Chiesa Madre di Maria Santissima Addolorata

The Mother Church of Maria Santissima Addolorata in Soverato Superiore preserves a signed marble Pietà by Antonello Gagini. Commissioned in 1521 for an Augustinian convent in the hills above the Ionian coast, the sculpture was moved to the church after the convent was damaged in the 1783 earthquake.

Why it matters

The Pietà is the church’s best-known work. Its base bears the signature “ANTONII GAGINI PANORMITAE,” identifying Gagini as its sculptor. The municipal account records that Giovanni Martirano d’Aquino commissioned the marble group in 1521 for the convent of Santa Maria della Pietà. After the convent church was damaged in 1783, the work was brought to the mother church in Soverato Superiore.

What to notice

The Pietà is a marble group depicting the dead Christ with the Virgin Mary. The sculpted base includes Saint Michael, Saint John the Baptist and Saint Thomas Aquinas above Averroes, as described in the local account. The church also contains a wooden crucifix, a relief of the Vir dolorum or Ecce Homo, and a statue of the Addolorata associated with Soverato’s September feast.

Context and history

The Augustinian convent of Santa Maria della Pietà was founded around 1490 by Francesco Marini da Zumpano in what is now the territory of Petrizzi. Giovanni Martirano d’Aquino commissioned Gagini’s work in 1521. The 1783 earthquake damaged the convent church and the Pietà; the sculpture’s fragments were transferred to the new mother church in Soverato Superiore, built between 1783 and 1785. The sculpture was later restored in Florence and returned to its chapel in the late 1960s.