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Hall
13 The school of Luca Signorelli in the Upper Tiber Valley
The
school of Luca Signorelli gave origin to numerous art works in the
collection of the Pinacoteca among which we may cite:
The
Baptism of Christ by Giovanni": a pannel by an unknown painter done in
1505 ca.
The
pannel of Santa Cecilia": generally attributed to the school of
Signorelli, the art historian, Salmi, considers it to be the work of Pietro
Paolo Baldinacci of Gubbio done in 1525 ca.
The
Martyrdom of S. Sebastian": painted by Giacomo da Milano in 1524.
- The
"stendardo" with Christ in Glory, Mary and S. Caterina, Christ Arisen:
painted around 1510 by an unknown artist of the Signorelli school.
-
"Mary, Maddalena and S. John under the Cross": artist and exact date
unknown.
All of
these paintings demonstrate the all-pervasive influence of Signorelli until
1550 deriving largely from the Master's activity at Cittą di Castello and in
particular from the works done from 1493 to 1498. His agressive scenes rich
in figures with subtle archeological elements and rich description and his
spectacular anatomical inventionts fascinated the Upper Tiber Valley for
over thirty years and drew numerous followers of lesser stature as Pietro
Paolo Baldinacci, Battista da Castello, Francesco Signorelli and many
others.
Works
of Sculpture
The
present arrangement of the few works of sculpture in the collection is
temporary. At the moment they are on display in two areas: the arcade of the
ground floor and the terrace of the first floor. The definitive plan is to
place all the works of sculpture in the ground floor arcade closed by glass
pannels and fully visible from the street. The midieval sculpture in the
collection is very heterogeneous in technique, period, and quality. Four
large wooden shelves with human and animal figures are probably all that
remain of the supporting arches of the old roof of S. Francesco
Church built at the end of the XIIIth century, and totally destroyed and
rebuilt in 1707. Three stone lions in fragmentary condition reveal a close
relation with the early 14th century style of Pisano and his school. They
were certainly part of an architectural complex (perhaps the town hall of
Cittą di Castello) as decorative figures over a great entrance door.
The
creator of a relief sculpture in marble depicting a "Baptism of Christ"
is Maestro Sano di Giovanni of Siena. He curiously obtained it by
remodelling a figure of the first century without a head visible on the
back side of the work. It bears the date 1366 along with the artist's
signature and was probably done for the S. Giovanni Battista chapel of the
Cathedral. Two stone slabs, one representing S. Antonio Abate beaten by
demons, and the other, the same saint's death, are curious objects of 1500
ca. They were created for an old church no longer existing dedicated to this
saint and were afterward kept in a monastery. Of greater interest than these
few midieval objects is a set of six Della Robbia glazed clay sculptures.
The finest of them is a large Ascension of the Virgin from the
studio of Andrea della Robbia (1600 ca.). It was created originally
for the main altar of the Chiesa dei Minori Osservanti. Also from the studio
of Andrea is the Adorazione dei pastori (the adoration of the
shepherds) created for the Church of S. Giovanni Battista. The extensive
surface areas left unglazed were to have been painted according to a
proceedure commonly used by the late della Robbia Studio. Mary with Baby
Jesus and six angels and the two Cherubs were originally in the
monastery and church of S. Giovanni dei Minori Osservanti. Also these were
produced in the studio of Andrea in 1600 ca; along with the Annunciazione
from the convent of S. Chiara and Mary with Baby Jesus. The latter's
glazing was done defectively and compromises the work's beauty.
  
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