Il mistero della luce nel Barocco: lo strano caso della chiesa del SS. Rosario di Bugnara

After the Italian Renaissance, no other era has so theologically exalted the dimension of light as the Baroque. As in the church of S. Andrea al Quirinale, the interior of the Baroque church is indeed a space of glory, revealed through an intense light, casting powerful, ever-shifting shadows, so that human desire may be placed in a constant search for the elusive divine light. In the church of the Madonna del Rosario in Bugnara, transformed into a Baroque style at the end of the 17th century, the ‘heroic machine’ of the high altar stands out, interpreting the theme of the Rosary with spectacular tension. Furthermore, in the altar to the right of the ‘machine’, the theme of Purgatory is interpreted through a fusion of architecture, painting and stucco decoration, reminiscent of Bernini’s ‘synthesis of the arts’. Another point of interest is the statues of saints on the pillars, a rare feature in the architecture of the area, suggesting the work of a Lombard artist commissioned by the de Sangro barons. In addition to the relationship with Bernini, the great altar shows clear influences from Cosimo Fanzago who, at the same time as he was working in Pescocostanzo, was busy in Rome creating the high altar of the church of S. Agostino, where Bernini had previously created the angels. In this regard, Gaetana Cantone, analysing the altar of the church of Gesù Nuovo in Naples, explored Fanzago’s attempt to engage with Bernini. Thus, the church of the Madonna del Rosario in Bugnara testifies to the complex relationship between Roman and Neapolitan culture, which Sulmona and its surrounding area both played a central role in. At the same time, the church brilliantly helps to overcome the preconception that inland Abruzzo was a land alien to the new architecture, where only the eighteenth-century earthquakes allowed the emergence of the Baroque.