Oratorio di San Domenico

(16th century)

The oratory is in the main cloister of the convent of San Domenico, at right angles and to the left of the façade of San Domenico Vecchio.  (The clustered columns in the photograph and the wall behind them belonged to the church).  The oratory belonged to the Confraternita di San Domenico, which is named in the city statutes of 1320 along with the Confraternita di Sant’ Agostino and the Confraternita di San Francesco.  It is likely that all three were offshoots of the original flagellant confraternity of Perugia, the Confraternita di Gesù Cristo Crocifisso.  They remained closely associated and adopted common constitutions, which were reformed in 1520.  They were however separately administered and each had its own oratory.  They all later became part of the Pio Sodalizio di Braccio Fortebracci.  The oratory now forms part of the Museo Archeologico.

The oratory comprised a great vaulted room that was richly frescoed and a sacristy that was added in 1599.  The main room was divided into two in 1780.

The oratory was used as a stable when the convent was adapted for use as a barracks in 1863, at which point its choir stalls (1571-81) were moved to the Convento di Monteripido.

Works Removed from the Oratory

Madonna della Pergolata (1446-7)

This important altarpiece is the earliest surviving work signed by Giovanni Boccati and one of the first altarpieces in Umbria with an undivided central field.   It belonged to the Confraternita di San Domenico, whose archives record  that “Messer Agnelo” had commissioned it but no longer wanted it.  

After the purchase, the confraternity adapted the altarpiece for use in the oratory by the addition of  figures of SS Dominic and Francis and four of their brothers to the main panel and figures of SS Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr to the predella.  It subsequently suffered serious damage and they commissioned Giannicola di Paolo to restore it in 1519.  It was dismembered in 1780 and passed to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 9) in 1863.

Crucifixion (1501)

This detached fresco fis almost certainly the work that was the subject of a payment by the confraternity to Giannicola di Paolo in 1501, and it is the earliest known work that can be assigned securely to him.  The fresco was detached in the 18th century from the wall behind the altar.  It entered the Galleria Nazionale in 1878 and is now in the deposit there.

Return to the tour of the Convento di San Domenico.