La maniera dei Serpotta e una proposta interpretativa per la Cappella di Sant’Anna a Castelbuono (1684-1687)

The paper presents a critical art-historical analysis of the Chapel of St Anne within Ventimiglia Castle in Castelbuono (Messina), a work executed between 1684 and 1687 by Giuseppe Serpotta, brother of the better-known Giacomo. The chapel is the product of the artistic practice of what the author considers to have been a unified workshop, albeit one distinguished by the different personalities and abilities of the two brothers. For the first time, the paper proposes an interpretative reading of the Baroque decorative ensemble, suggesting that it was structured according to a Counter-Reformation hierarchy. An iconological and theological role is thus assigned to the extensive gilded background, as in Bernini’s decorative schemes and other comparable examples. According to the hypothesis advanced here, this approach had already been explored in the stucco altarpieces of the Church of the Carmine in Palermo, executed by the two brothers in 1684, where numerous formal parallels can be identified.