L'INTERNO - INSIDE

As soon as we enter, the first thing that strikes us is the space of the church as it appears to us today: a large interior, arranged in three naves, with six bays on each side, redesigned by major interventions between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The raising of the naves brought more light to the interior, while the pilasters, buttresses and cross vaults gave the space a more solemn and regular appearance.

The high altar, in polychrome marble, also belongs to this season of transformations and replaces a previous brick altar.

If we look up towards the back of the church, in the apse we find a canvas depicting Saint Francis adoring the Virgin and Child, attributed to Carlo Francesco Nuvolone and dated to the 1640s.

Around us there are also Baroque altars, trompe-l'oeil paintings and works from different eras, which make the interior a sort of visible stratification of tastes and styles.

But the work that really deserves to stop and observe is the large fresco by Giovanni Martino Spanzotti with the Adoration of the Child with Holy Bishops, preserved on the counter-façade or, according to another description, on the right wall of the entrance.

This is the church's most important pictorial work and, more generally, one of the tallest examples of 15th-century Rivarolo; measuring approximately 2.70 by 2.90 meters, it dates back to the years immediately preceding 1481 and was restored between 2014 and 2016.

The scene shows the Child Jesus laid on the ground on a flap of the Virgin's cloak, while Mary, young and with loose hair, gathers in adoration together with six saints arranged in a semicircle.

Looking carefully, from left, we recognize Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory the Great with the tiara and dove on his shoulder, Saint Ambrose in the center, Saint Augustine, Saint Savino and Saint Anselm of Aosta kneeling on the far right.

It is a particular iconographic choice, also because in this Adoration Saint Joseph is missing, who usually appears in similar scenes.

Above the saints we see the cartouches, today largely illegible, and even higher up nine angels divided into three groups: some pray, others sing, still others play instruments such as the jig, the lute and the tambourine.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the fresco is the way Spanzotti constructs the scene as if it were a stage.

The figures are in fact framed by a large round arch with pillars decorated with candelabra, Corinthian capitals, deep shadows and pendentives painted in imitation marble.

Behind it appears a rich pergola background, made up of green diamond-shaped entanglements with fruits, flowers and crowns, also interpreted by scholars as a hortus conclusus, that is, a symbolic image of the Virgin.

If we then approach the figures, we notice the full quality of Spanzotti's hand: the Child's faces, beards, gazes and even small anatomical details are studied with extraordinary finesse. Mary has a sweet and slightly melancholic expression, the saints appear as assorted and moved elders, while the cherubs have a living and almost playful humanity.

Color also plays a key role, with dense, bright tones shaping the figures and a light coming from the left unifying the entire composition.

Continuing in the left nave, we find in the second chapel another very interesting fresco: the Madonna and Child flanked by Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Stephen, datable to the end of the fifteenth century and attributed to the school of Spanzotti or to a close collaborator of his.

The Virgin sits in the center with the Child on her knees; Saint Michael, in decorated armor and iridescent wings, pierces the devil with a pike, while Saint Stephen kneels in adoration.

The Child blesses with his right hand and holds the globe of the world in his left, while behind Mary appears a column of polychrome marble.

This fresco is also particularly evocative because it dialogues, in style and atmosphere, with that of Spanzotti.

The background with dark hills and painted leaves in fact closely recalls Adoration, even if the quality of the execution is slightly lower and suggests the hand of an artist close to the master.

Today the work is still partially covered by a large 17th-century dark blue Baroque frame with gold trim, surmounted by the Grassis family coat of arms, while an unidentified family coat of arms also appears on the vault of the chapel.

Also in the left nave, the fresco of Saint Anne and the Madonna breastfeeding the Child is worth a stop, placed on a pillar indicated by sources as the first or as the one near the second altar.

The work is of high quality, although badly damaged, and is dated between the end of the fourteenth century and the mid- or late fifteenth century.

Saint Anne, her head veiled, raises her hand in greeting and blessing; Mary appears very young, with long, loose blonde hair, while the Child sucks the Virgin's breast.

In the niche of the first altar of the same nave there is also a Franciscan coat of arms, with Christ's bare arm crossed with that of Saint Francis covered by a habit. It is a simpler detail than the large frescoes, but very useful for understanding the spiritual identity of the place.

One of the most precious rooms of the church is the Gothic sacristy, the ancient chapel of Saint Martin later dedicated to Saint Louis of Toulouse, located at the eastern end of the right nave.

This space, almost isolated from the rest of the building by thick, continuous masonry, retains the oldest part of the complex and is covered by a pointed cross vault with sturdy ribs that converge into a carved circular keystone.

The ribs are painted with yellow-ochre and red-brown faux bricks, bordered by red and green plant elements, while around the keystone appear the four coats of arms of the Counts of San Martino, with a very lively visual effect and almost like a polychrome pinwheel.

On the walls of the sacristy there are still several pictorial traces of great interest.

You can see a Madonna and Child enthroned from the second half of the fourteenth century, scenes of monastic life, sumptuously dressed male and female figures and a fifteenth-century image of Saint Catherine of Alexandria next to the door.

In another critical reading, the Madonna of the sacristy is described as the work of a local painter, recognizable by the few remaining reddish pigments, the rigid lines, the altered proportions and the strong hieratic nature of the pose.

Also in this area, the wall on which the original altar rested is still legible, above which there was a fresco with the Madonna and other scenes of convent life.

Furthermore, on the external arch of the chapel there is a laudatory inscription accompanied by a fresco with a sleeping Saint Francis, still visible and attributable to a seventeenth-century hand due to its dark palette and full-bodied brushstrokes.

Another important element to remember, even if only partially preserved today, is the fifteenth-century choir with its valuable wooden stalls.

Unfortunately, it was partly sacrificed in 1825, when the Ursuline nuns built a separation wall for the needs of the cloister.