Splendid Ceilings of Tuscia, Viterbo-Part II

A Renaissance Cardinal's villa, a cloistered convent and the first gold from the New World - treasures of Etruria/Tuscia

Last November I took a friend visiting from Chicago to see Villa Lante and its Renaissance gardens in nearby Bagnaia. It was the end of the olive harvest, the areas’s most important crop, and we needed a cultural break. We had a wonderful surprise: for the first time we could access the interior of the Palazzina Montalto which had been under restoration for many decades.

Palazzina Montalto, Villa Lante, Bagnaia, Viterbo (photo Julie Staglieno)

The Montalto building was built for Cardinal Peretti di Montalto when he became master of the magnificent villa and garden in 1587. The splendid reception rooms were designed and painted by Cavalier d’Arpino and mark the highest point of Mannerist painting. The large Conversation Room has five sections with paintings of female figures and symbols of the Cardinal’s family. Below that are a band of figures- cherubs, stars and lions -all symbols recalling the coats of arms of the Peretti Montalto family. Even the two tone terracotta floor tiles repeat these symbols of the family.

On the road leading from Viterbo to Bagnaia is another splendid ceiling in the church known as Santuario della Quercia built for the Farnese pope, Paul III by Antonio da Sangallo the younger in 1536. The lacunar ceiling was designed by Giovanni di Pietro and gilded with 60 kilos of the first gold from the New World. Note the papal tiara, papal keys and a huge shield with the blue Farnese lilies - symbol of the most powerful dynasty of the time.

Santuario della Quercia - a national monument

In the center of Viterbo don’t miss the church of San Giovanni, better known as Il Gonfalone, from the name of the confraternity that built it in 1665 on the design of a pupil of Borromini. Try to ignore the empty space on the left of the entrance caused by the recent collapse of the adjacent building and enter the building where one can enjoy the faux architecture and light colors of the vaulted ceiling frescoed by Vincenzo Stringelli. Groups of angels and fluttering clouds on the ceiling make the Gonfalone a fine example of Baroque art which contrasts dramatically with the nearby medieval houses and churches. Thanks to clever restorations and the members of the confraternity who keep it open, today the church is one of the most visited monuments in Viterbo.

Il Gonfalone church- a Baroque masterpiece

The last splendid ceiling of Viterbo is hidden in what is today a normal looking high school building on Piazza Dante, right across from the laboratorio of my highly recommended bookbinders Antica Legatoria Viale.

Originally it was the convent of Santa Caterina built in 1520 where Marchesa Vittoria Colonna lived between 1541 and 1544. She was a close friend and correspondent of Michelangelo as well as a member of the Spiritualist Circle along with Cardinal Reginald Pole.

Imagine playing volleyball beneath this ceiling ?

In 1712 the nuns were able to add a beautiful Baroque ceiling to the convent church thanks to Torinese painter Antonio Colli (1661-1723) a talented pupil of Andrea Pozzo, creator of a similar ceiling in the Gesu’ church of Rome. Colli moved to Tuscia to decorate the main church of nearby Vetralla and his four daughters were educated in the St. Caterina convent. He probably got a discount on their education by painting the ceiling !

Being a cloistered convent, Colli’s magnificent ceiling remained unknown to the public until 1920 when the convent and church changed hands and became a secular school building. For many decades the former church was used as the Ruffini Institute’s gymnasium and auditorium and when the restoration is finished, it should be visible again.

Here is my iconic book of travel essays (with photos and map) about this wonderful area. If you are planning a visit send me a message, a few copies ($15) are available in USA.

Cover painting by Patricia Glee Smith