winchou: Art & Architecture of Puglia

Coming off our last 'package tour' and feeling that it was a success, we embark on another but this time to southern Italy, the Art & Architecture of Puglia. Our last focused on the architecture of Palladio, but this is a general tour of Puglia, the 'heel of the boot', with a stop in Matera (Basilicata).

The tour begins in Bari (pop 315,986 in 2025), the regional capital. To get there, we need to meet our group at the airport in Napoli, and board a bus to Bari. However, the tour's schedule changes before our departure, and there will not be very much overlap between our arrival from Lisbon and the group's arrival from London.

Travel luck being what it is, our flight suffers a forty-five-minute delay, and we miss the bus. So we take a train from Napoli Centrale to Caserta, then on to Bari Centrale (about six hours) and a fifteen-minute walk to the hotel. We arrive late to the welcome dinner, just as most of the others are finishing.

Our consolation is an amazing room with our own furnished terrace looking out over the coast, which faces northeast on the Mare Adriatico (more north than east), with a 'can't miss it' view of the crazy Ruota Panoramica on the Lungomare (above). Luckily, the light show does not go on all night. In the distance, on either side of the Ruota, the view also includes the Duomo and the Basilica di San Nicola.

The tour Director, who specializess in Byzantine art, starts things with a lecture, "Puglia – Ancient & Medieval", which is fine given the weather. Against all odds, we've arrived in Bari with a week's forecast of rain. So, we gather is a small meeting room in our hotel. The crux of the lecture is the mix of regional influences: Greek, Roman, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Saracens, and Normans.

Our tour Manager follows the lecture by distributing audio devices for our walk into town, then leads us down the Lungomare and into the miserable weather.

The group moves slowly. We stop briefly in the Piazza del Ferrarese to catch everybody, then head into the old town on the elevated walkway called the Via Venezia.

We arrive at the east facade (apse) of the Basilica Pontificia di San Nicola (11th-12th centuries). It's an irregular composition of arched forms: relieving arches, double-light windows, and a single large window decorated with birds and elephants.

We take the stairs down to the Corte del Catapano (the former courtyard of the Byzantine governors' palace), through a small tower and gateway. Below the large window, we get our first look at San Nicola in a low relief panel. He is often depicted with images of Christ and the Virgin over his shoulders.

We continue along the north side of the Basilica. The buttresses form a series of deep arches, with an upper loggia at the triforium. There are two decorated doorways that lead into the church, but they're not currently open.

The Chiesa di San Gregorio (10th-11th centuries) comes into view, along with a statue of San Nicola near the gate to the city.

Here, San Nicola is shown holding three bags (balls) of gold, from the legend in which he secretly gifted the gold a poor family in need of dowries for their daughters.

Walking away from the statue, we see the western facade, with a more formal arrangement of windows, but with the ornament concentrated at the central portal. San Nicola is repeated in the lunette, and there is a chimeric figure at the peak of the gable. Under the bases of the side columns are a pair of cows or bulls. This is surrounded by animal and vegetal motifs, and telamones under the panels of the archway. All this carries a wonderful patina that helps the forms stand out against the otherwise flat facade.

Around the entrance, several of the ashlars are covered with script from memorials to those entombed within.

Inside, the chaos of arches continues. The nave is six bays to the chancel, but the first three nearest the front are reinforced with additional columns and heavy stones arches. Since the bays at the aisles are uneven, the arches are not parallel. Peering through the splayed construction, we notice the dark, Baroque ceiling with thick gold framework and dramatically painted scenes, the "Soffitto di Carlo Rosa" ("La Vita di San Nicola", 1547-49).

The patina from the front portal is stripped away; everything looks clean and new – maybe not in a good way. A three-arch screen separates the chancel from the nave. These arches are echoed at the opposite end, behind the front facade, but without the columns. The arches seem to match the stonework of the arcades that delimit the nave and the aisles.

The "Ciborio di Eustazio" (1115 circa) covers the altar, with a wonderful octagonal cupola held on four columns and remarkble, deeply carved capitals.

San Nicola is once more to our left, on a silver stand and under an enormous glass case, with pastel robes and votive objects at his feet.

Choral music draws us to La Cripta, but the space is full of people in the middle of worship. We are intruding, and it feels wrong to take pictures. This prevents our exploration of the space, including the Tomba di San Nicola, which is behind an iron gate at the altar of the crypt.

There are few things we can see without disturbing the service, including a portion of the Paviementi e Mosaici. We stay to listen to the singing and observe in silence. The worshippers are probably Orthodox, as San Nicola is revered by both Catholic and Orthodox Christians. The ceremony is lovely, but the itinerary does not permit a long a visit.

Returning to the ground level, we try to also look at La Cattedra di Elia, but the lateral chapels are roped off, and we can only see it from a distant angle. One of the Renaissance masterpieces we can inspect is "La Pala di Bartolomeo Vivarini" (1476). The principal image shows the "Madonna in Trono col Bambino", with "Santi Gicomo e Ludovico"on the left and "Santi Nicola e Pietro"on the right – contemplative and beautifully executed. The perspectival walls and sense of light place the figures in a relatable setting.

In the opposite (Epistle) chapel is the "Trittico di Andrea Rizo da Candia" (1451), with the "Madonna della Passione" (note the instruments carried by the angels) between the "Santi Nicola e Giovanni il Teologo"(Evangelist). The two chapels perhaps represent the two devotions, Catholic and Orthodox. The Trittico stands in front of the "L'Affresco più Antico della Crocifissione" (1304).

On the way out, we pass San Nicola one more time, as he centers a reliquary chapel. He is surrounded by the oval portraits of priori, church superiors, and is showered with coins. He holds a book along with the three gold bags; the book holds a small bottle.

The rain is moderate but relentless as we make our way south to the Cattedrale. The building is surprisingly similar in size and form to the Basilica, but with the addition of a campanile and a cylindrical structure that looks like an old battistero (though there's no external acess; currently used as the sagrestia).

Before we enter, the group stops for coffee and a 'loo' break, and we get a look at the Castello Svevo (12th-16th centuries).

The Duomo di Bari (di San Sabino, 12th-13th centuries) feels even 'cleaner' than San Nicola, with its exposed wood truss roof structure and pale ciborio (1233). The chancel is open to the nave, which is elevated several feet. It is enclosed by a wood rail and iron screen, and covered by a stone dome on an octagonal drum.

There are nine bays to the arcade between the nave and the aisles; the stairway fills the 'crossing'. Intriguing fresco fragments dot the walls. A tall stone pulpito (11th-12th, rebuilt 20th centuries) occupies the third bay from the stairs on the right (Epistle).

Though not strictly a Latin cross plan, there is a transept of sorts at the raised level of the chancel. This gives layered views back to the nave.

The capitals of the taller, half-round columns on the piers around the chancel are leafy, almost Classical. Some of the column shafts are bound with reinforcing straps.

We emerge from the ambulatory near the pulpito. The carved figures of the eagle (San Giovanni) and the telamon in the bracket are incredible, and one of the few places where the stonework still shows its age.

Next to the pulpito is a short column shaft with Biblical scenes – the Baptism of Christ, the Last Supper, etc.

Descending to the cripta, we pass through an unexpected time jump. Instead of an older space, we find a 'newer' one, with brightly colored vaults and square posts. There are only a handful of frescos that suggest a longer history. A single column, with the stone panels removed, exposes the medieval elements within.

The elaborate Baroque altar contains the relics of San Sabino and incorporates the "Vergine Odegitria" icon.

An archway at the stair landing leads to the west, away from the crypt altar and into an underground space, the succorpo. Here we are jump back again to the eleventh century, as we enter the remains of the ancient Cattedrale, which was destroyed by Guglielmo I di Sicilia in 1156.

Parts of the old foundations and many pieces of the floor mosaic are intact and carefully preserved.

We head back to the hotel to dry off. We have another lecture in the meeting room, "Puglia – the Baroque and Beyond". Properly armed with historical facts and context, we head to the Pinoteca Metropolitana.

In Sala 1 and Sala II the frescos are medieval, such as "Santa Margherita" and "San Nicola" (13th century), and the "Madonna di Ciurcitano" (12th-13th centuries). Architectural fragments, such as the eleventh and twelfth century capitals, come from the same era as the old 'succorpo' Cattedrale.

A triptych by Antonio Vivarini (c1450), illustrates the shift to the Renaissance. The panels show "San Benedetto", "Madonna Con Bambino In Trono", and "Santa Scolastica" with credible expressions (the Bambino), chiaroscuro, and flowing cloth.

Five additional portraits from a polyptych by Vivarini (1467) include "Cristo in Pietà", "San Ludovico da Tolosa", "San Francesco d'Assisi", "San Giovanni Battista", and "Sant'Antonio da Padova". The images develop these artistic concepts further, in the rendering of the detail in San Ludovico's robes and mitre, and the texture of Sant'Antonio's book – believable people and objects.

Another set of four saint portraits (c1480) byAntonio's brother, Bartolomeo Vivarini, shows this to a higher degree: the sparkling jewels and foreshortened hand in "San Nicola di Bari", the perspectival geometry of the wheel in "Santa Caterina d'Alessandria", the light on the silky wimple of "Santa Chiara d'Assisi", and the weight and folds of the habit in "San Bernardino da Siena".

Sala III provides a special enclosure for "San Pietro Martire" (c1490) by Giovanni Bellini. This is a near life-size full portrait of the saint in contrasting black cowl and white tunic in front of a striking blue sky. Rather than the 'holy' light of medieval gold leaf, natural highlights flash from his face and chest. On the reverse, we can see how the wood panels are assembles, with butterfly splines, But we can also see further evidence of Bellini's fascination with highlights in the 'doodled' figures and white crayon.

Passing in and out of rooms, through the Renaissance and Baroque examples, we continue to see the expression of light become increasingly theatrical, In Sala VIII we are astonished to find a wall-sized woodblock print (xilografia) of the "Istituzione Dell'Eucaristia" (Bottega di Pieter Wouters, 1673-75). It not only captures the expressions and the light but is a technical tour de force.

Finally, we reach the last, Sala XVIII. By now technicians are setting up some kind of event, and their Pelican cases are around and between the exhibits. Our tour Manager (not the Director) spots "Westminster" (1875) by Giuseppe de Nittis on the far wall (we'll see more of de Nittis tomorrow). It is an atmospheric, Impressionist cityscape of London at sunset, from the Westminster Bridge, looking at the Houses of Parliament. The towers frame the amber sky, with dark figure on the Bridge in the foreground.