Chapter
Museum
MUSEUM
More than twenty years after the previous exhibition layout, and in preparation for 2023, the year marking the Museum’s centenary, a new enhancement project for the Island of San Lorenzo complex was launched through the initiative of the Diocese of Perugia–Città della Pieve, the Canons of the Cathedral, and the company Genesi.
The aim of the project is to restore to the complex of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo the central identity it has held for the city and the surrounding territory since its origins. Part of the initiative involved the complete reorganisation of the galleries of the Chapter Museum.
The new museum itinerary follows a thematic approach. The relationship between the territory and its Cathedral, the important fifteenth-century commissions in the city involving Agostino di Duccio and Luca Signorelli, traditions and popular devotion through the works of Bonfigli and Caporali, the presence of the Popes in Perugia, and the history of the Holy Ring are only some of the themes explored throughout the exhibition route. Each gallery tells a story connected to the artworks, the artists, the historical period, and the context in which they were created, establishing a dialogue with the contemporary visitor. The Museum seeks to offer all those who cross its threshold an opportunity to engage with art, transforming the physical space into a participatory environment in which visitors may experience something meaningful and personal.
HISTORY
The recovery and conservation initiative promoted by the Chapter and overseen by Canon Rotelli at the end of the nineteenth century effectively marked the beginning of the history of what is now the Chapter Museum. This process reached full fruition approximately fifty years later thanks to the work of Umberto Gnoli and the “Perugian Brigade of Friends of Art”.
Associations of this kind emerged at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the dual purpose of increasing knowledge of the local territory and safeguarding artistic heritage through fundraising initiatives supporting restoration and conservation projects. As has often been observed, the decision to call themselves a “Brigade” suggested a spirit of participation and shared cultural interests among “friends”, almost as a way of avoiding the image of pedantic scholarly societies.
In Perugia, the “Brigade” was founded in July 1909 through the initiative of a group of distinguished citizens who sought to enhance, restore, protect, and promote the city’s historical and artistic heritage through restoration campaigns, exhibitions, and conferences.
The association also played an important role in the establishment of the Museum. As early as 1912, discussions had begun regarding the possibility of asking the Chapter to dedicate one of its premises to a museum intended to house and display the most valuable artistic objects. Although the Brigade’s proposal did not produce immediate results, it undoubtedly helped focus attention — including that of the Chapter itself — on the possibility of creating a museum collection open to the public.
At this point Umberto Gnoli entered the scene, making a decisive contribution to the foundation of the Museum and providing scholarly expertise of the highest level in the study of its collections. Umberto Gnoli (Rome, 1878 – Campello sul Clitunno, 1947) completed his education in Spello, where his exposure to the Romanesque heritage of Umbria clearly shaped his studies under Adolfo Venturi. Umbrian art remained at the centre of his critical interests throughout his life, leading to the clarification of numerous artistic attributions and historical contexts. He also maintained close relationships with several important art historians. From 1910 onwards, he served as Inspector of Monuments for the Province of Perugia, and in this role succeeded in transforming the municipal picture gallery into the Royal National Gallery. It was during his years as Superintendent that the Chapter Museum was formally established, and Gnoli himself compiled its catalogue.
In the introduction to the catalogue it is stated that the Museum opened on the “occasion of the fourth centenary of the death of Pietro Perugino” and that “the best way to honour the memory of the greatest Umbrian painter was to gather into an ordered and complete collection, permanently accessible to the public, the distinguished works of art with which this illustrious basilica dedicated to Saint Lawrence had gradually been enriched”. Thus, our museum too was born under the influence of the genius loci represented by Perugino himself, whose legacy Gnoli had helped rediscover through his publications and research. The newly established Museum collected, again quoting from the introduction, works “originating from suppressed churches, donations, or modifications made to the decoration of the Cathedral”.
The Museum remained open in this form until the late 1980s, when the premises were deemed unsuitable for public access and major structural consolidation and restoration works became necessary. The museum spaces were therefore significantly enlarged, while the new installation was overseen by the Superintendence for Environmental and Architectural Heritage between 1998 and 1999, also making use of funds allocated for the Jubilee of 2000. The Museum reopened to the public on 1 April of that same year.
The most recent major intervention from an exhibition perspective was completed in 2011, when the principal surviving elements of the decoration of the Altar of the Pietà were reassembled. The altar was created by the Florentine Renaissance sculptor Agostino di Antonio, known as Agostino di Duccio (Florence, 1418 – Perugia, after 1481). Originally located in the left nave of the Cathedral, it was executed between 1473 and the following year thanks to the testamentary bequest of Niccolò Ranieri for the Hospital of Santa Maria della Misericordia.
THE HOLY RING
The Holy Ring is a jewel made of chalcedony and dated to the first century AD. It was probably originally an ancient signet ring which, upon arriving in Italy, became associated with the marriage of Mary and Joseph, eventually becoming an object of devotion especially among newlyweds, families, and parents.
Initially preserved in Chiusi in the Church of Santa Mustiola, it was brought to Perugia in 1473 by Friar Winterio of Mainz and, since 1488, has been kept in the Cathedral within the precious reliquary of gilded, silvered, and chased copper created in the workshop of Federico and Cesarino del Roscetto. Since then, the Holy Ring has been displayed twice each year, on 29 July and 12 September, during the evocative lowering of the silver tabernacle. The importance attributed to the ring and the devotion surrounding it are testified by the artworks inspired by it, including The Marriage of the Virgin, painted by Perugino in 1504 to decorate the altar of this chapel. Today the original work is preserved in Caen, France, where it was transferred during the Napoleonic requisitions, while the altar now displays the painting by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, executed in 1825 on the same subject.
THE ALTARPIECE OF SAINT ONOPHRIUS
The Altarpiece of Saint Onophrius was executed by Luca Signorelli of Cortona and is among the earliest known works by the master, painted immediately after assisting Perugino in the frescoes being created in the Sistine Chapel.
The altarpiece is dated 1484 and was commissioned by Iacopo Vagnucci, a high-ranking prelate from Cortona and former Bishop of Perugia. It originally decorated the altar of the Chapel of Saint Onophrius, built by the Vagnucci family in the north transept of the Cathedral as their family chapel dedicated to their patron saint.
The panel depicts a sacra conversazione in which the Virgin sits centrally upon a richly decorated throne, absorbed in reading a small red book; the Christ Child rests upon her lap, equally contemplative.
Four saints stand beside them: to the right are Saint Lawrence and Saint Herculanus, the latter portrayed with the features of Bishop Vagnucci himself. Both wear sumptuous liturgical vestments richly ornamented, a remarkable example of “painting within painting”. To the left stand John the Baptist and Onophrius, both saints associated with the eremitic life. An angel seated at the feet of the Virgin plays the lute.
In this work, the Cortonese master demonstrates extraordinary skill in rendering details with an almost Flemish precision, visible for example in the wildflowers at the base of the throne and in the jewelled mitre of Saint Herculanus adorned with enamelled figures. He also achieves remarkable effects in depicting the glass-like transparency of the Baptist’s processional cross and the two exquisite glass vessels.
ALTAR OF THE PIETÀ
The Altar of the Pietà was created by Agostino di Duccio, the Florentine sculptor who worked extensively in Perugia, for the left nave of the Cathedral by 1474 at the request of Nicolò Ranieri.
The marble polyptych originally consisted of architectural and decorative elements together with low-relief sculpted panels.
The principal figures are Christ in Pietà flanked by the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, while above appears the crowning panel with God the Father bestowing His blessing. These figures were carved with such mastery as to convey exceptional depth and intensity, enhanced by the use of colour and gold leaf still visible today.
The altar, enriched with numerous decorative elements, probably measured approximately five by three metres, but it was repeatedly altered and eventually dismantled. It has since been established that the white marble slabs were reused materials, as the reverse sides preserve older vegetal decorations belonging to a frame from the twelfth-century cathedral.
The new museum installation presents once again the surviving fragments mentioned in the contract signed between Agostino di Duccio and the Ranieri family.
MISSAL OF ACRE
The missal, a volume containing texts and chants for the liturgy, arrived in Perugia at the beginning of the fourteenth century, most likely originating from the Palestinian city known to Christians as Saint John of Acre.
The city was the principal Crusader port in the Holy Land and the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the last Christian stronghold to fall to the Mamluks in 1291. Acre was home to several religious and military orders of the Holy Land, including the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who, after being forced to leave the city following its fall, first took refuge in Cyprus before arriving in Perugia between 1293 and 1294. Since 1145 they had already been custodians of the Hospital and adjoining Church of Santa Croce, today known as San Giuseppe dei Falegnami.
It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the precious parchment missal reached the city together with the Canons who settled in Perugia. The manuscript was produced in a scriptorium in Palestine during the third quarter of the thirteenth century. It is written in French Gothic script and illuminated by an artist probably associated with the Venetian tradition, who created a full-page Crucifixion together with other images and decorated initials.
The connection between the volume and the Palestinian city of Acre began to be considered during the 1950s, when scholars noticed that the calendar commemorates, on 12 July, the dedication of the Cathedral of Acre. As this church was dedicated to the Holy Cross, the illuminated Crucifixion in the missal may well connect the manuscript directly to that important ecclesiastical building.
VISIT
Location:
Piazza IV Novembre, 06123, Perugia (PG)
Ticket Office Opening Hours
Monday – Sunday
10.00 am – 7.00 pm
Chapter Museum Visiting Hours
Monday – Sunday
10.30 am – 1.30 pm / 2.30 pm – 7.00 pm
Visiting Information
Admission ticket required. Self-guided visit with an introductory explanation provided by the museum staff.
Information and Bookings for Private Guided Tours and Groups
info@isolasanlorenzo.it
(+39) 075 8241011 – (+39) 370 1581907
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