Oratorio di San Francesco

The Confraternita di San Francesco was formed in ca. 1319.  It is named in the city statutes of 1320 along with the Confraternita di Sant’ Agostino and the Confraternita di San Domenico.  It is likely that all three were offshoots of the original flagellant confraternity of Perugia, the Confraternita di Gesù Cristo Crocifisso.  They were 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 original oratory on the site, which dates to ca. 1319, was rebuilt in the 16th century although the original portal was preserved.   The relief on its architrave depicts the column at which Christ was scourged, which is an appropriate iconography for a penitential confraternity.

Entrance

The entrance hall is decorated with stucco work.

Interior

The interior decoration provides a good example of the early Baroque in Perugia.  The doors to each side of the altar lead to the sacristy.

Flagellation of Christ [1480]

This gonfalon, which now forms the altarpiece on the altar in the sacristy, is an important work by Pietro di Galeotto, who died prematurely of the plague.  The realism of the brutality and the accurate perspective of the setting are both important characteristics of the work.  The Flagellation was obviously an appropriate subject for this penitential confraternity.

Scenes from the life of Christ (1611-27)

This series of panels by Giovanni Antonio Scaramuccia is displayed around the walls of the oratory.

Works removed from the Oratory

Panels from a triptych (early 14th century)

These two panels, which are attributed to the Maestro di Paciano, probably formed the outer panels of a triptych that might have been the altarpiece listed in an inventory of the possessions of the confraternity that was made in 1326.  The presence of both Franciscan and Dominican saints in the triptych suggests that the association with the Confraternita di San Domenico was forged from the inception of both confraternities.

The panels, which were recorded in the sacristy of the oratory in the 19th century, passed to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 4) in 1869. 

St Francis and penitents (1499)     

The archives of the Confraternita di San Francesco record a series of payments to Perugino for “uno drappellone, which was almost certainly this image on silk.  It portrays the standing St Francis with four kneeling penitents behind him, against a backdrop of golden silk brocade. It was transferred to the Galleria Nazionale in the mid-19th century and is now in the deposit of the gallery. 

A modest work like this is likely to have been a workshop production, a hypothesis supported by the fact that one of the payments was made into the hands of the young apprentice, Giovanni Francesco Ciambella (called il Fantasia).

Return to Walk III.