The art of the late 16th century in Milan developed, as elsewhere, along several strands and styles summarized in Mannerism, Counter-Reformation art, and Classicism. These currents divided the city's art scene, often undergoing mutual influences.
The Milanese art scene of the late 16th century must therefore be analyzed by considering the city's particular position: while for the Spanish Empire it represented a strategic military outpost, from a religious point of view it was at the center of the conflict between the Catholic and Reformed Churches. Consequently, the greatest contribution was made by religious art in the face of less civil artistic and architectural production..
Although in adopting the Mannerist style, the city's patrons and artists had examples of central-Italian derivation as reference, the city's location near Protestant Switzerland made Milan one of the main centers of the flourishing and elaboration of Counter-Reformation art, due to the widespread action of the archbishops St. Charles Borromeo and Federico Borromeo....
Religious architecture
The Instructiones of Charles Borromeo
With the advent of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation Church, ecclesiastical authorities exploited art as a means of spreading the new doctrines in opposition to Protestantism and other heresies; art was therefore subjected to strict canons and controls so that artists depicted episodes from the most original biblical tradition.. Since there were few regulations for architecture alone, Cardinal Charles Borromeo, among the protagonists of the Council of Trent, drew up the Instructiones fabricae et suppellectilis ecclesiasticae, that is, an architectural compendium regulating the construction of new churches. These provisions guided the development of religious buildings in the following years. until they were also applied in Latin America, then part of the Spanish Empire.. As indicated by the Council's decrees, elaborate and monumental art was supposed to impress the faithful, prompting them to contemplate and learn religious doctrine: the representations, though grand and solemn, would be easy to understand even by the uneducated populace. This was obviously at odds with Protestant doctrine, which regarded excessive and lavish decorations as a distraction to the faithful or even heresy..
Borromeo begins the Instructiones by talking about the location of the church, which should be in an elevated position if possible and secluded from noise or noisy places, and detached from other tenements except the residence of the priest or bishop. The number of steps to reach such a location should be odd. Guidance is also given on the size of the church, which must be sufficiently capacious to accommodate the faithful for special occasions... Among the most important details is the form of the plan, for which Borromeo recommends the use of the Latin cross at the expense of the central plan: although used in many illustrious cases, especially in the Renaissance, Borromeo considered the central plan a reference to pagan temples and used to a lesser extent in Christian architecture, while the Latin cross was justified by the supremacy of the early basilicas that used this form...
As for external decoration, the cardinal specifies how it should be concentrated on the main façade, when not absent on the side walls, which should not be decorated with images in any case: in the third chapter, a sort of clause is inserted subordinating the architect's work to the bishop's judgment.. The "supremacy" of the early churches is taken up in the fourth chapter regarding the entrance of the churches: if possible the church should have an "atrium" on the model of the quadriporticus of the Basilica of St. Ambrose, however in the case of lack of space or money more modest solutions such as a pronaos or a simple portal between columns are allowed:. however, this rule is often disregarded in the city of Milan. For the same reason he recommends rectangular entrance doors of ancient basilicas in odd numbers, half as wide as they are tall, contemplating frames of various shapes with decorations..
Indications of a purely practical nature are then given, such as making sure that the roof in case of rain does not cause moisture or water infiltration, and regarding the floor the norms are more celebratory and ideological: in the most important churches and major chapels the covering must be of marble, while brick is left only to small churches and minor chapels; it is fundamental that there be no sacred images or crosses on the ground, which would thus be trampled.. Borromeo then moves on to the interior of the church, starting with the chapel and the high altar: both should be monumental and as ornate as possible, and indications are also given on measurements and placement, with possible solutions in case the ideal setting is not possible..
Particular importance is given to the choir, which may be in front of or behind the high altar, but in any case must be well divided and distinguishable from the rest of the church dedicated to the faithful.. The explication then goes on to include practical and ideological indications with various levels of detail: from more important orders such as the construction rules of the baptistery and sacristy, to individual architectural elements such as confessionals and pulpits, and finally to the storage rooms for the various sacred furnishings; the section finally ends by contemplating the presence of an oratory and defining the structure of a possible nuns' church.For a detailed discussion see the full work:
Pre-Counter-Reformation Churches Domenico Giunti of Tuscany and Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia were the first architects to break away from the Lombard late Renaissance tradition. To the former are owed the churches of San Paolo Converso and Sant'Angelo, set according to the same construction scheme of a single nave with side chapels with a barrel-vaulted roof, a citation of Alberti's Basilica of Sant'Andrea already found in Bramante's church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro...
The church of San Paolo Converso, an attribution sometimes disputed, was begun in 1549 to be in an advanced state as early as two years later; the façade dates from the early seventeenth century, yet it is heavily influenced by the Milanese works of Tibaldi and was designed with decoration and monumentality in mind according to Borromeo's Instructiones.. The interior was largely decorated by the Campi brothers and is among the most representative of Milan's late 16th century: more than the decorations of the six chapels along the nave and the partition between the hall and the room intended for the cloistered nuns, Vincenzo Campi's large fresco on the vault of the Ascension of Christ, a great example of late Renaissance perspective illusionism in the footsteps of Bramante's more famous false choir in Santa Maria presso San Satiro, is noteworthy.. Overall in the pictorial decoration there emerges a certain influence with the central-Italian Mannerist tradition, above all Giulio Romano, while inspirations from Correggio's frescoes of the Parma Cathedral Dome can be seen in the perspective of the frescoed vault; finally, the results of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist and the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence by Antonio Campi in the first and third chapels on the right are sometimes catalogued in the current of "pre-Caravaggism.".
The church of Sant'Angelo dates back to 1552, when it was completely rebuilt after demolishing the remains of the old church damaged by the wars that occurred in the city at that time. The project included the three cloisters of the church, demolished in the 20th century, leading to the façade dating back to the 17th century: originally Giunti had planned a façade with strict proportions, sober and practically without decoration, but this was never realized. The structure of the church was designed as a Latin cross with a single nave with a barrel vault and a total of sixteen side chapels. In the chapel dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, one can observe on the sides the canvases of the Stories of St. Catherine (1564) by Antonio Campi, who sets the story in a nocturnal setting often echoed in Caravaggio's settings, in which, moreover, the Cremonese painter anticipates the luminism used by Merisi; in the chapel of St. Jerome and the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary are paintings by Ottavio Semino of Mannerist style with Flemish influences, however mitigated by early post-Tridentine teachings, for which the painter chose scenes of everyday life. Ottavio Semino frescoed the head of the transept, while the sacristy is adorned with Peterzano's oil on canvas of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1579); finally, the tomb of Bishop Pietro Giacomo Malombra is attributed to Annibale Fontana...
Vincenzo Seregni's first work in Milan, excluding his apprenticeship in the Fabbrica del Duomo, was in the reconstruction of the church of San Vittore al Corpo in a collaboration with Alessi: the two architects anticipated the Counter-Reformation architectural canons in the internal structure by means of the longitudinal layout with a natural outlet to the space of the dome: the internal structure was compared by James Ackerman to Palladio's Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore, in which the Venetian architect combined the central plan with a Latin cross plan.. To continue with the similarities between the two churches, the original design included for the facade a monumental pronaos surmounted by a tympanum that echoed the partitions of the facade of San Giorgio.. Built beginning in 1559 on the remains of the old early Christian Basilica of San Vittore, the new church was set in an inverted orientation from the previous one, and it was necessary to demolish the imperial mausoleum of Maximian in order to finish the work; the work lasted until late in the seventeenth century, and the facade was never completed according to the original design. The interior is divided into three naves, the major one presenting a barrel vault while the two side ones have ribbed vaults decorated with stucco and frescoes: while the structure retains its 16th-century appearance, the decorations are largely of the 17th century.. Notable is the late sixteenth-century wooden choir with the Stories of Saint Benedict based on Aliprando Caprioli's fifty engravings of the saint's life and miracles..
Alessi continued in his Counter-Reformation program with the construction of the new church of St. Barnabas for the Barnabite fathers, an order recently created to foster the spread of Tridentine doctrine: the single-nave interior layout can be considered one of the earliest attempts at a "basilica of the Reformation." The church's interior was built in the late sixteenth century. From a decorated facade, albeit without the typical late-16th-century plasticism, one enters the interior divided into three rooms to allow for the monastic life of the order and the prayers of the faithful: the first room consists of a single nave with a barrel vault, so intended in order to improve the acoustics in the friars' oratory to the faithful, while the other two consist of the rectangular-based presbytery with a pavilion vault and the square-based choir with a rib vault... The interior works include Aurelio Luini's Pietà in the second right chapel, St. Jerome by Carlo Urbino in the choir, and Peterzano's early works in Milan with the Vocation of Saints Paul and Barnabas and Saints Paul and Barnabas in Listri in which the influence of his Venetian training, especially Titian and Tintoretto, emerges clearly; finally, some works by the Campi brothers and Lomazzo once in the church are now exhibited in the Brera Art Gallery...
The prototype of the Counter-Reformation church: the church of San Fedele