Located in an isolated spot, in the center of a flat area on the south side of the town of Rodengo, the Abbey of St. Nicholas is one of the most impressive monastic complexes in the Franciacorta region.<\/p>\n
Originally founded as a Cluniac monastery on the site of an ancient castle belonging to the de Rodingo family, it now stands as it was restored during the Renaissance, a project that began in 1446 when, at the behest of Pope Eugene IV, the complex was entrusted to the Olivetan monastic order.<\/p>\n
Although no traces remain of the original Romanesque structure, the current architectural layout still includes all the spaces characteristic of monastic life: the church, three cloisters, the refectory and the chapter house, a guesthouse, and various storerooms and warehouses.<\/p>\n
Entering from the courtyard, the eye is drawn to the 15th-century gabled fa\u00e7ade, with its terracotta cornice and pinnacles. The portal, sheltered by an elegant portico, was built using a local stone known as \u201cpietra simona,\u201d characterized by its distinctive reddish hue. This stone has been quarried, perhaps as early as the 14th century, in the Simone or Cimone area of the Camonica Valley, from which it takes its name. The interior of the Church of St. Nicholas, on the other hand, is a triumph of Baroque art, contrasting with the Renaissance simplicity of the architecture, adorned with paintings created in the 1720s by various artists from the Milan area: Giovan Battista Sassi, Giuseppe Castellini, and Giacomo Lecchi.<\/p>\n
Bearing witness to the 15th-century past are, in the apse, the magnificent inlaid wooden choir by Cristoforo Rocchi, dating from 1480, and, in the second chapel, the altarpiece depicting the Handing Over of the Keys to St. Peter and the Doctrine to St. Paul, painted by Moretto. The \u201cmain\u201d cloister and the \u201csacristy\u201d cloister display the same formal perfection, reflecting a Renaissance at its zenith, now entering the Mannerist phase. The main cloister is characterized by a sense of harmony and formal purity, expressed in the double row of superimposed round arches and the use of antique-style capitals with fluted bells. The cloister known as the \u201cchurch\u201d or \u201csacristy\u201d cloister (1580\u201390), on the other hand, is marked by serlianas, that is, paired columns surmounted by a lintel with triglyphs, which in the early decades of the sixteenth century were described in treatises as \u201cin the Venetian style.\u201d<\/p>\n
The painted decoration of the monastery\u2019s rooms offers a veritable compendium of 16th-century Brescian art, beginning with the Crucifixion in the Great Refectory, attributed to Ferramola, followed by works by Romanino, dating from around 1528\u201331, in the Refectory of the Guest Quarters, and the frescoes by Lattanzio Gambara in the ante-refectory (1561), inspired by the Book of Revelation and the Old Testament, featuring bold perspectives and a dynamism already fully mannerist in style, accompanied by corbels, medallions, and frames created by the stucco artist Francesco Oselli of Mantua.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2609,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categorie_arte":[416],"comuni":[385],"class_list":["post-2606","arte_e_cultura","type-arte_e_cultura","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categorie_arte-monasteri","comuni-rodengo-saiano"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n