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Chiesa della Madonna del Piano in Capranica: Vignola and a Sienese Fresco
Just outside the walls of Capranica, in the locality known as Piano, stands the sanctuary that houses one of the oldest frescoes in the area. The presence of a sacred image on the site is documented as early as the 14th century, with a tabernacle belonging to the Compagnia dei Cacciatori (Hunters’ Confraternity). In 1559 Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese commissioned Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola to design a church with an elliptical ground plan. On the night of 5 December 1631 almost the whole church collapsed, with only the façade surviving. The rebuild resulted in an entirely different structure, with a rectangular plan and a single nave.
On the inside: carved wood, Baroque frescoes and a 14th-century Madonna
The carved and painted wooden ceiling depicts the glory of the Virgin Mary amid festoons and grotesques. On either side are three chapels, surmounted by the coats of arms of the noble families who contributed to the rebuild. The presbytery frescoes — the Nativity of the Virgin, the Dormition of the Virgin and the Glory of Mary in Heaven among saints, prophets and the Sibyls Cumaean and Tiburtine — are the work of Francesco Cozza, a pupil of Domenichino. On the high altar, framed by four columns supporting a double pediment, is the main fresco, Madonna and Child, with the child holding a goldfinch, attributed to Andrea Vanni, a Sienese painter and follower of Simone Martini.
