Our network: News | Tourism | The 92 Municipalities | Latest News | Guides | Hotels | Restaurants | Shopping | Home | Wedding | Wellness | Religious Tourism | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Google+ | iPhone | Android
Wednesday 9 October 2024
Italiano English
La Rosetta Hotel & Restaurant, Perugia
Villa Nuba - appartamenti per una vacanza di charme
Valle di Assisi Hotel & Resort
Assisi Souvenir

Renaissance Umbria




In 1452 Brother Jacopo – the warden of Montefalco’s Franciscan convent – commissioned the Florentine painter Benozzo Gozzoli to decorate the apse of the Church of San Francesco with a cycle of frescoes depicting episodes from the life of St Francis. Divided into three orders, the frescoes display the strong influence of those painted by Giotto for the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, particularly in scenes such as the ones depicting the driving out of the demons from Arezzo or the dream of Innocent III. Benozzo Gozzoli had worked with Beato Angelico on his decorations for the Duomo of Orvieto and went on to enjoy considerable favour in Umbria. Examples of his work still survive in Assisi, Foligno and Narni, where the Pinacoteca contains a particularly fine Annunciation. Besides his works for San Francesco, Benozzo Gozzoli completed a number of commissions in Montefalco, also for the Church of San Fortunato.
Abandoned by the friars in 1863, the Church of San Francesco today houses the Museo Civico di Montefalco, on three levels that include the former church, the Pinacoteca (with a collection of paintings and frescoes by local artists) and the crypt containing archaeological finds from various periods.
In Spoleto visitors can enjoy the final work of another great Florentine master, Filippo Lippi. Acting on the advice of Cosimo de’ Medici, in 1467 the Opera del Duomo di Spoleto commissioned the ageing Filippo to decorate the apse of the city’s Duomo with episodes from the life of the Virgin Mary (in the drum: Annunciation, Transit and Nativity; along the lateral walls: the Crowning of the Virgin). The cycle was left unfinished by Lippi, who died in 1469. The Nativity was in fact completed by his assistants, who included Fra Diamante and Pier Matteo d’Amelia.

Towards the end of the 15th century the Cortona-born painter Luca Signorelli was summoned to decorate the St Brizio Chapel of the Duomo of Orvieto. The decoration of the chapel had begun fifty years previously with the vaulted ceiling, painted by Beato Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli. Signorelli’s masterpiece frescoes are large scale depictions of episodes from the Apocalypse: the Sermon of the Antichrist, the End of the World and the Resurrection of the Flesh, alongside representations of the Last Judgement and Hell. The sheer plasticity of the bodies painted in the Resurrection scene have led a number of historians to suppose that Michelangelo must have seen Signorelli’s paintings before he began work on the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
More or less at the same time, Pietro Perugino had returned to Perugia to work on a commission from the Collegio del Cambio for the Sala delle Udienze, one of the state rooms of the powerful money changing guild’s town headquarters that underwent large scale decoration between 1491 and 1500. In this cycle of frescoes Perugino masterfully combines images from Antiquity with Christian elements, such as in his Triumph of the Four Cardinal Virtues and the Allegories of the Three Theolotical Virtues. On the decorations of the room’s left had wall, the artist has even included a self-portrait.
In 1501 Bernardino di Betto, better known as Pinturicchio, began working in Spello for Troilo Baglioni on the decorations of the family chapel (known also as the Cappella Bella) in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The Pergugia-born painter adorned the lateral walls of the chapel with the Annunciation, while the Nativity and Christ Among the Doctors of the Church, as well as the depictions of the four Sibyls, are considered among the finest paintings ever to have graced the great master’s brush.


Museums open to the public:

Montefalco: Museo Civico di San Francesco
Spoleto: Pinacoteca Comunale
Orvieto: Museo Claudio Faina
Spello: Pinacoteca Civica
Perugia: Collegio del Cambio
Perugia: Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria



------------------
Umbria...Cuore verde d’Italia. Umbria Percorsi d'arte, Agenzia di Promozione turistica dell'Umbria, Perugia, pg. 60, with thanks.
All'inizio

Casa del Cioccolato Perugina

Umbria’s 92 Cities

  THEMATIC HOLIDAYS go 
• Gourmet Packages
• Ancient documents and illuminated manuscripts
• Renaissance Umbria
• Umbria the Poet’s Muse
• Umbria With the Kids: Perugia’s Città della Domenica
• Golf & Art in Umbria
more...



  WINE AND FOOD go 
• Market fairs and typical produce festivals in Umbria
• Typical Umbrian dishes
• Umbrian cuisine
• Typical Umbrian produce, where to buy and where to taste
• Typical Umbrian food
• Wine Tours in Umbria
• Umbrian Wines and Regional Wine Trails
• Enoteche, vinerie and wine bars in Umbria
• Umbrian Wines
• Wineries and wine tasting in Umbria
more...

  ITINERARIES go 
• Cofanetti Regalo e Idee per viaggiare
• Contemporary art in Umbria
• The female saints of Umbria
• Benedictine monasteries
• Ancient castles and fortresses
• Guided tours and itineraries in Umbria
more...

Holidays Apartments Villa Nuba - Perugia

  PARKS AND NATURE RESERVES go 
• Parco di Colfiorito
• Lake Trasimene
• Parco Fluviale del Tevere
• Parco Regionale del Lago Trasimeno
• Parco Regionale del Monte Subasio
more...

  WHAT TO SEE & DO go 
• UmbriaOnLine iPhone Application
• Cooking courses in Umbria
• The Nahar adventure park, enclosed within one of Italy 's largest alpaca farming areas, offers tourists the chance to spend a day experimenting new sports and generally having a good deal of fun in an unparalleled natural setting!
• PIERMATTEO D’AMELIA and the Renaissance in Southern Umbria
• FRANTOI APERTI Following the DOP Umbria quality olive oil trail
• Wedding in Umbria
• MAP of UMBRIA to travel in Umbria
• Tourist guides of Umbria
• Quality produce - sustainable success stories
• Oil mills and producers across the region Umbria
• Academies, Schools in Umbria and Italy
• Exhibition Perugino, divine painter
• Itineraries & Packages
more...



Booking.com

  BEAUTY & WELLNESS go 
• Beauty Farms in Umbria
• Wellness in Umbria: opportunities for tourists
• Spiritual Retreats in Umbria
• Dermocosmetici Oro of Spello for protecting your skin
• Wellness in Umbria
more...

  SPORT go 
• Rafting
• Paragliding and Hang-Gliding
• Horse Riding in Umbria
• Golf in Umbria
• Umbria by Bike
more...



  WEDDING go 
• Getting married in Umbria
more...

  MICE (MEETING INCENTIVES CONFERENCES EVENTS) go 
• SM.MA. rental of equipment, marquees and gazebos for catering and banqueting
• Company meetings in Umbria
• Venues and Entertainers for Events in Umbria
• San Gemini - Centro Congressi
• Park Hotel ai Cappuccini in Gubbio
• Events and Cerimonies in Umbria – Deals and Offers
• Conferences and Conventions – the Advantages of Choosing Umbria
more...

Sapori Tipici Umbri

  HANDICRAFT go 
• Textiles and Lace-Making in Umbria
• Deruta Ceramics
• Cabinetmaking in Città di Castello
• Woodcarving in Umbria
• Ceramics in Umbria Art and Tradition
• The Ceramics of Deruta
more...