Why go
If the Arca draws you to San Domenico, the choir gives a different reason to linger. Compare the Old and New Testament scenes in the woodwork and look toward the altarpiece, where paintings frame the Adoration of the Magi. It also shows the friars’ own working space.
The full story
The monumental choir moved behind the high altar in the seventeenth century, changing the arrangement inherited from the earlier church. Its wooden stalls were carved by the Dominican friar Damiano da Bergamo between 1528 and 1530, then enriched with inlay in the following decades. His brother Stefano and Bernardino da Bologna also contributed to the completed work. The scenes are arranged by testament, with Old Testament subjects on one side and New Testament subjects on the other. The inlay uses wood rather than paint to create its patterned images, so a close view reveals the skill of the makers as well as the stories they chose. Above and beyond the stalls, the later altar and paintings add another layer: Bartolomeo Cesi’s Adoration of the Magi sits between images of Saint Nicholas of Bari and Saint Dominic, with a Miracle of the Bread below. The choir is a good place to read how furnishings, painting and the church’s changing layout meet.