San Fermo Maggiore is a Romanesque and Gothic church in central

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

. It is dedicated to Saints

Firmus and Rusticus Saints Firmus and Rusticus () (died c. 290 AD) are venerated as two martyrs of Verona. Legend Their unreliable ''Acts'' state that Firmus and Rusticus, kinsmen, were prominent citizens of Bergamo. According to tradition, the soldier Firmus was ...

, brothers who are local martyrs from the 3rd century. The exterior has a roofline with pinnacles, and the church once held the tomb of a member of the

Scaligers The House of Della Scala, whose members were known as Scaligeri () or Scaligers (; from the Latinized ''de Scalis''), was the ruling family of Verona and mainland Veneto (except for Venice) from 1262 to 1387, for a total of 125 years. History ...

. The interior has many medieval

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

s, as well as later decoration, including the Brenzoni Monument (discussed below), an altarpiece of ''St Francis of Assisi'' by Giovanni Battista Belloti, whilst Veronese's ''

Bevilacqua-Lazise Altarpiece The Bevilacqua-Lazise Altarpiece is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese, from 1548. It is now held in Castelvecchio Museum, in Verona. It was commissioned by the Bevilaqua-Lazise family for their funerary ...

'' was originally painted for a funerary chapel in the church. A crucifixion on the counter-façade is one of Turone's most significant works.

History

A church at this site may has been traced to the 8th century, and by the 11th century a second story and belltower was added by the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

order. There is a "lower church" (''chiesa inferiore'') below the main church. The campanile was not completed until the 13th century, it contains six bells in F cast in 1755 and rung with the

Veronese bellringing art Veronese is the Italian word denoting someone or something from Verona, Italy and may refer to: * Veronese Riddle, a popular riddle in the Middle Ages * ''Veronese'' (moth), a moth genus in the family Crambidae * Monte Veronese, an Italian chee ...

. The presbytery hosts relics of the saints Fermo and Rustico.

Brenzoni Monument

This striking wall monument is by the Florentine sculptor Nanni di Bartolo, called "il Rosso" ("the redhead") and includes a ''Resurrection'' group of Christ, four sleeping soldiers, three angels, and two

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

who hold back large canopy curtains, a Venetian style in wall tombs, that here gives the scene something of the effect of a ''

tableau vivant A (; often shortened to ; ; ) is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically illuminated. It thus combines ...

''. Above this a

''Annunciation'' is the earliest major work by the painter

Pisanello Pisanello (), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed b ...

to survive. Pisanello was an established painter by this time, but most of his paintings had been frescos on secular subjects for palaces, all now gone. The whole is topped by a statue of a prophet. The monument was probably begun in the 1420s, with the frescos done by 1426, but only finished in 1439. Rosso is mentioned in the inscription ("Nanni" is a contraction of "Giovanni"):

QVEM GENUIT RUSSI FLORENTIA TUSCA IOHANNIS/ ISTUD SCULPSIT OPUS INGENIOSA MANUS: ("The ingenious hand of Giovanni the redhead, a child of Tuscan Florence, carved this work."Kindly translated by
Andrew Dalby Andrew Dalby, (born 1947 in Liverpool) is an English linguist, translator and historian who has written articles and several books on a wide range of topics including food history, language, and Classical texts. Education and early career ...
and others)

Notes

References

* Olson, Roberta J. M., ''Italian Renaissance Sculpture'', 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art), *Seymour, Charles Jr., ''Sculpture in Italy, 1400–1500'', 1966, Penguin (Pelican History of Art) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fermo Verona

Fermo Fermo (; ancient: Firmum Picenum) is a town and ''comune'' of the Marche, Italy, in the Province of Fermo. Fermo is on a hill, the Sabulo, elevation , on a branch from Porto San Giorgio on the Adriatic coast railway. History The oldest huma ...

Romanesque architecture in Verona Gothic architecture in Verona 15th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy