|
|
|
|
USCERNO Church of San Savino The church of San Savino at Uscerno is a building of notable interest, worthy of greater study and valorisation. Its architectonic configuration, furnishings and liturgical ornaments serve to define a monumental complex at the service of this community, important from the economic and geo-historical point of view, being strategically placed in a “hinge” position at the entrance to the gorge of the high valley of the Fluvione. As already underlined in the preceding Quaderno dedicated to civic building in the Montegallo area, an extremely strong factor of interest is created by the fact that the church was constructed more or less at the same time as the nearby priest’s house, which asserts itself thanks to its elegant and unusual structuring as well as the fineness of its decorative details.Elegant and limpid in style, the internal structure of S. Savino is subdivided into three naves created by cruciform pillars. Round arches encircle the central nave and divide the whole area into bays. Three cross vaults correspond to each bay. The arches and the supporting structures display a very refined working, with an apparatus of perfectly squared and smoothed ashlars, on which the post cornices stand out, formed by an abacus and a listel. The simplicity and the linearity of the whole, far from suggesting a lack of means and concepts, are instead the indication of knowledge and constructive elegance, so much so as to call into cause at least some contribution in terms of design and management by the Lombard craftsmen active in Ascoli and the territory at the time. The final tribune is dominated by the elegant elevation of the high altar, which efficiently re-proposes the ornamental modules common in Ascoli from the work of Giosafatti.Among the furnishings, it must be remembered that a replica of the Annunciation painted by Guido Reni in 1628-29 was originally hung in the left nave. Today it is conserved in the Civic Art Gallery of Ascoli; it is not a copy but rather a re-interpretation that simplifies the tonal and compositional values of the model, offering an extremely simple and popular version of it.Worthy of note is a processional cross in embossed copper that can be dated to the XV century and identified with the goldsmiths’ tradition in Ascoli.Such assorted signs bear witness to a prolonged relationship with the cultural reality of the Piceno town, certainly favoured by particular historical conditions that will undoubtedly be highlighted in the most suitable way.
The Priest's House Dated 1569, the house appears to be have been completed one year after the church. The chronology of the sacred building is inferred from the inscription that can be read on the abacuses of the posts of the first passage arch and on the left abacus of the second passage arch of the central nave: RESPICE FINEM/QUIAMOREIMUR/1568 (think of the end because we will die. 1568).In 1569, the following year, the nearby priest’s house was finished. It is an astonishing tower house raised over two storeys and topped with a dove house. Set solidly on a slope, it has the severity and the compactness of a defensive structure. The left flank, facing onto the street, offers a symmetrical setting, with the openings rigorously aligned on two central axes. On the ground floor a portal with archivolt is seen flanked by a portal with lintel on brackets: the date 1642 can be read at the sides of the usual JHS monogram. The first floor has simple trilithic windows which are just slightly worked on the sill. The second floor, emphasised by an elaborate cornice, has wider windows, neatly surmounted by moulded lintels, at the sides of which three splendid storks in wrought iron can be seen. The perch at the top completes the front. The façade presents an external closed stairway that leads from a magnificent loggia, the wooden trusses that cover it occupying the whole wall. The transenna beams rest on a slender column set on the sill of the loggia. The capital, carefully modelled, is decorated on its faces by simple figures with human faces. Near the column, the sill, underlined by an elegant moulding, is articulated on two levels, giving the whole a formidable rhythm and accentuating the vertical thrust of the support. The calculated fragility of the wall is clearly in relation to this sense of sophistication, lightness and elegance.To complete the magnificence of the picture there is the great elaboration spent in the rendering of the openings. The ground floor portal, linteled and surmounted by a flat arch (the light of which has been plugged for no reason), is characterised by two brackets with a simply defined flat volute. The first floor window, effectively underlined by the corresponding surface of the sill in front, presents a lintel with a central decorated tile flanked by the inscription on a fluttering scroll: AVE 1569. At the top of the stairs the entrance portal to the first floor rises up, the lintel of which is moulded and presents a squared band on two lines that carries the inscription: NON NOBIS DOMINE NON NOBIS SED/NOMINI TUO DA GLORIAM MDLXVIII (compare this with the inscription at Propezzano).Recently carried out restoration work has, as is usual, used too much lime in the brick joints, vulgarising the dignity and the elegance of such a building work. Particularly execrable is the treatment reserved for the back-front, transformed into a repellent flow of cement, the trickles of which barely frame what is still visible of the old wall. Next to the old church house a building of comparable historical-architectural value stands. This too is a tower house raised over two floors, horribly defaced by a concrete building set against the old wall and supported by steel poles. Next to this disconcerting eyesore, a belt of the wall that has escaped “restoration” can be seen. A linteled portal with flat arch is shrewdly defined within an area of building formed by ashlars that are well-defined in their squaring off and smoothing, forming a body with the respective angle of the building. Three combinations of flower shapes give life to an elaborate yet original and spontaneous decorative scheme. The lintel and ashlars of the post are decorated by squared tiles; different-sized flowers are shown on the post ashlars; on the lintel, at the sides, the tiles show a lozenge that contains a rosette; above this lozenge the date of construction is seen, 1571; the date is divided as usual, this time by a floriform moulding containing the monogram JHS. The wonderful window above shows great formal elegance of a different tone. Framed above and below by multiple mouldings – among which, the very original fascia formed by a band that runs around the light – and the lintel carries the inscription: IL MOR(ir) CON ONORE VITA RINOVA. Below the eyesore, a crudely executed new door made in the distant past reuses the lintel of the ancient door, MUTILO on the right, with the inscription: IN TE DOMINE SPERAVI NON/CONFUNDAR IN ETERNUM 157[1] (In you Lord, I have taken shelter, I will never be deluded. 1571). Both the inscriptions are taken from the epigraphic repertory of XVI century Ascoli, a few years following the carrying out of their respective prototypes, the first being in via Cairoli 4 and dated 1547; the second in via Mazzini 3. The Fireplace fron 1796 A fireplace from 1796 has a central medallion including the monogram JHS; at the sides there are two mixed line tablets bearing the inscription: on the left, MULTAE FILIAE CONGREGAVERUNT/DIVITIAS; on the right, TU SUPERGRESSA ES UNIVERSAS/PROV J (Many young women put together their riches. You [Virgin Mary]have exceeded all of them). In the high part of the centre of the hamlet, an imposing XVII century house with dove house at the top, complete with wheel is seen. The building is in total ruin. Near this house, another building preserves an extraordinary oven dated 1765; on a slope, three rooms were used for the three working phases from the concentration of the harvested grapes to the production of the cooked wine: from top to bottom, the loading mouth for the grapes, the tank for pressing, the tank for collecting the must, the oven for cooking the wine. Oratory of the Madonna di Loreto Today known as Madonna del Carmine, the Oratory of Madonna di Loreto was built in 1637 in a rather pleasant position, just a few steps from the south bank of the Fluvione. It has two interesting portals. The first, opening in the façade, is protected by rustic wooden trussing: the archivolt, moulded and decorated by a system of diamond points, culminates in a refined corbel and rests on capitals decorated with pods. The moulded posts are also decorated by a light motif of squared ashlars and placed on dados with inscribed rosettes. The original doors of this example reflect those of the portals of the Casa Sebastiani at Piano, dated to the first decades of the XVIII century. On the left side a linteled portal with moulded light is noted, with inscribed entablature and divided tympanum. The inscription reads: PORTA MANES CAELI ROS MONSQUE IN VERTICE MONTUM/VIRGA VIRENS VELLU FOEDERIS ARCA RUBUS (you lead to lasting Heaven, dew and mountains on the slopes of the mountains, green twig, fleece of the Arc of the Alliance, thorny branch).
Photos:
Bibliography:
|
