Location: 5 mi (8 km) North of Pavia Map
Open: 9am- 1:30pm, 2:30pm- 4:30pm Tue- Sun, public holidays
9am-
1:30pm, 2:30pm- 5pm Tue- Sun March, October
9am- 1:30pm, 2:30pm-
5:30pm Tue- Sun April, September
9am- 1:30pm, 2:30pm- 6pm Tue-
Sun May- Aug
last admission 30 minutes before closing
Constructed: started in 1396 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of
Milan
The Certosa di Pavia (Gratiarum Carthusia -
Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie) is a historical monumental
complex that includes a monastery and a sanctuary. It is located in
the municipality of the same name of Certosa di Pavia, a locality
about eight kilometers north of the provincial capital.
Built
at the end of the 14th century at the behest of Gian Galeazzo
Visconti, lord of Milan, in fulfillment of the vow of his wife
Caterina on 8 January 1390 and as a sepulchral mausoleum of the
Milanese dynasty, it was completed in about 50 years and combines
different styles, from the late Italian Gothic to the Renaissance,
and boasts architectural and artistic contributions from various
masters of the time, from Bernardo da Venezia, its original
designer, to Giovanni Solari and his son Guiniforte, Giovanni
Antonio Amadeo, Cristoforo Lombardo and others.
Originally
entrusted to the Carthusian community, then to the Cistercian
community and, for a short time, also to the Benedictine community,
after the unification of the Kingdom of Italy, the Certosa was
declared a national monument in 1866 and acquired among the state
property of the Italian state , as well as all the artistic and
ecclesiastical goods contained therein; since 1968 it has housed a
small Cistercian monastic community.
Other buildings that are
part of the monumental complex house the seat of the Museum of the
Certosa di Pavia and the local Carabinieri station.
The construction of the Certosa di Pavia was begun by Gian Galeazzo
Visconti, Duke of Milan, who on 27 August 1396 laid the first stone of
the Certosa. After the investiture as Duke, paid ten thousand florins to
the Emperor Wenceslaus of Luxembourg in 1395, and the impetus given in
1386 to the construction of the Cathedral of Milan, also the erection of
this monument, for which the Visconti would have spent enormous sums ,
represented an instrument of authority and prestige that competed with
the other Italian courts of the time. The monumental tomb of the Duke
should also have been placed in it, for which he left precise
testamentary provisions only partially fulfilled almost a century after
his death.
The Certosa is also the result of political tensions
created by the new aspirations and political ideals of Gian Galeazzo,
now oriented towards a monarchy. In 1385 Gian Galeazzo with a coup
d'état deposed his uncle Bernabò and reunified the Visconti domains
under himself, however the new lord of Milan, like his father Galeazzo
II already, resided and maintained his court in Pavia, thus recalling
the memory (of which he intended to be heir) of the Lombard kings and
the Italian kingdom who, in the Royal Palace of Pavia, had placed the
center of their royalty. In 1386, wanting to emphasize their centrality
questioned by the lord's choices, the people of Milan decided to build a
new building: the Milan Cathedral. However, relations between Gian
Galeazzo and the top management of the factory (chosen by the citizens
of Milan) were often tense: the lord intended to transform the cathedral
into the pantheon of the dynasty, inserting the funeral monument of his
father Galeazzo II in the central part of the cathedral and this found
strong opposition both from the factory and from the Milanese, who
wanted to emphasize their autonomy. A clash arose, which forced Gian
Galeazzo to decide (perhaps inspired by what Philip II of Burgundy had
recently accomplished with the Champmol Charterhouse) to found a new
construction site destined exclusively for the Visconti dynasty: the
Pavia Charterhouse, to which, without scruple, he repeatedly assigned
many employees of the Duomo factory, even of high level, such as Giacomo
da Campione or Giovannino de' Grassi. In the duke's intentions, the
Duomo was the church of the nobles, the people, the artisan and merchant
guilds of Milan, while the Certosa was instead to be the expression of a
new state form: the Duchy.
The monastery stands on the edge of the ancient Roman road that
connected Pavia (then Ticinum) to Milan, a very fertile area, crossed by
numerous canals and watercourses, in the communal age rich in
settlements, mills, fortified farms and castles. After the Visconti
conquest of Pavia (1359), the construction of the Visconti Castle, where
Galeazzo II transferred his court in 1365, and the creation of the large
Visconti Park (which extended over 22 km²) north of the city, the of the
area was profoundly distorted: several castles (such as the castle of
Mirabello) were expropriated by the Visconti, some of them were
demolished, the ancient Roman road was diverted and the area enclosed
within the perimeter of the park was exclusively reserved for Visconti
and their court. Originally the position of the monastery coincided with
the northern edge of the Parco Visconteo del Castello di Pavia, of which
today only a trace remains in the Vernavola Park and in the Garzaie
della Carola and Porta Chiossa, north of Pavia, which however are no
longer connected to the castle and the Certosa. It is possible to
observe the representation of this park on the "Consecration of the
Certosa" bas-relief placed in the entrance portal of the Certosa church
where you can see the borders delimited by the walls, the woods, the
watercourses and the buildings (among which are the castles of Mirabello
and Pavia are recognizable).
The position was strategic: halfway
between Milan, the capital of the duchy, and Pavia, the second most
important city, where the duke had grown up and where the court was
based, in the Visconti castle. The place chosen for the foundation was a
wood in the extreme north of the ancient Visconteo Park, a hunting
reserve of the lords of Lombardy.
The construction carried out a project that derived from the vote
issued in the form of a will in the year 1390 by the second wife of Gian
Galeazzo, Caterina Visconti, daughter of Bernabò Visconti and Regina
della Scala. Caterina Visconti's first pregnancy had gone badly: a
daughter was born and died in June 1385. The couple made a vow to the
Madonna to give each child born the middle name "Maria". In 1388
Giovanni Maria was born who survived. As a new birth approached on 8
January 1390 Caterina made a vow to build a Certosa near Pavia if she
survived the new terrible experience for her. She was born a child who
died, but Catherine was saved and kept the vow. Subsequently, in 1392, a
new son was born, Filippo Maria.
This precise information comes
to us from Bernardino Corio who, in his L'Historia di Milano of 1503,
wrote: «and when the year one thousand three hundred and ninety had come
to the point, at the eight of genaro, Caterina wife of Giovan Galeazzo,
Count of Virtue, vowing in the form of a will, she ordered that a
monastery of Carthusians with twelve friars should be built in a Villa
in Pavese, where she often went, and in the event of childbirth, dying,
she begged her husband to fulfill these orders, recommending his family,
especially the brothers and his sisters".
The construction
project of the Certosa was entrusted to Bernardo da Venezia and
Cristoforo da Conigo, who presided over the works until the death of
Duke Gian Galeazzo, which occurred in 1402. The ceremony of the "laying
of the first stone" was solemnly celebrated in the presence of the Duke
and of many professors and students of the University of Pavia on 27
August 1396. The event followed a precise dynastic ritual: in front of
the eyes of the bishops of Pavia, Novara, Feltre and Vicenza, Gian
Galeazzo passed the foundation stone first to Giovanni Maria Visconti
and then to Filippo Maria Visconti, as a sign of the transmission of
ducal power. Bartolomeo Serafini, who was prior of the charterhouse from
1398 to 1409, was called to supervise the work.
During the first
phase of the works, the monks resided in the ancient castle of Torre del
Mangano and in the Castle of Carpiano (or Grangia), one of the many
territories left to the monks by Gian Galeazzo, to then occupy the
convent rooms, the first to be built. Gian Galeazzo Visconti also
donated the towns of Binasco, Magenta, Boffalora and San Colombano to
the Church, in 1397 also Selvanesco and Marcignago, and in 1400 also
Vigano.
According to Luca Beltrami's hypothesis, the first
supports of the cloisters, awaiting more dignified architectural
solutions, were square brick pillars. Religious functions were
provisionally celebrated in the refectory, the only room with dimensions
suitable for accommodating the entire Carthusian community, made up of
monks and lay brothers.
The continuation of construction in the fifteenth century
With the
death of the duke in 1402 the works stopped. In 1412, the second son of
Gian Galeazzo and successor to the duchy, Filippo Maria Visconti, gave
new impetus to the construction by entrusting the work to Giovanni
Solari who worked on it from 1428 to 1462, even after the death of
Filippo Maria (1447) and the conquest of the dukedom by Francesco Sforza
(1450). In 1434 and 1454, the inner vestibule and the second vestibule
were built, respectively. The works then passed to the architect's son,
Guiniforte Solari who worked there until 1481. Later, Giovanni Antonio
Amadeo continued them between 1481 and 1499, under Duke Ludovico il
Moro.
The church, destined to become the dynastic mausoleum of
the Dukes of Milan, had been designed from the outset with larger
dimensions than those that had been built up to now, with a structure
with three naves, which had never been used by the Carthusian Order and
was built last compared to the other structures of the Certosa. The nave
was designed in the Gothic style, and its construction was completed in
1465. However, the influence of the early Renaissance had become
important in Italy and therefore Guiniforte Solari, who led the works
between 1462 and 1481, left an imprint more Renaissance to the rest of
the church, with its arched galleries and pinnacles (including the small
dome), with terracotta details. The cloisters were also redesigned. The
large cloister was definitively arranged in 1472.
Given the
absence of marble and stone quarries in the vicinity of the Certosa,
around the middle of the 15th century, the problem arose of finding the
stone material necessary for the continuation of the construction site.
The Carthusians, who enjoyed substantial and constant income guaranteed
by the vast agricultural funds donated by Gian Galeazzo Visconti and his
successors to the Certosa and strong in the financial and political
support of the Sforzas, unlike other large contemporary Lombard
factories, such as that of the cathedral of Milan and that of the Duomo
of Pavia, never acquired their own marble quarries, but always relied on
private suppliers, relying mainly on the Fabbrica del Duomo of Milan.
Already in 1463 the Milanese yard supplied the marble for the capitals
of the cloisters and in 1473 a contract was stipulated between the
Fabbrica del Duomo and the monks of the Certosa, thanks to which the
Fabbrica undertook to guarantee continuous supplies of marble and
building stone to the Certosa . Control over the marble was entrusted to
Guniforte Solari, who was in charge of both construction sites at the
time. The materials, which, similarly to those for the Duomo of Milan,
enjoyed ducal exemption from duties, reached the Certosa via the
Navigliaccio and were unloaded at Binasco, from where they continued by
cart to the construction site, however, after the restoration of the
section navigation between Binasco and Pavia (1473) it was possible to
unload the marbles and stones directly at the Certosa. Also in 1473, the
cladding and decoration works began on the facade of the church, for
which the Carthusians decided to use Carrara marble, a unique case in
the Lombard area, considered at the time of greater value than that of
Candoglia and whose cost was higher than the other materials available
in the Ossola area.
As early as 1476, the Carthusians established
relationships with some families of merchants and quarrymen of Carrara,
such as the Maffiolis, tenants of the quarries of the Marquis Malaspina.
The precious marble, after being embarked in Carrara, arrived by ship,
after circumnavigating Italy, at the mouth of the Po, from where it then
went up again on boats up to Pavia. Furthermore, in the early 1490s, the
Carthusians sent their own agent to Lunigiana, Giacomo Boni, provided
with a letter written by Ludovico il Moro asking the local lord, Antonio
Alberico II Malaspina, to collaborate with Boni in finding the marble
for the facade of the Certosa and for the funeral monument of Gian
Galeazzo Visconti. The traffic of Apuan marble to the Certosa was so
voluminous that the Carthusians themselves came to resell it to other
Lombard shipyards and in particular to the Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan.
On 1 March 1474, an imposing procession of over four thousand
people, including religious, ambassadors, nobles, professors and
commoners, starting from the castle of Pavia accompanied the ashes of
the founder Gian Galeazzo crossing the entire ducal park up to the
Certosa, solemn funerals immortalized in bas-reliefs of the church
portal.
On May 3, 1497 the Church was officially consecrated by
the papal nuncio in front of a large crowd, but the lower part of the
façade was completed only in 1507 and the transept and the new sacristy
were completed in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The interior of
the monastery contains works of art from as many as four centuries,
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th centuries.
The Carthusian monks who lived there were initially twelve, in total
cloistered life, and bound by a contract which provided for the use of
part of their proceeds (fields, land, income, etc.) for the construction
of the monastery itself. In the eighteenth century the monastery was the
owner of large estates (in part already donated by Gian Galeazzo and his
successors) scattered in the fertile countryside between Pavia and
Milan, such as Badile, Battuda, Bernate, Binasco, Boffalora (here the
monks had several buildings along the Naviglio Grande, also used as
warehouses, taverns and, until 1775, they also managed the postal
service along the canal), Borgarello, Carpiano (the castle of Carpiano
and the church of San Martino were also owned by the monks), Carpignano,
Milan , Giovenzano, Graffignana, Landriano, Magenta, Marcignago, Opera,
Pairana, Pasturago, Quintosole, San Colombano (where they also
controlled the castle of San Colombano) Torre del Mangano, Trezzano,
Velezzo, Vidigulfo, Vigano Certosino (where the monastery also had a
hospice), Vigentino, Villamaggiore, Villanterio, Villareggio and
Zeccone, which together amounted to 2,325 hectares of irrigated land.
Furthermore, the Certosa also owned a large palace, with garden and
oratory in Milan, in the parish of San Michele alla Chiusa, a palace and
the church of Santa Maria d'Ognissanti in Pavia and, from the second
half of the 17th century, a large farm specialized in the production of
wine, with a palace (called Certosa Cantù), in Casteggio. Thanks to its
huge land and real estate assets, the Certosa was the richest
ecclesiastical institution in the duchy of Milan between the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries.
In October 1524 the French king Francis
I stopped in the Certosa before starting the siege, which would end with
the battle of Pavia in 1525. In 1560 the Prior General of the
Carthusians, a certain Piero Sarde, authorized the installation of the
equipment suitable for printing missals and chorales, and on 28 August
he invited all the Carthusian monasteries in Italy to stock up
exclusively with the products of the new printing house (the first book
"Breviarium Carthusiensis" was printed in 1561). In 1565, with the
various architectural extensions such as the construction of the large
cloister, the Carthusians who lived there at least doubled in number
(24), hence the 24 large two-story prayer cells and also equipped with a
small internal garden.
The commissioning of important works of
art also continued in the Baroque era during the cardinalate of Federico
Borromeo, with the construction of the so-called Palazzo Ducale by
Richini and the commissioning of the works to the main Milanese artists
of the time: Morazzone, Cerano, Cairo, Crespi .
The monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie was suppressed on 16
December 1782. The Carthusian monks were expelled in 1782 by the emperor
Joseph II, who confiscated the assets of all the contemplative orders of
his estates. Among the reasons given for its suppression, there was the
failure by the monks to devolve the huge revenues donated to the
monastery by Duke Gian Galeazzo, in favor of the poor and sacred places,
once the construction of the monastery was completed.
The
Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie was established in
1784, two years after the suppression of the Carthusian monastery. In
1796, in retaliation for the revolt in Pavia, the lead covering of the
church roof was removed by the French, as were the liturgical silverware
and the large canopy, covered with flakes of gold and precious stones,
used for the procession of Corpus Christi. The monastery was
definitively suppressed in 1798, when the executive directorate of the
Cisalpine republic, authorized by law 19 fiorile year VI, recalled to
the nation the goods and effects belonging to the Cistercians of the
Certosa di Pavia.
In 1798 the monastery passed to the Carmelites, suffering the violent
devastation wrought by Napoleon's troops, who looted and destroyed some
artistic treasures. In 1810 it was finally closed, until 1843, when the
Carthusians returned to the monastery.
With law 3036 of 7 July
1866, the monastery was declared an Italian national monument and the
ecclesiastical assets became the property of the Kingdom of Italy, but
until 1879 some Carthusian monks continued to live in the monastery. In
1899 Antonio Maria Ceriani, prefect of the Ambrosian Library, he was
charged with tidying up the monastery library, which was in very bad
condition. Ceriani carried out this task helped by a young priest:
Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI.
In 1912, under the
direction of Luca Beltrami, the restoration works of the monastic
complex began, facilitated by the collaboration with the Fabbrica del
Duomo of Milan, which supplied a lot of stone material at a favorable
price. During the First World War most of the works of art of the
Certosa were brought to Rome to avoid the risk that they could be
damaged by war events, while others, judged irremovable, such as the
cenotaph of Ludovico il Moro and Beatrice d'Este, were covered with
sandbags. On 11 October 1930 Pope Pius XI decided to re-entrust the
place to the Carthusians.
During Fascism, the monastery was
visited only once by Benito Mussolini, on October 31, 1932. During the
Second World War the Certosa was covered by scaffolding and sandbags, to
protect it from possible bombing and Gino Chierici, Superintendent of
Medieval Art and modern city of Milan, set up a first aid team in case
the monument was damaged by the war. The chronicles also reported the
discovery of the Duce's body, preserved in a wooden crate wrapped in
gummed canvas bags, about a year after his shooting, on August 12, 1946,
right inside the Certosa. The following year, the Carthusians abandoned
the monastery, both for lack of vocations and for the scandal of the
discovery of the Duce's remains. The monastery remained closed until
1949, when the Carmelites settled there again until 1961. After the
Second Vatican Council, the Vatican decided to entrust the monastery
again to the Cistercians of the Casamariensis congregation (coming from
the Casamari Abbey), who inaugurated October 10, 1968.
Today, it
is managed by the Cistercian monks of the Priory of the Blessed Virgin
Mary of the Certosa Ticinese, under the guidance of Prior Celestino
Parente. Here they carry out monastic life, also taking care of guided
tours and the sale of sacred articles and products obtained from the
agricultural funds with which the monastery is endowed: rice, honey,
herbal teas and medicinal herbs and some liqueurs, such as Gocce
Imperiali and Nocino.
In the premises adjacent to the monastery
is the Museum of the Certosa di Pavia which, since May 2008, has instead
been managed directly by the Superintendence for the historical,
artistic and ethno-anthropological heritage of Milan.
Access to the monastic complex is through a Renaissance vestibule, frescoed both inside and out. In the entrance lunette, faded, two angels hold the coat of arms of the client Gian Galeazzo, with the Visconti snake and the imperial eagle. The upper decoration, applied by Bernardino de Rossi in 1508, is better preserved. Inside, a marble arch with plant motifs bears roundels with the effigies of Gian Galeazzo and Filippo Maria Visconti. On the sides, the saints Christopher and Sebastian by Bernardino Luini, a follower of Leonardo. The entire interior is covered with Renaissance motifs in bright colors and decorated with the monogram GRA-CAR (“Gratiarum Chartusia”, Certosa delle Grazie).
The church has a Latin cross plan divided into three naves with an
apse and transept, covered by cross vaults on pointed arches, inspired,
albeit on a smaller scale, by the proportions of the Milan Cathedral. In
fact, three architects of the cathedral collaborated on the first
project, by Bernardo da Venezia: Marco da Carona, Giacomo da Campione
and Giovannino de' Grassi.
The endings of the transepts and of
the main chapel are singular, made up of square-plan chapels closed on
three sides by semicircular apses, according to a trefoil solution
probably of classical inspiration.
The plan of the Certosa has
the same layout as the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Pavia), a
previous work by Bernardo da Venezia himself, but with an extra span in
correspondence with the presbytery and each arm of the transept. The
original element of the layout of the nave is made up of a third
"diagonal" square which is added to the basic double square of the plan.
With this superimposed design, we obtain the outline of the
eight-pointed star or octogram (in German acht-uhr or acht-ort, eight
hours or eight places), which is found depicted everywhere, as a symbol
of Our Lady of Grace and of the Certosa, with the initials Gra-Car, even
in the floor tiles.
The materials used for the construction are
mixed: the pillars and the lower parts of the walls are in cut stone,
which are superimposed on the upper parts and the brick vaults. The
construction technique of the vaults is a Gothic cross vault. The vaults
of the lateral naves result from the combination of five cross segments
and open like "hoods" towards the central space. The hexapartite vaults
are painted alternately with geometric motifs and with a starry sky,
based on a design by Bergognone, creator of all the pictorial
decorations of the Renaissance period. The vaults are supported by
bundled pillars, clearly of Gothic inspiration, while the access arches
to the side chapels of the naves already have a classic design with
Corinthian capitals, testifying to the transition from Gothic to
Renaissance. Giovanni Solari is considered the author of all the
internal architecture, who supervised the building from 1428 to 1462,
when his son Guiniforte succeeded him, ducal engineers, authors of the
major projects commissioned by the Sforzas of those years, such as the
cathedral, the main hospital and the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie
in Milan.
The first solution of the facade, more sober and with genuinely
Gothic forms, due to the Solari, can be seen represented in the fresco
by Bergognone with Gian Galeazzo giving the Certosa to the Virgin.
However, when only the plinth of this project had been completed, it was
entrusted in 1491 to Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, who waited until 1499, in
collaboration with the Milanese Giovanni Antonio Piatti. Briosco then
continued in the first years of the sixteenth century, creating the
sumptuous portal, and in the second half of the century Cristoforo
Lombardo, who executed the upper part of the facade, characterized by a
less redundant ornamentation, also using materials already worked on
previously. Even his activity, however, was interrupted never to be
resumed, so that the central crowning pediment was never built.
The facade, created by superimposing simple rectangles, is full of
decorations, a typical procedure of Lombard Renaissance architecture and
is mainly made of Carrara marble and, to a lesser extent, of Candoglia
marble, Varenna stone, Saltrio stone and, in the edges of the windows,
Egyptian red porphyry (the latter probably obtained from ancient
monuments).
In the base, which in the intentions of the designers
is to represent the classical age, medallions are inserted that
represent famous characters of antiquity, and mythological
representations. In their creation, the inspiration from the medals of
the Roman era is evident, with the representation of emperors' profiles
and allegorical representations. The reference to ancient art motifs
continues in the historiated pilasters which, above the base, frame
bas-reliefs with evangelical and biblical episodes, and niches with
statues of prophets. At this level, the exuberant decoration covers the
entire surface without leaving any free spaces. The floral and ancient
motifs, such as the nude figures or the labors of Hercules, blend with
the bas-reliefs and statues created by the different masters involved in
the work. In the absence of precise historical documentation, the
attributions of the individual parts are made by critics on the basis of
stylistic details. The harsher and more angular representations, which
refer to the Ferrara expressionism of the mid-fifteenth century, are
thus attributed to the Mantegazza brothers, Antonio and Cristoforo. The
upper level has projecting buttresses with statues of apostles, angels
and saints, alternating with the four large mullioned windows, two of
which are blind. The two levels are separated by a dark stone cornice,
which has a light decorative motif of plant spirals, figures of fauns
and ancient medals inserted in the center, characteristic of profane
Pavia buildings of the time, such as Palazzo Carminali Bottigella. These
showy elements that divide the facade into horizontal bands help to give
it the characteristic flat pattern opposite to the verticality of the
Gothic architecture of the previous period. In the large mullioned
windows with a very dense, lively and extravagant decoration, Amadeo's
imagination is released, to whom both the design and part of the
realization are attributed. In it are juxtaposed cheering putti with
garlands, female figures with cornucopias, angels who sing hymns and
mitered figures leaning out of the windows.
From the upper level
the ornamentation becomes decidedly more sober, implemented in the
following decades after Amadeo abandoned the building site. Above the
gallery of small arches, with statues due to the pupils of Amadeo,
Briosco and Tamagnino, there is a large oculus surmounted by a tympanum
in the center, and on the sides mullioned windows crowned by lunettes.
Here the plastic ornamentation gives way to smooth slabs with simple
geometric motifs. The minute sculptural decoration continues in the
pinnacles, of which only the lateral ones were made, leaving the central
part unfinished after the last intervention by Cristoforo Lombardo in
the second half of the sixteenth century.
The portal is a
collaborative work between Amadeo and his pupil Benedetto Briosco (1501)
and is characterized by paired columns and bas-reliefs with Stories of
the Certosa. In the central lunette, two pairs of Carthusians pay homage
to the Virgin and Child. In the colossal entablature, classic tripods
alternate with roundels with Angels. Below, a very small and fragile
decoration narrates Episodes from the history of the Certosa, and Lives
of saints among vine leaves, such as San Siro and Sant'Ambrogio, due to
Stefano and Battista da Sesto.
Hidden by the bulk of the facade,
in the south transept, there is also a small bell tower, erected in 1690
and equipped with three bells, dating back respectively to 1691, 1692
and 1816.
The pictorial decoration of the interiors was initially entrusted from 1488 to Ambrogio da Fossano known as il Bergognone (1453 - 1523), a Lombard painter of Foppe culture, who conceived the fresco decoration, and nine altarpieces, of which only three are still on site . Many of the side chapels were in fact renovated in the following centuries. The counter-façade was frescoed in 1679 by Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista Procaccini with the Assumption of the Madonna and figures of saints, Sibyls and Angels.
The first chapel on the left is in the Baroque style, rearranged by
the prior Timoteo Baroffio between 1602 and 1614. The altarpiece with
the Magdalene at the feet of Christ is by Giuseppe Peroni from Parma
(1757), while the fresco decoration is by Federico Bianchi, a pupil of
Ercole Procaccini (1663). The altar is made of lumachella or Egyptian
granite, while the bases and capitals were cast in bronze by Annibale
Busca in 1613 and the frontal in semi-precious stones and polychrome
marble is the work of Andrea and Carlo Sacchi. On the other hand, the
sink sculpted by the Mantegazzas and the stained glass window by the de'
Mottis, authors of many of the famous stained glass windows of the Milan
Cathedral, date back to the 15th century.
The second chapel
houses the famous Polyptych by Pietro Perugino, commissioned by Duke
Ludovico il Moro to the famous Umbrian painter in 1496. It develops on
two registers: above the Eternal Father, below the three panels with the
Archangel Michael, the Adoration of the Child and St. Raphael and
Tobias. The Eternal Father alone is original by Perugino; the lower
plates were given in 1856 to the National Gallery in London. In place of
the two tables scattered on either side of the Eternal Father, the two
panels with the Doctors of the Church by Bergognone were inserted at the
top, made for another polyptych of the Certosa which was subsequently
dismembered. The altar frontal, in semi-precious stones and polychrome
marbles, is the work of Tommaso Orsolino from 1648. The chapel houses a
wooden relic of the True Cross.
The third chapel, dedicated to
Saint John the Baptist, to whom the cycle of frescoes by the Genoese
Giovan Battista Carlone is dedicated, characterized by lively colours,
monumental architectural settings and a fresh and realistic rendering of
the figures, while the altar, in French marble, it was made by Tommaso
Orsolino around 1650.
The fourth chapel was originally dedicated
to San Benedetto, but in 1641 it was rebuilt and reconsecrated to San
Giuseppe and the Magi. The altar, equipped with alabaster columns, was
built between 1637 and 1643, preserves a frontal with the Massacre of
the Innocents, by Dionigi Bussola of 1677, while the altarpiece by the
Cremonese painter Pietro Martire Neri (1640-41) depicts the Adoration of
the Magi. The chapel preserves two frescoes: Madonna with Child and San
Girolamo by Ambrogio da Fossano.
In the fifth chapel, the
Altarpiece by Francesco Cairo (inserted in a rich Baroque altar in
alabaster and polychrome marble), represents Saint Catherine of Siena
together with her homonymous Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The chapel
is illuminated by a large window, equipped with a stained glass window
made around 1485 by an anonymous Lombard master on a cartoon by Vincenzo
Foppa depicting Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
The sixth houses
one of the major pictorial masterpieces of the complex, the Altarpiece
of Sant'Ambrogio (1490) by Bergognone, a sacred conversation between
Milanese saints. The painting shows a very high technical quality, with
a meticulous rendering of the precious details of the garments, which
reveal Bergognone's particular interpretation of the manner of the
Flemings and Antonello da Messina, while the hieratic composure of Saint
Ambrose still appears in the Foppesque style. in Carrara marble, by
Giuseppe Rusnati from 1695, it depicts the Battle of Parabiago.
Entirely Baroque is the last chapel on the left, where the animated
scenes are by Cristoforo Storer. The painting with the Virgin of the
Rosary is a masterpiece by the Milanese Baroque master Morazzone, a
painter in the service of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who creates a work
of refined elegance in the delicate tones, elongated shapes and sweet
expressions of the characters. The altar, in polychrome marble and
semi-precious stones, was made by Tommaso Orsolino between 1614 and
1621, while the frontal with the Adoration of the Magi is the work of
Giovanni Battista Maestri from 1675.
On the right, the first
chapel preserves a fresco with the Adoration of the Child Jesus
attributed to Ambrogio da Fossano, while on the vault Carthusian
converts were depicted by Iacopino de Mottis and Bernardino Zenale.
The second chapel houses another Renaissance masterpiece
commissioned by Duke Ludovico to a pupil of Pinturicchio, witness of his
desire to enrich the heritage of the charterhouse with works by the most
famous Italian masters of the time. The polyptych is signed by Macrino
d'Alba on the lower central table and dated 1496. It shows the profound
classical culture of the author, in the risen Christ conceived on
classical statuary models, and in the Roman architecture against the
backgrounds of the two lateral Saints (Septizonio, Terme di Diocleziano,
Torre delle Milizie), in the golden frieze on a red background of the
step of the throne of the Virgin which derives from a model of the Domus
Aurea. The two panels by Bergognone with the Four Evangelists, added
later, show the profoundly realistic rendering of the subjects updated
on Bramante's perspective and illusionistic innovations. The altar, in
polychrome marble, preserves a frontal made by Tommaso Orsolino.
Of note by Bergognone himself are the San Siro altarpiece (1491) in the
fifth chapel and the Crucifixion (1490) in the fourth. Other altarpieces
by the same artist are now dispersed among museums and private
collections: here are the triptych with Saints Christopher and George,
now in Budapest, the altarpiece of the two Saints Catherine (about
1490); London, National Gallery) and the Christ carrying the cross and
the Carthusians from the Pinacoteca Malaspina in Pavia (about 1493).
The sixth chapel on the right houses the Madonna and Child with
Saints Petro and Paul, a Baroque masterpiece by Guercino. Below, the
admirable altar frontal shows a fantasy with architectures, garlands of
flowers and birds of great chromatic effect. The work, in fine marble
and semi-precious stones, is by the marble worker Carlo Battista Sacchi.
In the centre, the decoration becomes exuberant around the pendant
medallion with the papal coat of arms consisting of the tiara and the
keys of St. Peter. It is one of the most notable frontals of the
Certosa, made in 1688.
The seventh chapel on the right was
remodeled by the prior Andrea Pittorio between 1614 and 1621, the altar
frontal, in Carrara marble, depicting the Adoration of the shepherds,
was executed by Dionigi Bussola in 1675, while the environment is
illuminated by a large stained glass window created by an anonymous
Lombard master on a cartoon by Vincenzo Foppa between 1475 and 1480 and
depicting the Madonna Annunciata inserted inside a perspective aedicule
decorated with Visconti-Sforza coats of arms.
The main altar is located inside the presbytery and is not used for
religious celebrations which take place in the central nave, in front of
the gate. The nave of the presbytery is closed from the view of the
faithful as in the monastic and Carthusian tradition in particular, by a
partition built in the seventeenth century and decorated with baroque
statues by the Genoese sculptor Tommaso Orsolino.
Along the
perimeter up to the apse, the presbytery is entirely occupied by the
stalls reserved for the celebrating clergy and a cycle of frescoes from
the Baroque period.
The large carved wooden choir is a
Renaissance inlay work, commissioned by Ludovico il Moro. It is
remarkable both from the point of view of the inlay and for the quality
of the drawings from which the inlays were drawn, probably produced by
the same artists responsible for the pictorial decorations such as
Bergognone and Zenale. The 42 dossals depict saints or biblical
characters, each of which shows behind architectural or natural
scenarios with elaborate and imaginative Renaissance-style
constructions. The execution was entrusted by the Duke in 1486 to
Bartolomeo de Polli, a Modena native already active at the court of
Mantua, and completed by the Cremonese inlayer Pantaleone de Marchi, in
time for the consecration of the church, which took place in 1497.
While the vault still has Renaissance frescoes, the vast fresco
cycle that covers the walls of the presbytery was commissioned in 1630
to Daniele Crespi, a painter from the Ambrosian Academy, who had just
completed the frescoes in the Certosa di Garegnano. It is a composite
cycle, with scenes taken from the New Testament, from the hagiographies
of Carthusian saints and other saints, skilfully inserted into the
Gothic architecture through a complex system of decorative quadratures,
which frame large sacred scenes and smaller panels with isolated figures
of evangelists, doctors of the Church, prophets, sibyls, saints and
blessed Carthusians. In his latest works, Crespi shows that he
progressively detached himself from the current still steeped in
mannerism in which he was formed, towards a classicism of Carracci
origin.
The great high altar is surmounted by a colossal ciborium
in the form of a temple with a central plan with a large dome, built in
Carrara marble, with inserts in polychrome marble and precious stones
such as lapis lazuli, carnelian, jasper and onyx, and bronze finishes .
It was built in 1568 on commission from the prior of the Certosa Damiano
Longone by the sculptor Ambrogio Volpi da Casale. The small temple of
this altar is in the Bramante style: Fr. Brambilla made the bronze
doors, and the thirteen bronze statuettes from Sicily, Angelo Marini;
Volpino sculpted the angels flanking the pallium, in the center of which
is a circular bas-relief, a Pietà, of very fine workmanship. The altar
cross, the candelabra and the large candlestick (2.03 meters high) are
by Annibale Fontana. In the walls on the sides of the altar there are
fixtures of very fine bas-reliefs by Stefano da Sesto, on the left, and
by Biagio da Vairone, on the right. Under one of these bas-reliefs, a
box with an imitation of Leonardo's Last Supper. The painted glass of
the apse window (The Assumption) was perhaps made to a design by
Bergognone. The ancient Campionese altar was transferred in 1567 to the
parish church of S. Martino in Carpiano, where it still stands today.
The frescoes that adorn the walls and vaults of the transept are due,
as mentioned, to Bergognone assisted by a group of unknown masters,
including the very young Bernardo Zenale. A strong Bramante imprint
stands out in these works, in the balance of the proportions and in the
accuracy of the perspectives. In the right apse of the transept, the
fresco by Bergognone with Gian Galeazzo Visconti presents the virgin
with the model of the Certosa, between Filippo Maria Visconti, Galeazzo
Maria Sforza and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, executed between 1490-1495, while
the apse of left represents the Coronation of Mary between Francesco
Sforza and Ludovico il Moro, with which the latter wanted to celebrate
his dynastic succession, obtained not without controversy after the
death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza.
The two altarpieces
facing each other in the two opposite ends of the transept are Baroque
masterpieces by Giovanni Battista Crespi, known as Cerano, the Madonna
and the ss. Charles and Hugh of Grenoble painted in 1617-18, and the
Madonna and s. Brunone, completed by Gherardini.
The decorative
grisaille band that runs along the entire plinth of the transept sees
embedded figures of Saints, Prophets and Carthusian monks, painted in
monochrome, which look out from tondos made in perspective by various
artists at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Two Carthusian monks
look out onto the blind mullioned windows above, rendered with
considerable illusionistic skill by Jacopino De Mottis, who came from a
family of painters and glass historians active in Lombardy in the 15th
century. On the other hand, the two lunettes with the Madonna of the
carpet and the Ecce Homo are autographed by Bergognone, within highly
refined architectural frames.
In the transept there is the
stained glass window made by Iacopino de Mottis in the last quarter of
the fifteenth century depicting San Gerolamo, placed in front of the one
made by an anonymous Lombard master on a cartoon by Vincenzo Foppa
between 1479 and 1485 depicting the Crib, which has unfortunately
suffered some loss of the grisaille.
The dome was frescoed in
1599 by Pietro Sorri and Alessandro Casolani with the figures of God the
Father with the Lamb and the Kings of the Apocalypse.
In the right arm of the transept, the monumental gateway to the monks' sink is the work of Amadeo's pupils. Noteworthy above are the female profiles with the characteristic hairstyles of the Renaissance period. The monumental sink is a masterpiece of sculpture, commissioned in 1488 to Alberto Maffioli da Carrara, even if critics also recognize the hands of Mantegazza and completed in 1490. Above the basin, with subtle decorations in plant motifs, is the cistern in the shape of an urn from which water flows. The crowning feature is a pair of dolphins, and a bust whose subject is the subject of discussion. The large bas-relief in the lunette represents Christ washing the feet of the apostles. The whole is enclosed by a large triumphal arch decorated with the Annunciation.
On the right side of the transept is the tomb of the founder of the
Certosa, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, known as Count of Virtue, (Pavia, 1351
- Melegnano, 1402), first Duke of Milan, who in his will ordered that
his body be buried in the Certosa, while his heart was to be kept in the
Basilica of San Michele Maggiore. From Gian Galeazzo's will of 1397 we
learn that the first duke of Milan wanted an equestrian monument, very
similar to that of his uncle Bernabò (which he had deposed) which was to
be positioned on the main axis of the church, with the tombs on the
right of the descendants of the first wife, Isabella di Valois, and on
the left those of the second, Caterina Visconti, however, when the
construction of the monument began at the end of the fifteenth century,
the provisions of Gian Galeazzo were not respected. The monument was
commissioned by Duke Ludovico in 1492 to Gian Cristoforo Romano, an
appreciated sculptor active in the courts of Mantua and Ferrara. It was
carried forward with the collaboration of Benedetto Briosco, who signed
the statue of the virgin with the child in the center, and was only
completed in 1562, by Bernardino da Novate, who is responsible for the
sarcophagus on the ground and the two statues of Virtue that flank it ,
now with a Mannerist imprint, referred by some to a project by Galeazzo
Alessi. The work is structured on two levels, and is completely covered
by fine decorations with classical motifs, which recall the work of the
sculptors engaged in the same years on the facade of the temple. In the
lower register, under round arches is the sarcophagus surmounted by the
recumbent statue of the deceased according to the custom of the time.
The upper register, with the niche with the standing virgin by Briosco
in the centre, has bas-relief panels all around which narrate the life
of the Visconti.
In 1889 his sepulcher was opened and his bones,
together with that of his first wife, Isabella of Valois (which reached
the Certosa from the church of San Francesco in Pavia only in 1510),
were studied by Giovanni Zoja, professor of anatomy at the University of
Pavia. From the analyses, among other data that emerged, it was
ascertained that the first duke of Milan was very tall by the standards
of the time: approximately 1.86 meters, while a lock of his hair
confirmed that his hair was blonde tending towards red. Also during the
reconnaissance, a fragment of the funeral veil and an engraved ceramic
albarello bearing the Visconti coat of arms were also found, now kept in
the Civic Museums of Pavia.
On the left side of the transept are the recumbent statues of the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro (Milan, 1452 - Loches, 1508) and his wife Beatrice d'Este (Ferrara, 1475 - Milan, 1497), by the Renaissance sculptor Cristoforo Solari said the Hunchback. It was Ludovico il Moro himself who commissioned their execution after his wife's death in 1497. The sculptures were intended to be placed in the gallery of the Milanese church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, commissioned by the Moro from Donato Bramante. However, due to the fall of Ludovico in 1499, the funeral monument remained unfinished. While there was no trace of the underlying part, in 1564, the work was purchased by Oldrato Lampugnani and taken to the Certosa. Only at the end of the 19th century was the base built by Luca Beltrami, placing the lid on a red marble sarcophagus. The tombs have always been unused, as after the fall of the Duchy of Milan il Moro was captured by the French and died in France; he is buried in the Church of the Dominican Fathers of Tarascon, while Beatrice is buried in the Church of the Dominican Fathers of S. Maria delle Grazie in Milan.
It is accessed at the end of the right transept, and was decorated in the Baroque period. Originally the room, built in 1425, housed the chapter and the library of the monastery and only at the end of the 16th century was it transformed into a sacristy. The large single rectangular room was frescoed in 1600 by the Sienese painter Pietro Sorri who, inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, covered the large vault with biblical episodes, monumental figures of prophets in niches and graceful cherubs whirling in the lunettes. Compared to the Roman model, however, Sorri's work conveys joy and lightness to the viewer through the use of lively and clear chromatic accords and the sumptuousness of the decorations and scenes. The wooden cabinets, decorated with statuettes attributed to Annibale Fontana, are remarkable works of carving. On the altar, the triptych of the Assumption is by Andrea Solario, one of the leading exponents of the Leonardesque school which flourished in Milan after the Maestro's departure. As reported by Giorgio Vasari, at the death of Solario (1524) the triptych was not yet completed, thus forcing the fathers of the Certosa to have Bernardino Campi finish the work in 1576.
The Certosa also has an important (and little-studied) corpus of 13
stained glass windows, made on cartoons by masters active in Lombardy in
the 15th century, such as Zanetto Bugatto, Vincenzo Foppa, Bergognone,
Iacopino de' Mottis, Stefano da Pandino and the Savoyard Hans Witz .
The main altar, dating back to the late 16th century, is inlaid with
bronzes and with different qualities of marble and semi-precious stones,
made by various artists including Cristoforo Solari.
In the old sacristy there is a triptych in ivory and hippopotamus
tooth, the work of the Florentine Baldassarre di Simone di Aliotto,
belonging to the Embriachi family (Baldassarre degli Embriachi), donated
by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and built in the first decade of the
fifteenth century as an altarpiece for the high altar, where it remained
until the mid-sixteenth century. The work, a late Gothic carving
masterpiece, measures 2.45 meters at the base for a maximum height,
referred to the lateral pinnacles, of 2.54 m. It is composed of minute
compositions and adorned with small tabernacles with statuettes of
saints inside; in the central compartment there are 26 panels
illustrating the legend of the Magi according to the apocryphal gospels;
in the compartment on the right and in the one on the left 36
bas-reliefs (18 on each side) narrate the episodes from the life of
Christ and the Virgin. In the middle cusp, inside a tondo supported by
angels, the Eternal Father dominates in angelic glory, while the base of
the triptych has a pieta, flanked by 14 aedicules with as many decorated
statuettes of saints. There are also two external polygonal pillars made
up of 40 small tabernacles adorned with statuettes.
The Triptych was
stolen from the monastery in August 1984 and recovered in October 1985.
Undergoing restoration in the years between 1986 and 1989 at the Central
Institute for Restoration, the work was reassembled with the parts
anchored to the load-bearing structure removed, taking into account the
different chemical-physical behavior of the materials of which the work
is made (wood, bone and ivory).
There are also works of bronze
sculpture, such as the candelabra by Annibale Fontana and the gate that
divides the church of the monks from that of the faithful (17th
century).
A portal, decorated inside with sculptures created by the brothers
Cristoforo and Antonio Mantegazza and outside by Giovanni Antonio
Amadeo, leads from the church to the small cloister in the center of
which is a garden.
The small cloister was the place where much of
the community life of the fathers took place: this connected, with its
arcades, environments such as the church, the chapter house, the library
and the refectory.
From it you can see the side and the transept
of the church, with the spiers, the loggias in the "neo-Romanesque"
style and the lantern. Once all the roofs were covered with copper,
seized during the Napoleonic wars for the construction of cannons. The
small cloister was partially built as early as 1402, but its decoration
was only completed between 1451 and the 1560s. The signature of Giovanni
Antonio Amadeo (1447-1522) from Pavia can be read on the entrance portal
to the small cloister. The terracotta ornaments that surmount the thin
marble pillars were made by the Cremonese master Rinaldo De Stauris in
1466 who, in collaboration with the brothers Cristoforo and Antonio
Mantegazza, also created those of the large cloister in 1478. Some of
the arches, decorated with frescoes by Daniele Crespi, are today partly
illegible.
Inside the small cloister there is a stone and
terracotta sink, with the representation of the scene of the Samaritan
woman at the well (third quarter of the 15th century).
Since the foundation, the monks had a library, including liturgical texts necessary for daily celebrations, and others, of scientific and humanistic topics. A first library was set up between 1426 and 1427, but at the end of the 16th century its premises were used as a sacristy and constituted the new sacristy of the church and the library was moved to its current location, located on the smaller side of the small cloister, where the monastery infirmary used to be. The library of the Certosa, together with the Visconti-Sforza library of the castle of Pavia, preserved the heart of the Visconti dynastic memory, since it contained the codices on which the (even mythical) genealogies of the Visconti were copied, the epistolary and the breviary of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and the manuscripts with the texts composed by Antonio Loschi and Pietro da Castelletto on the occasion of the funeral of the first duke of Milan. The library was implemented by Prior Matteo Valerio in the first half of the 17th century, who also enriched it with profane texts and manuscripts. In 1782, with the suppression of the Certosa, the library was partly divided between the Braidense National Library of Milan and the University Library of Pavia, even if some volumes were dispersed. In particular, again in 1782, the 13 colossal chorales illuminated by Evangelista della Croce, Benedetto da Corteregia of Bergamo, a Vallombrosian monk of the monastery of San Lanfranco, and Guarnerio Beretta dating back to the 16th century, were transferred to the Braidense National Library, with texts and music by songs of the masses ordered according to the sequence of the liturgical year. In 1796 the choirs were requisitioned by the French and were transferred to Paris, where they remained until 1815, and only with the fall of Napoleon were they able to return to the Braidense, where they remained until 1883, when, at the request of Carlo Magenta, they were returned to the Certosa .
Similar decorations, the work of the same sculptors, are also present in the large cloister, about 125 meters long and about 100 wide. Originally there were 23 cells. Structural interventions in 1514 increased their number, which passed to 36. Today they overlook the cloister large 24 cells or small houses, dwellings of the monks, each consisting of three rooms and a garden. Next to the entrance to the cells, signed by letters of the alphabet, there is a small opening in which the monk received his daily meal on weekdays, when solitude was prescribed. For community meals, which were allowed only on holidays, people gathered in the refectory. The vast portico, with 122 arches, was built by Guiniforte Solari between 1463 and 1472, even if the decorative terracottas were completed only around 1480. The columns of the arches, decorated with elaborate terracotta rings, with roundels and statues of saints , prophets and angels, are alternatively in white marble and pink Verona marble. On the other hand, the paintings with prophetis [...] et certis altris figuris, which once adorned the cloister, for which Vincenzo Foppa was paid in 1463, have disappeared. Internally, the large lawn alludes to the desert, i.e. to the space for meditation in hermitage. Up until the eighteenth century, an enclosure was cut out in the north-east corner of the cloister lawn to house the burials of the monks. The large cloister has a large mechanical clock dating back to 1731 and equipped with two bells (respectively from 1772 and 1844). The main quadrant overlooks the cloister, but thanks to a system of connecting rods, it is connected to two other quadrants, one located in the cloister of the cloister and the other in the former chapter house.
Behind the large cloister is a vegetable garden cut by orthogonal axes and a lawn, containing the large lobed fishpond, edged in granite with elegant steps leading down into the pool. Originally this vast space was covered by vineyards, connected by avenues covered by long pergolas designed with a perspective function. Of the numerous pergolas, only the one that cuts the area from east to west survives today, dating back to the second half of the 15th century. This pergola connects the large cloister with the fishpond and is made with Doric columns in granite supporting horizontal beams. Various streams (Roggia Grande, Roggia Bareggia and Roggia Beccaria) lap the boundary wall of the monastery and also branch out inside to feed various pools up to the large fishpond. The counting wall of the Certosa is decorated, in the corners, by numerous painted aedicules, some of them the work of Ambrogio da Fossano.
It was among the first rooms to be built and in the first years of the construction site it was used as a church, being a very large rectangular hall, as reported in the progress of the works drawn up in 1451 at the behest of Francesco Sforza. On the western wall of the room there is a small fresco, the oldest in the monastery, in late Gothic style depicting a Madonna and Child by the Zavattari. The segmented vault has the oldest decoration, which includes a Madonna with Child and Prophets in the lunettes attributed to Ambrogio da Fossano, while in the center is the radiant sun or race, emblem of the Visconti dynasty. The marble pulpit was carved at the beginning of the sixteenth century with the classical arch and the balustrade with statues. Readings were taken from it during meals. Later is the fresco of the Last Supper (1567), by Ottavio Semino.
The ancient Foresteria, built between 1616 and 1667 in Angera stone,
is also known as Palazzo Ducale and is the work of Francesco Maria
Richino. The museum dedicated to the convent's works of art was set up
inside by the architect Luca Beltrami from the beginning of the
twentieth century. It includes a gipsoteca which houses the plaster
copies of various sculptures and objects of the Visconti family. In
addition to the presence of casts and sculptural fragments from the
Certosa, there are some frescoed rooms (such as the Studiolo and the
Oratorio del Priore) and paintings by Vincenzo Campi (the splendid
Christ nailed to the cross), Bernardino Campi, Bartolomeo Montagna,
Bergognone Bernardino Luini.
At the back of the church a high
wall delimits the land where medicinal herbs are grown. In this space,
behind the apse, there is also a large fishpond in decorated marble
which in the past was used by the monks to raise freshwater fish and to
store those caught in the surrounding canals.