Monday, November 16, 2020

VELLETRI

Altitude 332 m (1,090 feet). 50,000 inhabitants

It is located on a spur of MOUNT ARTEMISIO

It is of ancient origin, known as Velcester in Volscan language, as Velitrae in Latin language

It used to be a holiday resort of the ancient Romans with beautiful villas

It gave rise to the Octavia family from which Augustus (27 BC/14 AD) descended. He was born in Rome, but he spent his childhood here

The city underwent massive aerial bombardment during the Second World War

Neapolitan Gate

1511 built by workers from Lombardy region

S. Maria del Trivio

St. Mary of the Trivium

1622 Carlo Maderno (1556/1629), but completed only in 1726

Façade 1840 Giuseppe Andreoli

The bell tower is known as the Tower of the Trivium 1353 in Romanesque-Gothic style

Town Hall

1572 Giacomo Della Porta (1533/1602) designed by Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola (1507/13)

Finished in 1741 by Filippo Barigioni (about 1680/1753)

Rebuilt after its destruction in World War Two

Home to the CIVIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

The jewel of the museum is the incredibly wonderful "Sarcophagus with the labors of Hercules"

"Volscian Terracotta"

"Slab of the Praying Man" Christian tombstone of the fourth century AD

Diocesan Museum

SEVEN ROOMS in the cloister of the Cathedral of St. Clement

"Madonna and Child with Angels” 1427 masterpiece by Gentile di Niccolò aka Gentile da Fabriano (about 1370/1427)

"Madonna and Child" about 1482 Antonio Aquili aka Antoniazzo Romano (about 1435-40/1508)

"There are influences of Piero Della Francesca and Melozzo Da Forlì, combined with memories of the archaic tradition of Roman liturgy" (Antonio Paolucci)

"One of the finest works of the Roman painter, possibly dated at an advanced stage of his production closer to the paintings of the 1480s, influenced by Melozzo (...) The theme of 'Our Lady of the Sill' is a theme that is native of Florence, appearing in artistic production during the mid fifteenth century (...) and then widely propagated even in the Umbrian and Roman areas. (...) The first influences from Melozzo da Forli are felt in the roundness of the faces and in the monumental expansion of the precious Virgin Mary" (Anna Cavallaro)

"Madonna and Child copy of the icon of St. Augustine" 1486 also by Antonio Aquili aka Antoniazzo Romano, with small board at the base defining it as a votive offering after the plague that had hit Velletri during the years 1483-1486

"The board shows the Madonna (...) according to the Byzantine iconography of the Odigitria (She Who Leads the Way), the child wearing a robe highlighted with gold and blessing in the Greek manner. (...) It is one of the most interesting piece of evidence of Antoniazzo being a copyist of Marian icons: it is in fact a copy offered for the devotion of the citizens of Velletri, painted with a modern language, of the medieval icon that is located on the main altar of the Roman church of St. Augustine. (...) Antoniazzo saves at the same time the purpose of worship and the expression of  the latest artistic trends: the figures are in fact regulated by a precise proportional scale which is missing in the original" (Anna Cavallaro)

"Four fragments of Exultet" membrane of the twelfth century

"History of the Passion" French membrane of the XIII century

"Reliquary of the Cross" in gold of the eleventh century, known as Croce Veliterna (Cross of Velletri). It was stolen and recovered in 1998

"Madonna of the Rosary with Sts. Dominic, Catherine of Siena and John the Baptist" 1741 by Sebastiano Conca (1680/1764) for the Fiscari family from Velletri 

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