Key to Umbria: City Walks

Hom e Perugia Perugia, W I alk Perugia, W II alk Perugia, W III alk Perugia, W IV alk Perugia, W V alk Perugia, W VI alk Perugia, W VII alk Perugia, Duom o
Original campanile Original Duomo Exterior Interior Art fromthe Duomo Cappella di S Anello Cappella di S Bernardino

Duomo
Cappella di Sant' Anello
This chapel at the corner of the left wall and counter-facade was commissioned soon after the canonisation of St Bernardino of Siena in 1450, and was originally dedicated to him. All that survives from the original decoration is the fresco (ca. 1471) of St Bernardino by Benedetto Bonfigli on the 1st column on the left side of the nave. The chapel was re-dedicated in 1488 to the "Sant' Anello", an onyx relic that was thought to have served as the Virgins wedding ring on her marriage to St Joseph.

Sant' Anello
According to the archives of Chiusi, this relic was given to the church of Santa Mustiola there in 989. It was moved to the Duomo of Chiusi in 1352 and restored to Santa Mustiola in 1452. An inscription in the cloister of the Palazzo delle Canoniche records that a certain Fra Wintherius (Winterio) brought the ring to Perugia in 1473. He settled in Perugia and acted as rector of San Giovanni del Mercato (now the Cappella di San Giovanni Battista of the Collegio di Cam ) until his death bio in 1506. What the inscription does not say is that Fra Wintherius had stolen the relic in Chiusi. The Sienese, who controlled Chiusi, appealed to the Pope Sixtus IV, but he arbitrated in favour of the Perugians, and the ring was duly secured in the Palazzo dei Priori. Sixtus IV compensated the Chiusians for the loss of the Sant' Anello by approving the fortuitous re-discovery of the relics of St Mustiola (a 3rd century Roman matron who had been martyred at Chiusi for her faith) in the nearby catacomb and by formally recognising her cult. (The catacomb is illustrated in this Vatican website). In 1486, the Franciscan Bernardino da Feltre urged that a chapel in the Duomo should be dedicated to St Joseph (whose feast had been introduced into the calendar in 1479) and that a Confraternita di San Giuseppe should be established there. On July 31st, 1487, the feast of San Giuseppe was honoured for the first time in Perugia, and in 1488, the Sant Anello was translated to the new chapel. It was (and still is) venerated each year on July 31st by pilgrims en route for Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi to celebrate the Festa di Perdono there on August 2nd. The relic is housed in a reliquary (1498-1511) that is usually behind curtains above the present altarpiece. However, it is exhibited on the altar each July 31st.

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Marriage of the Virgin (1825)

Filippo degli Oddi, the Prior of the Sacra Congregazione del Sant' Anello commissioned this altarpiece from his friend, Jean-Baptiste Wicar to replace an altarpiece (1814) of the same subject by Carlo Labruzzi (see below). The face of

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the Roman soldier to the right is a portrait of Filippo degli Oddi. The altarpiece was criticised in some quarters, probably because of the resentment aroused by the fact that the French artist, Wicar had played a part in the Napoleonic confiscations of 1797 that had included Perugino's original altarpiece from this chapel (see below). Specific criticisms included the fact that the Virgin and St Joseph were depicted kneeling before the Jewish priest. The figure of St Joseph was said to resemble a satyr while the female figures to the left were said to be unduly voluptuous.

Nativity (1874)
This stained glass window is by Francesco Moretti.

Works of Art Removed from the Chapel

Altare di San Bernardino (1473)
The Commune commissioned this altar from Agostino di Duccio. The altar and the dedication to St Bernardino were moved to the opposite side of the nave (the present Cappella di San Bernardino) in 1486, when the original chapel was re-dedicated to the Sant' Anello. The altar was destroyed in 1559. Fragments from the arch that surrounded it are preserved in the Museo Capitolare (Room 11).

Miracles of St Bernardino (1473)

These eight panels, which are dated by inscription, were first recorded in 1784 in the sacristy of San Francesco al Prato. They were then attributed to Pisanello and said to have come from a niche that had housed a statue of St Bernardino. Candidates for the original location of the niche include this chapel in the Duomo as well as:

San Francesco al Prato; and

the Oratorio di San Bernardino. The panels were removed from Perugia after the Napoleonic suppression 0f 1810: Dominique-Vivant Denon, the Director of the Muse Napoleon (later the Muse du Louvre) selected two of them, and they were duly shipped to Paris. Antonio Canova recovered them in 1815 and they were returned to Rome. Agostino Tofanelli, the Director of the Musei Capitolini, took the other six to Rome in 1812. They were all returned to San Francesco in 1817 and transferred to the Galleria Nazionale (Room15/16) in 1863. The error in attributing them to an artist as early as Pisanello (died 1455) was first noted at about the time that they were returned to Perugia. They were then recognised to be the work of at least four different painters, although clearly conceived as part of a coherent program. The identities proposed for this so-called Workshop of 1473 have varied over time: the attributions currently proposed by the gallery are Perugino, Pinturicchio, Sante di Apollonio and Pierantonio di Nicol del Pocciolo.

Altare di Sant' Anello (1488)

Benedetto Buglioni built a new terracotta altar for the chapel soon after its rededication. It was modelled on Agostino di Duccios altar in the Cappella di San
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Lorenzo, San Domenico. It was destroyed in the 18th century.

Marriage of the Virgin (1499-1503)

The Confraternita di San Giuseppe commissioned this important altarpiece from Perugino. (The commission had originally been given to Pinturicchio in 1489, but he had failed to start the work, having left Perugia). Napoleon's commissioner, Jacques-Pierre Tinet selected the altarpiece for confiscation in 1797, and it was duly sent to Paris. It was transferred to Caen in 1804 and is now in the Muse des Beaux Arts, Caen. It is illustrated in the m useum 's website.

Marriage of the Virgin (1814)

The Sacra Congregazione del Sant' Anello commissioned this altarpiece from Carlo Labruzzi when the original by Perugino was sent to France in 1797. They were however unhappy with it, and it was replaced by the current altarpiece in 1825. It is now in the Museo Capitolare (Room 20).

Continue around the interior of the Duomo.

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