Key to Umbria: Perugia
 

This house originally belonged to the Baglioni family, possibly to Guido Baglioni .  It subsequently become part of the convent of Santa Maria dei Servi, and survived the demolition of the rest of the convent when the Rocca Paolina was built in ca. 1542.  The Sapienza Bartolina was established here in 1571 but suppressed in 1797. 

The house was then used as a police station until 1894, when Francesco Moretti (1833-1917), an expert in the technology of stained glass production and restoration, bought it.  He restored one of the rooms of the Baglioni palace and adapted other rooms to form his studio, which he moved here from the ex-convent of San Francesco al Prato.

The skills of Francesco Moretti have been passed down through another four generations of his family via:

  1. ✴his nephew Ludovico Caselli (1859-1922);

  2. ✴Ludovico's daughters Rosa (1896-1989) and Cecilia (1905-96); and

  3. ✴their niece Anna Matilde Falsinettini Forenza; and

  4. ✴her daughters, Elisabetta and Maddalena. 

The last three still work in the studio.

Work in the Studio

Full details of the things to be seen in the studio (which is a combination of a working studio, a museum, an archive, an educational establishment and gallery of the art of stained glass design and manufacture) can be found on the website of Studio Moretti Caselli, along with the means of contact to arrange a visit.  Among the works of art to be seen are:

Portrait of the Queen Margaret of Savoy (1881)

This fine full-length portrait of the wife of King Umberto I is by Francesco Moretti.






Cartoon of Leonardo's Last Supper (1925-30)

Rosa and Cecilia Caselli produced an extraordinary full-sized copy of the fresco of the Last Supper (1494-8) by Leonardo da Vinci for the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California.  She used Leonardo's sketches for the original fresco, which survives in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.  This cartoon is for the head of Christ.



Other Works by the Moretti Caselli Family

Work by Francesco Moretti

Work in Duomo, Todi (with Eliseo Fattorini)

Restoration and re-assembly of the stained glass of the apse (1861-1879), San Domenico

Restoration of the window depicting the Preaching of St Bernardino of Siena (1863), Cappella di San Bernardino, Duomo

Nativity (1874), Cappella del Sant' Anello, Duomo

Restoration of the stained glass of the apse of the Duomo, Orvieto and nine new windows (1896-1905)

Work by Ludovico Caselli

Martyrdom of St Laurence (1919), Duomo (counter-facade)

Work by Rosa and Cecilia Caselli

Restoration of the two apse windows of  the upper church of San Francesco, Assisi and remaking the three apsidal windows of the lower church (1918 –28).

Restoration of many windows in Santa Chiara, Assisi (1925 - 31).


Return to Museums of Perugia. 


Return to Walk VII. 

 


Casa Moretti-Caselli (14th century) 


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