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Portrait of a woman
Crucifix
Archangel Gabriel (or Angel announcing) Altarpiece of St. Augustine
Polyptych of Saint Anthony
Tablets of San Bernardino. Miracle of San Bernardino
Guidalotti Polyptych
Adoration of the Magi
Madonna of the Confraternity of Consolation
Albarello
Shovel of Santa Maria dei Fossi
Saint Cecilia playing the harpsichord
Portrait of Carolina Murat
Sick on spring
Umbrian fabric
View of the Pauline Fortress Circus in Perugia
Moonset
Portrait of a woman
Crucifix
Archangel Gabriel (or Angel announcing) Altarpiece of St. Augustine
Polyptych of Saint Anthony
Tablets of San Bernardino. Miracle of San Bernardino
Guidalotti Polyptych
Adoration of the Magi
Madonna of the Confraternity of Consolation
Albarello
Shovel of Santa Maria dei Fossi
Saint Cecilia playing the harpsichord
Portrait of Carolina Murat
Sick on spring
Umbrian fabric
View of the Pauline Fortress Circus in Perugia
Moonset

Shovel of Santa Maria dei Fossi

Bernardino di Betto, detto il Pinturicchio

Displayed in:

National Gallery of Umbria

National Gallery of Umbria

Corso Vannucci, 19, Perugia

Open now from 12:00 to 19:30

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The magnificent altarpiece was commissioned in 1495 to Pintoricchio by the Regular Canons of Sant'Agostino for the main altar of the church of the disappeared Perugian monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli (also known as dei Fossi). The carpentry work was carried out by Mattia di Tommaso, based on Pintoricchio's design, incorporating ten panels, forming a triumphal arch with three arches, topped by a frieze with the inscription in golden characters: Behold, mortal, from which blood you have been redeemed. Behave in such a way that (this blood) has not been shed in vain. By 1784, the panels had already been dismantled from the carpentry, and in 1789, with the sale of the church and the monastery, they entered the collection of the Academy of Fine Arts. Only in 1863, when the Civic Art Gallery Pietro Vannucci was inaugurated, the altarpiece was reassembled. The work was funded with the 150 florins from a bequest by Melchiorre di Goro, the chamberlain of the shoemakers' guild, and if the agreement with Pintoricchio had to be reached by 1492 (as evidenced by the assignment to the master carpenter), it was only on February 14, 1495 that Pintoricchio signed a detailed contract containing the description of the work. The banker Diamante Alfani (descendant of the famous jurist Bartolo da Sassoferrato) was the director of this commission, hosting the signing of the deed in his house, and retaining the deposit of the money intended for the master. The central body, articulated in five parts, houses the Announcing Angel, the Annunciate Virgin, the Virgin with the Child and St. John the Baptist, flanked by the two Doctors of the Church, Augustine (patron of the Canons) and Jerome (possibly a tribute to the prior Jerome from Venice). The model of a church shown by the saint is one of his iconographic attributes but does not refer to the architecture of Santa Maria dei Fossi. Below the central panel, the inscription reads: "O holy child, give this cross back to the Child. [John] will not carry it to God in favor of the world, there will be another." Above the inscription are the letters B[er]N[ardinus]. The cymatium, ending with a tympanum decorated with the dove of the Holy Spirit, depicts the Imago Pietatis supported by two angels. The altarpiece rests on a step that includes the evangelists within the plinths, alternated with scenes of St. Augustine meeting a child on the beach, while trying to empty the sea with a spoon, and St. Jerome in adoration of the Crucifix. A dedicatory inscription (1863) has replaced the Baptism of Christ, which is lost. For the iconographic project, the monks chose a common thread that leads from the mystery of the Incarnation to the sacrifice of Christ, and then to Redemption. The walnuts, the pomegranate, a small Adam on the back of the throne, and the rotten apple are references with their symbolic meanings. Pintoricchio, returning from the Vatican workshops of Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), with this work wanted to show his fellow citizens the excellence of his art, in a thinly veiled competition with the favorite Perugian, Pietro Vannucci, who then dominated the local scene. The finesse in the rendering of the flesh tones of the faces, combined with the chromatic brilliance, create effects of liveliness. The precision in rendering details, such as the borders of the cloaks and collars, or the golden inserts, are sublime and precious pieces. Committed in the contract to "paint the landscape and the air," Pintoricchio analytically describes a lakeside landscape, bathed in a clear light that extends into the distance. Virtuous cameos of Pintoricchio's art are the stole of St. Augustine's cope and the miniature reproduced in the book of hours held by the Virgin.
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Details

Title: Shovel of Santa Maria dei Fossi

Author: Bernardino di Betto, detto il Pinturicchio

Date: 1496 - 1498

Technique: Tempera on wood panel

Displayed in: National Gallery of Umbria

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