This artist is named for this fresco in San Pietro, Terni (see also below). In 1963, Federico Zeri drew attention to a number of works that he attributed to this artist, which had subsequently been widely dispersed. These are illustrated in the website of the Fondazione Federico Zeri. These include the following, which are discussed below:
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✴three panels from a triptych, which are now widely dispersed, that may have come from San Bartolomeo di Marano, Foligno;
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✴a panel of of the Madonna and Child, which is of unknown original provenance, that is now in the Galleria Nazionale, Perugia; and
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✴a fresco of the Madonna and Child enthroned in San Gregorio Maggiore, Spoleto.
A number of other works in Umbria have subsequently been attributed to this master by Bruno Toscano (referenced below) among others. The only one of them that is dated is a fresco (1404) of Madonna and Child with saints in the lunette of the outer portal of San Nicolò, Spoleto (see below).
Filippo Todini (1991) suggested that this artist was actually Domenico da Miranda (the father of Bartolomeo da Miranda), who was documented among the artists at work in the Vatican for Pope Urban V in 1369. He was subsequently documented at Spoleto, where he produced a miniature for the Duomo in 1395 and where he worked for the Commune in 1404.
Terni
Coronation and Dormition of the Virgin
The remains of these frescoes are in the 1st niche on the left of the church of San Pietro, Terni. Only the lower part of the Coronation of the Virgin (the upper part of the fresco) survives.
San Cleto Triptych
The Order of Crosiers was dedicated to the care of the poor and of pilgrims. San Cleto in Terni was used by the Confraternita di San Nicandro, which was similarly dedicated to the care of the poor and of pilgrims.
Miracles during the Bianchi March
This important fresco cycle in Santa Maria del Monumento is variously attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni or the Maestro di Narni del 1409.
Cascia
Frescoes in Sant’ Antonio Abate
Sixteen frescoes in the presbytery depicting scenes from the life of St Antony Abbot are attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni or, according to Filippo Todini (1989), to his follower, the Maestro del Trittico di Terni.
[Frescoes of the Evangelists in the vaults]
Foligno
Panels of a Triptych (ca. 1415)
Three of the dispersed panels that Federico Zeri (referenced below) attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni seem to have come from a triptych:
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✴a panel of the Coronation of the Virgin in the John G. Johnson Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art;
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✴a panel of St Bartholomew in the Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome (number 353); and
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✴a panel of St Louis of Toulouse in Heinz Kisters Collection, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
Bruno Toscano (referenced below), who doubted the attribution made by Federico Zeri, suggested that the triptych might have come from San Bartolomeo di Marano, Foligno.
Montefalco
Madonna and Child enthroned (late 14th century)
This detached fresco from the parish church of San Giovanni di Colle Mora, which is attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni, has been heavily repainted, and little of the original survives. It is now in the Pinacoteca, Montefalco.
Narni
Frescoes in San Giovenale (Duomo)
Frescoes in Sant’ Agostino
The frescoes on the walls of the apse of Sant’ Agostino were covered in plaster in the 18th century and only partly recovered in the restoration of 1991. The surviving scenes are obscured by the 18th century decoration. A number of them are attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni:
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✴Christ enthroned with angels, with the Virgin and SS Andrew on the left and SS John the Baptist and Augustine on the right. The Virgin is shown as the Madonna della Misercordia and the Madonna del Latte. Much of the figure of St Augustine has been lost.
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✴The Assumption of the Virgin and (below) figures of SS Margaret of Antioch and Giles. Only the lower part of the Assumption, in which angels raise the Virgin in a mandorla, survives.
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✴St Martin shares his cloak with a poor man and (below) a series of fragmentary heads of (from left to right): St Augustus, St Antony Abbot and two figures that both seem to be of St James. Little of the fresco of St Martin survives, except for the poor man’s feet and a magnificent horse’s head.
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✴Fragments of the heads of (from left to right): the Madonna della Misercordia; St Jerome; and larger fragments of two saints (a deacon and an Apostle).
Frescoes in/from San Domenico
Two fresco fragments in or from San Domenico are attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni:
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✴a very damaged fragment of the Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist, which survives on the 2nd pillar on the right; and
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✴three Angels and part of the what seems to be the Madonna della Misercordia, which is now in the Pinacoteca Comunale.
Frescoes in San Francesco
A number of frescoes in San Francesco are attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni:
St Thomas
St Francis
Deacon saint
Frescoes in Santa Maria Impensole (ca. 1400)
Perugia
Madonna and Child enthroned with angels (ca. 1400)
Spoleto
Madonna and Child enthroned (ca. 1388)
Unusually it shows the body of Eve in a shroud at the feet of the Madonna, to underline her role as the second Eve. Eve's face is now blank and may never have been painted. This iconography, which is discussed on the website Display and Devotion, was probably first introduced by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in his Maestà (1338-40) in the Montesiepi Chapel, San Galgano.
Madonna and Child with saints (1404)
Trinity
Trevi
Frescoes from Santa Maria di Pietrarossa
All of the surviving frescoes in the presbytery of Santa Maria di Pietrarossa and on the arch in front of it are attributed to the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni. These frescoes, which are generally of higher quality than those elsewhere in the church, depict:
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✴in the presbytery:
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•the Madonna and Child with St Antony Abbot;
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•symbols of the Evangelists (only one of which survives); and
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•St Joachim (the father of the Virgin) driven from the Temple: and
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✴on the arch:
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•St John the Baptist (illustrated here);
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•St Elizabeth and another saint; and
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•a beautiful standing figure of the Madonna and Child (also illustrated here).
Annunciation
Read more:
F. Zeri, “Tre Argomenti Umbri”, Bollettino d’ Arte, 18 (1963) pp. 29-45
B. Toscano, “Due Problemi di Storia dell' Arte nel Protomonastero di Sant' Anna”, in R. Pazzellli and M. Sensi (Eds), “La Beata Angelina da Montegiove e il Movimento del Terzo Ordine Regolare Francescano Femminile”, Rome (1984)
F. Todini , “La Pittura Umbra: dal Duecento al Primo Cinquecento”, Milan (1989)
C. Fratini, “Pittori dell’ Area Ternana fra la Fine del ‘300 e l’ Inizio del ‘400”, in “Dall' Albornoz all' Eta dei Borgia: Questioni di Cultura Figurativa nell' Umbria Meridionale : Atti del Convegno di Studi, Amelia”, Assisi (1990) pp. 127-76
Todini, “Lello da Velletri e il Vero Bartolomeo da Miranda”, Studi di Storia dell’ Arte, 2 (1991) p. 54.
R. Quirino, “La Chiesa di Santa Maria di Pietrarossa presso Trevi: Gli Affreschi”, Bollettino della Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’ Umbria, 87 (1990) 93-103 for the work of the Maestro della Dormitio di Terni in Santa Maria di Pietrarossa.
There is a full bibliography on this artist on the website Arte Antica.
Return to Art in: Cascia Foligno Montefalco Narni Perugia Spoleto Terni Trevi.
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