A major exhibition on the 14th century in Umbria, in four municipalities in the region

A great century for a great exhibition in Umbria. Masterpieces of the Fourteenth Century. Giotto’s Worksite, Spoleto and the Apennines, curated by Vittoria Garibaldi and Alessandro Delpriori, runs from June 24 to Nov. 4, 2018 in the towns of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino. The exhibition boasts about 70 gold-on-board paintings, polychrome wooden sculptures and miniatures, which tell the story of the environmental wonder of thecentral Apennines and the historical-artistic, civic and socio-religious civilization in early 14th-centuryItaly. There are four exhibition venues: in Trevi the Museo di San Francesco, in Spoleto the Museo Diocesano - Basilica di Sant’Eufemia and the Museo Nazionale del Ducato, in Montefalco the Complesso Museale di San Francesco. In the Spazio Arte Valcasana in Scheggino, it will also be possible to have complete documentation on the itineraries and places to visit, and some fragments of the frescoes and one of the two rose windows of the abbey of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia will be presented.

The success, in the green heart of Italy, of Giotto ’s revolutionary lesson and the astonishing virtuosity of the Sienese school leaders Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, will be recounted in the exhibition through a constellation of artists, often anonymous, who became interpreters of the deepest and truest soul of the Apennines, declining emotions of faith and gentleness, painted with an intense pictorial language, and an astonishing technical mastery. Up to the wonder that comes from viewing masterpieces preserved in museums and collections of great prestige, such as the Cini Foundation in Venice, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, and theAlana Collection in Newark(USA). Visitors to these exhibitions will be able to experience the privilege of admiring works made visible to the general public for the first time, such as the two astonishing dossals on display in the Pope’s state apartment, both from Montefalco, restored for the occasion by the masterful workshops of the Vatican Museums; or the extraordinary rapprochement of the Triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin by the Master of Cesi and the Crucifix with Christus triumphans both painted for the monastery of Santa Maria della Stella in Spoleto, now separated: for the first time since the early 19th century, will be back together.

Visiting the exhibition venues, and places in the territory, it will be possible to enter a medieval artist’s workshop, to understand the virtuoso and feverish efforts in making gold backgrounds, sculptures, miniatures, goldsmithing, frescoes, in a kaleidoscope of refined and original personalities who lived their point of reference in one of the artistic capitals of medieval Italy, the ducal city of Spoleto: the Maestro delle Palazze, the Maestro di Sant’Alò, the Maestro di San Felice di Giano, the Maestro di Cesi, the Maestro di San Ponziano, the Maestro della Croce di Trevi, the Maestro della Croce di Visso, and the Maestro di Fossa. The exhibition’s scientific committee consists of: Lucia Arbace, Guido Cornini, Andrea De Marchi, Giovanni Luca Delogu, Marica Mercalli, Stefania Nardicchi, Antonio Paolucci, Marco Pierini, Mario Scalini, Lisa Zanni. The exhibition, organized by Civita Mostre and Sistema Museo, is sponsored by the municipalities of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino, the Polo Museale dell’Umbria, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria, the Region of Umbria, theArchdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia and theRocca Albornoziana Association of Spoleto, with contributions from Gal Valle Umbra e Sibillini, ATI 3 Umbria, Vus Com spa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto. Three very important 14th-century works, of which the town was deprived by the Napoleonic spoliations and the dispersion of the movable heritage that followed, are therefore returning to Montefalco, Complesso Museale di San Francesco: the large dossal that was on the high altar of the Church of San Francesco, the work of the Maestro di Fossa, splendid as a Simone Martini work; the panel for the altar of the Chapel of Santa Croce in the Church of Santa Chiara in Montefalco, the extreme work of the most Giottesque of the Spoleto painters, the Maestro di Cesi; and the processional banner with the Passion of Christ, also originally in the Church of San Francesco in Montefalco. The exhibition is an opportunity to reconstruct, in a virtuoso operation, the original contexts and give the visitor an account of the extraordinary 14th-century season experienced by the city. In Spoleto Museo Diocesano preserves many works that testify to painting and wooden sculpture in this area from the mid-13th century until the 1950s. The exhibition section, which displays masterpieces by the Master of Cesi and the Master of San Felice di Giano, complements the display in the church of San Francesco in Trevi. Of particular importance are the “Triptych with Coronation of the Virgin” by the Master of Cesi from the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris and the Paliotto by the Master of San Felice di Giano from the National Gallery of Umbria. The relationship between wooden sculpture and polychromy, so important for the fourteenth century in Spoleto, will be investigated in a circumstantial way, so as to relate sculptors and painters who might have been in the same workshop, if not even matching the same person.

Also in Spoleto, in the Rocca Albornoz - National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto, the antecedent of 14th-century Spoleto painting, before Giotto’s revolution, is presented, preceded by the painters present in the Assisi workshop at the time of Cimabue’s arrival. In particular, the Master of the Palazze, who has his cultural roots in the Spoleto tradition and at the same time represents the moment of generational change between the painters of the thirteenth century and those who turned art “from Greek to Latin” (Cennino di Andrea Cennini, 1370 - 1427, referring to Giotto in “The Book of Art” or "Treatise on Painting by Cennino Cennini da Colle di Valdelsa," ed.) The anonymous artist left on the walls of the church of Santa Maria Inter Angelos or delle Palazze, located on the slopes of Monteluco, a mural cycle of sacred subject of particular interest, made at the end of the 13th century. Bruno Toscano emphasized their characters with a strong Cimabuesque accent and linked their chronology with the Florentine painter’s presence in Assisi, which is, however, not supported by certain dates, but on the eve of Giotto’s arrival. Around 1920 most of the frescoes were detached, and between 1924 and 1931 some of them were purchased by five American museums(Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, FoggArt Musem of Harvard University in Cambridge, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, and Worcester Art Museum). In 1964, one of the surviving scenes was detached, and five pieces of the frescoes that remained in situ flowed into the National Museum of the Duchy. The project involves a life-size virtual recomposition of the placement of the frescoes in one of the halls of the Rocca, through a graphic layout and black-and-white images of the frescoes, now preserved in American museums.

In the Church of St. Francis in Trevi, adjacent to the Municipal Picture Gallery, is preserved a splendid and gigantic shaped cross dating from around 1317. It is an extraordinary work in terms of preservation and quality, painted by one of the major protagonists of that season, the Master of the Cross of Trevi (named after his most representative work), the same beloved of Roberto Longhi who baptized him as Master of 1310. The latter undoubtedly participated in the Assisi decoration and was probably active as early as the end of the 13th century, precisely parallel to Giotto’s presence in Umbria. The Trevi work is symptomatic of that moment, it has within it all the strength of the Tuscan painter, but also the local expressiveness, the ability to speak to the viewer, the consciousness of a direct message to those who looked at it. To go to study the Master of the Cross of Trevi and the painters and wood sculptors (who in some cases might match each other) active in and around Spoleto at the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the following century is to reconstruct for the first time a tattered and in large ways lost fabric, but one of exceptional quality. It means being able to review a new and for that territory strongly identifiable artistic panorama. In the same venue will be exhibited the corpus of works by the Master of Fossa, a very high personality capable of moving downstream of Giotto’s culture, but grafted with the grace of Simone Martini in perfect parallel with Puccio Capanna. A true and great artist of Spoleto in the mid-14th century, the Master of Fossa is a beacon for all art to follow right into the 15th century. The whole unfolding of local painting is based on his teaching, from the possible Bartolo di Spoleto, the so-called Master of the Calvaries, to the beginnings of Giovanni di Corraduccio. At the Valcasana Art Space in Scheggino it will be possible to have complete documentation of the itineraries and information on the places to visit.

In Scheggino, moreover, will be presented some fragments of the frescoes and one of the two rose windows of theAbbey of San Salvatore in Campi di Norcia, a jewel of Romanesque art severely damaged by the earthquake, currently the subject of a challenging recovery and restoration work of the surviving frescoes, curated by the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Umbria and theSuperior Institute for Conservation and Restoration. The itineraries, organized and suggested in the area, will allow visitors to learn about a precious and unrepeatable heritage, although important testimonies of this heritage will not be visible due to the damage suffered by the earthquake. Starting from the Valcasana Art Space in Scheggino, the itineraries will involve as many as four regions: Umbria, Marche, Lazio and Abruzzo. Twenty-nine municipalities are involved, 19 of which are in Umbria, with 72 churches and more than one hundred works and pictorial cycles: the whole Valnerina valley is involved, but also the Valle Umbra, Folignate and Spoletino, Nocera Umbra, Fossato di Vico and some areas of Ternano, the province of Macerata, the Reatino area, L’Aquila and its surroundings.

For all information you can visit www.capolavorideltrecento.it.

A major exhibition on the 14th century in Umbria, in four municipalities in the region

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