Descrizione
The oldest monument in Isola del Piano and its frescoes
Another architectural structure closely linked to the Castiglione family is the Church of the Santissima Annunziata, the oldest monument in Isola del Piano. It was originally built in the 14th century as an oratory for the ‘Fraternity of the Disciplined of Santa Maria’, before passing to the Chapter of St John Lateran in Rome in 1474 and finally to the Dominicans of Urbino in 1493.
It was in 1600 that it became the private church of the Castiglione family, and later of the Bartolini family (in the post-unification era). Gradually, it lost its function as a sanctuary, to the extent that it was used as a warehouse before becoming part of the municipal administration’s public heritage; the council then invested resources and effort to restore it to its former splendour. This splendour is evident in the fragments of frescoes that can still be glimpsed along the walls of the building, and in the painting, dated 1622, by Girolamo Cialdieri, ‘Rest on the Flight into Egypt’, which was previously situated on one of the side altars of the ancient church of San Cristoforo, destroyed by a landslide.
The painting depicts the Holy Family resting, watched over by angels, as they were fleeing Egypt to save Jesus from Herod’s terrible and bloodthirsty clutches. As for the frescoes, over the years they have become layered one on top of the other; two remain visible: a “Madonna Enthroned with the Child, Saint Dominic and Saint Francis of Assisi”, dating from 1521, attributed to the circle of Giovanni Santi, Raphael’s father, whose workshop, in fact, was home to numerous collaborators who later scattered throughout the region, spreading their master’s distinctive art and unique style. The other fresco, traces of which are still visible today—the ‘Madonna of Mercy and God the Father Shooting Arrows’—is attributed to the artist Giovanni Antonio Bellinzoni da Pesaro; however, its exact date is unknown: it is probably a work dating from the second half of the 14th century.
What can be recognised in what remains of the fresco is the figure of the Madonna who, to protect the faithful kneeling at her feet from the arrows fired by God the Father and the angels, wraps them in her cloak. The symbolic meaning underlying the work is the idea of a Church that offers protection and relief to the devout faithful from storms, environmental devastation caused by earthquakes, epidemics and other calamities.
