Neapolitan presences in the territory of Bari: an unpublished altar by the marble–worker Crescenzo Trinchese at Acquaviva delle Fonti
In corroboration of the flourishing artistic and cultural relations forged by the region with the capital of the Kingdom of Naples, also in the field of the art of marble, many Apulian churches are embellished with richly decorated screens and altars in precious marbles produced by Neapolitan ateliers. One of the most famous and thriving of these workshops was that of Crescenzo Trinchese, a highly regarded Neapolitan marble–worker who was active in Campania and Apulia from 1743 to the 1780s, and whose work is widely represented in the Apulian towns of Altamura, Barletta, Bitetto, Giovinazzo and Martina Franca.
To the already large repertoire of fine works (altars and sculptures) attributed to him the author now adds the monumental altar of rare polychrome marbles, embellished with elegant intarsia work and accomplished sculptural ornaments, in the church of the former convent of Cistercian Benedictine Sisters at Acquaviva delle Fonti, in the province of Bari.
Drawing on unpublished archival documents, the paper also provides information on the patronage and characteristics of the altar (perhaps one of the last works produced by Trinchese not only in Apulia, but also, probably, in his career). Its dating and attribution are corrected and defined.
Commissioned from Trinchese (that he not only executed, but also designed the altar, cannot be excluded) by the Mother Superior of the Benedictine convent of Acquaviva in early 1780, the altar, at an agreed price of 400 silver ducats, was completed and installed in situ, with the convent’s approval, in April 1781.
A comparative analysis of its materials, as also of its structural and ornamental components, reveals compositional and ornamental schemes and motifs recurrent in similar works produced by Trinchese in the province of Bari. But it also reveals original decorative combinations and structural solutions.
It may be said that the Acquaviva altar, without eschewing the late–baroque and rococo decorative repertoire, is characterized by a less showy ornamental apparatus and by a more rigorous linear design: the reflection, perhaps, of new artistic and cultural influences.
