|
Momo (Novara, Italy): Oratory of St. Mary of Linduno
|
|
|
Show an other place around Milan worth a visit: |
 The Oratory of Santa Maria di Linduno (Oratory of St. Mary of Linduno) is located in the locality of Linduno, a small group of farmhouses administratively part of the municipality and almost exactly halfway between Momo and Bellinzago Novarese.
The oratory is very old and the first documentary evidence dates back to 1324, when it became the property of the Abbey of Dulzago, today in the municipality of Bellinzago Novarese.
Towards the middle of the fifteenth century the Milanese Bassiano Calco, belonging to a very important family of the Sforza era, became parish priest of Dulzago. In 1468 he commissioned the painter Luca di Campo and his workshop to fresco the apse and the back wall.
Subsequently the church was abandoned by the canons and the farmers began to use it as a warehouse. Fortunately, this use did not excessively compromise the frescoes, to which recent restorations have brought new splendor.
The oratory has a very simple structure, but not without refinements. The plan is rectangular, with a semicircular apse in the back. The facade is obviously very simple, but it includes a large triangular pediment. On the sides of the entrance there are two rectangular windows, while above it there is a recent fresco of St. Peter. At the bottom right, next to the apse, there is a small bell tower, slightly higher than the main body of the oratory.
Internally the oratory comprises a single room. The apse at the back, with two windows, is relatively large, especially in width, almost equal to that of the hall.
The frescoes are concentrated in the apse and around it.
The entrance arch of the apse is occupied by a grandiose Annunciation, perhaps the fresco of the best artistic quality, in which both the Angel and the Virgin are painted between two Renaissance palaces.
On the wall of the apse are frescoed the other mysteries of the life of Mary: on the left the Nativity, in the center the Adoration of the Magi, on the right the Presentation of Jesus in the temple.
In the apsidal basin is painted the Assumption of Mary between two ranks of angels cheering with musical instruments from the mid-fifteenth century and, below, the twelve kneeling apostles led by St. Peter.
The bases of the arch are instead occupied by the figures of the medical saints Cosma and Damian.
The painter signed the work with the phrase, still legible at the bottom, "MCCCCLXVIII Lucas de Campo p (I) n (X) it in oc opus" next to the coat of arms of the provost Bassiano Calco.
The left wall (Fig. 4) bears at the top a Crucifixion (also from the workshop of Luce de Campo, it seems) and below it a Virgin of the Rosary with Child from a much more recent period (first decade of the twentieth century). On the right, instead, placed in a niche there is a votive fresco with St. Gotthard with the warrior saints Alexander and Tiburtius alongside (Fig. 5).
As is often the case in rural oratories, the artistic quality of the paintings is not very high. Despite this, the immediacy and liveliness of the representations allows them to be aesthetically appealing and, above all, emotionally engaging.
The small church is normally closed and mass is celebrated there only on special occasions, in particular on April 25th.
Categories: Places of historical value of artistic value
Località Cascina Linduno, 3, 28015 Momo NO |
Further pictures of Oratory of St. Mary of Linduno in the section Photography |