The Piaggiola

La Piaggiola is a twelfth-century studio with a barrel vault and four arches hinting to move it, called Chiesina of Santa Maria della Piaggiola, in the report by L. Carattoli of 1869, definition taken in 1900 by Alfieri in his book, now unavailable, Fossato di Vico - Historical memories. But as a church you never meet it in historical maps, even if some of its religious functions can not be excluded. It has also been defined as the seat of the Monte di Pietà, but certainly it was only in some epochs and not for example around the middle of the nineteenth century, when also of the Fossato mountains it had two, that pio frumentario contiguous to another of the pawns ( it is remarkable, in this regard, how the creation of a Monte di Pietà was decided in Fossato, with ninety-five votes against seven, from one of his last arenches, that of 11 April 1540, an exact month before submission to the Papal State; in the Municipality there is a parchment of the Statute of the Monte di Pietà, in thirty-three points, dated 1681). The pictorial cycle of Piaggiola is attributed by the critics to the Eugubino Ottaviano Nelli, born around 1370 and author of this cycle presumably in 1405, and no longer to his father Martino, as he wanted a tradition also made by Alfieri, of whom he also ignores the critics, if he was really a painter. What is certain is that the work of Ottaviano, is among the major exponents of the movement called international Gothic, are found almost everywhere in central Italy. Regarding the commissioner of the frescoes of the Piaggiola, Carattoli reports in his cited report of having read under the scene of the crucifixion, the following inscription unfortunately mutila: hoc opus fecit fieri dna Francisca filia quondam ... Starting to admire the frescoes from the right wall, they represent: a St. Michael the Archangel and a Christ crucified on the tree of life; follows the stupendous Madonna with the child enthroned between the Saints Anna and Catherine of Alexandria, with the scene of the mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, to the finger of which Jesus puts a ring; a piety follows at the foot of the cross; on the background lunette, what remains of a Crucifixion to which Saint Francis and another saint are present, besides the usual sorrows and angels. Going to the left wall follow: a Madonna and Child enthroned and to the San Giovanni Battista side; S. Antonio Abate and Sant'Onofrio; a Madonna del Latte and a Dead Christ in the Sepulcher, which for G. Donnini belong to a pupil of the Nelli school. At the center of the vault are skies with stars and in a round the Christ Blessing.