Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico

Save
  • Address
    Via dei Bambinai 2, N Palermo
  • Show map Close map

Let us know if these details are incorrect

Lonely Planet review

More exciting than the Chiesa di San Domenico is its oratory, Oratorio del Rosario di San Domenico, which is dominated by Anthony Van Dyck's fantastic blue-and-red altarpiece, The Virgin of the Rosary with St Dominic and the Patronesses of Palermo . Van Dyck left Palermo in fear of the plague, and painted the work in Genoa in 1628.

There are also paintings by Pietro Novelli, while Giacomo Serpotta's stuccowork (from 1720) is some of the most amazing you'll see; his elaborate work, vivacious and whirling with figures, brought rococo to Sicilian churches. Serpotta's name meant 'lizard' or 'small snake', and he often included one of the reptiles in his work as a sort of signature.