Oratory of Most Holy Rosary in Santa Cita in Palermo
The Oratorio del Rosario in Santa Cita owes its name to the nearby church of the Dominican monastery of Santa Cita .
It was built in 1590 by the Compagnia del Rosario established in 1570.
From the upper loggia, adorned with marble busts, one passes through a stone portal to the hall which acts as a vestibule; this is decorated with portraits of the Superiors of the Company. The simple rectangular hall with a small gallery was decorated by the masterful hand of Giacomo Serpotta who worked there from 1687 to 1718. For his stuccoes Giacomo Serpotta creates a sumptuous decoration, ennobling the stucco technique, traditionally poor , through the addition of marble dust to the lime and gypsum, thus giving brightness and value to his works. The artist Serpotta fully expresses his iconographic and expressive creativity in the oratory classroom: on the entrance wall it is possible to admire, in a drape modeled in stucco, and unrolled by cutesy cherubs, four reliefs also surrounded by flowers and palm trees. At the center of the work stands the representation of the Battle of Lepanto surmounted by the relief with the Coronation of Mary. Underneath Serpotta he modeled two young men with the emblems of the two warring parties: the helmet of a crusader and the turban of a Muslim.
Other valuable works are: the Madonna del Rosario between Dominican Saints by Carlo Maratta, the inlaid marble floor and the benches of the brothers, a masterpiece of wooden craftsmanship, inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
