Oratorio della Nunziatella (1494)

The Commune commissioned this oratory after a miraculous event in 1489 that involved a fresco of the Annunciation on the exterior of the house of Nicolò di Giacomo.  Bishop Luca Cibo, who was a Servite and thus dedicated to the cult of the Virgin, consecrated the oratory in 1494. 

The Renaissance design is attributed to Francesco di Bartolomeo da Pietrasanta.  The oratory is rectangular in plan, with two altars on the back wall and one on each sidewall.   The door on the right i the illustration above leads to the adjacent sacristy.

Virgin Annunciate (15th century)

This half-length figure was part of the miraculous fresco of the Annunciation that prompted the building of the oratory.  The figures were detached and enclosed in the surviving tabernacle of gilded wood, which was then placed on the Altare dell’ Annunziata, on the left of the back wall.   Unfortunately, the figure of the announcing angel was subsequently lost.

Frescoes (1575) 

These frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi da Pesaro, which form the backdrop to the tabernacle on the Altare dell’ Annunziata, depict God the Father in the lunette, the Holy Spirit above the tabernacle and St Felician and the Blessed Peter Crisci below. 

Baptism of Christ (1507)

This fresco is behind the Altare di san Giovanni Battista, on the rightt of the back wall.  The surviving part of the inscription records that Giovanni Battista Morganti commissioned it.  The rest of the inscription, which was still legible in the 19th century, recorded the date and the fact that it was the work of Perugino. 

The main scene of the baptism of Christ is set in a landscape and witnessed by angels.  God the Father looks down on the scene from the lunette above.

Pietà (16th century) 

This damaged fresco above the altar in the sacristy, which is attributed to Giannicola di Paolo, depicts the dead Christ with the Virgin and SS John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene.  The attribution is relatively recent. 

Art from the Oratory

St Michael (late 15th century)

This work, which is attributed to Lattanzio di Nicolò, is now in Room 1 of the Pinacoteca Civica.

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