Oratorio di San Bernardino (1451-61)
Fr Angelo del Toscano, the Franciscan Minister General (1450-3) commissioned this oratory next to San Francesco al Prato in 1451, soon after the canonisation of St Bernardino of Siena. The fabric of the oratory was completed in the following year, when Pope Nicholas V granted indulgences for those visiting it on the feast of St Bernardino. Angelo del Toscano died in the following year, and there was a hiatus before the facade was commissioned from Agostino di Duccio in 1457. The completion of the facade, which was one of the earliest works of the Renaissance in Perugia, was celebrated with great ceremony in 1461.
The Oratorio di SS Andrea and Bernardino was built behind the altar was in 1537.
Façade (1457-62)
Agostino di Duccio decorated the façade with reliefs of scenes from the life of St Bernardino, with figures of the Annunciation and the patron saints of Perugia in niches.
Photograph by Giovanni dall' Orto, from Wikimedia
The relief in the lunette over the double doors, which depicts San Bernardino in Glory with musical angels, is particularly fine.
The frieze below includes an interesting relief of St Bernardino's "bonfire of the vanites" with the signature of the sculptor below that.
Interior
Unlike the facade, the interior, which has a nave and two aisles separated by brick clustered columns, is entirely Gothic.
The present high altar is formed by the Roman sarcophagus (4th century AD) that was re-used in 1262 for the burial of the Blessed Giles. (He died in his cell at what later became the Convento di Monteripido and was originally buried in San Francesco al Prato). The relics and the sarcophagus seem to have been separated in 1781:The relics were translated in succession: to the Palazzo Vescovile (in 1872); to the Duomo (in 1880); to the Convento di Monteripido (in 1920); and finally to the oratory (in 1936). The original high altar was removed at this point to Sant’ Agata, and a stucco altar was built under which the relics were placed.
The sarcophagus was moved to the Museo Civico in 1872 and remained there until 1946, when it was reunited with the relics in the oratory, where it replaced the stucco altar.
Eight
columns on the front of the sarcophagus define seven niches. The
central one contains the figure of Christ enthroned, the niche to His
right contains a personification of the Church holding the keys of St
Peter, while the other niches contain Apostles. Christ hands a scroll
containing the new law to one of the Apostles: this early Christian
iconography is known as the Traditio Legis.
In the upper
register, Jonah is thrown overboard and eaten by a whale (on the left),
only to escape three days later (on the right). (See the page on Brother Giles for the significance of the scenes from the life of Jonah). The male heads at the corners are probably portraits of the original Roman occupants of the sarcophagus.
Tombstone of Angelo del Toscano (ca. 1457)
This marble slab on left wall commemorates the Franciscan Minister General, who was responsible for commissioning the Oratory. He was born in Perugia and entered the convent of San Francesco al Prato in
the early 15th century. He was a man of great learning and an able
diplomat who often served as an ambassador for the Commune. He rose
rapidly through the Franciscan ranks, becoming Provincial Minister in
1438 and Minister General in 1450.
As noted above, Fra Angelo was the prime mover behind the construction of the oratory in 1451-2. In 1453, he hosted the annual meeting of the General Chapter of the Order, during which he officiated at a celebration of the feast of St Bernardino attended by the delegates and by the leading citizens of Perugia. He died soon after this memorable occasion, and was buried in front of the high altar of San Francesco al Prato. His memorial stone, which may be by Agostino di Duccio, was moved here in the early 20th century.
Gonfalon di San Francesco al Prato (1464)
This banner on the right wall is attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli. The Commune commissioned it during an outbreak of plague in 1464. It was credited with miraculous powers, and became the object of a cult dedicated to Santa Maria della Pace. As the outbreak subsided, the Commune sent ambassadors to the newly elected Pope Paul II to seek (among other things) the granting of an indulgence for those attending further occasions on which the banner was used in processions during outbreaks of disease.
The Franciscans of San Francesco al Prato were closely involved with these moves, following which they instituted a lay confraternity to officiate at the cult. This confraternity built a chapel against the facade of San Francesco, and the banner was housed in a tabernacle over its altar. In 1923, it was transferred from this chapel (prior to its demolition) to the Cappella degli Oddi, the chapel that abuts the left transept of the church, which offered direct public access. It was moved to its current location in 1996.
The banner shows the Madonna della Misercordia protecting Perugia from angels firing arrows.
SS Lawrence, Ercolano, Francis, and Bernardino are on the left and
SS Louis of Toulouse, Costanzo, Peter Martyr and Sebastian are on the right.
Terrified people are shown fleeing before an interesting cityscape of Perugia. The walls bear an inscription with the date of the outbreak of plague, which is presumably also the date of the commission.
Copy (16th century) of Raphael’s Pala Baglioni
This panel on the right wall, which is attributed to Orazio Alfani, is the earliest known copy of the main panel of Raphael’s Deposition (1507). The original, which was still in San Francesco al
Prato when this copy was made, was stolen by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1608 and is now in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The copy was first recorded in the sacristy of Sant' Agostino in 1863, the date at which it was transferred to the Galleria Nazionale. It was restored in 1970 and moved to its current location.
Works removed from the Oratory
Gonfalon of St Bernardino (1465)
In 1568, Giorgio Vasari recorded the presence of this banner by Benedetto Bonfigli in the oratory. 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 Galleria Nazionale (Room 14).
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.
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 Perugino, Pinturicchio, Sante di Apollonio and Pierantonio di Nicolò del Pocciolo.
Candidates for the original location of the niche include, besides the oratory:
- San Franceso al Prato: and
- the Cappella di San Bernardino in the Duomo.
Return to Walk III.