Santa Maria dei Servi

(15th century, now demolished)

Filippo di Coccorano de’ Bigazzini invited the Servites to Perugia in 1255, where they settled in a number of houses near San Giacomo (see Walk VII), outside Porta Mandorla.  In 1313, they acquired some houses just inside the Etruscan walls in the parish of San Paolo, Colle Landone.  Both the Dominicans and the Carmelites opposed this move, which they claimed violated the regulations that Pope Boniface VIII had instituted regarding the minimum distance between the convents of the mendicant orders.  However, their objections were ignored, probably because the Servites enjoyed the support of the noble families of Colle Landone.

About a century after their move here, the church that they had built proved to be inadequate, and in 1430 they began to build a much larger one that incorporated the original as its transept.  The facade of the new church faced north, towards what is now Corso Vannucci, and its apse overhung the Etruscan city walls. 

In 1444, Pope Eugenius IV gave the church and convent of San Fiorenzo to a group of Observants from Santa Maria dei Servi, possibly because they opposed the sumptuous re-building of their original church or perhaps because part of their original convent was uninhabitable during the construction of the new church.

The new church became one of the most prestigious in Perugia, and housed the chapels of the Baglioni and many of the other leading families of the city.  Its destruction in ca. 1540 to make way for the moat of Rocca Paolina was thus particularly resented.  The Servites moved to Santa Maria Nuova, taking many of the works of art from the Santa Maria dei Servi with them.

Works of Art from Santa Maria dei Servi

Gonfalon dell' Annunziata (1466)

The inscription along the bottom of this processional banner 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 this banner 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 is universally accepted. 

Prominent among the group of worshippers depcted are members of the Collegio dei Dottori Legisti (the lawyers’ guild), which celebrated at the Altare dell’ Annunziata on the Feast of the Annunciation and which was probably associated with the commission.  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.  

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 Galleria Nazionale (Room 12) in 1863.

Adoration of the Magi (ca. 1470)

Giorgio Vasarisaw this altarpiece, which he attributed to the young Perugino, in Santa Maria Nuova, but it seems to have been commissioned for an altar in Santa Maria dei Servi.  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 Galleria Nazionale (Room 15/16) in 1863.

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. 

Transfiguration (1517)

Adriana Signorelli commissioned this altarpiece from Perugino for the chapel in the church in which her husband, Francesco di Bartolomeo Graziani had been buried some three years earlier.  The Servites took it to Santa Maria Nuova when they moved there in 1540.  Adriana left further money in her will of 1544 for the restoration of the altarpiece, which had been struck by lightening, and her brother Panfilo paid for this work in the following year. 

The panel entered the Galleria Nazionale (Room 23) in 1863.  Three small panels (the Annunciation; the Nativity; and the Baptism of Christ), which also came from Santa Maria Nuova in 1863 and seem to have belonged to the predella of this altarpiece, are separately exhibited in this room.  It is possible that there were originally one or two others that have been lost.

Predella panels from the Santi Quattro Coronati Altarpiece (1506-12)

The “Maestri Lombardi di Pietra e Legname” (the guild of Lombard stone masons and carpenters) commissioned this altarpiece from Giannicola di Paolo for the Cappella dei Lombardi in 1506.  It was installed in 1512 and moved to their new chapel in  Santa Maria Nuova in 1540. 

The main panel, which depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with the “quattro coronati” (four sculptors martyred by the Emperor Diocletian when they refused to sculpt statues of idols), was taken to France in 1811, and is now in the Louvre, Paris. 

The predella panels, which remained in Perugia and subsequently passed to the Accademia di Belle Arti and then to the Galleria Nazionale (Room 28).

Madonna di Loreto (1507)

In 1507, Giovanni di Matteo di Giorgio Schiavone, a carpenter who had rented a workshop from the friars of Santa Maria dei Servi, left money for the endowment of a new chapel in the church that became known as the Cappella Schiavone.  He also bequeathed money for an altarpiece, and the friars, who were named as his executors, almost immediately commissioned Perugino to paint it.  (The artist charged an unusually low price, suggesting that he may have had a professional relationship with the deceased carpenter).   The original frame was recently discovered in the deposit of the Galleria Nazionale, confirming that the altarpiece only ever comprised this single panel.

The panel was moved to Santa Maria Nuova in 1540, when it was placed on an altar that subsequently belonged to the della Penna family.  Fabrizio della Penna bought it from the friars in 1821 for his private collection, and included a copy that replaced it on the altar as part of the price.  He sold the original to the National Gallery, London in 1879.

Pietà  (1522)

This lunette-shaped panel, which is signed by Domenico Alfani and dated, was described in the 19th century in  Santa Maria Nuova, where it was displayed in the Altare dell’ Annunziata above a processional banner attributed to Nicolò Liberatore, called l’ Alunno (Room 12).  It was almost certainly commissioned for santa maria dei Servi, where it would have formed part of a larger altarpiece, the other panels of which no longer survive.  It probably moved to Santa Maria Nuova in 1540, and entered the Galleria Nazionale (Room 30) in 1863.

Return to  Walk VII.