San Sebastiano is an

Early Renaissance Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

church in

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

, northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Begun in 1460 according to the designs of

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

, it was left partially completed in the mid-1470s, by which time construction had slowed and was no longer being directed by Alberti. As a consequence, little remains of Alberti’s work apart from the plan, which is considered one of the earliest and most significant examples of Renassiances centrally-planned churches. The plan is in the shape of a

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...

, with three identical arms centering

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

s, under a central cross-vaulted space without any interior partitions. The church sits on a ground-level

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

which was intended to serve as a mausoleum for the Gonzaga family. The complete absence of columns in the façade signified for

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unite ...

a decisive turning-point in Alberti's interpretation of architecture, moving beyond his statements in '' De Re Aedificatoria'' where he considered the column the noblest ornament of building. The façade concealing a

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narth ...

that runs the full width of the structure is precisely as wide as its height from the entrance level to the apex of the pediment; it may be fitted with the perfect geometry of the square. The temple front has been converted by Alberti into wall-architecture, as Wittkower noted, and a complete series of pilasters, like pillars embedded in the wall, has been elided to the two outermost, and the two flanking Pellegrino Ardizoni's clumsy doorway, which overlaps them and ill suits its space. Mantova, san sebastiano, interno, 01

A surviving letter of 1470 from the patron,

Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua Ludovico III Gonzaga of Mantua, also spelled Lodovico (also Ludovico II; 5 June 1412 – 12 June 1478) was the marquis of Mantua, ruler of the Italy, Italian city of Mantua from 1444 to his death in 1478. Biography Ludovico was the son of Gi ...

, to the on-site architect agreeing with Alberti's proposal to reduce the number of pilasters on the porticoWittkower's reconstruction of Alberti's original intentions (Wittkower 1965 p 52 fig. 7) features the order of six pilasters dividing the façade into the five bays still represented by the doors. illuminates Alberti's plan of 1460. The two outer staircases were added in the twentieth century; prior to 1925 old photographs show the entrance was a single stair to the quattrocento loggia appended to Alberti's design. Wittkower demonstrates that Alberti's plan comprised a set of stairs the full width of the façade leading to five doors (three of which have been filled in as dysfunctional balconies). The most unexpected motif in the façade is the central break in the entablature presented by the window opening, doubtless intended to be arch-headed under the arched entablature that joins the outer sections, a motif that Wittkower conjectured Alberti knew from the side elevations of the Roman

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cr ...

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

References

{{Authority control 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Mantua Renaissance architecture in Mantua Leon Battista Alberti church buildings

See also

References