Audio transcription
One of the masterpieces of San Fermo is the large fresco depicting the Baptism of Christ, which dates from around 1150. It presents an ancient style influenced by Byzantine or Eastern traditions, with bold lines outlining the faces and the flowing robes.
It has come down to us in almost perfect condition because it was only discovered in 1984, beneath a more recent fresco that has now been removed. On the left side of the pillar, there is a fresco of the Madonna Lactans accompanied by Saint Helena and Emperor Constantine. In the transept, on the left, we see the tombstone of Fra Daniele Gusmerio, who was the power behind the Franciscan reconstruction of the church in the fourteenth century. Note the colourful fragment of a fourteenth-century fresco in the apse, depicting Christ in a mandorla between two Evangelists.
