CUNEO, St. Sebastiano Church
History
A first demonstration of the cult of St. Sebastiano was concretized in Wedge with the deliberation of the Town Suggestion (1431) that it brought to the construction of a chapel with a circular plant situated in the fields at the beginning of the today's course Nice.
Since the little church was out of the wall, people warned the necessity to create in the heart of the city a place of devotion to the Saint, particularly invoked during the pestilences.
The new seat was found in the old little church of St. Giacomo whose brotherhood was going to extinguish itself. So, in 1481, this brotherhood donated the old hospital to the flourishing brotherhood of st.Croce. In this way the members of the brotherhood renewed the oratorial under the title of St. Giacomo and St Sebastiano. The inside was frescoed with the history of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastiano and the façade had a painting representing, on the sides of the Crucifix, the two historical saints, Sebastiano and Giacomo and two new Dominican saints, St. Vincent Ferrer and Saint Caterina da Siena.
The 1557 war events were disastrous for the church of the Brotherhood, much to impose the reconstruction.
The Ledger Fontana and Scala began the reconstruction by building the Choir (1595); the classroom and the façade were restored (1621): the new church was consecrated in the 1625. In 1626 the members of the brotherhood placed the shovel above the greatest altar, work of G. A. Molineri da Savigliano, who two years later frescored (and signed) the four Evangelists in the spandrels of the dome. Two documents (1629 and 1632), about the purchase of the organ and the invoice of the bell tower, quote "Compagnia St. Sebastiano e Madonna Santissima del Carmine", testifying therefore the introduction of this new devotion, still in force.
Well soon it was necessary to widen the classroom of the oratorial up to bring (1663) the façade next to the road (actual Regione Mondovì). In 1730 the new sacristy and the room of the Suggestion were built following year, the choir was widened realizing the two side niches. From 1736 to 1754 the presbytery and the choir were object of important works. For the new altar, planned by Nolfi, the approval of F.Gallo was wanted; the other best local artists of that period were busy for works of embellishment: Cipriano Beltramelli for the plasters of the same altar; Antonio Pozzi and the fashion-designer Alessandro Trono for the celling decoration ; the new marble baluster was placed and, the work of the "ledger of wood" Antonio Drocco, adapted widening them, the wooden benches of the choir. The actual structures of the presbytery and of the choir are still those that result at the closing of the yard in 1754.
Instead, the aisle has entirely been referred in XIX century: between 1830 and 1844 the side walls were broken down to get the two chapels of Sant'Anna and of the Carmine; the wall structure was appropriate to the choir dimensions and, on project of the architect Rovere, the classroom was provided with dome which was frescoed by Giuseppe Toselli di Peveragno.
Façade
Four injured of it Corinthian meet the portal (on the wooden panels they are repeated the arrows, symbol of the titular Saint) and they support a strong moulding, on which a second order develops him, where, among two injured of it ionic, it spaces a finestrone semicircolare with statue in plaster of St. Sebastiano. A last indication classicheggiante is furnished by the triangular eardrum.
Aisle
The unique classroom has widened on the dua sides chapels. Injured with capitals of it Corinthian gilded and rich moulding they remember us the predominant neoclassic taste to the epoch (1830 -40). The light rains from the central cupolino and from the ample finestrone of façade. The frescos of the Toselli have not pretended iconografiche, but floral motives prevail.
Cloths
Of the rich patrimony of cloths that once they furnished the aisle, and they are not unfortunately today enjoyable because preserved in safety deposits (Histories of St. Sebastiano, the Apostolato perhaps of G. Bruno, benefactors' portraits, etc.), an exemplary solo is exposed, to the right of the baluster, that represents the Nativity.
The pictures of the Street Cruces are than To. Shepherd (1875).
Statues
Rich it is the outfit of statues to testimony of the different devotions practised by the Brotherhood. In controfacciata, within niches glass door, find Sant'Antonio from Padua and San Giovanni Bosco. Near the entry they are situated the two trial wooden statues (sec. XVIII) of St. Sebastiano and of the Madonna of the Carmine. Near the balusters of the side altars I am:
St. Joseph with Jesus child and Saint Teresina, to the right:
Holy Rita from Cascia and Sant'Espedito, to the left.
Chapel of Sant'Anna
Into the neoclassic part is situated the cloth of Sant'Anna, of anonymous of the Nine hundred: the holder represents with Maria Adolescente, St. Gioacchino and Saint Caterina in Alexandria. The statue of Saint Dionisia is situated under the altar. Behind the side wall, a beautiful confessional Baroque.
Presbytery
Apart the side staving in of the choir, the structure is still that of elegant sec. XVI, and it stylistically detaches clearly him from the aisle. The pompous decorations of the time jump for cromatismo and stage effects: above the pretenses architectures of P.To. Wells prorompe in an I exult of angels and saints the Gloria of the Heaven, for hand of the cuneese To. Throne.
In the plumes the four Evangelists are represented with their symbols. Work of G.To. Molineri (1628), they brought in our zone the new wind of the Roman experiences of the author: the corposità of the figures, the I drape some suits, the vigorous gesture they recall lessons michelangiolesche and they definitely overcome the season of the Gothic painting that up to few decades before you/he/she had spread in as our churches and chapels.
Choir
The same Molineri, in the shovel of the greatest altar (1626) and offers us instead an example than from him learned by the cloths of the Caravaggio: the figures are modeled by the light, and they hack him on the dark fund, jumping with great strength on the absence of landscape. The scene represents the two Saints Sebastiano and Giacomo to the sides of the Crucifix, with two hooded brethren and angels. A nineteenth-century copy of this shovel was realized by the Vinay for the brotherhood of St. Sebastiano of Scaffold it Uncorks.
The space of the presbytery is separate from the choir from elements of baluster in wood, probable testimonies of the old baluster of beginning Six hundred, replaced to halves the sec. XVIII from the actual one, in marbles policromi.
Chapel of Carmine
Four Corinthian columns and the eardrum above the altar contain the nineteenth-century statuary group of the Madonna of the Carmine in plaster: the Madonna holds up Jesus Bambino conformed by angels in prayer. The cloth of the Souls of the Purgatory is work of L.Cocordano (1884).
Also this chapel is endowed with a confessional Baroque.
Gallery
Rare example of gallery with two floors, that inferior for the choir and that superior for the organ, work of C. Serassi (1878).
CREDITS
Direction: Gianluca de Angelis
Post-Production: TEKLA TV
Copywriter and research: Laura Marino
FINANCING BODIES
ROTARY CLUB Cuneo 1925
THANKS TO
Don Luca Favretto