IL CONVENTO DI SAN DOMENICO A CREMONA: OPERE D'ARTE E INQUISITORI NELLA LOMBARDIA SPAGNOLA

The demolition of the friary of San Domenico in Cremona, which took place between 1869 and 1875, turns out to be one of the darkest pages in the history of a city that was, at the time, pervaded by a strong anticlerical sentiment. Architects and intellectuals made several attempts to save the buildings, with the hope of giving them new life as archives or educational institutions. The history of the lost church of San Domenico, similar to that of many other religious complexes demolished during the nineteenth century, ended on a positive note: almost all of the artwork survived.
Twenty-three paintings were consigned to the municipality of Cremona by the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione and they constituted the core of the municipal collections (inaugurated in November 1888). Another four paintings adorn the walls and an altar of three churches of the diocese of Cremona, while still others are held in different private collections.
Exhaustive research conducted in different archives has brought to light several unedited documents, such as contracts, payment receipts, projects, drawings, inventories and plans of the friary, all of which have permitted a reconstruction of the decorative history of the complex. This research has also revealed the will of the Dominicans of Cremona to promote the status and role of the Order in the history of the Church through charismatic figures raised to the honor of the altars, such as Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas, Vincent Ferrer, Rose of Lima and of course Domenico of Guzman, founder of the Order.
The Dominicans wanted to transform their church in a "museum" of the Cremonese school of painting, giving prominence to the panels painted by Giulio and Bernardino Campi and Camillo Boccaccino, all of which assumed a privileged position in the transept.
The Dominicans chose Giovanni Battista Trotti called Malosso, and Andrea Mainardi (known as Chiaveghino) to enrich the church with works in the late sixteenth-century manner. After their deaths, the friars called the painters Stefano Lambri and Gabriele Zocchi.
The Inquisitor Giulio Mercori (1607-1673), a key figure in the Inquisition and the events of the State of Milan effected a real change by commissioning artists to revolutionize the appearance of the church's presbytery. During the years (1665-1673) in which he held the role of Inquisitor General in the State of Milan, he commissioned several works from leading figures in the Milanese art world: Giuseppe Nuvolone (known as Panfilo), Giovanni Stefano Danedi (called Montalto) and Agostino Santagostino. Regard for their contributions in Cremona led local artists to renew their own figurative languages.
The relationship with the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan was fundamental: some friary's rooms were transformed into a laboratory where altars and other liturgical furnishings commissioned by Mercori were made and then sent to Cremona. Analysis of documents relating to the Milanese church confirms the prevalence of the Dominicans' attention to the altar adornments for their churches: they conceived of luxurious settings for the Mass as means for promoting St. Dominic's spirituality, legacy, and family.