| San Zeno al Foro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Province | Brescia |
| Location | |
| Location | Brescia, Italy |
| Geographic coordinates | Coordinates: 45°32′22″N10°13′34″E / 45.53936°N 10.22598°E |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Church |
| Style | Baroque |
| Completed | 1745 |
San Zeno al Foro is a church in center of the city of Brescia, situated in Piazza del Foro on the Via dei Musei, a few yards from the ruins of the Roman Capitoline temple in the city.
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometres from the lakes Garda and Iseo. With a population of more than 200,000, it is the second largest city in the region and the fourth of northwest Italy. The urban area of Brescia extends beyond the administrative city limits and has a population of 672,822, while over 1.5 million people live in its metropolitan area. The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with over 1,200,000 inhabitants.
A church at the site had been present from the 12th century. The present Baroque structure was completed about 1745.
Baroque architecture is the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late 16th-century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church. It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Common features of Baroque architecture included gigantism of proportions; a large open central space where everyone could see the altar; twisting columns, theatrical effects, including light coming from a cupola above; dramatic interior effects created with bronze and gilding; clusters of sculpted angels and other figures high overhead; and an extensive use of trompe-l'oeil, also called "quadratura," with painted architectural details and figures on the walls and ceiling, to increase the dramatic and theatrical effect.
The interior, entrance and presbytery, is decorated by four canvases depicting Prayer in the Garden, Baptism of Christ, Annunciation, and Birth of Jesus, (1741) by Antonio Paglia. In the first altar to the right is a painting dedicated to the Saced Heart of Jesus by Cesare Bortolotti, that in 1888 replaced an altarpiece by Paglia. The second altar on the left has a Pieta by Francesco Monti; his Death of St Anne was replaced in 1857 in the second altar on the right with a painting of the same topic by Luigi Campini . The first altar on the left dedicated to Saints Erasmo and Venanzio was painted by Giuseppe Tortelli.
Antonio Paglia is an Italian painter active mainly in Brescia in a late-Baroque or Rococo style. He is the son of the Baroque painter Francesco Paglia. He collaborated with his brother Angelo. He apparently traveled after 1714 to Venice to apprentice with Sebastiano Ricci. By 1718, he has returned to Brescia, where he specialized in painting altarpieces and religious frescos. Among his main works was a large decorative cycle for the parish church of Chiari.
Francesco Monti (1646–1703) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, mainly active in his natal city of Brescia, as well as Parma.
Giuseppe Tortelli was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active in Brescia.
The Baroque main altar is highly decorated with colored marble. The tabernacle is sculpted out of semi-precious stones, including lapis lazuli. The altarpiece was painted (1739) by Giovanni Battista Sassi. The choir stalls are carved with scenes from the life of the bishop St Zeno. The organ was built in 1877 by Tonoli.
Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BCE, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania. It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun.
Giovanni Battista Sassi was an Italian painter, active mainly in Milan and other areas of Lombardy, who painted in a late-Baroque or Rococo style.
