Altar of The Purgatory

Also the chapel of the transept with the Altar Of The Purgatory, placed in front of the other cha­pel with the altar of the Crucifix, is of baroque style, but it is much richer than decorations. Also here four tortile columns adorned of gilt floral elements support a high frame with cyma of thick foliage. Among the columns, in suitable niches, are positioned human skeletons of remarkable plastic effect and of great suggestion.

The whole, in the end, is a true masterpiece of communication technology. It represents the Madonna who intercedes at the Trinity for the souls of Purgatory, drawn down in the flames, and reports with clear messages the vanity of all the things of life and the reality that hides behind the trappings of power. These messages are remembered to the learned with sacred inscriptions and various wordings: - a verse of Horace, painted at the top of the arch of the architectural frame, in a shield supported by two putti recites that «decidunt turres feriuntque summos fulmina montes» (2); - further down, in another shield also held by two angels, with the verse «Viator in arena et stigmate consilium capit» (3) - and finally above the mantovana that overhangs the painting, carved and gilded wood, still a sacred inscription addressed to Jesus recites «Pie Iesu Domine dona eis requiem» (4)) The three writings were addressed to the educated and powerful, but to commu­nicate the message of the vanity and brevity of life to the illiterate brontesi of the eighteenth century, the author invents a truly spectacular and terrifying scene. It transports the earthly life in the afterlife (the Purgatory, which the artist with the painting places at the center of the stage) where skeletons, sculpted in natu­ral size between the four columns, represent the whole ecclesiastical and political hierarchy, by the Pope (with head and mantle) to the king, the emperor, the cardinal and the bishop. All this in order to remind men of a truth that is always current and always for­got­ten: the fleetingness of life and the vanity of earthly things and that over all the efforts and passions of men, above all, dominates the shadow of death with the its leveling force. To communicate the message to the illiterate brontesi of the XVII century, the author invents a really spectacular and terrifying scene. Transports the earthly life into the afterlife (the purgatory) where skeletons, engraved in natural size between the four columns, represent all the ecclesiastical and political hierarchy, from the Pope (with triregno at the top and mantle) to the king, the emperor, the cardinal and the bishop. All that to remind the men of a truth always current and always forgotten: the fugacity of life and the vanity of earthly things ---- (1) "This altar was erected in the year of the Lord 1655, and was then decorated at the behest of the Archpriest Parish Priest Giuseppe Di Bella by the priest Giuseppe Ardizzone in the year 1892" (2) «The towers fall and the lightning strikes the tops of the mountains»» (3) «The traveler decides between the fight (in the arena) and slavery» (4) "O good Lord Jesus, give them rest"