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Hall 13
The school of Luca Signorelli in the Upper Tiber Valley

Foto Grande

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.