Sanctuary of Macereto - The Architects of The Sanctuary

The Architects of The Sanctuary

In 1527 the Collegiata and the Commune of Visso reached an agreement to commission the sanctuary. Master Gian Battista da Bissone, who had recently designed and built the Palazzo Ottoni (1452) and the Palazzo Piersanti in nearby Matelica, was chosen. Also involved was Master Filippo Salvi from Meli (near Bissone) who had worked on the Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi. Another theory is that the original design for the sanctuary was by Donato Bramante, who was particularly attached to circular symmetrically proportioned churches.

The odd thing is that these ideas were not embraced by the architects of the time (with respect to the concept of centrally planned churches) for another fifty years and two of the main protagonists of this had worked shoulder to shoulder in Lombardy, which is where the architects who were known to have worked at Macereto had come from. It is likely too, that Bramante, Salvi and Gian Battista da Lugano all left Lombardy at about the same time either fleeing from or banned by the army of Louis XII of France.

The facts are that when Bramante went to Milan in 1480, where he first applied his techniques he worked on the same plot as one of the greatest artist/theorists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci. They were both employed by the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Bramante on the dome and Leonardo next door in the refectory of the monastery, painting his Last Supper. “We can only assume that their meetings were frequent and productive. One can only imagine how, over a few years, both Leonardo and Bramante – foreigners and equally attracted by the theme of the centralized church – had much to question and discuss.” (Rowe & Satkowski p14) Although Leonardo was never to design or construct a single building he drew numerous sketches in which the concept was explored (fig). His theory being a continuation of the Albertian model in which everything should work in harmony with everything else. “By 1490, structures not unlike those of Bramante’s St. Peter’s or Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi had appeared amongst Leonardo’s sketches.” (Bruschi p44)

The pragmatics of actually building this perfectly symmetrical construction tends to come up against a simple problem of cost. Presuming that the architects and commissioners had come to an agreement about the placement of the altar and other problems that centrally planned churches bring up, the absolute perfection of a building could be compromised by the question of where to put the campanile. In Bramante’s Tempietto such a dilemma would not have been as issue as this building did not require one, in St Peter's Basilica, cost was not an issue, so it could have a campanile at each ‘corner’ (which was Leonardo’s vision, see fig). The clearest illustration of an attempt to deal with the campanile question in a church outside Rome is the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione at Todi which in fact is not even clearly attributed to Bramante, although Bruschi does list references to Bramante in connection with it.

“Typically understood as a simplification of his plan for St Peter’s, there is evidence for Bramante’s participation in its design at some level. The design, after all, has much in common with the Leonardesque themes that Bramante brought with him from Milan. Above all, the Consolazione’s pristine combination of cube, drum, dome and apses shows its origins in the sketches by Leonardo that were central to his development as an artist (fig)…Though in most respects the ideas of Bramante are undeniably present, the flaccid orders on the exterior of this otherwise impressive church suggests that he may not have participated directly in its execution” (Ibid p44-45)

The connection between the sanctuary of Santa Maria della Consolazione and that at Macereto is evident in architectural details and motifs. As at Todi, the Macereto sanctuary is centrally planned, built on a Greek cross system within an octagonal drum. Todi was also built to house a relic that would have been placed in a small chapel beneath the central dome as at Macereto. The architect who had worked on both buildings was Master Filippo Salvi da Meli who worked with Gian Battista da Lugano and it was Gian Battista who remained in charge of the construction until his untimely death in 1539 when he fell from a scaffold whilst completing the arches of the temple. Bramante’s influence is everywhere and most people writing about the sanctuary mention him at some point, even if only to say that the building is Bramantesque. In his The temple of the Madonna of Macereto. Malpeli claims “the temple of Macereto was heavily influenced by Bramante, especially in the decorative vibrations which were very particular. This is why we were allowed to say that the monument is of a Bramantesque style. The paternity of the temple has to be given to the architect Battista Lugano, especially for the general idea and the more constructive part, which was getting away from the minimalism that is found in Bramante’s work.” (Malpeli p37). The exterior walls of the sanctuary are imposing and almost entirely undecorated. There are three great, classically inspired doors with pedimented arches decorated with columns with Doric capitols. Unadorned white stone walls rise to the cornice that is also simply decorated with Corinthian columns. The outside of the building remains unfinished as work had to be stopped in 1566 when the builders discovered that the ground would not support the external dome or a campanile . It is the interior however, that bears such a striking resemblance to the interiors of both Santa Maria della Consolazione and Santa Maria at Loreto.

All three buildings have as their main theme a great dome under which is positioned the sacred image. In the case of the Santa Maria della Consolazione, the image has ended up in one of the semicircular apses, but it is this church that has the architectonic connections with the sanctuary of Macereto. Four main pillars that are connected by great arches, which are decorated identically, support the central dome . The arches are decorated with coffers with rosettes. Both churches have the same decorations and it is this style that links the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries, pointed out by most commentators (fig). It would have been Master Filippo Salvi, working on both projects, who would have used this technique. These two great Marian sanctuaries of the cinquecento in central Italy correspond with each other because of the actual connection provided by Salvi but they were also representative of the spirit of the age. And even if it was not actually Donato Bramante who had submitted the original drawings for the buildings, it is undeniable that his presence is in both structures.

At the sanctuary in Loreto, the dome and shrine are at the eastern end of a conventional church built in the oblong model of the basilica. But once one comes to the focus of the church, the tiny capella that houses the Santa Casa, the relationship between this and the sanctuary at Macereto is very clear. The ‘original’ home of the Virgin Mary was transported first from Galilee to Dalmatia and then, in 1294 across to the bandit-infested laurel grove above Porto Recanati, hence the name ‘Loreto’. It would not be until about two hundred years later, in 1507 that the Church approved of Loreto as a place of pilgrimage and the work began, which was around the same time as the construction of the sanctuaries of both Todi and Macereto.

Whilst it is apparent that more money came to Loreto and so the Santa Casa is visibly more splendid, the decoration of the inner chapels are very similar and it is generally agreed that the chiesetta at Macereto echoes that of Loreto . A simple white stone and marble rectangular shell surrounds the original building that contains the image.

It was Bramante who had handed in the original designs for the shrine at Loreto but had had very little to do with it after that, the job having been taken on by the great medal designer Gian Cristoforo Romano, Andrea Sansovino and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. It is a good example of High Renaissance Architecture, combining the elegance and simplicity of the classical lines and motifs with rich encrustations of statues and other decoration. The basic design of the Santa Casa resonates in the chiesetta at Macereto. The cornice is decorated with a simple Greek key design, below which hang swags. The columns, in bas-relief at Macereto are lighter and more minimal than the pomp and splendour of those at Loreto. Where the statues of the prophets seated around the lower level of the shrine at Loreto (highly reminiscent of Michelangelo’s prophets in the Medici tomb in Florence) are, at Macereto there are empty niches. Whether there were plans to install any statues is not known. The outer walls of the Santa Casa are covered with relief work, statues and other decoration, there is very little empty space, as if the three artists commissioned to complete the building could not resist making yet another addition. As a result it comes across as being rather overloaded in contrast to the delicate simplicity of Macereto’s chiesetta.

If we work on the assumption that the sanctuary at Macereto was one of the officially recognised stop-overs on one of the major pilgrimage routes to Loreto it is tempting to view the construction of the chiesetta as being something that would not only connect the two sanctuaries by visible association but also serve to keep the pilgrims minded of their eventual destination. The architectural motifs and style of the two - churches-within-churches - are rare and bear such a striking resemblance to one another that with the suggestion that Donato Bramante may have had a hand in the design of both. At some stage, it would hint that there is more to connect them than the fact that they are both Marian shrines. Added to this is the fact that both the Todi and Macereto sanctuaries are centrally planned ‘temples’ that are very much in the style of Bramante and that quite apart from the murmurings of art historians about the connection between the two buildings, the stylistic signatures are plain to see. The three churches were built in the High Renaissance, a time when The Church was eager to convince a population shaken by the steady drip of the Reformation that there was only one true Church. They share the same language and all reflect elements of the mother of all churches, the great basilica of Saint Peter’s in Rome, designed by Donato Bramante (too). The connection between the sanctuaries at Macereto and Todi is also clear in the documents and also the treatment of other architectural details, I have used this to indicate the link between the architects, with Filippo Salvi as the ‘go-between’ for Bramante. The importance of this sanctuary and perhaps the reason why it was valued so highly was that it contained the holy statue, a physical representation of a miracle that in turn stood for the victory of one powerful and rich merchant town over its more ancient and venerable neighbour.