San Benedetto dei Condotti (1421)

In 1421, a community of Augustinian hermits moved here from Santa Maria del Sasso, Montemalbe, outside Perugia and built the first monastery on this site, which was known as Santa Maria Novella.  The complex was subject to the friars of Sant’ Agostino. 

The Confraternita di Santa Maria della Consolazione met in the crypt of the church until 1500, when it built the Oratorio di Santa Maria della Consolazione in what is now Corso Garibaldi.

The Augustinians ceded the complex to a community of Sylvestrine nuns from San Benedetto (now Sant’ Erminio, see Detour III, Walk VI) in 1641.  It then became known as San Benedetto Novello.  This community was suppressed in 1820, when the few remaining nuns moved to Santa Caterina.

The complex was then abandoned for a considerable period; the ex-nunnery was in use as an orphanage by 1931.  The complex now belongs to the University of Perugia.

The distinctive campanile dates to the 18th century.

Although the complex is not usually open to visitors, part of its lovely cloister is visible through the glass door.

Church

[The partially demolished church has a distinctive floor-plan, with multi-apsed transepts.]

[Original majolica pavement (15th century)]

Vision of St Brigid of Sweden (15th century)

This fresco [where ?], which is attributed to Ottaviano Nelli, depicts St Brigid (to the right, in a burgundy habit) kneeling in prayer before a vision of the Nativity.

Votive Frescoes (15th and 16th centuries)

There a re a number of important, albeit neglected, frescoes in this church.

Works Removed from the Church 

Panels from a Polyptych  (early 15th century)

These panels were first documented in 1791, when Baldassare Orsini recorded their presence in Sant’ Agostino.  He also reported that two predella panels from the same polyptych, which depicted the Crucifixion and the martyrdom of St Sebastian, were separately displayed, and that the work came from San Benedetto dei Condotti.  The scroll at the foot of the throne in what was the central panel identifies the artist as Lello da Velletri, and this is his only securely attributed surviving work. 

It seems reasonable to suppose that the panels came from a polyptych that the friars of San Benedetto commissioned for the high altar soon after the completion of their new church.  One of the panels depicts St Liberatore, probably in commemoration of Fra Liberato di Simone, a monk from the earlier monastery on Montemalbe who was murdered in 1391.

The panels are now in the Galleria Nazionale (Room 6).

Crucifixion (early 15th century)

This animated monochrome fresco, which is attributed to Jacopo Salimbeni, was detached from a wall the ex-nunnery in 1931, at which time the building was used as an orphanage.  It is now in the Galleria Nazionale (Room 6).

Double-sided Altarpiece (1545)

Antonio di Filippo, the prior of Santa Maria Novella commissioned this altarpiece from Giannicola di Paolo for the high altar, but it was never delivered.  His son Paolo transferred the commission to Domenico Alfani in 1544.  The altarpiece was removed to Sant’ Agostino in 1641 and subsequently split into two panels:

• the Visitation;  and
  

• the Adoration of the Magi. 
  

The predella, which had an inscription bearing the date, was subsequently lost. 

• Dominique-Vivant Denon, the Director of the Musée Napoleon selected the Visitation for confiscation after the Napoleonic suppression of 1810, and its is still in what is now the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

• The Adoration of the Magi remained in Sant' Agostino until 1863, when it entered the Galleria Nazionale (Room 36). 

Return to Walk V.