The fourteenth-century frescoes on the north wall are among the oldest, where a style emerges in which the solidity and monumentality of Giotto’s style emerges together with a Gothic language.

Madonna enthroned and saints

The Madonna is depicted on a throne and rests a hand on the shoulder of her Son, who seems to be turning in the direction of the Saint dressed in red, to the right of the Mother. The Saint on the left side with a black beard and hair, has a dark colored robe and probably wore a cloak, vaguely perceivable from the remaining pictorial traces. It is hypothesized that it could be the figure of Saint Maurelius, but it is difficult to identify both figures with certainty next to the throne due to the lack of any clear attributes.

Madonna with child enthroned and Saint

The Saint is depicted kneeling next to the Virgin whose mantle is draped in sinuous folds and her figure and that of the Child retain their volumetric physicality intact.

The pictorial traces that affect the church towards the south have a different style characterized by Emilian and Ferrara influences, dating back to the second half of the fourteenth century. Among these we can identify: Saint John the Baptist, Saint/Christ at the column (whose author had been identified with Jacopo da Bologna), Saint Bartholomew and Saint Onofrio and Madonna with child.

On the back wall of the apse, the figures of San Marco and Sant’Antonio Abate can be recognized.

The vaulted chapel is separated from the rest of the church by a triumphal arch decorated with the figure of God the Blessing Father enclosed in a clypeus, with a book resting on his knees and supported by eight angels.

On the left side, the figure of a man in armor emerges, probably identifiable with Uguccione himself.

The decoration of the ceiling is of typical Emilian influence and characterized by phytomorphic elements. In the centre, in the keystone of the chapel, the coat of arms of the Contrari family is depicted.

The last fresco before the eighteenth-century transformations is the Crucifixion placed above the doorway framed in a painted frame and dating back to the beginning of the seventeenth century.

On the apse wall of the church, arranged within the altarpiece of an ancient wooden altar, there is an altarpiece attributed to Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino (1591-1666) which depicts San Maurelio invoking divine protection over the city of Ferrara and placed around to the 1640s, a period in which the Pepoli family was among the most frequent clients of the painter’s atelier, both for personal commissions and for donations. The essential narrative scheme of the work present in the Church of Sariano is the one recurring in the altarpieces for ecclesiastical purposes executed by Guercino. In this painting the Saint is characterized by an artificial and pathetic pose, underlined by greyish shadows subtly in tune with the turreted city in the background, indicated by the Saint’s right hand, facing the castle identifiable with the city of Ferrara. The expressiveness of the face is underlined by the hair and the thick, bushy beard.

The original oratory, now a chapel, remains of the noble family of Uguccione I de’ Contrari, who ruled over the lands of Sariano in the fifteenth century, located to the east of the presbytery of the church.

As can be seen from the remaining fragments of fresco, the internal walls were frescoed all around with a double order of paintings, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, of the Virgin and with the presence of various figures of Saints: a sort of illustrated catechism which of the church a true jewel of medieval art. From a stylistic point of view, it is clear that the pictorial cycle was executed by several hands and in different periods.

There was in fact a first intervention, dating back to around the middle of the fourteenth century and the second wanted by Uguccione and dating back to between 1401 and 1434. Subsequently, during the eighteenth century, the ancient Contrari chapel was incorporated into the new structure, finishing to become nothing more than a passageway towards the rectory. Unfortunately, due to this incorporation, the chapel was tampered with, losing much of the wall painting, which was then rediscovered, as mentioned, in a casual manner during the mid-twentieth century.

Maurelius, according to the only sources that have come down to us, was born in Edessa in Mesopotamia and was a Priest and then Bishop of Voghenza, before the establishment of the city of Ferrara. Today he is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church and his remains are preserved in the city of Ferrara. The dedication of the Church of Sariano to San Maurelio and the Romanesque style lead to the assumption that it was placed in the period of Ferrara episcopal domination, even if the presence of a previous church of Benedictine origin is not excluded.