Subjects
Subjects
Located in the historic Cagliari district of Villanova, the cloister represents the only monumental survival of the San Domenico complex, after its destruction under the bombing of 1943. The neighborhood was formed at the foot of Castello, after the latter became, in the 13th century, the seat of city power.
The settlement of the Dominicans in Cagliari dates back to the 13th century, but the church of San Domenico in the Villanova district was built in the first half of the 15th century, on the model of the cathedral of Girona. Modified over the following centuries, it maintained its original Gothic-Catalan forms until 1943, when it was almost completely destroyed in the bombing of the city. The post-war reconstruction spared only a few structures of the ancient church, while two arms of the cloister are preserved, one from the 15th century and the other from the 16th century.
The cloister has a quadrangular plan with a perimeter of about 25 m on each side. Wing O consists of seven fifteenth-century chapels, vaulted in a cross dotted with a pendulous gem. The spans are divided by molded undersections, which rise from phyto-zoomorphic capitals supported by trunco-pyramidal peducci. In the S wing, two orders of arches can also be traced back to the same building phase. The E and N wings derive from the reconstruction wanted by Philip II of Spain in 1598. The four sides of the cloister are open to the garden with round arches set on pillars, stronger on the S and O sides.
History of studies
Scholars agree on a first structure from the 13th century, also confirmed by the discovery of ceramic materials dated to the end of the same century, as reported by Maria Francesca Porcella (1993) and Donatella Salvi (1993). The issue is controversial regarding the subsequent building phases. Dionigi Scano (1929) and Renata Serra (1961) believe that the transformation of San Domenico into Gothic-Catalan forms did not take place before the 16th century, relying on the formal analysis of a pendulous gem with the signs of San Domenico inside Samnitic-type shields used in Spain in the 16th century and never before in Sardinia. The thesis was then revised by Serra herself (1984), with a proposal to date the church to the first quarter of the 15th century. Luisa Degioannis (1993) underlines the importance of the altarpiece dedicated to Saints Peter of Verona and Mark, created by Joan Figuera between 1456 and 1477, as a dating term for the church. In line with these latest acquisitions, Francesca Segni Pulvirenti and Aldo Sari (1994) propose a chronology included in the first half of the 15th century.
Bibliography
D. Scano, “News of Sardinia, Cloister of San Domenico in Cagliari, The Church of San Pantaleo in Martis, A medieval window with sculpted architecture”, in L'Arte, VI, 1903, pp. 324-325;
D. Scano, Medieval Churches of Sardinia, Cagliari, 1929, p. 137;
R. Serra, “Contributions to Catalan Gothic Architecture: Saint Dominic of Cagliari”, in Bulletin of the Center for Studies for the History of Architecture, 17, 1961, pp. 117-127; C. Maltese-R. Serra, Art in Sardinia from V to XVIII, Rome, De Luca, 1962, sch. 78-70;
G. Olla Repetto, “Sardinian Notaries of the 15th Century: Pietro Baster”, in Historical and Legal Studies in Honor of Antonio Era, Padua, 1963, pp. 282-284;
R. Serra, “The Sardinian-Catalan Architecture”, in The Catalans in Sardinia, edited by J. Carbonell-F. Manconi, Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana, 1984, p. 134;
L. De Gioannis, “The Workship of Saints”, in Retabli. Sardinia Sacred Art of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries - Sacred Art in Sardinia in the 15th and 16th centuries, exhibition catalog, Cagliari, M&T Sardinia, 1993, pp. 159-175; Moriscos. Echoes of the Islamic presence and culture in Sardinia, exhibition catalog, Cagliari, Pisano, 1993, sch. 39-41, 43;
F. Segni Pulvirenti - A. Sari, Late Gothic and Renaissance-influenced architecture. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1994, sheets 3, 58.
Content type:
Religious architecture
Province: Cagliari
Common: Cagliari
Macro Territorial Area: South Sardinia
POSTAL CODE: 09127
Address: via XXIV Maggio, 5
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