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Carpignano Sesia (Novara, Italy): St. Peter's Church
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 Despite its small size, the Church of San Pietro in Carpignano Sesia should not be confused with the late medieval rural oratories widespread in the Novara countryside. It is in fact a real church, as evidenced by its position (in the center of the ancient part of the town), its basilica structure with three naves, the period in which it was built (the eleventh century) and the artistic quality of the frescoes in the apse, of considerable importance.
HISTORY
It is not known exactly when the Church of San Pietro in Carpignano Sesia was built. Its construction probably took place in the first decades of the eleventh century and in any case before the third quarter of the century.
The church was almost certainly born as a noble chapel, as evidenced by its position in the center of the oldest part of the town, also known as the Castle, because it was originally protected by walls and other defensive structures (even if more than a castle it would be correct to speak of a ricetto, ie a fortified part of the village where the inhabitants moved in case of danger).
The construction is thought to have taken several years due to interruptions and modifications. For example, the wall structure of the apses, which changes starting from about one and a half meters from the ground, suggests this.
The church became part of the patrimony of San Pietro, ie it passed under the direct jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome. When this happened it is not known precisely.
However, it is known that in 1140 (or 1141) the church passed under the control of the Cluniac priory of Castelletto Cervo, together with its appurtenances, the Oratory today today known as of Santa Maria di Lebbia (which has yet to be added on this site), the church which at the time stood in place of the future Parish church of Santa Maria Assunta and various farms. The Cluniac Benedictine monks thus came to have a strong control over the village.
Starting from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, the Cluniac priory of Castelletto Cervo underwent an irreversible decline, aggravated by the numerous wars that raged in the area in the fourteenth century.
The situation worsened further when the priory of Castelletto Cervo was subjected, starting from about the fifteenth century, to the administrative regime of the commandery, in which the temporal assets were managed by a person who no longer resided in the monastery. The commandery of Castelletto Cervo was suppressed only in 1771, when the Church of San Pietro passed to the Bishopric of Biella.
In the wake of the decline of the priory of Castelletto Cervo, the Church of San Pietro in Carpignano Sesia was also increasingly neglected. In the seventeenth century the two single lancet windows in the central apse were enlarged to create two rectangular windows damageing so the ancient frescoes. Moreover, they must have appeared in such a bad state that the bishop of Biella ordered their cancellation, fortunately not carried out. Instead of destroying the frescoes, they where simply covered with a layer of plaster, which allowed them to reach the present day.
In 1871 the church, which became the possession of the new Italian state, was sold at auction. The new owners first used it for banquets, then divided it up through partitions and partitions to obtain spaces to be used as warehouses and cellars.
The rediscovery of the church began only in 1928, with the studies of Paolo Verzone, which underlined its great historical and artistic importance.
Finally, the Church of San Pietro enjoyed a complete restoration at the end of the twentieth century, which made it possible to give new splendor to the frescoes inside and to make it accessible again.
STRUCTURE
The church has a basilica structure, with three naves oriented from east to west, each equipped with an apse. Of the three apses, the central one has kept the original structure quite well, apart from the expansion of the two windows in the seventeenth century and the opening of a door to the outside at the end of the nineteenth century. Its external surface is divided by pilasters in seven sections crowned at the top by two hanging arches each. As already mentioned, at almost 2 meters high the wall structure changes, with the almost disappearance of the bricks and the presence almost exclusively of river pebbles and the flattening of the surfaces, so much so that in the upper part the central apse from semicircular becomes substantially polygonal.
The side apses, which are smaller, have lost the frame with hanging arches and the left one (right one if looking at the church from behind) was raised at the end of the nineteenth century to create a room used as a dwelling.
Of the two side walls of the church, only the northern one is visible, inside an entrance hall that overlooks the courtyard on which the facade overlooks. The other side is pressed against the house beside.
The visible side wall is marked by six pilasters and retains traces of the typical frame with hanging arches.
The façade, which overlooks, as mentioned, what was once the internal courtyard of the monastery, has the part corresponding to the right aisle hidden by what was once the house of the farmer. The left side was instead raised with the extension of the adjacent eighteenth-century loggia. In the center there is a large oculus with a terracotta frame added only in the fifteenth century. Above the portal (enlarged at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries) it is still possible to recognize the traces of the fifteenth-century coat of arms of the Della Porta, an ancient noble family from Novara. At least until the seventeenth century there was a small bell tower above the facade.
The facade is devoid of any properly decorative element.
Inside, the three naves are divided by four round arches supported by massive pillars without capitals. Observing the structure it is possible to notice the presence of some inconsistencies:
- The width of the southern aisle is not homogeneous along its length, but on the contrary increases in an evident way starting from the arch between the second and third spans going towards the apse.
- The pilasters of the pillars placed on the side facing the central nave are interrupted at the height of a thin brick frame placed about two meters below the attachment of the roof. Perhaps the pilasters were used as an attachment point for cross vaults initially present and which were subsequently abandoned during the modifications in the Gothic age to which the overhanging part of the wall structure corresponds.
- On the right side all the three pillars have a beam structure, on the left side only the one near the apses.
Frescoes
The most important frescoes are those that occupy the entire central apse. Their most probable dating is 1140-1159, but they could also have been painted even earlier, around 1140-1141, when the church had not yet been donated to the Cluniacs.
The frescoes inside the apse are divided into three bands. The lower one is occupied by a monochromatic velarium unfortunately largely lost. However, one can still recognize in particular a knight with a wide tunic who fights against a beast.
The central band, which corresponds to the upper half of the apse walls, is occupied by the representation of the apostles, of which nine are still recognizable, even if originally there must have been only ten. The three figures in the center are Peter, Paul and John, holding together a silver cross. The more lateral ones stretch their hands almost to bring the visitor's attention towards the three main apostles in the center and the cross they hold in their hand.
Note how the scene, although at a compositional level it may recall those present in the more recent late Gothic frescoes visible in many rural oratories in the area, is in fact very different from them in the way in which the human figures are depicted. These are in fact characterized by sharp and marked lines and painting is essential both in style and in content.
In the apse, on a background that originally must have been lapis lazuli blue in the upper half, Jesus Christ is depicted seated on a marble throne inlaid with precious stones. To his left St. Peter, to his right a female figure with her arms outstretched towards Christ. The scene depicted is probably that of the restitution, at the end of time, of the keys and of the holy and immaculate Church, allegorically represented through the Bride of the Song of Songs, to Christ.
Also noteworthy are the frescoes under the arch, which depict marine scenes. In its right half there are fantastic animals and a boatman in a rowboat, in the left half more realistic fish and marine animals. The meaning of these frescoes is not known with certainty.
The arrangement of the various frescoes probably wants to symbolically reflect the hierarchy between worldly life (represented in the velarium, i.e. below) and Christ and the Church (above), put in communication through the intercession of particularly holy people such as the apostles (therefore placed in the middle). On the other hand, if the frescoes were painted before the donation of the church to Cluny, the frescoes in the apse could also allude to the fact that the Church is subject only to the authority of Christ (a very important argument at the time, in light of the rivalry between the Papacy and the Empire).
Originally, the walls of the span in front of the central apse must also have been frescoed, but these frescoes have been almost completely lost.
As for the side apses, unfortunately also their pictorial decoration has been almost completely lost. In the left one it is still possible to recognize a Christ pantocrator flanked by two figures in the apsidal basin, figures of saints on the wall and a velarium in the lower part.
The naves host instead devotional frescoes:
- On the third pillar, on the side towards the entrance, there is a St. John the Baptist with a scroll on which is written "Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi" (Fig. 5).
- On the right wall, at the height of the second span, there are, within a double white and red frame and in the background of a hilly and mountain landscape, the remains of a fresco of San Rocco in the company of devotees or pilgrims (Fig . 4).
- Above the right arch of the third span of the central nave there is an Annunciation painted at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Well preserved, it is characterized by the elegance and stylistic refinement of the characters and by some pictorial inventions aimed at increasing the realism of the representation (the rings which hold the mantle hung behind the Virgin appear hanging from the frame of the fresco, a foot of the archangel and the head of God the Father, present in a lunette at the top while observing the scene, which overflow into the frame).
On the inner face of the arch above which there is the fresco are then painted St. Anthony the Abbot (left) and Santa Dorotea.
- On the first right pillar there is a fresco from the end of the fifteenth century depicting St. Caterina from Siena. In her right hand she holds a heart, symbolizing the exchange she had with the heart of Jesus according to tradition.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
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Further pictures of St. Peter's Church in the section Photography |