Town and authority in the seventeenth century Saint Siro’s paintings for the Duomo di Pavia

This work highlights the contribution of Saint Siro’s cycle paintings created for the Duomo di Pavia between the Sixties and Seventies of the seventeenth century, to the civic cult of the patron saint. In the scenographic images of Carlo Sacchi, Filippo Abbiati and Andrea Pozzo, in which current and past come together, all the «people of Pavia» can recognize itself next to Saint Siro: among the devotees there are not only men of power but also the marginalized of the community. On the other hand the commissioning of the decorative enterprise involves religious and civil institutions, some of which are examined here, especially those of the Menocchio brothers and Senator Giacomo Menocchio, who pursues the cultural strategy of the Senate of Milan. Finally, reconsidering some sources, the authorship of the print engraved by David Custos is identified and the precious late eighteenth-century testimony of Giuseppe Bertolasio is recovered and provides unpublished information on the restorations of the paintings by Pozzo and Abbiati. As well it proposes a different reading of the subjects of the most prestigious paintings, reaffirming, however, their strong civil and political value.

Keywords: saint Siro, Cathedral of Pavia, Carlo Sacchi, Filippo Abbiati, Andrea Pozzo, baroque paintings

Anna Paola Arisi Rota, Città e potere nel ciclo seicentesco dei dipinti di san Siro per il Duomo di Pavia in "STORIA IN LOMBARDIA" 1/2025, pp 5-46, DOI: 10.3280/SIL2025-001001