The parish church of St. John the Baptist

The counter façade of the present church corresponds to the back wall of the medieval house of worship, dating back to the 13th century.

The fragments of medieval frescoes here were rediscovered in 1989. On the sides, female figures and saints are noted, with stylistic influences from 14th-century French painting.

The counterfacade

The current counter-facade of the church actually corresponds to the back wall of the medieval house of worship, the earliest documentary records of which are from the 13th century.

Dating back to medieval times are the fragments of frescoes glimpsed there with difficulty. They were rediscovered in 1989.

To the side, two well-defined female figures, not large in size, can be seen. In the same sector, on the left, the figure of an upright saint (St. John the Evangelist) can be seen, far higher than the above two.

Instead, on the other side of the wall, another upright saint (St. John the Baptist) can be partially glimpsed inside a decorative frame.

Stylistically, according to some scholars, the fresco fragments recall certain characteristics of certain French painting of the first half of the 14th century. Similar to them are the expressive modes of the so-called “Master of St. Nicholas,” an anonymous fresco painter in the church of St. Andrew in Savigliano, in the old Savigliano Town Hall and in a private home, also in Savigliano.

The linear Gothic of the fragments in this Alba church suggests a possible date in the third decade of the 14th century.

The altar of Our Lady of Grace

The first side altar, entering on the left, is dedicated to Our Lady of Grace.

On the sacred table since the 19th century is the precious panel painted in 1377 by Barnabas of Modena (news from 1361 to 1383). This pictorial work, formed in hundreds, depicts the Madonna and Child (or Madonna of Milk).

The painting comes from the demolished Alba church of St. Francis of Assisi. It has long been an object of specific devotion. Many votive offerings are still observable here, testifying to persistent popular devotion; some are small paintings painted between 1887 and 1928.

The altar of St. Augustine

The succeeding altar from 1941 last century appears to be dedicated to the Augustinian nun Saint Rita of Cascia. The venerable is depicted on the canvas painted by N. Formica, applied in the wall section in the niche in the center.

Until the nineteenth century, the side altar of St. Augustine’s was under the patronage of the Alba Cantone family, but at least since 1872 it has been transferred to the Biglino family.

A 17th-century painted and gilded wooden altarpiece of late Mannerist taste is clearly visible on the sacred mensa. It frames a large panel adapted there, executed in tempera, signed and dated in an apocryphal inscription under the Virgin Mary’s mantle: Macrinvs faci.t 1508.

As is evident, this is a work by the famous Renaissance artist Macrinus of Alba (news from 1495 to 1513, already dead in 1528). The painting, against a background of classical ruins, depicts the Madonna in adoration of the Child, St. Joseph, St. Nicholas of Tolentino, St. Augustine the bishop, St. Jerome, and musician angels. The work comes from the church of St. Bartholomew of the lost Alba convent of S. Maria della Consolazione, which was home to Augustinian friars.

The altar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The next side altar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (originally run by the Company of the same name), although the sacred table has not been there since 1886, is distinguished by the large niche in the center of the wall where the 18th-century Marian statue is included.

The remarkable Baroque sculpture by an unknown Piedmontese author, made of painted and gilded wood, is also used for the procession held annually on the feast of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.

The paintings

On the side wall to the left is the 17th-century altarpiece, of late Mannerist design, in which the Madonna and Child (Madonna del Carmine), Saints Elijah, Simon Stock (?), Francis of Assisi and Charles Borromeo are depicted.

It is the work of a painter in the circle of the well-known Moncalvo (master Guglielmo Caccia, who died in 1625), who would have painted it on canvas around 1628.

A 17th-century painting on canvas, donated to the church in 1992, has been placed on the right-side wall for years. It depicts St. John the Baptist in the desert and an angel. The work is attributed to the Lombard Giuseppe Doneda (or Danedi) known as Montalto (1609 – ca. 1678-1679).

On the wall to the left of the chancel is the 16th-century painting depicting the Madonna and Child, St. Augustine (or St. Nicholas the bishop?) and St. Lucy the martyr against the background of classical buildings.

Its provenance is unclear: from the Augustinian convent of S. Maria della Consolazione in Alba (abandoned by the friars in 1556) or from the vanished Alba church of S. Nicolao. The pictorial work, by an unknown author of probable Macrinian background, can be dated to the first quarter of the 16th century.

In the center, on the mensa of the high altar (built in 1894 to an earlier design by engineer Cesare Fantazzini of Turin), five horizontally arranged tempera-painted panels are clearly visible.

These paintings were part of the predella of a valuable polyptych that has long been observable in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin. Such a polyptych originally appears to have been executed in 1493 by the Asti-born Gandolfino da Roreto (documented between 1493 and 1518) for the Alba convent church of St. Francis of Assisi, which was demolished in 1814.

The panels reassembled here depict Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

In the center of the back wall, above the chancel, is the large altarpiece (oil on canvas) where The Baptism of Jesus Christ is depicted. By the 19th century it appears included and adapted in a larger, composite, ribbed, ancona-like, strongly projecting frame (from the demolished Alba church of St. Francis of Assisi).

The valuable painting is by Giovanni Antonio Molineri of Savigliano (1577-1631), made for this parish church in the third decade of the 17th century on commission from the Augustinians.

Above, on the back wall of the church, can be seen the triptych executed in mural painting in 1887 by Paolo Gaidano (1861-1916), a Poirinese by birth but active in Turin. The following are skillfully depicted there in traditional ways: the Madonna and Child, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis of Assisi , and, on either side, two little angels.

The choir and the crucifix

In the right sector of the chancel, against the wall, a carved walnut seat can be seen, made from elements of the lost 15th-century choir of the Alba Conventual Church of St. Francis of Assisi, demolished in 1814.

The ancient choir, commissioned by Franciscan Friar Marco da Sommariva, was made in 1429 by Pavia sculptor Urbanino da Surso (c. 1380-1461/1463). The bas-reliefs reassembled there (between the backrest and the part below) depict The Dream of Pope Innocent III, the Nativity of Jesus with the arrival of the Magi , and various Saints, interspersed with various decorative and symbolic motifs.

Above the seat can be observed a large picture, painted in oil on canvas. The painting depicts the Infant Jesus, St. Joseph, the Virgin Mary, the Guardian Angel, the Eternal Father, the Holy Spirit, and St. Julius (added in the 19th century). Almost all of the work, referable to the manner of Cherasque artist Sebastiano Taricco (1641- 1710), dates to a period between the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The ancient processional Crucifix, made of painted wood, dates back to the early decades of the 16th century. By an unknown author, it is a valuable work, but with later additions.

In contrast, two paintings, hanging on the side walls over the chancel, in which various Saints and Blesseds are noted to be depicted, among whom appear the city’s protectors. The paintings on canvas also depict the coats of arms of the patrons: that of Bishop Vittorio Nicolino Della Chiesa (prelate in Alba from 1667 to 1691) and that of the distinguished Como family.