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S. Felice di Giano:
The Cloister

[image ALT: A small square arcaded courtyard, with three or four arches on a side, and a second story above it. In the center of the courtyard, a square brick well. Pots and planters of flowers, mostly geraniums. It is a view of the cloister of the abbey of S. Felice near Giano dell' Umbria (central Italy).]

The cloister itself dates to the 13th century; the wall-paintings (I'm not sure that they're actually frescoes) are much later, 17c to even early 19c. The lunettes depict the martyrdoms of some of the greater saints, while depictions of a curious medley of saints, blesseds and divines, mostly Augustinian theologians, decorate the squinches and the spaces over the interior columns of the cloister. Among many others, Tommaso da Villanova and Nicola di Tolentino are represented, but also Pope St. Agatho (d. 681), and the 15c cardinal Alessandro Oliva of Sassoferrato: contemplation in this cloister was clearly meant to take an intellectual turn.

[image ALT: A schematic clickmap of the cloister of the abbey of S. Felice near Giano dell' Umbria (central Italy).]

In this very schematic and, alas, not completely accurate clickmap of the cloister, orange represents horizontal and blue represents vertical surfaces; the dots open photographs in another window.

That small rectangle at the bottom of the plan is an attractive marble bench, probably of the 16c:

[image ALT: A small marble bench of the Renaissance period, elaborately carved with foliage, in the cloister of the abbey of S. Felice near Giano dell' Umbria (central Italy).]
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Page updated: 21 Aug 04