Galleria Nazionale

Rooms 11 - 16

These room probably belonged to the last phase of the expansion of the palace, which began in 1582 under Valentino Martelli.

Room 11

St Antony of Padua Polyptych (ca. 1468)

In 1468, the Commune made a donation to the sisters of Sant’ Antonio da Padova that was intended to pay part of the cost of an altarpiece that they had already commissioned.  This is almost certainly this altarpiece by Piero della Francesca, which Giorgio Vasari saw in their outer church (i.e. the church that was used for public services).  It is likely that the Ministra of Sant' Antonio, Sister Ilaria, (formerly Margherita, the daughter of Braccio Baglioni) commissioned this prestigious work for the high altar of the church. 

The components of the altarpiece remained in the convent until 1810, when they passed to the Accademia di Belle Arti.  Two of the predella panels were subsequently dispersed but later returned to Perugia.  The altarpiece was recomposed in the gallery in 1921.

The figures in the main register occupy a unified space behind the framing, and are set against  a backdrop of golden brocade.  They depict:

  • the Madonna and Child enthroned (in the central panel);

  • SS Antony of Padua and John the Baptist (to the left); and

  • SS Francis and Elizabeth of Hungary (to the right).

The magnificent panel in the upper storey depicts the figures of the Annunciation in front of an arcade that appears to be a mathematical study in perspective.  It is possible that this part of the altarpiece was originally intended to be rectangular, but that it was cut into a cusped shape to harmonise with the Gothic apse in which the altarpiece was placed.

The altarpiece also has a double predella:

  • The upper predella panel contains half length images in tondi of SS Clare (to the left) and Agatha (to the right).  It seems that the empty central panel of the predella was hinged so that the priest could serve the Eucharist to the sisters in the inner church.

  • The lower predella panels depict scenes involving the Franciscan saints in the main register:

    • St Antony raising a child from the dead;

    • the stigmatisation of St Francis; and

    • St Elizabeth saving a boy from drowning in a well. 

Madonna and Child (1460s)

This originally polychrome terracotta statue of a half-length Madonna holding a standing, animated figure of the baby Jesus is attributed to Agostino di Duccio.  According to a late 19th century record, it originally occupied a niche on the facade of San Francesco al Prato (although there is no mention of it there in descriptions of the church).  The statue, which was probably executed while Agostino di Duccio was at work on the facade (1457-26) of the adjacent  Oratorio di San Bernardino, passed to the Museo Civico at an uncertain date and entered the gallery in 1910.

Room 12

Gonfalon dell' Annunziata (1466)

This processional banner came from Santa Maria dei Servi.  The inscription along the bottom records that the Confraternita dell’ Annunziata commissioned it in 1466.  The confraternity had owned an earlier double-sided banner that they had used in the annual procession of the Feast of the Annunciation, which they had housed on their altar in the earlier church.  They probably commissioned the banner exhibited here for the altar that they acquired in the rebuilt church in 1466.

The banner was first attributed to Nicolò Liberatore, called l’ Alunno in the 19th century, and this attribution has since been universally accepted.   The Servites took the banner to Santa Maria Nuova when they moved there in 1540.  It was first placed on the high altar there, and then moved to other locations in the church.   It entered the gallery in 1863.

The central part of the banner depicts the Annunciation, set inside the palatial home of the Virgin.  God the Father above sits on a throne formed by the wings of seraphim, surrounded by an angelic orchestra, and sends the Holy Spirit towards the Virgin in the form of a dove.  Below, SS Philip Benizi and Juliana Falconieri recommend a group of worshippers to the Virgin.  (Neither had been canonised at the time that the banner was painted, and they are shown in their Servite habits with the rayonant haloes appropriate for the beatified.)

Prominent among the group of worshippers are members of the Collegio dei Dottori Legisti (the college of doctors of law): they are known to have walked in procession to the Servite church on the Feast of the Annunciation, and they were probably associated with the commission of the new banner.  The group also includes members of the penitent confraternity, at least one Servite friar and a group of pious women, most of whom wear Servite habits. 

Burial of Christ (1432)

This panel seems to have formed part of the predella of a polyptych that Rinaldo Trinci commissioned from Bartolomeo di Tommaso for the Collegiata di San Salvatore, Foligno.  The main panels from the polyptych are in the Museo Capitolare e Diocesano, Foligno.  Four others were sold in 1825: three of them (including this one) that formed the predella have been identified, but the fourth has been lost.

Panels from a triptych (late 1460s)

The three panels, which are attributed to Giovanni Francesco da Rimini (a follower of Piero dell Francesca), were documented in the late 18th century in the sacristy of San Francesco al Prato.  They passed to the Academia di Belle Arti in 1810 and to the gallery in 1863.

The panels depict

  • the Madonna and Child;

  • St Francis; and

  • St Jerome. 

The inscription on the base of the throne identifies the commissioner as Luca Alberto di Francesco.

Room 13

Frescoed aedicule (1488)

Matteo da Gualdo signed the fresco of the Madonna and Child at the back of this aedicule, which was detached in 1911 from the house of Felicissimo Cellerari at Colle Aprico, near Nocera Umbra.  The scroll bearing the signature also has a date, which is probably 1488 (although it could be 1493).  The frescoes on the inner surfaces of the aedicule depict  St Sebastian, God the Father (at the top) and St Antony Abbot.

Room 14

Madonna and Child with angels (ca. 1450)

This altarpiece, which came from San Domenico, is attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli and probably dates to the period immediately before his visit to Rome in 1450.  Like many works in San Domenico, it was probably removed from its original location after the collapse of the vaulting of the nave in 1614. 

This panel is sometimes associated with payments made to Benedetto Bonfigli and Bartolomeo Caporali in 1467-8 according to the will of a merchant, Francesco di Pietro for an altarpiece for the Cappella di San Vicenzo Ferrer.  However, this work would almost certainly have included a figure of St Vincent: that does not rule out a polyptych with the present panel at its centre, although, given its size, the panel was more likely to have been an independent altarpiece.

The panel depicts the praying Madonna against a rocky landscape.  Vertical lines to either side of her suggest the back of a throne.  The baby Jesus reclines confidently on her lap, holding Himself in place by clutching her gown, while four kneeling angels to the sides play various musical instruments.

Madonna and Child with saints and angels (ca. 1450)

This panel, which is attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli came from the Oratorio dei SS Girolamo, Francesco e Bernardino and was mentioned in an inventory compiled in the period 1450-3.  It passed to the Academia di Belle Arti in 1810.

The panel depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Thomas Aquinas, Jerome (with his lion), Francis and Bernardino in front of a low parapet, behind which stand four praying angels.  It is odd that the most prominent of these saints is the Dominican, St Thomas, to whom the baby Jesus passes a bright object that is an allegory of his teaching.  Each of the saints holds a book, but that of St Thomas is open, revealing the words that Christ spoke to him as he prayed before a Crucifix: “Bene scriptisi de me Thoma ...” (You have written well of me Thomas ...).

Annunciation with St Luke (ca. 1450)

This altarpiece, which is attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli and generally dated to the 1450s, was was probably commissioned for theheadquarters of the Collegio dei Notai (notaries’ guild).  However, it was first recorded in 1592 in the church of their Ospedale di Santa Maria Annunziata.  It had probably been moved there in 1588, when the guild's headquarters were partially demolished.  It seems to have returned to its original location in the early 19th century, and entered the gallery in 1863.

The co-patrons of the guild were the Virgin Annunciate and St Luke, and this determined the subject of the altarpiece. The Annunciation is set in a Renaissance palace, presumably intended to represent the Virgin’s home.  God the Father in a mandorla of seraphim appears against a golden sky above a rocky landscape, surrounded by flying angels, and sends the Holy Spirit towards the Virgin in the form of a dove.  St Luke (with the ox that is his usual attribute) squats between the Virgin and the angel Gabriel and records the miracle for his Gospel, as a good notary would.   The original predella, which depicted the Pietà with SS Mark and Jerome, still survived in 1822 but was subsequently lost.

Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1466)

This altarpiece was first recorded in 1548 in the Cappella dei Magi of San Domenico.  The merchant, Nicolò di Gasparo di Lello commissioned the chapel in 1464-6, and it seems likely that he also commissioned this altarpiece for its altar.  It was one of two altarpieces in San Domenico that Giorgio Vasari attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli.

Like many works in San Domenico, the altarpiece was probably removed from its original location after the collapse of the vaulting of the nave in 1614.  It was recorded in the convent in 1683 and in the church in 1712.  Although it was listed among the works to be sent to the Musei Capitolini, Rome in 1812, it was subsequently decided that it should remain in the church.  It was transferred to the gallery in 1863.

In the main panel, the three kings present their gifts to the baby Jesus, who is on the lap of the Madonna and flanked (as in a conventional sacre conversazione) by SS John the Baptist and Nicholas of Bari (the name saint of the presumed donor).  The figures are placed in front of the crumbling stable, which is set in a rocky landscape outside the walled city of Bethlehem.

The predella panels depict:

  • the baptism of Christ by St John the Baptist;

  • the Crucifixion; and

  • a miracle of St Nicholas of Bari. 

Gonfalon of San Bernardino (1465)

In 1568, Giorgio Vasari recorded the presence of this banner by Benedetto Bonfigli in the Oratorio di San Bernardino.  It is dated by inscription, and probably replaced another that the Commune had commissioned in 1450, after the canonisation of St Bernardino, when it inaugurated an annual procession on the saint’s feast day (20th May) from the Duomo to San Francesco al Prato.  The banner remained in the oratory until 1863, when it was moved to the gallery.

The banner depicts St Bernardino, with his usual attribute of a rayonant disc proclaiming the holy name of Jesus (“IHS”), commending the citizens of Perugia to Christ.  He sits in judgement, surrounded by a choir of angels.  The citizens are depicted donating candles on the feast of St Bernardino.  The bishop blesses the assembly, which includes the leading civic officials and their ladies as well as a number of Franciscan friars and nuns.  A small boy is about to steal one of the candles, and the inscription on his sleeve shows a black devil with a warning : “fura che serai apeso” (if you steal, you will hang).

The citizens are assembled in the Piazza di San Francesco, presumably at the end of the annual procession.  Behind them is the facade of the Oratorio di San Bernardino, which had been completed only four years earlier.  The image of San Francesco al Prato to the right provided important evidence for the original appearance of its facade that facilitated its restoration in 1926.

Angels offering roses (ca. 1464)

Each of these four panels, which are attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli, depicts two angels bearing baskets of roses.  They came to the gallery as two pairs:

Modern scholarship has determined that the panels were originally arranged in pairs, one above the other, and that they probably decorated two sides of a tabernacle.  All of the angels would have looked inwards towards whatever was housed in the tabernacle: the presence of two of the panels in the Cappella del Gonfalone suggests that this was probably the Gonfalon di San Francesco al Prato (1464), which is also attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli.  This banner, for which the chapel was built, is now in the Oratorio di San Bernardino.

Galleria Nazionale (Room 14)

Room 15

Madonna and Child with angels (1465)

This altarpiece was moved from Santa Maria di Monteluce to the gallery in 1863.  It is almost certainly the painting of the Madonna and Child described in the “Memoriale di Santa Maria di Monteluce”, which was given to the nuns by “Fioravanti dai Matti di Peroscia” and placed on the Altare del Sacramento in the time that Eufrasia Alfani was abbess.  It is the earliest work to be attributed to Bartolomeo Caporali, and one of the first by a Perugian artist to be painted, at least partially, in oil.

The panel depicts the half length Madonna and Child against a golden brocade backdrop with six angels, two of which hold vases of roses.  The Madonna wears a crown and the baby Jesus is clothed (perhaps at the request of the nuns) in a sumptuous gown of what seems to be green velvet lined with red silk.

Miracles of St Bernardino (1473)

These eight panels, which are dated by inscription, were first recorded in 1784 in the sacristy of San Francesco al Prato.  They were then attributed to Pisanello and said to have come from a niche that had housed a statue of St Bernardino.  The scenes depicted were derived from the “Lo Specchio de l’ Ordine Minore” (otherwise known as La Franceschina), which was published by the Observant Franciscan Giacomo Oddi in 1474.

The panels were removed from Perugia after the Napoleonic suppression 0f 1810:

  • Dominique-Vivant Denon, the Director of the Musée Napoleon (later the Musée du Louvre) selected two of them (marked ** below), and they were duly shipped to Paris.  Antonio Canova recovered them in 1815.

  • Agostino Tofanelli, the Director of the Museo Capitolino, took the other six to Rome.  

All of them were returned to San Francesco in 1817 and transferred to the gallery in 1863. 

These panels are the earliest surviving works in Perugia that fully reflect the aesthetic of Renaissance Florence and of the courts at Urbino and Rimini, and it is extremely surprising that works of such importance went unrecorded for so long.  The error in attributing them to an artist as early as Pisanello (died 1455) was first noted at about the time that they were returned to Perugia.  They were then recognised to be the work of at least four different painters, although clearly conceived as part of a coherent program.  The identities proposed for this so-called Workshop of 1473 have varied over time: the attributions currently proposed by the gallery are given below.  Candidates for the original location of the niche include:
  • San Franceso al Prato:


The panels were restored in 1991-3, and it was during this work that it was confirmed that they had originally been painted on two planks (four scenes on each) that decorated the vertical sides of a niche.  Technical analysis has allowed the original order of the panels to be established:

St Bernardino restores to life a man found dead under a tree


attributed to
Pinturicchio

St Bernardino heals Giovanni Antonio
da Parma, who has been wounded by a
nail in his head

attributed to
Pierantonio di Nicolò del Pocciolo*

St Bernardino posthumously liberates a man who has been unjustly imprisoned


attributed to
Pinturicchio		St Bernardino posthumously heals the
wounds of Giovanni Antonio Tornano, who has been hurt in an ambush

attributed to
Pierantonio di Nicolò del Pocciolo*

St Bernardino posthumously restores the sight of a blind boy

attributed to
Perugino and Pinturicchio

**St Bernardino restores to life a baby that has died at birth

attributed to
Sante di Apollonio

St Bernardino cures the daughter of Giovanni Antonio Petrazio da Rieti of an ulcer

attributed to
Perugino and Pinturicchio

**St Bernardino revives Nicolò di Lorenzo da Prato, who has been trampled by a bull


attributed to
Sante di Apollonio


*This attribution is made on the basis of miniatures (1472) in documents from the Abbazia di San Pietro that are securely attributed to Pierantonio di Nicolò del Pocciolo.

Triptych of Justice (1475-6)

A document that was discovered relatively recently in the archives of the Confraternita di Sant' Andrea della Giustizia records that the confraternity commissioned this altarpiece from Bartolomeo Caporali and Sante di Apollonio.  (It had previously been attributed to Fiorenzo di Lorenzo.)  The altarpiece was originally on the confraternity's Altare di Sant’ Andrea in the church of Santa Mustiola, and it moved with the brothers in 1537 to the Oratorio di SS Andrea e Bernardino.  It was given to the Commune before 1872 and entered the gallery in 1895.

In the central panel, two members of the confraternity kneel before the Madonna and Child, who are flanked by a pair of angels.  The side panels depict:

  • SS Mustiola and Andrew; and

  • SS Peter and Francis. 

It is very significant that St Mustiola holds the Virgin’s wedding ring, because the altarpiece was commissioned only a short time after this relic, the Sant' Anello, had been stolen from Santa Mustiola, Chiusi and brought to Perugia.  (It is now in the Cappella di Sant' Anello of the Duomo).

The predella depicts:

  • SS Bernardino and John the Baptist, on the left;

  • the Pietà with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist at the centre, flanked by another two members of the confraternity; and

  • St Jerome and a soldier saint on the right.

Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1470)

Giorgio Vasari saw this altarpiece, which he attributed to the young Perugino, in Santa Maria Nuova.  It was probably commissioned for an altar in the Servites’ earlier church of Santa Maria dei Servi, which was demolished in 1540.  Agostino Tofanelli selected the panel for the Musei Capitolini, Rome in 1812 but it was returned to Perugia in 1817 and restored to Santa Maria Nuova in 1820.  It was moved to the gallery in 1863.

The Madonna and Child are depicted at the entrance to the stable with the aged St Joseph to the right.  The baby Jesus blesses the oldest of the three kings, who kneels before Him, while the other two kings and their courtiers stand to the left.  All of the male faces seem to be portraits, possibly of members of the noble family that commissioned the work (possibly the Baglioni) and their associates.  The scene is set in a rocky landscape.

The attribution to Perugino is supported by the fact that the face of the young man on the extreme left, who wears a red cap and looks at the viewer, seems to be a self-portrait.  Dating to the early 1470s is supported by the fact that the face of the king with the green cloak was re-used for St Roch in a fresco (1476 or perhaps 1478) that is dated by inscription and also attributed to Perugino, which came from San Francesco, Deruta.  It therefore seems likely that this was among Perugino’s earliest important commissions in Perugia.

Madonna and Child with angels (1470s)

This panel, which depicts the Madonna and Child in a mandorla, is attributed to Bartolomeo Caporali.  It has been cut out of a larger panel, as is evident from the truncated figures of two angels below.  It was recorded in 1863 in the sacristy of Sant’ Agostino prior to its move to the gallery.  

Room 16

Figures of the Annunciation (1467-8)

Giorgio Vasari referred in 1568 to two altarpieces in San Domenico by Benedetto Bonfigli, one of which depicted the Adoration of the Magi (see Room 14) and the other of which depicted "many saints".  This second altarpiece was probably associated with a payment made to Benedetto Bonfigli and Bartolomeo Caporali in 1467-8 according to the will of a merchant, Francesco di Pietro for an altarpiece for the Cappella di San Vicenzo Ferrer (the 2nd on the left in the nave).  Four panels that were moved to the Galleria Nazionale from the sacristy in 1863 probably belonged to this alparpiece:

  • two panels of the figures of the Annunciation that are attributed to Bartolomeo Caporali (exhibited here); and
  • two panels of pairs of saints that are attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli (now in the deposit of the gallery).

The proposed dating is supported for the first two panels by the fact that some of the details of the Virgin’s study seem to have been inspired by the Gonfalone dell’ Annunziata (1466), which is attributed to Nicolò Liberatore, called l’ Alunno (see Room 12). 

The other two panels might have flanked a central figure of St Vincent Ferrer, thus justifying Vasari's description. 

Madonna della Misercordia (1476)

This fresco, which was in the Ospedale di Sant’ Egidio, was detached and moved to the gallery in 1870.  Two lost inscriptions, one that was under the fresco and another that was in the sacristy, both of which were still visible in the 19th century, recorded that the work was commissioned from Fiorenzo di Lorenzo in 1476 by the prior, Canon Galeotti during an outbreak of plague.  This is the earliest surviving work that can be securely attributed to this artist.

The fresco depicts the Virgin sheltering members of the Collegio della Mercanzia (who owned the hospice) and inmates from the hospice under her cloak.  The large figure to the left is probably Canon Galeotti.  God the Father looks down as two angels appear to crown the Virgin: it is likely that they originally held a golden crown that has been lost. 

St Sebastian (ca. 1476)

This small panel in tempera, which depicts St Sebastian tied to a column, came from the Pieve di Santa Maria, Castello di Ripa, outside Perugia.  It bears the coat of arms of the Narducci family and contains a portrait of the donor.  It is attributed to Sante di Apollonio and seems to have been inspired by a similar work that Andrea Mantegna painted in Padua after an outbreak of plague in 1456-7.

Panels from the polyptych of the Sylvestrines (1487-93)

A series of three contracts between the Sylvestrines of Santa Maria Nuova and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo relate to this work:

  • The first, dated 1472, documents the commission of a double-sided polyptych.

  • The second, dated 1487, reduces the scope of the commission to a single-sided polyptych.

  • The third, dated 1491 (when the work seems to have been in progress), requires that the project should be completed by 1493.

This polyptych remained in the church when the Sylvestrines left in 1540.   It had almost certainly been originally on the high altar, but it had been moved by the early 17th century.  It was probably dismantled in 1810, when it was moved to the Accademia di Belle Arti.  The original frame and the predella panels have been lost.

The five main panels depict:

  • the Madonna and Child with two kneeling angels;

  • St Peter;

  • St John the Evangelist;

  • St Benedict; and

  • a Sylvestrine saint (St Sylvester Gozzolini or the Blessed Paolino Bigazzini).

The pilasters contain figures of:

  • a Benedictine monk, the Archangel Gabriel and St John the Baptist (on the left); and
  • a Benedictine monk, the Virgin Annunciate and St Sebastian (on the right).

The smaller panels from the upper register contain figures of God the Father and the Doctors of the Church (SS Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Gregory).

Niche from San Francesco al Prato (1487)

An inventory of 1737 (just before the remodelling of San Francesco al Prato in 1740-8) recorded this niche on the right wall of the church.  At that time, it housed a statue of St Francis.  The components of this niche (but not the statue) were recorded in the sacristy in the late 18th century, and they were reassembled in 1863 after they had been moved to the gallery. 

The polygonal niche, which contains an inscription that refers to St Francis as a venerated servant of the Church, is surrounded by painted panels inside a larger Renaissance frame.  The panels depict:

  • the Madonna and Child in a mandorla of cherubs and two praying angels (above);

  • St Peter (to the left); and

  • St Paul (to the right). 

The signature of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and the date appear on the hems of the robes of the Apostles.  The predella panel contains small tondi of Franciscan saints:

  • St Bonaventure (who had been canonised in 1482, only five years before the panel was painted);

  • SS Bernardino of Siena and Antony of Padua; and

  • St Louis of Toulouse.

Madonna and Child (15th century)

This small devotional panel is attributed to Antonio Aquili (Antoniazzo Romano) or to a follower.  The frame, which is probably original, carries an inscription exhorting the viewer not to be sad but to recite an “Ave Maria”.
The gallery purchased the panel in 1884, but its earlier provenance is unknown

Panels from a polyptych (late 15th century)

The three panels, which came from San Domenico, are attributed to Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and almost certainly formed part of a polyptych. They depict:

  • St “Dignamerita”;

  • St Antony Abbot; and

  • St  Catherine of Alexandria.

The name “Dignamerita” is a reference to the Roman martyrs recorded as SS Digna and Emerita, who were possibly a single person.  The figure in this panel holds a fish with a ring in its mouth, for reasons that are now unclear.