Chiesa San Zeno al Foro interno con abside Brescia

San Zeno al Foro is a church in center of the city of

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...

, situated in Piazza del Foro on the Via dei Musei, a few yards from the ruins of the Roman Capitoline temple in the city. A church at the site had been present from the 12th century. The present

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

structure was completed about 1745. The interior, entrance and presbytery, is decorated by four canvases depicting ''Prayer in the Garden'', ''Baptism of Christ'', ''Annunciation'', and ''Birth of Jesus'', (1741) by

Antonio Paglia Antonio Paglia (Brescia, 1680 – Brescia, 1747) was an Italian painter active mainly in Brescia in a late-Baroque or Rococo style.Cesare Bortolotti, that in 1888 replaced an altarpiece by Paglia. The second altar on the left has a ''Pieta'' by Francesco Monti; his ''Death of St Anne'' was replaced in 1857 in the second altar on the right with a painting of the same topic by Luigi Campini . The first altar on the left dedicated to ''Saints Erasmo and Venanzio'' was painted by

Giuseppe Tortelli Giuseppe Tortelli (1662- circa 1738) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period, active in Brescia. Biography He received a broad education in writing and philosophy. He traveled to Naples to observe masters there, then to Venice. In 17 ...

. The Baroque main altar is highly decorated with colored marble. The tabernacle is sculpted out of semi-precious stones, including

lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...

. The altarpiece was painted (1739) by

Giovanni Battista Sassi Giovanni Battista Sassi (1679 in Milan – 1762 in Milan) was an Italian painter, active mainly in Milan and other areas of Lombardy, who painted in a late-Baroque and Rococo style. Biography Born in Lombardy, he first trained with Federigo ...

. The choir stalls are carved with scenes from the life of the bishop St Zeno. The organ was built in 1877 by Tonoli.

References

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Zeno Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to: People * Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Philosophers * Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes * Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...