Santa Maria Assunta (Pienza)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The facade to Piazza Pio II

Santa Maria Assunta is a co- cathedral in the Tuscan town of Pienza from the second half of the 15th century. Because of the mixture of elements of the Renaissance and Gothic building elements, it is considered a bit strange.

location

The church is located in the central Piazza Pio II of the old town of Pienza between the Palazzo Vescovile , i.e. the Bishop's Palace, on the left and the Palazzo Piccolomini on the right. The group of three buildings relates to one another, with the cathedral facade having a dominant effect and generally considered noble.

Origin and building history

The cathedral is one of a series of buildings with which Pope Pius II , until the election of Enea Silvio Piccolomini , wanted to convert his native city, the then Corsignano, into an ideal city of the Renaissance. The master builder was the Florentine architect Bernardo Rossellino , the cathedral was built - like the other buildings of the group - from 1459 to 1462. Since there was not enough natural building ground available on the south side of the square, where the cathedral was built, in order to be able to wall up the choir , substructures were built, which later turned out to be detrimental to the church. A special feature was that the Pope expressly commissioned Rossellino to build a hall church . Piccolomini is likely to have this type of construction during his time as Frederick III's secretary . in Austria and southern Germany. After completion in 1462, on August 29, the building was consecrated and made a bishopric. The completion of the interior decoration took until 1464.

facade

View inside the church

The facade is three-axis and two-storey, the main dividing element are the four colossal pilasters of a fundamentally Tuscan order . The facade reproduces the inner structure of the building insofar as the blind arch arcades between the pilasters are at the same height. The portal and the other two side entrances, with the arches that vault them, come from models of rural Tuscan architecture, the framing columns follow the Ionian order in the basement , those on the upper floor follow the Corinthian order . The position of columns in a facade was taken over by Rossellino from his teacher in architecture, Leon Battista Alberti . Examples of predecessors built by Alberti are Santa Maria Novella in Florence and the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini . Aediculan niches are inserted in the lateral axes , an element of Florentine Proto-Renaissance . The inner pilasters run through the triangular gable that closes the facade , and Piccolomini's papal coat of arms is inserted in the central part of the gable.

Interior and outfit

The basic structure of the church is a hall church, so it has three naves with vaults of the same height; the same applies to the transept . The room itself is a Renaissance construction, but still contains a number of Gothic building elements, so that the impression of the room is occasionally reminiscent of English cathedral Gothic . The bundle pillars supporting the arcade and belt arches have peculiar capitals that do not come from Gothic architecture . How little Rossellino was familiar with the complicated rules of Gothic building is also shown by the elongated spiers below the groin vaults, which are actually Gothic in the side aisles. A comparable fighting position can only be found in the transept of the cathedral of Siena .

The fünfjochige nave of the church runs in the Choir Chapel of the two lateral side chapels are, again gothic models following order at 45 degrees to this. The aforementioned substructures were harmful in that they settled over the centuries. Therefore, the pillars of the choir are inclined a few degrees downhill to the south compared to those of the central nave and had to be reinforced. The pointed arch windows with their tracery also follow Gothic models .

The furnishings show the differences between the individual artist schools of the time. While Pius II preferred Rossellino's workshop for sculpture, the commissions for the pictures of the altarpieces went to Sienese artists. The church has a number of altar paintings by important artists of the Quattrocento , such as Vecchietta , Sano di Pietro , Matteo di Giovanni , Giovanni di Paolo and Stefano di Giovanni Sassetta . They still worked in the "Gothic style" of the Trecento .

literature

  • Heinz Schomann : Art monuments in Tuscany. Scientific Book Society , Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 978-3-534-06894-4 .
  • Klaus Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers. 9th edition, Du Mont Buchverlag, Cologne 1986 ISBN 3-7701-1050-1 .
  • Max Semrau : The Art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the North. 3rd edition, Vol. III from Wilhelm Lübke, Grundriss der Kunstgeschichte , 14th edition, Paul Neff Verlag, Esslingen 1912.
  • Conrad Streit: Florence - Tuscany - Umbria, land of the Etruscans. Walter-Verlag, Olten and Freiburg im Breisgau 1972 (special edition for the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt), ISBN 978-3-530-85806-8 .
  • Werner Goez : From Pavia to Rome. 4th edition, DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1980 ISBN 3-7701-0542-7 .
  • Jan Pieper : Pienza - The draft of a humanistic worldview. Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-930698-06-4 .
  • Andreas Tönnesmann : Pienza - urban development and humanism. 2nd edition 1996, Hirmer Verlag Munich, ISBN 3-7774-5410-9 .
  • Johann Josef Böker : Ita Pius iusserat, qui exemplar apud Germanos in Austria vidisset : The late Gothic models of the cathedral of Pienza in Austria. In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 49, 1996, pp. 57–74 and 301–306.

Web links

Commons : Duomo (Pienza)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 43 ° 4 ′ 34.8 "  N , 11 ° 40 ′ 44.9"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Goez: From Pavia to Rome , p. 150.
  2. ↑ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The Hill Country and the Historic City Centers , p. 250.
  3. ↑ Semrau: The Art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the North , p. 24.
  4. ↑ Schomann: Art Monuments in Tuscany , p. 430.
  5. ↑ Schomann: Art Monuments in Tuscany , p. 430.
  6. ^ Johann Josef Böker: Ita Pius iusserat, qui exemplar apud Germanos in Austria vidisset : The late Gothic models of the cathedral of Pienza in Austria. In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 49, 1996, pp. 57–74.
  7. ↑ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 252.
  8. ^ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 251.
  9. ^ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 251.
  10. ^ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 251.
  11. ↑ Schomann: Art Monuments in Tuscany , p. 430.
  12. ↑ Schomann: Art Monuments in Tuscany , p. 430.
  13. ^ Dispute: Florence - Tuscany - Umbria, Land of the Etruscans , p. 170.
  14. ^ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 251.
  15. ^ Dispute: Florence - Tuscany - Umbria, Land of the Etruscans , p. 170.
  16. ^ Zimmermanns: Toscana - The hill country and the historic city centers , p. 251.