Marche Breaks

By the end of the 16th Century, the centre of Italian culture had moved to Counter-Reformation Rome. Once again, foreign invaders were at the door (this time the Spanish) and the Marche was absorbed compliantly into the Papal States. For the next three hundred years the region was to be ruled by papal governors and the clergy.

The new Baroque style arrived late in the Marche, brought by new religious orders such as the followers of St Philip Neri, who built a score of exquisite oratories throughout the region and decorated them with works by artists of the period including Tiepolo, whose masterpiece of the Appearance of the Virgin to Saint Philip Neri was commissioned for their church in Camerino.

The Marche produced several of its own painters who moved to Rome to make their name including Zuccari brothers (Federico and Taddeo), followed a century later by Il Sassoferrato.

Several works by other great painters of the period to be seen in the Marche, include:

• Apparition of the Virgin          by  Titian
• Adoration of the Shepherds   by   Peter Paul Rubens
• Annunciation                      by   Guido Reni

But the great construction period was over and the Marche was able to survive the architectural changes of the next few centuries relatively unscathed.

Among the few 18th Century architects worthy of note is Luigi Vanvitelli, whose work in Ancona includes the fine Altare della Madonna in the Cathedral of San Ciriaco and the Lazzaretto (or quarantine building) near the port.

By the end of the 18th Century a new threat had appeared when Napoleon invaded Italy in 1796 and forced Pope Pius VII to sign away the Papal States at the Marche town of Tolentino. But the collapse of the regime with the fall of Napoleon was as rapid as its arrival. Yet, despite its brevity, Napoleonic rule awoke Italy from its long slumbers and fostered the rebirth of nationalism. Under the Piedmont King Victor Emmanuel II, his wily prime minister, Cavour and the heroic if maverick general, Garibaldi, United Italy became a reality. By 1860 Marche towns had risen against Rome to swear allegiance to the new Kingdom of Piedmont. The Papacy, however, proved more intransigent to the onslaught of the Risorgimento and it was a full ten years later that Rome finally fell, in 1870.

During the 18th and 19th Centuries the Marche made other contributions to the arts in the fields of music and poetry, producing three famous composers - Pergolesi from Jesi, Spontini from the nearby town of Maiolati and Rossini from Pesaro - as well as Leopardi, one of Italy's great 19th century poets, from Recanati.