Marche

MARCHE. - The Marche (or the Marca), so called from the border position that in the early Middle Ages the region had with respect to the Byzantine possessions, correspond to the Adriatic slope of the Apennines between the Foglia and Tronto rivers, which define it respectively toward Romagna and Abruzzo.

I. GEOGRAPHY

Inland, the limits of the physical region coincide with the watershed between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian, but the administrative ones in many places diverge from them. The Marche is a land of hills and medium-sized mountains, which faces the sea with a low and harborless coast, except at the promontory of Conero, where the shoreline forms an elbow (in Greek called auhon, whence the modern Ancona). Inland the region consists of a series of ridges oriented perpendicular to the axis of the Apennines, separated by valleys whose waters have more the character of torrents than of rivers.

The economy of the Marche is essentially agricultural (66.6% of the population is engaged in it), but with a growing participation of industrial and commercial activities. Besides cereals, the cultivation of sugar beet, vines and silkworms is widespread. In livestock raising, cattle and pigs predominate. Among industries, textiles predominate (silk and hemp mills at Jesi), paper (Fabriano), food and chemicals.

The population lives predominantly scattered (the relative percentage, 55%, is the highest among the Italian regions); large urban agglomerations are therefore lacking. Only Ancona and Pesaro exceed 50,000 inhabitants. Ancona is the major port of the Adriatic after Venice and Bari.

II. HISTORY

The Marche were inhabited, from the most ancient times, by peoples of Italic stock: the principal one being that of the Piceni. The Christian religion must have been preached in Picenum quite early. But the opinion of scholars varies concerning the era in which the individual cities of the Marche received the light of the Gospel. However, from the holy propagators of the faith, whose acts, moreover, are not always certain, it seems undoubted that at the beginning of the 4th century the full triumph of Christianity was reached in the

region: in 492 the pontiff St. Gelasius I opposed the spread of the Pelagian heresy.

During the barbarian invasions, once the administrative unity had been broken, the bishops and the abbeys remained almost the only authorities recognized by the populations and also combined in themselves the civil powers. This state of affairs, after the expulsion of the Lombards, evidently induced first Pepin and then Charlemagne to make a donation of those lands to the Church (752 and 774), which, however, could not avail itself of them immediately nor then constitute a State that would render such a donation effective. Already then feudalism had arisen as a disintegrating element. With the advent of the emperors of German stock (961) the first names of "marca" begin to appear, from the Germanic Mark, that is, "border": there follow, in order of time, the march of Camerino, of Fermo, of Ancona, etc. Besides the feudal families, the Communes also contributed to undermining the authority of the bishops and monasteries: more powerful than the others was that of Ancona, which had a notable Levantine activity, stood up to Venice and successfully resisted the Barbarossa. Religious life then received a new broad impulse, especially through the work of the Franciscans and Dominicans, and everywhere grandiose temples, convents and sanctuaries arose, among which the most celebrated is that of Loreto.

At the same time as the Communes, some great feudal families established themselves in the region. Thus the Montefeltro extended their dominion to Gubbio, Urbino, Cagli and Fossombrone; the lords of Varano made themselves masters of Camerino and of many other places; the Malatesta affirmed their preponderance in the stretch between Pesaro and Osimo, and for a short time also dominated Ancona. But the Holy See never renounced the rights that derived to it over those lands from the ancient donation, and let no means or occasion pass to reaffirm them and to demand respect for them, both before the imperial authority and before the Communes and the local lords. In the middle of the 14th century, in the face of new usurpations and political defections, the cardinal legate Egidio D'Albornoz, with energetic, methodical, enlightened action, succeeded in re-establishing in the Marche the fullness of pontifical authority: there remained memorable the fundamental code of the Ecclesiastical State, known by the name of Constitutiones Aegidianae and approved at Fano by a general parliament (1357).

Also in the following century, once the Western Schism had ceased, the Holy See continued the work of assistance and protection of its territories and, sooner or later, succeeded in affirming its supremacy everywhere. Only for a short period (1433-44) could the lordship of Francesco Sforza, extended to almost all the Marche, resist and maintain itself, and a little longer those, more limited and circumscribed, of his brother Alessandro at Pesaro and of Sigismondo Malatesta at Fano (1463). At the beginning of the 16th century, Cesare Borgia, fighting with valor and with perfidy, brought down other local lords impatient of obedience. In 1532, through the work of the cardinal Benedetto Accolti, the commune of Ancona capitulated, renouncing its own autonomy; later, in 1545, the lordship of Camerino, under the government of Ottavio Farnese, returned to the Pontifical State; finally, in 1631, also the duchy of Urbino, with Pesaro and Senigallia, after the extinction of the della Rovere family, returned to form part of the territorial domains of the Church.

Thus the political and administrative unity of the Marche was then fully reconstituted and remained almost unaltered for more than a century and a half, that is, until the end of the 18th century, precisely until the spring of 1798. Then the Marche were occupied by the French republicans, commanded by General Berthier, and later, after various vicissitudes (1808-13), annexed to the First Kingdom of Italy and divided into the three departments of the Metauro, the Musone and the Tronto. In 1815, at the Restoration, restored by Austria together with the other provinces, they returned to form part of the ancient Pontifical State and remained there for another 45 years, until the invasion of the Marche by the Sardinian army, the battle of Castelfidardo (v.) and the siege of Ancona (v.) forced the pontifical troops to capitulate (21 Sept. 1860).

Shortly afterward the Marche became provinces of the new Kingdom of Italy; they had remained under the devotion and under the obedience of the Holy See for over a thousand years.

Emilio Michel

III. CONCILIAR REGION

The conciliar region of the Marche embraces, with few variations, the territory of the civil region, that is, the four provinces of Pesaro-Urbino, Ancona, Macerata, and Ascoli, from the Tavullo river to the Tronto. The dioceses composing it number 26, but the bishops are only 19 because the following dioceses are united under a single prelate: Fabriano and Matelica, Osimo and Cingoli, Macerata and Tolentino, Montalto and Ripatransone, S. Severino and Treia, Cagli and Pergola, S. Angelo in Vado and Urbania, not to mention Ancona and Numana, since in this last see there exists nothing but a parish, without a curia or Chapter.

The city of Loreto is furthermore erected, from 11 Oct. 1935, as an apostolic administration (entrusted to the apostolic nuncio in Italy, who is represented there by a vicar of his with episcopal character). There exist in the region two ecclesiastical provinces: that of Fermo, which has as suffragans the dioceses of Macerata and Tolentino, of Montalto and Ripatransone, and of S. Severino; and that of Urbino, which has as suffragans the dioceses of Cagli and Pergola, of Fossombrone, of Montefeltro, of Pesaro, of Urbania and S. Angelo in Vado, and of Senigallia. The archdioceses of Ancona and Numana and of Camerino, and the dioceses of Ascoli Piceno, of Fabriano and Matelica, of Fano, of Jesi, of Osimo and Cingoli, of Recanati-Loreto, and of Treia are instead immediately subject to the Holy See.

The episcopal conferences are convened and presided over by the nuncio, and in his absence by the metropolitan of Urbino.

For cases of nullity of marriage the Marche have a single tribunal, that of Fermo, of which the local archbishop is the moderator (motu proprio: Qua Cura, 8 Dec. 1938; Normae of the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments, 10 July 1940). The court of appeal is the Etruscan regional tribunal of Florence.

For the lyceum and theology the clerics of the dioceses of Ancona, of Fabriano and Matelica, of Fano, of Jesi, of Osimo and Cingoli, of Montalto and Ripatransone, of Urbino, of Cagli and Pergola, of Fossombrone, of Montefeltro, of Pesaro, of San Severino and Treia, of Urbania and S. Angelo in Vado, and of Recanati and Loreto attend the Pontifical regional seminary of the Marche "Pius XI" in Fano. The remaining dioceses instead each provide for the instruction of their own seminarians.

IV. ART.

1. Introduction

Testimonies of the prehistoric period and of the Bronze and Iron Age civilizations were found in numerous necropolises scattered throughout the region and for the most part gathered in the National Museum of Ancona, where important objects dating back to the Picene, Greek, Etruscan, Gallic, and Roman civilizations are also collected, civilizations which in the territory exercised their influence in successive periods.

Architectural testimonies of pre-Roman civilizations are scarce; numerous and imposing, scattered throughout the whole region, are those relating to the civilization of Rome. One recalls the arch of Trajan and the remains of the amphitheater at Ancona; at Ascoli a "Templum in antis" (today the church of S. Gregorio), the bridge of Porta Cappuccina, the so-called Porta Gemina; at Fano the gate of Augustus, and so on. There also exist important ruins of destroyed centers, such as those of Urbs Salia (Macerata) and of Faleria (Ascoli). In the Marche, finally, is found the famous Gallery of the Furlo, built by Vespasian in 76 A.D. to make the Via Flaminia more comfortable along the stretch of that narrow gorge.

2. Architecture

From the Early Christian period there remain the ruins of two churches of the 5th century, beneath the Romanesque one of S. Maria della Piazza in Ancona. Romanesque architecture triumphs throughout the region and leaves there interesting manifestations with Lombard and Byzantine influences, the latter of which justify the presence of structures with complex centrally-planned layouts, such as the cathedral of Ancona.

One recalls further S. Maria di Porto Novo (Ancona), S. Vittore (Genga), S. Claudio al Chienti (which is also traced back to the 6th century), S. Urbano di Apiro, the abbey of the Furlo, the already mentioned S. Maria of Ancona, and finally the baptistery of Ascoli. To the period of transition between Romanesque and Gothic belongs S. Elena near Serra S. Quirico, while an illustrious example of early Gothic is provided by the abbey of Chiaravalle, dating back to the end of the 12th century. At Ascoli, Ancona, and Fano are found the major monuments of Romanesque civil architecture. Gothic architecture offers its finest example with S. Francesco of Ascoli, while the facades of S. Agostino and of S. Francesco of Ancona, the work of the Dalmatian Giorgio Orsini, belong to the second half of the 15th century. To the Gothic period there finally date back notable examples of military architecture, among which, to cite but one for all, one recalls, though restored, with its walls and its fortress, the castle of Gradara.

The advent of the Renaissance brings about a new architectural flowering. To Urbino belongs the first manifestation, in order of time, of that new artistic civilization, that is, the portal of the church of S. Domenico, the work of the Florentine Masaccio (1450). In the same city, in the second half of the century, rises the most solemn, grandiose, and pure example of Renaissance civil architecture: the Ducal Palace, the work of Luciano Laurana, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and others. The new beauty of the building brought about the spread of a current inspired by it; manifestations of it are the Palazzo Passionei of Urbino, the ducal palace of Pesaro, and others. Francesco di Giorgio is the author of the Palazzo della Signoria of Jesi and perhaps of the same Palazzo degli Anziani (prefecture) of Ancona. Tuscan artists worked at Loreto (basilica of the S. Casa), while the influence of the Urbino-born Bramante makes itself felt in his own native city (if the S. Bernardino is to be attributed to him, which criticism today tends to give to Francesco di Giorgio), at Loreto, at Macerata (S. Maria delle Vergini), and in the beautiful sanctuary of Macereto (Visso), a work built under the direction of the Lombard Filippo Salvi. With the "Imperiale" of Pesaro, erected by Girolamo Genga of Urbino (who enlarged a pre-existing building), the type of the pre-Baroque villa is created, in which the landscape and scenographic element acquires fundamental importance, while at Ancona Pellegrino Tibaldi raises the Palazzo Ferretti, the most beautiful in the region among the numerous ones built in the course of the 16th century. One recalls finally the architectural work of Cola dell'Amatrice, active in Ascoli. Military architecture leaves distinguished documents. The fortresses of Pesaro and of Senigallia are prototypes of modern fortifications in relation to the establishment of artillery. In this field Francesco di Giorgio, Laurana, and Baccio Pontelli were very active in the region.

Baroque architecture does not produce works of exceptional importance, while in the 18th century Luigi Vanvitelli raises numerous monuments, among which one recalls the beautiful church of the Gesù and some palaces of Ancona that should derive from him (Palazzo Jona, etc.).

3. Sculpture

From the Early Christian period there remain some sarcophagi (that of Gorgonius of the 5th century, in the cathedral of Ancona, and others) and some ivories. Of "barbarian" art there remain notable examples, among which one cites the ambo formerly in the church of the Misericordia of Ancona and the slab of S. Vitaliano at Osimo.

The sculpture of the Romanesque period generally displays cultural elements similar to those found in northern architecture, such as, for example, the portal of S. Maria della Piazza in Ancona, the work of master Filippo, and Byzantine influences, such as the beautiful plutei in the cathedral, also in Ancona (12th century). The name of Giorgio Orsini recurs as the executor of the elegant decorations of his Ancona architectures, among which is remembered the group of Charity, in the Loggia dei Mercanti, one of the most refined sculptures of the Quattrocento. But in the Ducal Palace of Urbino splendid examples of Renaissance sculpture (Tuscan and Lombard) are gathered, in the fireplaces and portals that adorn it, the work of Domenico Rosselli, Ambrogio Barocci and others. Widespread in the Marche are examples of wooden sculpture in the Quattrocento, almost always of Tuscan-Abruzzese influence, and sometimes under the ascendancy of Francesco Laurana (group of the Annunciation in the Gallery of Urbino). The best Marche sculptor of the Cinquecento is Federico Brandani da Urbino, active in his native city, in Senigallia, in Piobbico, etc. Also remembered are the brothers Jacometti da Recanati, authors of bronze sculptures in Loreto, Osimo, Camerino, etc., and active between the end of the 16th century and the middle of the following one.

4. Painting

Long and complex is the history of painting in the Marche. Traces of primitive frescoes, on two layers, are noted in the paleochristian church beneath S. Maria della Piazza in Ancona; interesting Romanesque wall paintings are found in Fabriano and in Pesaro. Also Romanesque paintings have recently come to light in the churches of S. Gregorio and of S. Maria inter vineas in Ascoli.

The Riminese school left numerous works in the region (Mercatello, Urbania, Urbino, S. Agata Feltria) and the imposing frescoes of the Cappellone of S. Nicola in Tolentino, attributed to Baronzio; and likewise the Bolognese school had very notable importance in the pictorial history of the region (polyptych by Andrea da Bologna in Fermo, frescoes in Offida, etc.); and finally the Venetian school, already present in the Trecento, established itself even more in the following century and had much ascendancy over the formation of local schools. These had their major centers in S. Severino (Jacopo and Lorenzo Salimbeni [v.]), in Fabriano (Allegretto Nuzi, Gentile and Antonio), and finally in Camerino, by then of Renaissance tendencies (Giovanni Boccani and others). In Urbino, in the second half of the Quattrocento, a school flourished under the influence of the artists who came to the court of the Montefeltro (Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, Pedro Berruguete, Justus of Ghent); its greatest representatives were Giovanni Santi, whose fame is overshadowed by the very great one of his son Raphael, Timoteo Viti, Evangelista da Pian di Meleto. Throughout the Renaissance, Tuscan artists and artists from other regions were active in the region, such as the aforementioned Pietro and Melozzo, and then Signorelli in Loreto and Arcevia, Bellini, Crivelli (who made the Marche his second homeland) and finally Lotto, who left there a great part of his works. In short, the Marche, although they had not given life to a school of great and decisive importance, participated actively in Renaissance painting and gave birth to two of the greatest Italian artists: Gentile da Fabriano (v.) and Raphael Sanzio (v.). It should be added that the Marche are rich in frescoes, and many still unpublished. Among the local artists of the Renaissance are also remembered Stefano Folchetti da Sanginesio, Lorenzo di Alessandro da S. Severino, Vincenzo Pagani, Pier Paolo Agabiti da Sassoferrato, Taddeo and Federico Zuccari, and finally the great painter of transition between Renaissance and Baroque, Federico Barocci da Urbino. Of the Seicento it suffices to cite G. B. Salvi, called, from his birthplace, il Sassoferrato, and of the Settecento Carlo Maratta (active especially in Rome, a native of Camerano in the territory of Ancona). The best-known Marche artist of the Ottocento is Francesco Podesti of Ancona, who also executed numerous frescoes in the Vatican. See also UMBRO-MARCHIGIANA, SCUOLA. - See plates II-III.

Pietro Zampetti