page_title: Santi Pietro e Paolo, Brebbia
section_title: The apse
hierarchical_section_title: Santi Pietro e Paolo, Brebbia / Artwork / The apse
caption_attribution_description: English: an image of the laterale wall in the St. Peter and Paul church in Brebbia
context_page_description: Santi Pietro e Paolo is a Catholic church in the town of Brebbia, in the province of Varese. The Church was built in 1100 and is a national monument. It is considered one of the best preserved Romanesque buildings in the province.
context_section_description: The frescoes can be found in the apse and in the southern nave of the Church. The apse is dominated by a basin, which is the most important feature of the complex as it highlights the altar and catches the eye of the visitors whom enter the church. The frescoes have been subject to several changes and were replaced by new frescoes with more modern features. This coverage can be seen by the different thicknesses on the wall. Understanding the original frescoes is difficult, because documentation is scarce and most of them date back to the early XV century.
  The pastoral visit in 1569 was led by Leonetto Chiavone. It resulted in a statement saying that the altar was placed under a painted and ornamented vault. In the pastoral visit of 1581, the apse is described as full of frescoes, but with corroded images due to the antiquity. Descriptions of these frescoes are missing and it is impossible to define which of the visible frescoes are original ones. During post 1939 restorations some antique frescoes were uncovered that were obscured during restoration work in the XVI century.
  The only datable fresco is the Crucifixion, located at the top right of the central window. The sides of the cross are faded but remain to show the date in Roman numbers.  The coat of arms of the Besozzi family is still visible. The work is very simplified due to the characters covering all available places with a clean and dark outline. There are also decorations visible in the ornaments on the vests and in the rays above the aureole of the angels and saints. Above the arch which introduces the presbytery, the Master of the Fissiraga Tomb has painted an intense gothic model Crucifixion. Its dramatic look is contained in the gestures of Mary and John, in the gestures of the angels that gather the Blood of Christ from the chalice, and with the solemnity that contrasts with the desperate flights of their respective Varesini around the cross.
  
  The fresco that is placed on the left side of the central window represents the Madonna Enthroned with the Child and Saint Peter. The throne of Virgin Mary has gothic elements, like turrets and pinnacles that make it look like a sacred edifice. The theme of Virgin Mary as mother is the image of the Church that is usually suggested, but Saint Peter acquires a particular importance in this fresco. The state of conservation of the artwork is precarious due to the disappearance of many graphic details. These were originally described as numerous, but currently only remain in the vest of the Child and in its borders. 
  Under the Crucifixion fresco there is a fragmentated fresco, with different stylistic characteristics. The plaster on which the fresco is painted has a lower thickness, showing that the artwork is more antique. It is estimated to date between the end of the XIII century and the start of the XIV century. The visible part represents figures of Saints, of which on the right is Saint Peter with the keys and the book, and Giovanni Battista dressed in skins and a symbol of the Angel of God in his hand. The usage of the lines is nearly obsessive: the beards, hair, alignments of the face, margins of the clothes and the aureoles. The veins of the wood of the cross are underlined by dark lines and the artist ornamented the superior border with flowers.
  Similar characteristics can be found in a fragment of Ambrose, highlighted under two saints from 1400 in the lower band of the left arch. Part of the face, the aureole and the three scourges are visible. Around the figure there is a partially conserved frame similar to the Crucifixion.
  A group of figures of Saints was found in the southern nave during the restorations in 1963-64. The altar of Saint Stephen should have been situated here, numerous times named in the pastoral visits in the end of 1500. When in 1716 the current altar of the Immaculate was erected, these frescoes were partially destroyed and occulted behind a wall of bricks. It is possible to distinguish the central part of a figure that wears a dalmatic, which is an attribute of Saint Stephen. A nearly c
caption: Madonna Enthroned with the Christ child and Saint Peter
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