The Museo Matris Domini is housed in the oldest section of the Dominicanconvent of the same name, situated in the city centre of Bergamo, Italy. It is administered by the nuns of the foundation.
Angel with trumpet
The museum preserves a series of 13th and 14th Century frescoes which were uncovered in a 1973 restoration of what was thought to have been the old refectory and a small church within the monastery. The reappearance of these paintings was highly significant as they are amongst the earliest surviving examples of wall painting in the province of Bergamo and indeed in Lombardy as a whole.
Outstanding for their pictorial and emotion qualities are fragments from what must have been a depiction of the Last Judgment: the Just, the Blessed, two Angels with trumpets (which are of particular beauty), Saint Peter Enthroned, and Hell, all attributed to the Master of the Tree of Life.
There is another series of frescoes of great emotive and narrative quality, representing Jesus among the Doctors, the Baptism, the Virgin and Child Enthroned, Saint Catherine of Alexandria upon the Wheel, Saint Martin and the Pauper, Jesus entering Jerusalem, and the Miracle of the reanimation of Napoleone Orsini by Saint Dominic, showing the young man falling from his horse. These works, together with the Visitation, have been attributed to the so-called First Master of Abbey of Chiaravalle, an anonymous artist active in Lombardy circa 1320-30, and known only through these works, as well as frescoes in San Marco, Milan and in the eponymous Abbey of Chiaravalle.
The Visitation is a particularly striking image because of its freshness and for the expressiveness of the faces of the Virgin and Saint Elizabeth, painted by the Master with great intelligence and sensitivity. A 16th-century fresco depicting Saint Dominic (the patron of the monastery) with other saints is also featured in the museum.
The stained glass windows
The Museum also has a group of beautiful polychrome glass windows, oculi, dating from the 14th century and originally from the apse of the sanctuary.
Amongst the five windows, the largest is one depicting the Virgin with the Infant Child.
BartolomeoMontagna was an Italian Renaissance painter who mainly worked in Vicenza. He also produced works in Venice, Verona, and Padua. He is most famous for his many Madonnas and his works are known for their soft figures and depiction of eccentric marble architecture. He is considered to be heavily influenced by Giovanni Bellini, in whose workshop he might have worked around 1470. Benedetto Montagna, a productive engraver, was his son and pupil and active until about 1540. He was mentioned in Vasari's Lives as a student of Andrea Mantegna but this is widely contested by art historians.
Alessandro Bonvicino, more commonly known as Moretto, or in Italian Il Moretto da Brescia, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Brescia, where he also mostly worked. His dated works span the period from 1524 to 1554, but he was already described as a master in 1516. He was mainly a painter of altarpieces that tend towards sedateness, mostly for churches in and around Brescia, but also in Bergamo, Milan, Verona, and Asola; many remain in the churches they were painted for. Most are on canvas, but a number even of large ones are on wood panel. Only a handful of drawings survive.
Bernardino Luini was a north Italian painter from Leonardo's circle during the High Renaissance. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he was described as having taken "as much from Leonardo as his native roots enabled him to comprehend". Consequently, many of his works were attributed to Leonardo. He was known especially for his graceful female figures with elongated eyes, called Luinesque by Vladimir Nabokov.
Mortara is a comune in the Province of Pavia, region of Lombardy, Italy. It lies between the Agogna and Terdoppio rivers, in the historical district known as Lomellina, a rice-growing agricultural center. It received the honorary title of city with a royal decree in 1706.
Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino, was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the Veneto and Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth several different styles.
St. Lambert's Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in the village of Sankt Lambrecht in the Styrian Grebenzen nature reserve in Austria. The monastery is located 1,072 m (3,517 ft) above sea level. The monastery complex and its gardens are part of the Zirbitzkogel-Grebenzen nature park.
The basilica diSan Pietro is a Catholic basilica and abbey in the Italian city of Perugia. Its bell tower, standing at 70 meters tall, is the tallest structure in Perugia and is one of the city's most significant symbols. It is an Italian national monument
The Basilica of San Domenico is one of the major churches in Bologna, Italy. The remains of Saint Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), are buried inside the exquisite shrine Arca di San Domenico, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell'Arca and the young Michelangelo.
The Matris Domini Monastery is an enclosed female monastery which hosts the museum of the same name, situated in the lower part of the Italian city of Bergamo. It houses a museum containing several medieval frescoes with religious themes.
Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whose membership changes over time and according to the context. The image develops from Early Christian art, as a depiction of the Heavenly throne as described in 1 Enoch, Daniel 7, and The Apocalypse of John. In the Byzantine world, the image developed slightly differently into the half-length Christ Pantocrator, "Christ, Ruler of All", a usually unaccompanied figure, and the Deesis, where a full-length enthroned Christ is entreated by Mary and St. John the Baptist, and often other figures. In the West, the evolving composition remains very consistent within each period until the Renaissance, and then remains important until the end of the Baroque, in which the image is ordinarily transported to the sky.
Santa Maria del Carmine is a church in Pavia, Lombardy, northern Italy, considered amongst the best examples of Lombard Gothic architecture. It was begun in 1374 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, on a project attributed to Bernardo da Venezia. The construction followed a slow pace, and was restarted in 1432, being finished in 1461.
The Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore is a large Benedictine monastery in the Italian region of Tuscany, 10 km south of Asciano. Its buildings, which are mostly of red brick, are conspicuous against the grey clayey and sandy soil—the Crete senesi which give this area of Tuscany its name.
The Apse of Santa María d'Àneu is a romanesque apse of the church of Santa Maria, Àneu, created in the late 11th century or early 12th century, the transferred frescos from which are now exhibited at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, in Barcelona. The decoration of the apse of the church of Santa María d’Àneu combines themes and motifs from the Old and New Testaments. Originally painted at the Church of Santa María d’Àneu
The Chiesa dei Domenicani is a medieval church in Bolzano/Bozen, South Tyrol, northern Italy.
The Basilica di San Giulio is a Roman Catholic church on the small Isola San Giulio in the center of Lake Orta, province of Novara, north-western Italy. It has the status of a minor basilica. Although the island is part of the Orta San Giulio municipality, the basilica belongs to the San Giacomo parish, including the island and a portion of the west coast of the lake in San Maurizio d'Opaglio municipality.
The Abbey of Sant'Albino is a church-monastery complex, founded in the 5th century in Mortara, Province of Pavia, region of Lombardy, Italy.
San Bernardino in Pignolo is a Roman Catholic church located on Via Pignolo #59, in Bergamo, region of Lombardy, Italy.
Santa Caterina d'Alessandria or Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a Roman Catholic church with a main facade on Piazza Bellini, and a lateral Western facade facing the elaborate Fontana Pretoria, in the historic quarter of Kalsa in the city of Palermo, region of Sicily, Italy. In front of the main facade, across the piazza Bellini, rise the older churches of San Cataldo and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio, while across Piazza Pretoria is the Theatine church of San Giuseppe and the entrance to the Quattro Canti. Refurbished over the centuries, the church retains elements and decorations from the Renaissance, Baroque, and late-Baroque (Rococo) eras. This church is distinct from the Oratorio di Santa Caterina found in the Olivella neighborhood.
San Michele Arcangelo is a renaissance-style, Roman Catholic parish church located in the town of Antegnate, province of Bergamo, region of Lombardy, Italy.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
