″  N , 10 ° 47 ′ 51 ″  E