Francesco Melanzio worked almost exclusively in his native Montefalco.  The house in which he lived (illustrated above) survives outside Porta Camiano (see the Walk).  His early work suggests that he had been a student of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo.  He became the master of his nephew, Febo Melanzio.

Montefalco

Works in the Pinacoteca

The Pinacoteca contains a number of works by or attributed to Francesco Melanzio:

Madonna and Child with saints (1487)

A surviving document records that Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino commissioned this panel from “Francesco pentore” in 1486.  The inscription along the top of the frame again records Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino, and gives the date 1487, while the inscription at the bottom identifies the artist as Francesco Melanzio.   It is his earliest known work.

Pietro Paolo di Giovanni Marino was the prior of the Confraternita di San Nicolò da Tolentino, and he commissioned this panel for the confraternity’s chapel in Sant’ Agostino.  The document in which he commissioned the work prescribes that it should depict the Madonna and Child with SS Sebastian, Peter, Paul and Dominic, with other saints, including St Nicholas of Tolentino in the predella.  If the predella was ever painted, it was subsequently lost, while St Nicholas of Tolentino replaces St Dominic in the panel.  

Madonna and Child with saints (1488)

Angelo di Bartolomeo, the rector of Santa Maria di Turrita, and his associates Evangelista di Cecco and Pellegrino di Francesco commissioned this altarpiece from Francesco Melanzio in 1485, but it took some time to complete: it is dated by inscription to 1488.  It depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Sebastian, Fortunatus, Severus and Clare of Montefalco.  Its predella, which was documented in the 19th century, has been lost.

Madonna and Child with saints (1498)

1. ✴SS Antony of Padua, Bernardino of Siena, Francis on the left; and
   

2. ✴SS Fortunatus, Louis of Toulouse and Severus on the right. 
   

It was originally used as a processional banner, and was probably commissioned during an outbreak of plague.  St Fortunatus holds a model of Montefalco and the staff that he used to use to drive his oxen, which burst into leaf when he died.

Detached frescoes (ca. 1500)

These damaged fresco fragments, which were detached in 1877 from a tabernacle outside San Fortunato, are attributed to Francesco Melanzio.  They comprise:

1. ✴a figure of St Francis;
   

2. ✴the Madonna and Child enthroned; and
   

3. ✴tondi of the Annunciation.
   

Madonna del Soccorso (1504)

The surviving inscription along the top of the frame identifies the subject as the Madonna del Soccorso (of Succour).  As is usual in this iconography, the Virgin clubs a devil that tries to possess a child.   A female supplicant (presumably the mother) kneels under the Virgin's protective cloak.

Madonna and Child with musical angels (1510)

This fresco, which is is attributed to Francesco Melanzio and dated by inscription, was detached in 1877 from a tabernacle at Camiano Grande, outside Montefalco.

Frescoes from Sant’ Illuminata

These fresco from Sant’ Illuminata by or attributed to Francesco Melanzio include:

1. 

   ✴frescoes (1507) in the 2nd chapel on the right, which are dated by inscription, that depict:
   

2. •the Assumption of the Virgin;
   

3. •SS Agatha and Augustine, on the left;
   

4. •SS Gregory and Lucy, on the right; and
   

5. •the Coronation of the Virgin and the four Evangelists, in the dome.
   

1. 

   ✴frescoes (ca. 1507) in the 2nd chapel on the left, which depict:
   

2. •the Nativity;
   

3. •St Martin and the flight to Egypt, on the left;
   

4. •the Epiphany and St Nicholas of Tolentino, on the right; and
   

5. •the Holy Spirit with angels, in the dome.
   

1. 

   ✴a fresco (1509) to the right of the presbytery, which is dated by inscription, that depicts the Pietà with the Virgin and St Mary Magdalene; and
   

1. 

   ✴frescoes (1515) in the 3rd chapel on the right, which are signed and dated by inscription, that depict:
   

2. •the Madonna and Child enthroned;
   

3. •SS Sebastian and Laurence, on the left;
   

4. •SS Jerome and Antony Abbot, on the right; and
   

5. •the the Resurrection, in the dome.
   

Works in Other Churches in Montefalco

Frescoes in San Fortunato (1495)

A surviving document records payments made to Francesco Melanzio in 1495 for frescoes in the Cappella del Presepio of San Fortunato (the 1st chapel on the left, which was then open to the exterior).  This work was later lost when the walls were covered in plaster.

Frescoes from Sant’ Agostino (early 16th century)

A surviving document (1514) records the commission of frescoes from Francesco Melanzio for the Cappella della Beata Chiarella of Sant’ Agostino, which was demolished in 1714. 

Francesco Melanzio also worked in the chapel in this church that belonged to the Confraternita di San Nicolò da Tolentino.  As noted above, the signed altarpiece from this chapel and another work from the chapel that is attributed to him are both now in the Pinacoteca.  Fresco fragments that survive in this chapel that are attributed to him depict:

1. ✴the face of the Virgin; and
   

2. ✴the Madonna and Child.
   

Frescoes in Santa Maria di Turrita(1513)

1. ✴the Pietà, above;
   

2. ✴SS Antony Abbot enthroned with SS Francis and Antony of Padua;
   

3. ✴St Roch, to the right; and
   

4. ✴SS Cosmas and Damian, to the left.
   

St Nicholas of Tolentino (1515)

This fresco fragment on the right wall of Santa Maria Maddalena, which is attributed to Francesco Melanzio, was originally part of a larger fresco.

Madonna and Child enthroned with angels and saints (1515)

This signed altarpiece on the high altar of San Leonardo, which is dated by inscription, is the masterpiece of Francesco Melanzio.  It depicts the Mother and Child with the kneeling SS Jerome and Francis and a number of other saints.  The church belongs to an enclosed community of Poor Clares, but a photograph can be seen in the book referenced below (page 64).

St Roch (1516)

This documented altarpiece by Francesco Melanzio, which was painted at the time of the re-dedication of the church of San Rocco, was subsequently lost. 

Frescoes in Santa Maria di Piazza (1517)

1. ✴the Madonna and Child enthroned, with two angels;
   

2. ✴St Gregory celebrating Mass, to the left, which is signed by Francesco Melanzio;
   

3. ✴a lost figure of the penitent St Jerome, to the right;
   

4. ✴SS Fortunatus and Severus (probably a self-portrait), to the sides;
   

5. ✴God the Father, in the lunette above; and
   

6. ✴traces of figures of the Annunciation in tondi, above and to the sides. 
   

Madonna and Child with saints (early 16th century)

1. ✴John the Baptist and Sebastian, to the sides; and
   

2. ✴SS Peter and Francis and the Lamb of God above.
   

Madonna delle Grazie (16th century)

Foligno

Frescoes (1518)

1. ✴the Cardinal Virtues;
   

2. ✴scenes from the life of the Virgin, including a scene of the Virgin in the Temple (illustrated here) that is dated by inscription; and
   

3. ✴scenes from the life of Christ. 
   

Massa Martana (Giano dell’ Umbria)

Madonna del Soccorso (1494)

This panel from the church of San Felice di Giano, which is dated by inscription, is attributed to Francesco Melanzio.  [It is now inside the abbey].

Trevi

Francesco Melanzio signed an extensive fresco cycle (1510) in San Stefano, Picciche, outside Trevi, which is dated by inscription.

Frescoes in Sant Emiliano (ca. 1510)

                            Virgin Annunciate                         God the Father                            St Emilianus

The fresco fragments illustrated above, which are attributed to Francesco Melanzio, survive in a chapel off the right aisle of Sant’ Emiliano (the left apsidal chapel of the original church). 

Frescoes(ca. 1510)

These very damaged frescoes in the chapel at the end of the right side of the portico of Santa Maria di Pietrarossa are attributed to Francesco Melanzio.  They depict:

1. ✴the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist, on the back wall; and
   

2. ✴the Madonna and Child enthroned, with St Sebastian, on the right wall.
   

Rome

Assumption of the Virgin with saints (1497)

This panel in the deposit of the Pinacoteca Vaticana, which is dated by inscription but of otherwise unknown provenance, depicts:

1. ✴the Assumption of the Virgin;
   

2. ✴St Gregory celebrating Mass, to the left;
   

3. ✴the penitent St Jerome, to the right.
   

The image of St Gregory is extremely close to that in Santa Maria di Piazza, Montefalco (see above), which suggests that the panel in Rome is also by Francesco Melanzio.

Madonna and Child with saints (1516)

The panel was expropriated in 1811 and, on its return from France, was placed in San Salvatore in Ossibus (now San Pietro in Borgo), Rome.  It was restored in 2006 and placed on the main altar of the Cappella del Governatorato dello Stato in the Vatican Palace.  It is not available for public viewing.