Oratory of Saint Mercury

The history

The current Oratory of San Mercurio is the only existing one of the three that were owned by the ancient company of the Madonna della Consolazione in San Mercurio, founded in 1572. Giacomo Serpotta (1656–1732) worked there around 1678. This is therefore one of the first and perhaps the most demanding works by a very young Giacomo, in which he announces the main themes of his production.
Already in the anti-oratory, one can notice the two small access portals featuring mascarons (grotesque masks) and shields that seem animated by a vitality of their own. Among these, a small dragon seems to peer out with a mocking grin and long claws beneath the crown, which recalls the patron saint of the oratory. The putti (cherubs) at its sides do not yet have the perfect proportions they would later assume, but, along with the other decorative elements, they already lean toward the formal refinement that would characterize all of Giacomo's works from then on. In the hall, the walls feature a throng of putti climbing around the windows, above the perfect Baroque cornices that are surely the result of an architect's design, which also shows an awareness of Borromini. Everything is enveloped in white, which would be another hallmark of Serpotta. And the festive putti play, hold the symbols of the warrior saint, and, above all, interactwith one another.

Their prominence begins here, one that would become even audacious in other projects. However, this is not a perfect work; the forms are still uncertain and sometimes crude, especially when compared with the arrangement of the counter-façade, but the core of Serpotta's poetics is already present.
The counter-façade dates back to the second decade of the 18th century and is attributed to his son, Procopio, as is, probably, the decoration of the presbytery, which would be placed even later, towards the middle of the century.
Also highly significant in the oratory are the splendid majolica floor, created between 1714 and 1715 by Sebastiano Gurrello and Maurizio Vagolotta based on a design by the priest Giulio De Pasquale (among the very few majolica floors still existing in sacred places in Palermo), the surviving fragments of the figured corbels from the third quarter of the 17th century that supported the confreres' seats, attributed to the workshop of Giovanni Calandra, and the Superior's seat, a highly valuable wooden artifact from the third quarter of the 18th century, perhaps also from the famous Calandra workshop.