TRAMELLO, Alessio

The church and an adjacent convent and hospital were founded in 874 by Queen Angilberga, wife of the Emperor Louis II. The monastery became wealthy due the granting of significant privileges and properties in northern Italy. Over the centuries, several orders of monks and nuns competed for control of this monastery until 1425, when it was assigned to the Benedictine order of Monte Cassino. In 1499, they commissioned the present church from Alessio Tramello, which was consecrated in 1511.

San Sepolcro, whose project is signed by Alessio Tramello, was built between 1513 and 1534 on commission of the Olivetan monks in the vicinity of the area where a church named after the Holy Sepulcher was located centuries ago.

Neither the fa�ade nor the current portal, certainly from a later period, seems to be attributable to the work of the Tramello.

View the ground plan of San Sepolcro, Piacenza.

Tramello’s last surviving work, which he both designed and supervised, is the civic church of Piacenza, Santa Maria di Campagna (1522-26). The plan, in the form of a Greek cross, is developed from the scheme he used at San Sepolcro. A square, domed central bay is surrounded by pairs of shallower bays, with small domed square chapels at the corners. The exterior presents a strong contrast between the bare arms of the Greek cross and the complexity of the central lantern, with its two tiers of windows, and the four smaller lanterns of the corner chapels. The interior shows Tramello’s ability to play the smaller spaces of the four chapels against the larger space of the Greek cross and to exploit the luminosity of the dome frescoed by Pordenone.

Tramello’s last surviving work, which he both designed and supervised, is the civic church of Piacenza, Santa Maria di Campagna (1522-26). The plan, in the form of a Greek cross, is developed from the scheme he used at San Sepolcro. A square, domed central bay is surrounded by pairs of shallower bays, with small domed square chapels at the corners. The exterior presents a strong contrast between the bare arms of the Greek cross and the complexity of the central lantern, with its two tiers of windows, and the four smaller lanterns of the corner chapels. The interior shows Tramello’s ability to play the smaller spaces of the four chapels against the larger space of the Greek cross and to exploit the luminosity of the dome frescoed by Pordenone.

The church and an adjacent convent and hospital were founded in 874 by Queen Angilberga, wife of the Emperor Louis II. The monastery became wealthy due the granting of significant privileges and properties in northern Italy. Over the centuries, several orders of monks and nuns competed for control of this monastery until 1425, when it was assigned to the Benedictine order of Monte Cassino. In 1499, they commissioned the present church from Alessio Tramello, which was consecrated in 1511.

The church and an adjacent convent and hospital were founded in 874 by Queen Angilberga, wife of the Emperor Louis II. The monastery became wealthy due the granting of significant privileges and properties in northern Italy. Over the centuries, several orders of monks and nuns competed for control of this monastery until 1425, when it was assigned to the Benedictine order of Monte Cassino. In 1499, they commissioned the present church from Alessio Tramello, which was consecrated in 1511.

The Benedictines stipulated that he must respect the existing foundations of the medieval church of San Sisto and incorporate the eight granite columns (which now support the vaults of the nave and aisles) remaining from an earlier project of 1494.

The church is a cruciform basilica with a barrel-vaulted nave of five bays flanked by aisles and outer chapels. The aisle bays are square and surmounted by domes; the arcade leading to the outer chapels is supported on cruciform piers, and each chapel consists of a straight bay with an apse. The main transept has apsed arms, but there is a second transept just behind the fa�ade, with a central dome, and here the arms are planned as domed Greek crosses.

San Sepolcro, whose project is signed by Alessio Tramello, was built between 1513 and 1534 on commission of the Olivetan monks in the vicinity of the area where a church named after the Holy Sepulcher was located centuries ago.

Like San Sisto, it has a nave flanked by aisles and apsed outer chapels, but here the nave consists of two square groin-vaulted bays separated by narrow barrel-vaulted bays. The square aisle bays behind the latter are domed. There is an apse at each end of the transept, as at San Sisto, and the use of piers without capitals in the main elevation, which stresses the verticality of the composition, was also foreshadowed in the earlier building.

A design by Tramello for the church of San Sepolcro at Piacenza is kept in the parish archive of the Olivetan monastery of San Viottore al Corpo in Milan.

The photo shows the nave.

View the ground plan of San Sepolcro, Piacenza.

Tramello’s last surviving work, which he both designed and supervised, is the civic church of Piacenza, Santa Maria di Campagna (1522-26). The plan, in the form of a Greek cross, is developed from the scheme he used at San Sepolcro. A square, domed central bay is surrounded by pairs of shallower bays, with small domed square chapels at the corners. The exterior presents a strong contrast between the bare arms of the Greek cross and the complexity of the central lantern, with its two tiers of windows, and the four smaller lanterns of the corner chapels. The interior shows Tramello’s ability to play the smaller spaces of the four chapels against the larger space of the Greek cross and to exploit the luminosity of the dome frescoed by Pordenone.

The photo shows the interior of the dome.