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| Aerial view of Borgo Pignolo in Bergamo, with Church of Saint Cross |
Between elevations of trees of liberty and destruction of ancient signs of subjection to the lion of St. Mark, the church body showed signs of heeling , fueled by ambiguity formal accession of the bishop of Bergamo Gianpaolo Dolfin revolutionary movements, culminating nell'esplicita request - given to the priests of the diocese - with zeal to clarify the essence of the duty of the their parishioners to obey with feeling warm under the right social laws of this people Bergamasco Municipality represented by its legitimate and defended by the sincere and effective protection of the French Republic " (1) . The
suppression of religious orders, with the consequent conversion of convents and monasteries in military barracks and prisons, trailing behind judicial reporting of incidents that shed light on the widespread adherence to the Jacobin movement. In this sense the case is illustrative dell'incriminazione against a young Franciscan friar - fra'Vincenzo, born Luigi Rubini - guilty of having robbed the habit and took up arms "to serve his country as a Military ( 2) .
In the midst of revolutionary confusion could improvise some religious opportunist agent and antiques dealer, buying and selling works of art to be offered on a silver platter to savvy collectors, as was evidenced by the chameleon-like profile Massinello Charles Abbot, an Italian of Trustees Edward Solly, magnate English whose collection will be purchased at the beginning of the nineteenth century, from the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin.
Among the members of the new military government bodies of people who have used conveniently to know their hierarchical positions and, to the case, extract works of art. The Commissioner of the French Republic based in Bergamo, this Lhermit had a "refined taste in painting which was very reputed for his opinion on the merits of the paintings. Under the pretext of seeing the paintings had been introduced in various houses of Lords and had formed various knowledge ", while, as noted by the expert Carlo Marenzi Bergamo, a beautiful portrait of Giovan Battista Moroni "had the gift of the French commander of the square in Bergamo, Mr. Lavergne, being assumed as the steward of painting, and understands nothing, has given to me as something not worth thinking of making transportation in France. God rest his soul, since I believe the company has died in Moscow ".
But there is also the case of shrewd and rapacious Francesco Melzi d'Eril, vice president of the Cisalpine Republic, a figure that - thanks to his political office - will be able to get their hands on the altarpiece by Bartolomeo Vivarini Albino (now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana) and that of Jacopo Palma il Vecchio Gerosa (now in the Pinacoteca di Brera) (3) .
Tutto sommato, però, sono i medesimi episodi che hanno visto la luce in altre località travolte dai moti rivoluzionari, in età repubblicana. Cambiano i personaggi, le situazioni, i contesti, ma il risultato rimane analogo.
Non è comune, al contrario, assistere all’azione risoluta di un sacerdote che di fronte alle vendite e alle dispersioni del patrimonio artistico della città, si rimbocca le maniche, acquistando un numero inverosimile di dipinti, miniature, argenti e paramenti sacri, provenienti dagli edifici soppressi. Il suo nome è Giovan Battista Conti , curato della chiesa di Sant’Alessandro della Croce (una delle parishes most conspicuous of Bergamo), a figure who has served as assistant pastor from 1770 to 1800, died July 3, 1809 (4) .
nineteenth-century sources assure us that "had great influence in the parish, and if Nor is it to collect alms vistosissime, with which, taking advantage of sales followed the suppression of various monasteries, giving the parish and the garrison of the most beautiful furniture they have, including most of the finest paintings in the church of St. Alexander of conservansi Cross " (5) .
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| more Sacristy of the church, hung with paintings collected by Don Giovan Battista Conti, purchased in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and from suppressed churches |
early in life many altarpieces were going to decorate the side chapels of the church. After his death, by deed signed by his brother Don Giuseppe Conti (legitimate heir to the disappearance of kin), the collection of paintings was set up in sacristy of the church, then organized according to the criterion of uniformity of size of works by amateur Bartholomew Borsetti, have faithfully restored to service Collector's Bergamo Giacomo Carrara (6) .
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| the counter of the church in the center, the 'Coronation of the Virgin of Giovan Battista Moroni, from the destroyed church |
Today the Church of Saint Cross is known for its' important group of eighteenth-century works that exhibits, signed by Sebastiano Ricci, Giovanni Battista Pittoni, Peter Rotar, and Gian Francesco Polazzo Bettino Cignaroli (works for which tenders painting went on a rampage among the elders of the village Pignolo ), less The art gallery Conti, extended to decorate the counter , arches of chapels, altars and especially the three large rooms - and secluded - the sacristy.
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| Assumption of Enea Salmeggia located on a side altar, but from a church suppressed Gandino |
The largest group of paintings is in fact distributed across the extended walls of the sacristy, in principle, echoing the sort Borsetti, dating back to August 1820.
In many cases it is difficult to recover the exact provenance of the paintings, especially if you are guaranteed based on eyewitness accounts, represented by the memories of Charles Marenzi, or crossing his work with the news of late eighteenth-century city guides.
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| Devoto in contemplation of the Crucifixion with Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian , a painting by Giovanni Battista Moroni from the church of Sant'Andrea in Gorlago |
destroyed From Trinity Church (Pignolo that stood in Borgo, near the Church of the Holy Spirit) comes some of the most remarkable paintings of the collection (7) .
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| Trinity , bright canvas Lorenzo Lotto (currently on display al Museo Adriano Bernareggi), acquistata da don Giovan Battista Conti nel 1808, a seguito della soppressione della chiesa della Trinità |
Si va dalla sfolgorante Trinità di Lorenzo Lotto (attualmente esposta presso il vicino Museo Adriano Bernareggi) alla monumentale Incoronazione della Vergine di Giovan Battista Moroni , collocata sulla controfacciata della chiesa, alle tavole con San Sebastiano e San Defendente di Agostino Facheris da Caversegno (eseguite dietro ispirazione di un’invenzione lottesca).
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| L 'Incoronazione della Vergine , di Giovan Battista Moroni , proveniente dalla distrutta chiesa della Trinità |
Le cappelle laterali celano – nel buio degli archivolti – pale, dipinti di devozione o stendardi processionali , inchiodati alle pareti.
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| Cristo portacroce , tavola di Lorenzo Costa , a lungo creduta dagli eruditi locali dell'Ottocento un'opera del bergamasco Giovanni Cariani |
The sense of horror in the face of the empty file Carpinoni, Cavagna, Cavagnolo, Ceresa, Costa, Cotta, Gozzi, Marinoni, Moroni, Palma il Giovane, Previtali, Salmeggia, Scipioni, Stella , shakes the viewer by the throat, which is unlikely to forget an encounter with a survivor of the corner more enlightened nineteenth century.
Simone Facchinetti
Notes
(1) Circular letter of 15 March 1797, carved out in GB Locatelli Zuccala, Historical Memoirs of Bergamo from 1796 to the end of 1813, in 'Bergomum', 1936, pp. 9-10.
(2) A monument to be taken : Convento di San Francesco, edited by S. Agazzi, S. Borsatti, A. Fustinoni, Bergamo 1999, p. 53.
(3) The first quotation is derived from the rich medley of GB Locatelli Zuccala, Memoirs ..., p. 9, the second is reproduced in A. Piccinelli, Apostilles manuscript to 'Lives' of Rates (1863-1865 circa), FM Tassi, Vite de' Painters, Sculptors and Architects Bergamo, Bergamo 1793 (critical edition by F. Mazzini, II, Milano 1970, p. 203). About the two cases where it is involved Francesco Melzi d'Eril, grandson of the famous collector James Melzi d'Eril, I refer to synthetic notizie raccolte da F. Rossi, Bergamo intorno al 1500. Ricostruzione di un patrimonio disperso, in ‘Atti dell’Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti’, XLI, 1979, pp. 84, 92 nota 40.
(4) Notizie sulla vita di don Giovan Battista Conti si attingono da B. Brignoli, Vita di don Giovanni
Brignoli parroco di S. Alessandro della Croce in Bergamo,Milano 1890, pp. 56-59; ma soprattutto da
V.E. Gasdìa, Sant’Alessandro della Croce ossia La parrocchia dei Tasso a Bergamo, Bergamo 1924, pp. 94-96.
(5) La citazione, risalente a una memoria di Bernardino Brignoli, è tratta da V.E. Gasdìa, Sant'Alessandro ..., cit., P. 94.
(6) Night of paintings by the painter Bartolomeo Borzetti placed in the sacristy of S. Alex Cross in August 1820, cat. 44, Bergamo, Archives of the Parish of St. Alexander of the Cross. Some notes on the collection accounts I have collected in Giovan Battista Moroni, the look on reality (1560 - 1579), exhibition catalog, edited by S. Facchinetti, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan) 2004, p. 138, No 14.
(7) A. Piccinelli, Apostilles ..., cit., II, pp. 189, 191, 197, 201, 204, 207, 209. Also important are the descriptions of the collection that results from Maironi by G. Bridge, or is Historical Dictionary Odeporico Political Nature of the Province of Bergamo, I, Bergamo 1819, pp. 99-100, and G. Marenzi, Guide to Bergamo (1824), and MEManca edition edited by M. Panzeri, Bergamo 1984, pp. 126-130.
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