Museo della Portiuncula

Marble relief (9th or 10th century)
This relief, which can be traced back to the choir chapel that was built on to the Portiuncula in 1485, may well have come originally from Portiuncula itself.

Christus Patiens (ca. 1236)
This Crucifix bears the signature of Giunta Pisano  in a plaque at the foot of the Cross.  It is probably based on Giunta's Crucifix (1235, now lost) for San Francesco, Assisi, in which Brother Elias knelt at the foot of the Cross.  These were among the earliest Crucifixes in Italy to use the Byzantine iconography of Christus Patiens, in which the suffering of the dying Christ is explicit.  Giunta painted another broadly contemporary work with the same iconography for San Domenico, Bologna. 

This Crucifix is too large to have been painted for the Portiuncula, and its original location is unknown.

St Francis (ca. 1255)
This panel (the autograph work of the so-called Maestro di San Francesco) is probably the earliest image in which St Francis bears all five stigmata.  The Latin inscription on the open book that St Francis holds translates: "This was my bed when I was living and when I was dying".  This inspired the tradition that the wood used for this panel came from the board upon which St Francis died and upon which his body was laid as it was taken from the Portiuncula for burial in Assisi.  However, the "bed" is probably a reference to the Cross on which Christ died. 

The long inscription in the lower part of the panel is taken from a Bull (1237) that Pope Gregory IX issued in defence of the authenticity of the stigmata.  The panel was probably exposed on an altar in St Francis' cell (or perhaps in the hut in which he died) in order to remind pilgrims of the saint and the stigmata.

St Francis (ca. 1280)
The image in tempera on this wooden panel seems to be a copy of a figure of the saint in a fresco by Cimabue (ca. 1280) in the lower church of San Francesco, Assisi.  It may have been the lid of the first coffin in which the relics of St Francis were preserved, and it is therefore often considered to be a precious relic. 

Madonna and Child with angels (late 15th century)
This detached fresco by Pierantonio Mezzastris was removed from the convent.

Figures of the Annunciation (ca. 1485)
These detached frescoes, which came from the external walls to the sides of the apse of the Portiuncula, are attributed to the Perugino workshop.

Altar dossal (ca. 1490)
Anastasia Baglioni Sforza, the wife of Braccio III Baglioni, commissioned this glazed terracotta panel from Andrea della Robbia for the chapel near the Portiuncula that Braccio II Baglioni had built in 1458.  it.  It was moved to Santa Maria degli Angeli when Baglioni's chapel was demolished and was until recently on the altar in the crypt. 

The main scenes depicts:

  • the Coronation of the Virgin:

  • the stigmatisation of St Francis (to the left); and

  • the penitent St Jerome (to the right)

The predella panels depict:

  • the Annunciation;

  • the Nativity; and

  • the Adoration of the Magi.

Madonna del Latte (ca. 1500)
This stone figure was originally in the tabernacle of the façade of the Portiuncula that was destroyed in the earthquake of 1832.  The recent restoration has brought to light the original polychromy.

Pietà (1508)
[Attributed to Tiberio d' Assisi - details ???]

Annunciation (1596)
Laura Pontani Coli of Perugia commissioned this altarpiece by Federico Barocci for the Cappella dell' Annunciazione (now the Cappella del Presepio, the 5th on the right) in Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was granted to her in 1591.  Barocci painted the Palazzo Ducale of his native Urbino in the background.

SS Francis and Clare (17th century)
These panels by Cesare Sermei probably came from Santa Maria degli Angeli.