In
Umbria it is possible to admire several works of art from
fifteenth-sixteenth century Italian painters. At Montefalco, in
1452, the guardian of the Franciscan convent, Brother James called
the Florentine artist Benozzo Bozzoli to decorate the apse of
the Church of Saint Francis. The subject of the cycle of
frescoes is The Life of Saint Francis, illustrated in twelve
episodes placed in three overlaying registers and carried out with a
style that is rich with the influence of Giotto. In fact, the scene
of the "The Driving out of the Devils" from Arezzo and the scene of
the Dream of Innocent III appear to be inspired by the frescoes by
Giotto in Assisi.
Already a collaborator of Beato Angelico at Orvieto, Benozzo had
great success in Umbria. So much so that his presence is documented
in many Umbrian towns: Assisi, Foligno, Narni, whose picture gallery
houses a beautiful Annunciation, and naturally Montefalco, where he
also realised several works for the Monastery of San Fortunato.
The Church of Saint Francis, abandoned by the monks in 1863, is
today the seat of the Museo Civico of Montefalco (Civic
Museum), articulated into three exhibition spaces: the ex church,
whose original aspect has been conferred; the Picture gallery, with
paintings and frescoes originating from other areas on the
territory; the Crypt, where archaeological finds from various epochs
are exhibited.
Another great Florentine artist Filippo Lippi left his last work in
Spoleto. In 1467 the "Opera del Duomo" of Spoleto, following advice
by Cosimo dei Medici, entrusted the decoration of the apse of the
cathedral to the now aged Filippo. Storie della Vergine (in
the drum: Annunciation, Transit of the Virgin and Nativity; in the
conch: Coronation of Mary). When Filippo Lippi died in 1469, the
amazing cycle of frescoes was not yet finished and his
collaborators, among which Brother Diamante and Pier Matteo d’Amelia,
finished the nativity scene.
The
end of the XV century saw Luca Signorelli from Cortona
involved with the decoration of the Chapel of San Brizio in the
Duomo of Orvieto, started in the vault by Beato Angelico and
Benozzo Bozzoli fifty years earlier. A work of art of all times, the frescoes in Orvieto revolve around the apocalyptic theme of the
end of the world, centered on the vast representations of the
Sermon of the Antichrist, the End of the World, the Resurrection of
the body, the Last Judgment, and Hell. Just as beautiful and as
famous is the scene of the Resurrection of the body in which human
bodies are rendered with a force and energy that they make you think
that Michelangelo had the frescoes by Signorelli in mind, when
realizing the Sistine Chapel.
In
those years Pietro Perugino, who had returned to Perugia was
appointed by the Collegio del Cambio to work on the frescoes
in the Sala delle Udienze. This is one of the rooms that made up
part of the city's seat of the powerful corporation of moneychangers
and subject, between 1491 and 1500, to a vast decorative
intervention.
In these frescoes The Perugino managed to convert the harmony
between classical culture, represented by the Trionfo delle
quattro Virtu' Cardinali (Triumph of the four Cardinal Virtues)
and Christian culture expressed in the Allegorie delle tre Virtu'
Teologali (Allegories of the three Theological Virtues) into
images, also leaving his self-portrait that he “hung”, as a
painting, on the left-hand wall.
Finally, in Spello, in 1501, Bernardino di Betto known as the
Pinturicchio was taken on by Troilo Baglioni to decorate the
family chapel (also known as Cappella Bella) in the Church of
Santa Maria Maggiore. The frescoes on the walls that represent The
Annunciation, The Nativity and Christ between the Doctors and, in
the vaults, the four Sibyls, are among the happiest works of the
Perugian painter.
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