In this church in a village of the Argentina valley there are a polyptych by Ludovico Brea, a Resurrection by Luca Cambiaso and other works that in a city would be in a museum. The polyptych carries the date 1516 and the names of those who paid for it: three local men, Jacopo Rodi, Giorgio Ammirati and Nicola Bestagno.
What to see
The main panel shows saint George on horseback spearing the dragon, with saints at the sides and the Virgin and Child in the upper register; in the predella, stories of saint George. The frame is late gothic, of that rich and minute kind used in Liguria between the end of the fourteenth and the early sixteenth century. A recent restoration put the upper part back in its right place.
At the second altar on the right is the Resurrection painted by Cambiaso in 1563; a little further on a panel with the Stoning of saint Stephen attributed to Agostino da Casanova, and in the church also a Madonna and Child by Emanuele Macario da Pigna. The presbytery is frescoed by Francesco Carrega, who also painted the Birth of the Baptist behind the high altar.
Visiting
The church is in piazza San Giovanni Battista, in the hamlet of Montalto Ligure, in the municipality of Montalto Carpasio, in the hinterland of Sanremo; it is a parish church, so it opens for services and at hours worth checking. Half an hour.
Our editors' tip
Remember you are not in a museum. These panels stand on the altar they were painted for, at the height they were painted for and in the light they were painted for: the light that comes through this church's windows, at this hour, in this season. It is a very rare condition, and no climate-controlled room can reproduce it.