High Altar - (Calabria)

Archconfraternity of the SS. Rosary

Foundation year: 1401

City: Catanzaro

Archdiocese: Catanzaro-Squillace

Artistic artefact (canvas, fresco, statue, etc.): High Altar

Title: High Altar

Dimensions: 291 x 428 x 124.5 cm

Year of execution: XVIII century.

Author (with year of birth and death): Silvestro and Giuseppe Troccoli from Naples

Brief description of the work and of the author's profile: Altar in polychrome marble and mother of pearl with 3 steps, coming from the church of S. Caterina di Catanzaro. The structure is in white marble worked with inlay and relief. Different types of marble are inserted including the local black Reventino marble used as a strip and that of Gimigliano or green marble from Calabria. It is enriched, the only example in the city, by the presence of two pairs of marble angels in the round, one fluttering under the table and the other in the altar head with a cornucopia. The ciborium is surmounted by 3 putti heads and the pediment emerges at the top in a small temple with columns and a niche, for the exposition of the Sacrament, where a sun is inlaid with an all-round marble dove hanging. It needs a restoration intervention to have some missing or falling marble parts and the presence of cracks that can cause instability in part of the structure.

Compiled by the Attorney Prof. Sandro Scumaci