Church of Sant’Umiltà

Description: The church is unique on the Faentine architectural pidori and Gian Battista Boschi in 1741. The building works continpanorama. Built in the 1500’s, it was completely rebuilt by Raffaele Camued for three years and the result was the only construction in Faenza that can be literally defined as rococo, in other words late baroque with lots of decorations, although not too heavy. The interior is remarkable for its balanced volumetry and most of all for the golden stuccos and very delicate colours. The decorations are by Ticino born Gian Battista Verda who was a very talented artist called on to work in Romagna and followed by his fellow citizen architect Domenico Trifogli who worked in Imola. Verda came to Faenza for the decorations on the Church of Servi and then received other commissions for S.Maria Vecchia, S.Agostino and in Modigliana. The three altar pieces were of a high quality level: the main altar piece by Felice Torelli from Veneto was studied and recognised by Francesco Arcangeli, whilst the two side altar pieces recognised by the Bolognese school of Marcantonio Franceschini were recently attributed (by Anna Tambini) as being more likely the work of rare painter Antonio Rossi. The altar pieces were stolen in 1991 and then partially refound – still missing are San Benedetto and Santa Scolastica – the three pieces have been replaced with identical photographic copies. The two retrieved pieces are now in the Municipal Gallery.