Interior of San Domenico


The church was built in the form of a “Hallenkirche” (hall church), so-called because the nave and flanking aisles are of equal height.  The nave leads to the crossing, which was built at in the middle of the 14th century on the site of the earlier church of San Stefano del Castellare.   Beyond is the rectangular apse, with two apsidal chapels to each side.

Gothic Church

The tour begins in the last bay of the nave, and proceeds clockwise around the crossing.  This part of the church largely escaped the collapse of 1614 and was restored in the early 20th century.  It therefore preserves some of the original Gothic features.

Cappella di Santa Caterina

This chapel, which is the 5th in the left aisle, was part of the original construction of the church.

Frescoes (ca. 1415)

Giorgio Vasari attributed these works to Taddeo di Bartolo: some modern authorities accept this attribution while others attribute them to Benedetto di Bindo, who died in Perugia in 1417 and was buried in San Domenico.






The frescoes, which constitute two of the most complete (albeit damaged) pictorial cycles that survive in Perugia, were recovered from under plaster in 1911.  The main cycles depict:

  • scenes from the life of St Peter Martyr ( the back wall), and

  • scenes from the life of St Catherine of Alexander (on the left).

Cappella degli Angeli

This chapel, which is the outer apsidal chapel on the left, was originally the Cappella di San Tommaso.

Martyrdom of SS Peter Martyr and Sebastian (1396)



These well-preserved frescoes, which are dated, flank a niche in the right wall. The fresco depicting the murder of St Peter martyr is attributed to Cola Petruccioli da Orvieto.

Frescoes (14th and 15th centuries)

The frescoes on the left wall include:

  • at the top left, the stigmatisation of a female saint (almost certainly St Catherine of Siena) by a seraph on a cross (dated 1368), which emplys an iconography usually reserved for St Francis; and

  • at the bottom left, the Madonna and Child and SS Lucy and James (dated 1370), which is attributed to the Maestro di Santa Giuliana.

Cappella di San Nicolò 

This chapel, which is the inner apsidal chapel on the left, is now the Cappella del Nome di Gesù.  It is documented in 1382 as the chapel in which Alberto di Nino di Lello Guidalotti wished to be buried, and it had probably belonged to this family since its inception.   Alberto and his direct descendants were the only members of his family to escape the retribution that followed the murder of Biordo Michelotti by Francesco Guidalotti.

Alberto died in 1390.  His son Benedetto Guidalotti pursued a career at the court of Pope Martin V and was made Bishop of Recanati.  He returned to Perugia in 1428, a year before his death and was buried in the family chapel (see below).  Benedetto’s sister, Elisabetta, who had married Bartolomeo di Onofrio Bartolini, maintained the family fortunes were maintained in Perugia.  She commissioned his monument in the family chapel as well as the so-called Guidalotti Polyptych (1447-9) by Fra Angelico (which is described in the page of art removed from San Domenico) for its altar.

Elisabetta Guidalotti also commissioned a monument on the right wall for her husband, who died in 1441, and she was buried here after her death in 1460.  Unfortunately, no trace of this monument survives.

Frescoes of the Evangelists (14th century)

These frescoes in the vault are attributed to Allegretto Nuzi.  They are damaged, although the figure of St John remains legible.





Monument to Benedetto Guidalotti (1429)

The surviving part of this monument, which is attributed to Urbano da Cortona, is on the left wall.  It comprises an effigy of the deceased in his episcopal robes on a sarcophagus.  The reliefs of the Theological Virtues survive on the sarcophagus, but the inscription at its centre has been lost.  


Apse

The relics of the founders of the convent, Nicolò da Giovinazzo and Tomasello da Perugia, are preserved behind the grate below the altar. The tabernacle (1720) above was designed by Pietro Carattoli.

The famous stained glass windows (1411) are signed by   Mariotto di Nardo da Firenze and Fra Bartolomeo di Pietro da Perugia and dated.  The stemma of the Graziani family in the bottom register suggests that this family were the donors of the work.  The scenes of the miracles of St James in this register underline the importance of San Domenico as a pilgrimage church.  The windows were dismantled in 1860 and stored in packing cases.  Fortunately,  Francesco Moretti intervened to restore and re-assemble them over the period 1861-1879.  Another restoration is now approaching completion.  The windows are illustrated in the site of the Archivio Centro Culturale S. Tommaso d’Aquino, Perugia.

Crispolto da Bettona and his assistants carved and installed the choir stalls (1476), which were restored in 1911.  

Frescoes (14th century)

Traces of a fresco (late 14th century) of the Annunciation survive on the left wall, together with what seems to be a self-portrait of the artist.  This was probably part of a fresco cycle that covered the walls of the apse that modern scholarship attributes to Cola Petruccioli da Orvieto (who died in Perugia in 1401).

Monument to the Danti family (1576)

This monument by Valerio Cioli is on the left pilaster of the apse.  The Danti family produced a number of important artists, including Giulio Danti (1500—75) and his son, Vincenzo Danti (1530-76), whose works include the statue of Pope Julius III (1555) outside the Duomo.  The bust of Vincenzo Danti on the monument might be a self-portrait.



Monument to Elisbetta Cantucci (1648)

There is a fine bust by Alessandro Algardi of Elisabetta on her monument on the right pilaster of the apse.




Cappella degli Apostoli

This chapel, which is the inner apsidal chapel on the right, was restored in 1956, at which point its frescoes by Antonio Maria Fabrizi were destroyed.  It was re-dedicated as the Cappella di Beato Benedetto IX in 1959, when the monument to Pope Benedict XI was installed here. 

Frescoes  (14th century)



These frescoes in the vaults are damaged, although the figures of SS Peter (left above) and Dominic remain legible.  The other two were probably SS Augustine and Paul.

Cappella di San Tommaso

This chapel, which is the outer apsidal chapel on the right, is now the Cappella di San Pietro Martire.

Fresco fragments (14th and 15th centuries)

Three groups of fresco fragments survive on the left wall:

 

  • Those on the left depict: St Antony Abbot above and two figures below:

    • St Michael reconciling two nobles; and

    • St Dominic.







  • The fragments on the upper right, which almost certainly formed a Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist, include a fine head of Christ.





  • Those on the lower right depict:

    • St Mary Magdalen as a hermit, clothed only in her long hair;

    • St Bartholomew holding the knife with which he was skinned alive; and

    • St Christopher with the Christ Child on his shoulder.

The votive frescoes on the right wall are more complete. They include a fine Madonna and Child on the lower left, in which the baby Jesus offers a lily to His mother, that is by a follower of the Maestro del 1421.



Cappella di San Domenico

This chapel at the end of the right transept was built in the mid-15th century for the Perugian merchant Francesco di Pietro.

Relief of the Compagnia della Croce (1436)

This stone relief is on the back wall of the transept, to the left of the entrance to the chapel.  It depicts two kneeling members of this penitent confraternity holding a cross and symbols of the apocalypse. 

Ex-Cappella di San Pietro Martire

This chapel on the right of the right transept was part of the original construction of the church.  Before the side door was built as part of the 18th century, it was enclosed by walls with openings into the transept and the nave, like the Cappella di Santa Caterina opposite.

Monument to Gugliemo Pontano (1555)

Gugliemo Pontano (1478-1555) was a celebrated jurist and professor who lived and worked in a house near Sant’ Ercolano (see Walk IV).  His monument by Vicenzo Danti is on the wall to the left of the side entrance, which was originally the right wall of the chapel.  The terracotta reclining figure of the deceased on the sarcophagus is extraordinarily animated.



Cappella di San Lorenzo (15th century)

This Renaissance chapel (the 4th in the right aisle), which is now known as the Cappella della Madonna del Voto, is described on a separate page with its original dedication as the Cappella di San Lorenzo.

Nave and Right Transept

This part of the church was rebuilt in 1614. 

The first four chapels on the left and the first three on the right were built in the middle of the 18th century.

Gonfalon (1494)

This banner by Giannicola di Paolo, which was commissioned after an outbreak of plague, is now used as the altarpiece of is the Cappella del Gonfalone (the 3rd chapel on the left).   Its original wooden frame, in which it was carried in processions, is on the left wall of the Cappella di San Vincenzo Ferreri ((the 2nd chapel on the left).  

The altarpiece depicts St Dominic and a female Dominican presenting Perugia to Christ while angels threaten the city with arrows.  The female Dominican is sometimes said to be Beata Colomba, but since she was still alive when the banner was painted, she is more likely to be St Catherine of Siena.  Above, Christ is flanked by the Virgin and SS John the Baptist, Sebastian, Joseph, Lawrence and Ercolano.

Panels (1630)

These two panels by Anton Maria Fabrizi under the organ in the right transept depict:

  • the martyrdom of St Dorothy; and
  • the martyrdom of SS Cecilia and Valerian.

Madonna and Child with saints (1644)

This fresco by Anton Maria Fabrizi is on the counter-facade.  It depicts the Madonna and Child with SS onstantius, Dominic, Catherine of Siena and Herculanus.  The Madonna hands rosaries to each of SS Dominic and Catherine of Siena while St Herculanus intercedes on behalf of a group of kneeling nuns and noble women.  The lower part is set against a cityscape painted from outside Porta San Girolamo, with San Pietro to the left and San Domenico to the right.

Madonna and Child with saints (1647)

This altarpiece by Giovanni Lanfranco is in the Cappella del Rosario, the 4th on the left.  It depicts the Madonna and Child on a cloud, with SS Dominic and Catherine of Siena.  St Dominic reaches for a rosary proffered by the baby Jesus.

Blessed Colomba da Rieti (18th century)

This altarpiece in the Cappella della Beata Colomba (1st on the right) is a copy of another (ca. 1505) that is attributed to Giannicola di Paolo.  The original was painted soon after the death of the Blessed Colomba and was probably placed over the altar that housed her relics.  It was subsequently moved to the adjacent convent and entered the Galleria Nazionale (Room 28) in 1863. 

The panel depicts the Blessed Colomba standing on a terrace set in a landscape.  She holds a dove, a rosary, a small wooden cross and a lily.  The hand of Jesus appears in the top right hand corner, offering her the Host.  The inscription along the bottom that identifies her seems to be a later addition.


Return to Walk IV.