Marble tabernacle

An example of artistic commission by a bishop of Tropea in the fifteenth century

The tabernacle, placed in front of the left apse in correspondence with the altar dedicated to the dying Saint Joseph, was commissioned in the second half of the fifteenth century by Pietro Balbo, bishop of Tropea. He was originally from Pisa and belonged to a family whose Venetian branches had expressed important prelates and even a pontiff. 

Perhaps originally placed on a wall, it took on the character of an independent temple when it was moved at the end of the nineteenth century because it was incorporated into a masonry structure. 

The relief work, painted in blue and gold according to a widespread style in the second half of the 15th century, was probably executed by a sculptor from Lombardy, active in the Kingdom of Naples. 

The Eucharistic door is flanked by two kneeling angels inserted in a perspective architectural structure with a coffered barrel vault. The scene is framed by two decorated pilasters which support an entablature which houses an inscription in Latin and Greek dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament.

 

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Scheda scientifica del tabernacolo