Santa Maria degli Angeli (or dei Fossi)
(15th century)
A community of Poor Clares was established here at an unknown date. The church was originally dedicated to Santa Maria degli Angeli, but became known as Santa Maria dei Fossi in ca. 1420, when Braccio Fortebracci built the adjacent extension to the city walls, along with defensive ditches (”fossi”).
The nunnery burned down in 1430 and the nuns moved to Santa Maria di Monteluce. Some of them returned in 1444 as a reformed community that was supervised by a small and separate community of Franciscan friars. An epidemic wiped out most of them in 1464, at which point the nunnery passed to the direct jurisdiction of Santa Maria di Monteluce.
In 1468, the the complex passed to the Augustinian Canons of San Salvatore, Venice, a move that was approved in that year in a Bull issued by Pope Paul II (the Venetian, Pietro Barbo). The establishment prospered, in part because of the support of the Baglioni family and their associates. The canons began the reconstruction (or perhaps the remodelling) of the church in 1484 and also extended and restored their canonry. In 1495 they commissioned the Lombard master Giovanni di Giovannino da Melide to work on the tribune of the church. They were required to leave the complex for the period 1643-4, when it was used as a military hospital in the war between Pope Urban VIII and Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici.
In 1789, the complex passed to the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Misercordia. However, there were insufficient funds to pursue the planned mental hospital on the site, so Bishop Alessandro Odoardi bought it in 1797 and adapted it as an orphanage for boys. This orphanage moved to Santa Maria delle Orfane delle Cappuccinelle (see Walk IV) in the early 19th century, and the orphanage for girls that existed there moved here.
The complex was converted into a college for the daughters of noble families in 1857 after a radical remodeling that included the current neo-Classical facade. The cloister (1505) survives inside the complex, which became the Collegio Sant’ Anna in 1969.
Works of Art Removed from the Church
Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece (1496)
This altarpiece was executed in compliance with the will of Melchiorre di Goro. In 1492, his heirs commissioned Mattia di Tommaso da Reggio to build the frame of the altarpiece in accordance with a design provided by the Prior. By 1495, this altarpiece, with its panels still unpainted, was in place on the high altar.
The original legacy had turned out to be insufficient for the canons to proceed with the commission, and they were forced to find other means of raising the necessary money. It seems that Pinturicchio had been associated with the project for some time, and that he had designed the frame and probably planned the composition. However, it was only in 1495 that funds were in place to support a formal contract. This altarpiece seems to have been his first commission after Pinturicchio's return to Umbria from his successful sojourn in Rome, where he had worked for Pope Alexander VI.
This
was the most important commission that Pinturicchio ever received in
his native Perugia, and it received extraordinary acclaim when it was
unveiled. It was influential with other contemporary artists,
including the young Raphael.
It was still in situ in 1732 but had been dismembered by 1784, when its
components were in the choir. The panels escaped the Napoleonic
expropriations and were reconstituted in the original frame in 1863,
when it was transferred to the newliy-instituted Galleria Nazionale (Room 24).
Holy Family with St Anne (1502)
Angelo di Tommaso Conti commissioned this altarpiece, which is signed by Perugino and dated, for the Cappella di Sant' Anna. It is unusual in the number of members of the holy family, both adult and infant, that are included in the composition.
It was moved to the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Misercordia in 1789. Napoleon's commissioner, Jacques-Pierre Tinet selected
it for confiscation in 1797, and it was sent from Paris to Marseilles in 1801. It is now in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Marseilles.
The altarpiece is illustrated in the Web Gallery of Art.