Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/ypn4ocd749
Pierantonio Palmerini's Altarpiece in the Church of St. Saviour in Dubrovnik
Tanja Trška
orcid.org/0000-0002-0831-1730
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The church of St. Saviour (Sv. Spas) in Dubrovnik, commissioned by the Republic of Dubrovnik after the 1520 earthquake, presently houses two old master paintings: the altarpiece of the Ascensionpainted by Pierantonio Palmerini from Urbino (1528, formerly on the high altar), and Crucifixion with St Blaise and View of Dubrovnik, painted by an unknown eighteenth-century painter and set within a much larger, sixteenth-century stone frame of today's high altar. Records of the 1692 archiepiscopal visitation reveal that the church of St. Saviour used to have three altars, dedicated to the Ascension, the Annunciation and St. Matthew respectively. Their altarpieces are now lost, except for Pierantonio Palmerini's Ascensioncurrently hung frameless on the western wall, one of the few documented statecommissioned altarpieces from the period of the Republic. Before signing the contract to paint the St. Saviour altarpiece in 1527, Pierantonio Palmerini painted its modello, heretofore
identified with a smaller painting of almost identical composition now preserved in the church of St. Phillip Neri in Fossombrone. However, previously unpublished archival material dated shortly before the contract reveals that the modellofor the altarpiece was actually acquired for the Senate Hall, suggesting that Palmerini's painting in Fossombrone cannot be considered as one and the same with the modellomentioned in the contract. New archival data also show that the wooden framework for Palmerini's altarpiece was executed by architect and woodcarver Giovanni (Zanetto) di Francesco del Coro from Ancona, who testified to receiving final payment after its delivery to Dubrovnik in March 1528. This particular payment record represents what seems to be the earliest hitherto known reference to Giovanni del Coro's independent woodcarving activity in general. The high altar of the church of St. Saviour was finally completed in 1533, when magister Petrus pictor—most likely Pietro di Giovanni,
a Venetian painter active in Dubrovnik—decorated the altarpiece framework with azurite and gold. The choice of Italian artists (all connected to the Marche region) for the statefinanced commission of the high altar retable of the church of St. Saviour is an eloquent illustration of the ambition of its patrons, who had decided to invest considerable funds both in the construction of the votive church of St. Saviour and in its furnishings, in an effort to ensure a visually different, more impressive church setting, at least in comparison to the more traditional ensembles provided by local artists.
Keywords
Dubrovnik; Church of St. Saviour; Pierantonio Palmerini; Giovanni del Coro; Pietro di Giovanni
Hrčak ID:
288081
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2022.
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