Palazzo Trinci

Piano Nobile


Palazzo Trinci was a princely palace: the rooms on the piano nobile were mainly for public use and their decoration was a public act.  Ugolino III Trinci therefore commissioned a series of frescoes for them that depicted secular subjects chosen to reinforce the status of the Trinci rulers.  These are among the most important surviving works of this kind in Italy.

The attribution of these frescoes was unclear until 2000, when a manuscript written by the 18th century scholar Lodovico Coltellini was found. In it, he noted that in 1780 he had seen two receipts for payments that had been made in 1411 and in 1412 to Gentile da Fabriano for work on three rooms (described below) in the palace:

  • the loggia;
  • the Sala delle Rose (also called the Sala delle Stelle or delle Arti e dei Pianeti; and
  • the Sala dei Giganti (also called the Sala degli Imperatori).

The documents also included the names of his collaborators: Jacopo Bellini (from Venice), Francesco di Giambono da Budrio (from Bologna), Battista di Domenico (from Padua) and Paolo Nocchi, the only local artist mentioned.

Loggia

This space at the top of the Gothic staircase, which formed the entrance to the public part of the palace, was first documented in 1405. 

  • The entrance behind and to the left (with the Gothic staircase also behind you) leads to the chapel.

  • The entrance ahead leads to the Sala delle Rose (see below).

Relief of Hermes and the goat (ca. 250 AD)

This relief is in a niche above the door to the Sala delle Rose.  The goat represents the goat-nymph Amaltheia, upon whom Hermes fathered Pan.  The relief was among an extensive collection of Roman artefacts that was assembled by Ugolino III Trinci. 

Frescoes of the birth of Rome (ca. 1411)

As mentioned above, these frescoes seem to have been the work of Gentile da Fabriano and his workshop.  Some of them survive only as sinopie.  They depict:

  • on the left wall:

    • Mars seduce the nymph Rea Silvia; and

    • Rea Silva gives birth to Romulus and Remus;

  • on the back wall:

    • the shepherd Faustolo finds the twins being suckled by a wolf and takes them to his wife; and

    • (in the arch) the usurper, Amulio executes Rea Silvia and besieges Albalonga, the birthplace of the twins;

  • on the right wall (almost completely ruined):

    • Romulus and Remus depose Amulio to secure their inheritance; and

    • they found the city of Rome.

Sala delle Rose

This room is reached from the loggia. 

Frescoes of the liberal arts and the planets (ca. 1411)

As mentioned above, these frescoes seem to have been the work of Gentile da Fabriano and his workshop.  They were rediscovered under plaster in 1918.  The subject of the frescoes led to the later name for this room, the Sala delle Arti e dei Pianeti.  The humanist Francesco da Fiano devised the associated epigrams and inscriptions for the cycle. 

  • The liberal arts, each of which is depicted by an allegorical female figure, are:

    • grammar;

    • dialectics;

    • music;

    • geometry;

    • philosophy (depicted as Queen of the Arts);

    • astronomy;

    • arithmetic; and

    • rhetoric.

  • The seven planets are:

    • the moon, which is represented as a white figure driving a white chariot;

    • Mars;

    • Mercury;

    • Jupiter;

    • Venus;

    • Saturn; and

    • the sun, which is analogous to the figure representing the moon, but is in red. 

Each planet corresponds to one of the seven ages of man, which is depicted in a tondo above.

Turn right to walk through the room and take a short detour along the corridor on the left that led to the Palazzo delle Canoniche.

Corridor to Palazzo delle Canoniche

Ugolino III Trinci probably built this corridor in the early 15th century to provide a covered passage from the palace to his other residence in the Palazzo dei Canoniche (see Walk I).    The frescoes in this corridor were discovered under plaster in 1918-9.

Seven ages of man (1406-7)

The remnants of a cycle of monochrome frescoes of the seven ages of man can be seen beneath later frescoes in the corridor (see below).  These earlier frescoes are attributed to Giovanni di Corraduccio, called Mazzaforte.

Heroes from antiquity and seven ages of man (ca. 1411)

Although the corridor is not explicitly mentioned in the documents mentioned above, the later frescoes in it are usually attributed to Gentile da Fabriano and his workshop.

  • The frescoes on the left depict 11 heroes from antiquity;

    • Romulus;

    • Publius Scipio Africanus;

    • Joshua;

    • David;

    • Judas Maccabaeus;

    • Hector (lost);

    • Julius Caesar;

    • Alexander the Great;

    • King Arthur;

    • Charlemagne (lost);  and

    • Godfrey of Bouillon (a hero of the First Crusade - also lost). 

  • The frescoes on the right depict the seven ages of man. 

  • The figure above the door at the end of the corridor is probably Francesco da Fiano, who devised the cycle.

Return to the Sala delle rose and take the exit opposite, which leads through the room containing part of the archeological collection of Ugolino III Trinci to the Sala dei Giganti.

Sala dei Giganti

This room, which is also known as the Sala degli Imperatori, was the main public room of the palace, running along its façade in what is now Piazza della Repubblica.   Like the previous room, this room also contains part of the archeological collection of Ugolino III Trinci. 

Frescoes of famous men (ca. 1411)

As mentioned above, these frescoes seem to have been the work of Gentile da Fabriano and his workshop. The frescoes, in which a series of Roman heroes each occupies a portico in a meadow, were discovered under the plaster in 1864.  The subjects are taken from Petrarch’s “Lives of Famous Men” (ca. 1367).  Francesco da Carrara, Lord of Padua had encouraged Petrarch to complete this book and had also commissioned a fresco cycle (now lost) based on it for his palace.  Francesco da Fiano probably devised this broadly contemporary cycle and composed the associated epigrams. 

The first two figures of the cycle (of Romulus and Julius Caesar) on the end wall have been lost.  The arms between them are those of Pope Sixtus IV, who stayed in Foligno in 1476 to escape the plague in Rome.  They replaced the original arms of the Trinci.  Proceeding clockwise, the other frescoed figures represent:

  • the Emperor Augustus;

  • the Emperor Tiberius;

  • Marcus Furius Camillus (who began the Roman suppression of the Etruscans);

  • Gaius Fabricius Luscinus (a Roman commander and statesman famed for his incorruptibility);

  • Marcus Curius Dentatus (who conquered the Sabines);

  • Titus Manlius Torquatus (who conquered Sardinia);

  • Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (the defender of Rome from the Aequi in the 5th century BC);

  • Marcus Marcellus (who captured Syracuse);

  • Publius Scipio Africanus (who defeated Carthage);

  • Marcus Cassius Sceva (a centurion under Julius Caesar who died heroically in battle);

  • Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger, noble opponent of Julius Caesar);

  • Caius Marius (the great Roman general);

  • Publius Decius (a grandfather, father and son of this name each died for Rome);

  • Gaius Claudius Nero (who defeated and killed Hasdrubal, Hannibal’s brother in law at the Battle of Metaurus); and

  • Fabius Maximus (who harried the Carthagians after the Battle of Trasimeno).

The last three figures of the cycle (the Emperor Caligula; Cnaeus Magnus Pompeius, the rival of Julius Caesar; and the Emperor Trajan) are lost.

Continue through the door at the end into a room that forms Room 2 of the Pinacoteca Civica.  The last window on the left looks out onto the sidewall of the Palazzetto del Podestà (see Walk I).  The communicating corridor that Ugolino III Trinci built here was demolished in the 18th century.  The faded frescoes (early 15th century) that you can see from here on the wall of the Palazzetto del Podestà were originally inside this corridor. 


Continue ahead across the stair well and into the Sala Papale.

Sala Papale

This room on the 3rd floor was also probably re-decorated for the visit of Pope Paul III.

Frescoed frieze (ca. 1545)

The frieze of allegories of sacred and profane love came to light during recent renovations.  It is attributed on stylistic grounds to Dono Doni, who worked under Lattanzio Pagani (see below) on the almost contemporary frescoes (now lost) for the Rocca Paolina of Perugia.

Return to the Sala dei Giganti and turn left into the Sala di Sisto IV.

Sala di Sisto IV

This room, which was originally an open terrace overlooking the inner courtyard, was roofed in preparation for the visit of Pope Sixtus IV in 1476, and his coat of arms can be seen in the ceiling.

Coats of arms (ca. 1546)

The surviving frescoes on the walls of this room depict the arms of four of the papal legates to Perugia under Pope Paul III:

  • Ippolito de’ Medici (1529-35, north wall);

  • Marino Grimani (1535-9, west wall);

  • Ascanio Parisani (1542-5, south wall); and

  • Tiberio Crispo (1545-8, south wall). 

These frescoes were  probably commissioned for the visit of Pope Paul III in 1546 and were by Lattanzio Pagani, who was responsble for the almost contemporary frescoes (now lost) for the Rocca Paolina of Perugia.

Turn left into the Sala Piermarini.

Sala Piermarini

This room is dedicated to the architect Giuseppe Piermarini (died 1808).  It contains a huge portrait bust and models of his work, which include models of the interior and the exterior of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

The other rooms around the inner courtyard, along with four rooms on the floor below, form part of the Pinacoteca Civica.