Today it is also used for events, but what is its history?
Crossing the cloister of the Church of Carmine, you will come across the Artistic Sacristy, built in 1480, probably based on a design by architect Pietro Antonio Solari.
The sacristy has a rectangular plan and one side is twice the length of the other. The ceiling is a lowered vault with lunettes and a unique umbrella-shaped solution at the four corners. Originally, the room was lit by eight symmetrical windows (four on each of the long sides). One of them was closed to accommodate a painting depicting Saint Andrew Corsini, patron saint of the Carmelite Order.
The current floor of the sacristy, with its square pattern, is made of solid wood, but the original floor was made of terracotta tiles. After 1692, the current floor was laid over the older floor.
The current furnishings of the sacristy, made of black walnut, were created between 1692 and 1700 based on a design by the Milanese architect Gerolamo Quadrio. The work was carried out by the workshop of the Valtellina woodcarver Giovanni Quadrio, who was already working in Milan and was almost certainly related to the more famous Gerolamo.
The cabinetry, which completely covers the walls up to a height of 4.90 metres, is a splendid work in Baroque style, at times almost Barocchino.
The furniture designed to hold liturgical furnishings is arranged along the two side walls in the same way: in the centre, two large, very deep, full-height cabinets with doors decorated with bas-reliefs (eight finely carved panels) alternate with counters topped by two-door cabinets; at the four corners, the wooden furniture follows the 45° angle of the lunette of the vault and has four single-leaf glass doors: three give access to built-in cupboards and one, on the right side of the altar, leads to a hallway off the sacristy.
Above the cabinets are wooden busts of bishops and princes, while in the corners are four female medallions supported by cherubs.
The overall effect is that of an evocative and fantastical Baroque space: the carvers from Giovanni Quadrio’s workshop, inspired by the genius and imagination of architect Gerolamo Quadrio, have left us with an almost surreal environment in which architectural, sculptural and perspective aspects blend masterfully according to the canons of Baroque art.
Source: Chiesa del Carmine
