Carbognano, Church of Sant’Eutizio

This is one of Carbognano’s most ancient churches. According to some estimates, it dates back to the ninth century. The church features three interesting frescoes. The first one portrays the Virgin on the throne with the baby Jesus. The second one – located in the apse – depicts the Crucifixion, Saint Peter, and Saint Paul. Both were done in the mid-fifteenth century by Francesco d’Antonio da Viterbo, also known as “il Balletta” – an exponent of the artistic trend known as International Gothic. A third fresco, dating from the early-sixteenth century portrays Saint Eutizio and his “Miracle of the Three Spikes.”

THE HISTORY

The facade of the church has a gabled structure, characterized by a single portal surmounted by an oculus. Two steps lead inside the church. The church has a nave and two aisles covered with trusses and with columns of reuse, that is reused from pre-existing buildings, given the diversity of each of them; on one of these we can still read the inscription “SANCTUS EUTITIUS”; in fact it was built in honour of S. Eutizio from Ferento who, according to what reported by the chronicles, to escape from the persecutions of the Roman soldiers, took refuge in the countryside of Carbognano.

THE EXTERIOR

The façade is hut-shaped and has been covered in plaster during the recent restorations. It has a portal in peperino stone with a lunette over its architrave and three windows with the figure of Saint. Michael the Archangel portrayed in the central one. Three emblems in peperino stone sit on the top of each window. The one in the middle shows the coat of arms of Pius IV Medici while the others represent the Deputy Legate Piccolomini Baldini and the Town Council of Viterbo. On the right hand side of the façade there used to be an exquisite Roman sarcophagus portraying scenes of wild boar hunting which served as the tomb of the “Bella Galiana” (1). In its place we can now see the Funari brothers’ copy of it while the original sarcophagus is preserved in the Viterbo Town Museum. This legendary episode tells of a maiden who was so beautiful that men came to Viterbo in great numbers just in the hope of being able to admire her from afar. A Roman Baron fell in love with her and offered her his hand in marriage but was turned down. Consequently, the nobleman decided to place Viterbo under siege, but the town defended the young girl and resisted for so long that the besieger gave in. However, before leaving the town forever, the Baron asked to see the Bella Galiana appear on the tower, which now bears her name, one last time. She was killed by an arrow from her rejected admirer’s bow. The people of Viterbo honoured the maiden whom they considered to be a glorious member of their community by laying her corpse in a lavish sepulchre in the porch of the church of Sant’Angelo. Two epigraphs from the XVI century commemorate this legendary tale. To the right of the church in a narrow alley we can see the remains of the walls of the original church, two walled-up doors, a single-lancet window and a lunette which still bears the trace of a fresco of the Madonna with the Child between two Saints (the saint on the left bearing the insignia of the Episcopal dignity), an arched door framed by a cornice, counter-forts and support arches across the lane. At the end of the alley an eighteenth century bell tower is still standing.

THE INTERIOR

Entering on the left we can see what was presumably a pagan altar, that is the support on which the sacrifices to the gods were made. This altar obviously dates back to a period previous to the church, in which instead of it there was, according to some, a pagan temple, on the remains of which the church itself was built. At the beginning of the left aisle there is a torn fresco coming, as the oral tradition reminds us, from the church of Santa Maria della Concezione, representing San Leonardo with the Madonna, seated with Child. The Saint is recognizable by the iconographic detail of the handcuffs. On the back wall, on the left, we find a beautiful fresco of the Madonna on the throne with Child, attributed to Francesco d’Antonio Zacchi, known as Balletta. Signatures can be seen on the pictorial film (“Tolomeo da Marciano 1524”). Although some have interpreted them as the names of the authors, they are more likely to be graffiti engraved by devotees who visited the place. The Madonna is on a throne, in a static pose, and she has the child on her legs carrying a scroll with the inscription “Ego sum via “. In the apse is represented the Crucifixion of Christ, with on the right and on the left respectively Saint Peter, with a book and a key in his hand and Saint Paul also with a book and a sword; in the apse basin, by now not very visible, appears the image of the Holy Saviour. Note the preciousness of the aureoles, and the calligraphy with which the details are rendered, executed with the incision technique and the transparency of Christ’s loincloth, experimented by Cimabue in the 13th century and resumed by our artist. This fresco is also attributed to Balletta, an artist who dominated the Viterbo scene in the first half of the 15th century. Balletta is an exponent of the artistic trend called International Gothic, an elegant, luxurious style characterized by meticulous attention to detail in the representation of the details that recalls the style of Siena and Umbria in its courteous and elegant compositions. To the right of the apsidal wall we admire the image of Sant’Eutizio. Behind it there is the representation of the so-called “miracle of Saint Eutizio” in Carbognano; from the legend we learn that the Saint, while he was walking in the forest, met a farmer who was beating his heifers angry with hunger; so after having addressed a prayer to God, from the clods sprouted wheat with which the animals were satiated. This anecdote dates back to the assumption by the people of Sant’Eutizio as patron saint of the place and the ears of corn as a symbol and coat of arms of the country of Carbognano. Below we can see the patrons on their knees, smaller than the Saint; a way to represent this, still linked to the previous tradition, in which the dimensions were related to the importance of the character. The fresco, in which is still visible the inscription with the date (1515) is clearly later than the other two for the features more sixteenth-century, and for the presence of a grotesque decoration unlike the Gothic one that surrounds the other two frescoes. Before leaving the church, above the entrance portal there is still a Renaissance baldachin finely decorated with fake fringes that dangle with lilies. In the part below the cover of the canopy, the wooden support is decorated with a painting of the Eternal Father Blessing among angels. The painting is attributable to the mid-sixteenth century.

ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

V. ARAMINI, Sicuti Archivium inventum fuitâ. The Ecclesiastical Archives of Carbognano (Viterbo). New ordering and computerized inventory. Thesis, Faculty of the University of Tuscia of Viterbo, 2005/2006.

R. CECCARELLI – O. TARTARINI, Carbognano, yesterday, today, tomorrow. Civita Castellana, 1940.

L. CIMARRA, Carbognano …una terra e un paese da scoprire, in Tuscia Economica, N°° 3, Camera di Commercio, Viterbo, 1991.

V. D’ARCANGELI, Carbognano, in Tuscia Viterbese. Rome 1968.

I. FALDI, Pittori viterbesi di cinque secoli. Roma 1970.

R. INNOCENZI, Carbognano, Viterbo, 2001.

F. MARTINELLI, Carbognano illustrated by Mr. Fioravante Martinelli. Rome, 1694.

Unpublished Sources

Archivio Storico Comunale di Carbognano, Serie Antico Regime = ASCC, SAR Atti Deliberativi – Lib. Cons. SAR 2/6, September 30, 1607, cc. 153r – 154r.; ASCC, SAR 2/7, October 18, 1610cc. 36r – 36v.; or April 1, 1612, cc. 107r – 107v; and c. 142v.; February 3, 1614, c. 172v. 173r. ; 6 January1620, cc. 93r – 94r. ASCC, SAR 2/9, March 28, 1620, cc. 145r – 146r.

Historical Archives of Viterbo, Notarile Carbognano = ASVIT, Notarile Carbognano n° 21, Year 1583 cc. 77; 79 – 80; 83. Archivio Storico Comunale di Carbognano, Serie Antico Regime 2/3, Atti Deliberativi – Libri dei Consigli, 13 novembre 1583, cc. 132r/v. Address -Via Arignano, 8- Carbognano.