Monastero di

Sant' Antonio da Padova (1427)

In 1419, Bartolomeo Massoli gave his niece Maddalena Bartelluccio a house near San Giovanni del Fosso (see Walk II) so that she could establish a small female community of Franciscan tertiaries.  In 1427, this community seems to have entered the congregation that the blessed Angelina da Marsciano had established, which was based on Sant’ Anna, Foligno.   Pope Martin V approved the congregation in 1428 and Pope Eugenius IV recognised the community of Sant’ Antonio as part of it in 1436.  Margherita di Onofrio Bartolini, who had made her profession in front of Angelina da Marsciano at Foligno in 1427, is recorded as living with the community near San Giovanni del Fosso in 1440 and as its “Ministra” in 1444.  

The sisters sold this house and began to buy property on the present site in ca. 1445.  They built a double church (one for their own use and one for public services) in ca. 1455, the year in which Pope Callistus V subjected it to the authority of the Observant Franciscans from the Convento di Monteripido.  The sisters’ association with Monteripido must have become more important in 1461, when the congregation to which it had belonged was dissolved. 

The leading member of the community during the second half of the 15th century was Sister Ilaria (formerly Margherita), the daughter of Braccio Baglioni.  She had joined the Poor Clares at Santa Maria di Vallegloria, Spello in ca. 1455 when she was only 11 years old, but she subsequently ran away, apparently because of the laxity of the sisters, and joined the sisters at Sant’ Antonio.  She is first documented here in 1462 and seems to have become “Ministra”  for the first time in 1467.  The last documentary reference to her is in 1503, and she presumably died soon after. 

In 1483, the friars from Monteripido tried to impose clausura on the sister, but they seem to have been unsuccessful, probably because of the strong personality and the political influence of Sister Ilaria.  The sisters of Sant' Antonio and those of the nearby nunnery of Sant' Agnese seem to have looked instead for spiritual guidance to the newly-arrived Amadeiti Fathers  at San Girolamo from this point. 

The sisters became famous for a distilled medicine that they produced, which was deemed to have been effective during an outbreak of plague in 1497.  The Commune rewarded them with an annual donation of grain and in 1527 (presumably because of their continued assistance in times of plague) also gave them the Monastero degli Apostoli (see Walk VII).

Pressure on the sisters to accept clausura probably intensified from 1568, when Pope Pius V merged the Amadeiti Fathers with the main branch of the Franciscans.  They continued to resist and indeed left their nunnery for a few months in 1571 when Pope Pius V imposed it on all female religious communities.  They relented in the following year, and from this point seem to have become dependent upon the Poor Clares of Santa Maria di Monteluce.   (The nuns from Monteluce took refuge at Sant’ Antonio in 1643 when their nunnery was threatened during the war between Pope Urban VIII and Grand Duke Ferdinand II of Tuscany.)

The nunnery was suppressed in the period 1798-1800 and again in 1810-4.  It was finally closed in 1817, and the sisters were transferred to the nearby Augustinian nunnery of Santa Lucia.  The complex was subsequently radically remodelled, first as an industrial complex and then for use as a residence for female students.

Works Removed from the Church

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 Galleria Nazionale (Room 11) in 1921.

Colonna Altarpiece (ca. 1504)

In 1478, Sister Anna, who had joined the community after the death of her husband, Ludovico di Cristoforo, left property in her will that she directed should be sold to provide funds for an altarpiece for the nuns’ inner church.  It was to be more than twenty years before they honoured her wishes by commissioning the altarpiece (which is dated on stylistic grounds to the early 16th century) from Raphael.

There is no surviving documentation relating to the original commission, although there has never been any doubt about the attribution.  Giorgio Vasari records its presence in Sant’ Antonio, along with the fact that the sisters held it in great veneration.  Most authorities date it to ca. 1504, and its commission might have been associated in some way with the death of Sister Ilaria. 

The altarpiece was painted on a single piece of wood, except for the figures of SS Francis and Antony (see below), which presumably stood forward of the rest on the base of the frame.  It remained in situ until 1663, when the impoverished sisters had it sawn into its component parts so that they could be sold.

The Colonna family bought the main panel and the lunette in 1677 (which accounts for the usual appellation of the work).  These panels had a number of owners until 1902, when J. P. Morgan bought them at huge expense.  He gave them to the Metropolitan Museum in 1916.

• The main panel, which is illustrated on the museum's website, depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with saints.  The baby Jesus  blesses the infant St John the Baptist: both are fully clothed, a stipulation of the nuns according to Vasari.  The flanking saints are:
  

• SS Peter and Catherine of Alexandria to the left, and

• St Paul and another female martyr to the right.  Vasari describes this fourth saint as St Cecilia, but other documents relating to the later sale of the work identify her as St Margaret.  It is possible that she is St Margaret of Antioch, and was included in memory of Sister Ilaria, whose given name was Margherita.
  

• The lunette above the main panel depicted God the Father with two angels.
  

Queen Christina of Sweden bought the panels of SS Francis and Antony of Padua  and the predella panels in 1663.  They stayed together until 1702 but were then dispersed.

Return to Walk V.