Wandering around Narnia

A day out in town

Why do I live here? Well, the 14th century frescoes all over the place are a bit of a draw. St. Anthony of the Desert, at the church of San Francesco, Narni. Photo by me, yesterday.

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This is the Wednesday Post

On Friday…. Well, I’ve started calling it the “mid-week” post, because stuff just seems to keep happening. This week an old friend from Canada, one of the earliest to support my painting idea, and the very first to commission something, came on Thursday to spend the afternoon. Andrew and his wife Anna and I walked down the stairs to the main part of town, and had a nice Umbrian lunch, and then took a long stroll around town to see our little sights. And I thought a nice easy post with some of the pics I took might be something y’all’d enjoy.

It's my favourite of all of the trecento frescoes in the church, and I'm thinking about doing a copy on a panel.

I’d been working through Wednesday and pretty late into the night on a post about the horrible art of the horrible Marko Rupnik. I now have 5000+ words on it, and was honestly a bit overwhelmed by the topic, and didn’t get my head sorted about how to approach it until it was too late to publish. I was going to finish it up on Thursday, but by the evening of a day spent strolling about…

I live at the very top of the mountain. It takes a bit of commitment to live here. Nearly all the streets are stairs.

and then climbing back up the stairs to home, I was too pooped to see straight. And here we are at Friday; I still don’t have a finished post about all the things wrong with horrible Rupnik’s horrible art¹, but I do have some fun pics from yesterday, so it seems like a no-brainer.

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Narnia in May - San Giovenale and a famous horse race

Combination of my pics from last year and journalist pics. But all the real thing. This is how the Narnians spend their spring. They've been getting ready for weeks. The white flags with the black castle, and all the black and white livery of the ring-bearers, drummers, archers and heralds, as well as riders, designate our Terziere, Mezule.

Our weather has been unusually cool, wet, windy and dark all through April, and yesterday was the first day that felt like spring was really here. And it’s right in the middle of our festa, the celebration of the city’s patron, San Giovenale that the town observes as a two-week holiday of processions, costumes, outdoor plays, craft markets, medieval dinners, courtly gatherings, flags, drumming and displays of medieval crafts and daily living, and martial arts, fencing and archery competitions.

It all culminates in the "Corsa all'Anello" - the Race of the Ring, where horse and rider practice the ancient art of catching a tiny ring on the tip of a lance from the back of a horse galloping at full tilt. The festa’s origins date to the 14th century when the Corsa all’Anello was formally proclaimed in the Statutes of Narnia in 1371.

The offering of the candles, a ceremony honouring the memory of San Giovenale, dating to the 12th century, and a major feature of the town’s annual festa. Carried out in the centre aisle of the 11th century Duomo, that also contains San Giovenale’s 5th century tomb and his remains. Publicity photo from the website of the festa.

In Italy your town is always divided up into ancient neighbourhoods that have their own parish church, coat of arms, flags, groups and associations. In little Narni there are three, so they’re called Terziere.

Ours is Mezule, whose crest represents the great castle fortress that dominates the town at the top of the mountain. My friend and I went last year and our Terziere's team won the race, to great rejoicing. Which reminds me we haven't booked our tickets yet. The race is on the 14th. I think this year we should get the t-shirts too.

Part of a 15th century altarpiece, egg tempera on wood panel. It was a diptych, the other side of which depicted our other saint, Cassio, who was later also laid to rest in the same sepulchre as San Giovenale, the latter being translated to the apse of the cathedral. Pic by my friend Andrew.

San Giovenale (“Joe-ven-AHL-eh” or Juvenal in English) was the first bishop of Narni, (d. May 3, 369 or 377), while the Roman Empire was still going strong. He is described in the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great as a martyr, though this designation didn’t necessarily mean in the 6th century what it means now. Gregory also mentions a sepulchre for him, which still exists and which you can go and see and touch, on the Roman Via Flaminia.

Sacellum di San Cassio, the first Christian church in Roman Narni. Dating to the 5th century, it contains the sarcophagus of San Giovenale. It is still visited regularly for prayer and intercession by the Narnese. The marble facade was made in the 15th century from marble fragments that date to the Empire. These two photos are from the town’s tourism website.

Over this sepulchre, built into the Roman wall, was constructed a tiny church, probably the earliest in Narni. In the 11th century the Duomo, or Cathedral, of the diocese of Narni was built over the chapel, preserving it. The remains of the Roman wall can easily be seen in the piazza outside the duomo.

Today this chapel, known as the Sacellum di San Cassio (Sacellum, L., “little shrine”), can be entered on the right side aisle, and you can see remnants of the old Roman wall in its marble facade. The tiny chapel - with a space just big enough for a priest to say Mass on a (17th c.) altar - still contains the original stone Imperial sarcophagus, that was also later to hold the remains of Saint Cassius, our other saint of note.

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Impensole

Down the street a ways is Santa Maria Impensole, a little church just off the main piazza that has been deconsecrated officially but is still held in great reverence by the locals. It is the second church to be built on the spot and was part of a Benedictine monastery.

The "barbarian" Romanesque column carved with figures representing Daniel in the lion's den. Impensole is decorated over the portico with Imperial period carvings and its columns were taken from Imperial buildings.

“Impensole” means “hanging” and is probably so called because it sits above a pair of Roman water cisterns. It was built between the 7th and 10th centuries, owned by the Benedictine Abbey of Farfa, with decorative additions salvaged from Roman Imperial era buildings. The column capital above stands out as very different from the rest, and is a later addition. It would have been considered “primitive” or even “barbaric” by Roman standards, for its writhing, lifelike animals and human figures.

It is open daily and is used by the local people as a kind of public prayer room. It has a very calming and peaceful feel, and if you are sitting there reading your Office, you will often be joined for a few moments by someone popping in too light a candle and take a bit of a rest.

The votive church of St. Francis

Built on the edge of the butte is the late Romanesque Chiesa di San Francesco, built by the grateful Narnese after a visit by Saint Francis during which he performed several miracles.

Wobbly video from last Christmas, when they had a 1/2 life size presepe.

Inside, the church is known for its many frescoes, commissioned by donors and probably members of a lay Franciscan confraternity. You would donate to the various works of the confraternity - usually caring for sick and elderly, helping widows etc. - and a painting would be commissioned in your name that would help parishioners remember to pray for your soul. You can see that these frescoes are often painted on top of older ones. It is likely that in the past the entire church would have been covered in these panels.

Frescoes of the Chiesa di San Francesco

Trecento painting in the Narni museum

We didn’t get time yesterday to make a visit to our museum, but I thought I’d add some pics from the last time I went of a painting I really want to do some copying from.

The lower panel is the "Dormition" of the Virgin, a typical subject of Christian sacred art from the Byzantine, and the section above is the Coronation of the Virgin. An especially fine gold-ground painting of the 14th century. I find the expressions have that perfect balance of holiness and humanity. The gesture of the grieving St. John kissing the Virgin's hand is especially poignant.

Then after a lovely afternoon, it was time to go home, and for my friends to head down to Rome for their flight back to Canada this morning.

1. I didn’t figure out the key to that piece until about eleven pm on Wednesday, but if you want a preview, it’s about the eyes. We’re going to talk about Rupnik’s eyes here and the rest of it will be published first in the Remnant, to be reposted here later.