Key to Umbria: Montefalco
 


Maestro dell' Abside Destra di

San Francesco di Montefalco (early 15th century)


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Montefalco

Frescoes in San Francesco (ca. 1420)

    
    

These votive frescoes in the right apsidal chapel of San Francesco (now the Pinacoteca) are the autograph works of the Maestro dell' Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco.  They depict: 

  1. on the left pilaster:

  2. SS Bridget of Sweden and Antony Abbot;

  3. on the left wall:

  4. the Crucifixion (above); and

  5. the martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria;

  6. on the back wall:

  7. the Annunciation (above)

  8. St Apollonia, the Lamb of God and St Lucy (around the window);

  9. St Francis with a female donor, who clutches at his cord, a symbol of poverty, as the way to salvation (lower left); and

  10. St John the Baptist (lower right);

  11. on the right wall;

  12. the Madonna and Child with SS Peter and Paul (above); and

  13. the Deposition; and

  14. on the right pilaster:

  15. St Bartholomew.

Foligno

Dormition and Coronation of the Virgin (1391) 

This fresco in oratory of Santa Maria Giacobbe, which is dated by inscription, is attributed to the Maestro dell’ Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco.  If this attribution is correct, it is the only dated work by this artist that survives.  It is therefore of great value in dating his other works and might, in time, provide a clue to his identity. 



Frescoes in San Domenico (ca. 1400)

Frescoes in San Domenico that are attributed to the  Maestro dell’ Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco include the following (with numbers in square brackets corresponding to the guide in the church):

Dormition and Coronation of the Virgin[??]

In this fresco on the counter-facade, angels play authentic musical instruments of the period. 




Volto Santo [1] 

The arch through which you enter the auditorium frames this fresco.   It depicts Christ fully clothed on the cross, an iconography known as the Volto Santo (Holy Face).  A female saint (perhaps St Cecilia, the patron of musicians) stands to the right and a kneeling figure (perhaps the donor) on the left plays a stringed instrument. 




Madonna del Latte with saints [4]  

This depicts the Madonna and Child with SS Peter Martyr, John the Baptist, Catherine of Alexandria and Dominic. 



Stigmatisation of St Catherine of Siena [5] 

This iconography of the fresco on the counter-facade, in which a crucified seraph appears to the orant saint, is taken from that used for the stigmatisation of St Francis. (Franciscans such as Robert of Lecce were extremely critical of this practice.) 



Christ in the house of Mary and Martha [7] 

This fresco is on the right wall.  (Another less well-preserved fresco, perhaps of the same subject and by the same artist, is on the opposite wall). 



Madonna and Child with saints [14] 

This fresco on the left wall depicts the Madonna and Child with SS Antony Abbot and Catherine of Alexandria. 



Presentation at the Temple [25]

Only a fragment of this fresco on the left wall survives. 




Frescoes (ca. 1400)

The surviving frescoes in the Cella di Beato Pietro Crisci in campanile of the Duomo are attributed to the Maestro dell’ Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco.  The surviving fragments depict:
  1. the Crucifixion, with;

  2. the Virgin and her women to the left;

  3. St John the Evangelist to the right;

  4. St Mary Magdalene kneeling at the foot of the cross; and

  5. angels collecting blood from the wounds in the hands of Christ;

  6. the mystic marriage of St Catherine with a kneeling donor, perhaps Ugolino Trinci; and

  7. fragments of scenes from the Passion of Christ.

Way to Calvary (ca. 1400) 


This fresco, which is attributed to the Maestro dell’ Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco, is to the right on the right wall of the Cappella di San Matteo in San Francesco.

Frescoes from Sant’ Elisabetta (ca. 1400)

The following detached frescoes from the ex-nunnery of Sant’ Elisabetta (later known as Santa Margherita), which are attributed to the Maestro dell' Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco, are now in the Pinacoteca Civica of Foligno

Scenes from the Passion 

These frescoes, which were discovered in 1909 during the demolition of part of the ex-nunnery, depicted:

   
  

  1. Christ in the garden (1);

  2. the capture of Christ, in which Judas kisses Christ as He warns Peter not to throttle one of His captors (2); 

  3. the way to Calvary (3) of which only the upper part survives;


  1. the Crucifixion of Christ and the two robbers (4), of which only the upper part survives;

     
  
  1. the Deposition ; and

  2. the Resurrection.

Fresco fragments

    
     

Three fragments were found in 1910 in the ex-nunnery.  According to Emanuela Cecconelli (referenced below, at p. 378), they depicted;

  1. Christ in the house of Mary and Martha;

  2. a scene from the legend of the verification of the True Cross in which the relic restored a dead person to life; and

  3. a scene from the life of St Elizabeth of Hungary, in which she distributes out what seem to be small scrolls to a number of young women.

Scenes from the life of Christ (ca. 1400)

This fresco cycle, which apparently survives on the right wall of the presbytery of Santa Caterina Vecchia, is attributed to the Maestro dell' Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco.

Trevi

Frescoes in San Francesco (ca. 1400)

The frescoes in San Francesco that are attributed to Maestro dell’ Abside Destra di San Francesco di Montefalco include:

  1. this fresco of Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Francis and Clare in the exterior lunette above the portal; and



  1. a number of damaged frescoes inside the church, including this one of St Michael on the counter-façade.






Read more:

E. Cecconelli, “Ascensidonio Spacca a Foligno: Sulle Tracce di due Opere dell' Artista Bevanate”, Bollettino Storico della Città di Foligno, 37 (2014) 361-98


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