Un nuovo capitolo per la committenza di Filippo Maria Visconti: la cappella di San Martino in Sant’Eustorgio a Milano

Starting from the investigation of the most ancient sources concerning the basilica of Sant’Eustorgio, the article casts light on the historical problems of the patronage of the chapel between the Torriani and Visconti families and focuses on its transfer from Duke Filippo Maria to Giorgio Aicardi. During the dissertation it is revealed how the initiative of the fifteenth century re-qualification of the sacellum should be plausibly collocated within the ambit of Filippo Maria’s commissions and that it should be related particularly to the Duke’s interest in the church of Sant’Eustorgio in the early twenties of the Quattrocento and in 1438. This proposal dovetails with the iconographic and stylistic elements of the paintings. Thanks also to the valuable support from old photographic campaigns it has indeed been possible to put forward suggestions to identify each saint depicted on the vault. Furthermore, the examination of important Dominican historical sources, of the early episodes of saint Catherine of Siena’s veneration and of the stigmata controversy arisen at the end of the fourteenth century between the Dominican and the Franciscan order, has allowed the problematic issue of the dating of the cycle that was raised by Maria Luisa Gatti Perer to be solved. Special attention is paid to the damsel represented alongside Mark the Evangelist, so far always interpreted as Bianca Maria Visconti and whose identity here instead goes through a different proposal recognizing her as the link in a series of Visconti’s heraldic representations. Concerning the style, on the strong substratum of Michelino da Besozzo’s features, it is possible to notice the simultaneous presence of two artistic patterns that would thus reveal a choral work, the former softer and more conventional, the latter akin to the distinctive touch of the subsequent activity of Cristoforo Moretti.