Oratorio del SS. Rosario in San Domenico - Palermo

The sanctuary was built from 1574 onwards by the Company of the Madonna del Rosario of the Order of Preaching Brothers. It is adjacent to the church of San Domenico.

It is considered one of the city's richest and most elegant oratorios due to its beautiful stucco decoration by Giacomo Serpotta and the presence of valuable 17th-century paintings by Flemish, including Van Dyck, Italian, Sicilian and Caravaggio school artists.

It is accessed through an anti-oratory with the altar of the crucifix; the rectangular room has a small rectangular chapel. On the walls are a series of paintings, executed in the first half of the 17th century by various painters, depicting the Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary , alternating with images of the Christian Virtues, by Giacomo Serpotta.

On the entrance wall are: the 'Resurrection', the 'Descent of the Holy Spirit', by Pietro Novelli, the 'Assumption of the Virgin' and the 'Saint Catherine'. On the right wall hang the 'Oration in the Garden', the 'Flogging', the 'Crowning with Thorns' and the 'Ascension to Golgotha' by Flemish artists and the 'Crucifixion' by the Van Dyck school.

On the opposite wall are the 'Annunciation', the 'Visitation' by Guglielmo Borremans, the 'Nativity' and the 'Presentation in the Temple' by the school of Pietro Novelli and the 'Dispute between Doctors' by the same Novelli.

The main altar features the 'Madonna with Saints' painted by Antonio Van Dyck in 1628. This work had a major influence on 17th-century Sicilian painting and was the most popular genre for the oratorios of wealthy companies that competed for the works of the most renowned and highest paid artists.

In the simple hall: sculptural repertoire animates the with figures of putti, ladies, knights, all perfectly defined with an abundance of details and arranged with masterful elegance to merge into one compositional organism. Interspersed with these are the images of the twelve virtues, a true masterpiece by Serpotta in which the now classical vein of the author is revealed.

Willem Vandenameele