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The 15th December of 1860, the extraordinary administrator Gioacchino Napoleone Pepoli set up the Provincia dell’Umbria by Act. No. 197: that way, the four previous pontifical delegations – Orvieto, Perugia, Spoleto, and Rieti – were united in one body. Also, the district (mandamento) of Gubbio was separated from the delegation of Urbino e Pesaro and united to the new body against the district of Visso, which was aggregated to Camerino. The Provincia dell’Umbria was organized in 6 districts (circondario), divided into 176 administrative municipalities (comuni) and 143 aggregated (appodiati) representing a surface of 9702 km2.

The Provincia dell’Umbria emerged among huge controversy and discontent that marchese Pepoli attempted to resolve both with words, calling peolple to give a demonstration of self denial “sacrificing traditions and local rivalries to homeland”[1], and with the force, suppressing any possible armed reaction.

Since the place of its construction was strategically defined, that is where once stood the much-hated papal symbol, Rocca Paolina, the Palazzo della Provincia has retained a major symbolic value. In this respect, the choice to assign the decorative enterprise of the interior to Domenico Bruschi is not a case. In fact, he had been working more than one occasion together with architect Antonio Cipolla, who had been entrusted with the provinding of the expert opinion, which was a plus, but especially Bruschi was the son of Carlo, who had taken part into the first War of Independence and this was a guarantee of intrinsic adhesion to modernity and of loyalty to unified Italy and its institutions. Therefore Bruschi’s cycle of frescoes, started in summer 1873 and finished at the time of the first provincial council held the 10th of September of the same year, has an as an extremely valuable symbol in order to sanction the officiality of the new institution. In the Sala del Consiglio Bruschi paints 8 allegorical figures representing the personification of the newly established political entities. He places the Provincia dell’Umbria and Italy facing each other next to the towns of Foligno, Orvieto, Perugia, Rieti, Spoleto e Terni “in a radial arrangement and essentially not hierarchical that underlines the harmonic participation of the parts to the whole”[2].

The Provincia dell’Umbria is placed – it’s not a case – in line with the President’s bench and it is represented seated on a stone throne with the coat of arms of Perugia, Foligno, Terni, Spoleto, Rieti e Orvieto and it is surmounted by the gonfalon of the Provincia dell’Umbria (a blue grifo passant on a red background). A hilly landscape in the background together with beech and olive branches that the woman supports with her right hand and nonetheless, on the left side, with the grain and the fruits oveflowing the cornucopia call to mind the agricultural vocation and at the same time the fertility of the Provincia dell’Umbria soil.

Domenico Bruschi, Provincia dell’Umbria, 1873 (Perugia, Palazzo della Provincia)

he woman wears splendid clothes of blue and gold brocade. The symbolism of the colours underlines the image that you wanted to put across, so while blue foreshadows mercy and loyalty, gold stands surety for legitimacy of power, glory and force. It is no coincidence that the eagle, always symbolizing cosmic power and here chosen as the subject holding the scroll with the name Provincia dell’Umbria in the Chamber 10 of the same Palace, stands out against a starry sky decorated in the same colours.

[1] The quotation is taken from G.B. Furiozzi, La Provincia dell’Umbria dal 1861 al 1870, Perugia, Provincia di Perugia, 1987, p. 7 e n. 10.

[2] S. Petrillo, La decorazione pittorica tra nuovi simboli, storia e politica per immagini, in F.F. Mancini (curated by), Il Palazzo della Provincia di Perugia, Perugia, Quattroemme, 2009, p. 218.

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2020. The year of Raphael

Luglio 6, 2020

Art Culture Events

Giulia Venturini

Umbria preserves the memory of Raphael’s extraordinary artistic story; throughout the region, in fact, Rapahael left traces, direct or indirect, of his art.

Crucifixion Gavari

He was one of the most famous painters and architects of the Renaissance. He considered one of the greatest artists of all time, his works marked an essential path for all subsequent painters and he was of vital importance for the development of the artistic language of the centuries to come.
Raphael was born in Urbino in «the year 1483, on Good Friday, at the tree in the morning, by Giovanni de’ Santi, a painter no less excellent, but a good man of good talent, and capable of directing his children to that good way which, unfortunately for him, had not been shown to him in his beautiful youth»[1]. A second version identifies the artist’s birth day on 6th April.

The school of Perugino

The city of Urbino was decisive for young Raphael: indeed, from a very young age, he had access to the rooms of Palazzo Ducale, and he could admire the works of Piero della Francesca, Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Melozzo da Forlì.
But the real apprenticeship took place in Perugino’s workshop of Perugino, where he was able to rediscover, through the refined variations of the master, the rigorous spatial articulation and the monumental compositive order.
Raphael intervened in the frescoes of the College of Change in Perugia: his painting is recognizable where the masses of colour assume almost a plastic value. It is precisely in this context that Raphael first saw the grotesque, painted on the ceiling of the College, which later entered his iconographic repertoire.[2]
In 1499 a sixteen-year-old Raphael moved to Città di Castello, where he received his first independent commission: the Standard of the Holy Trinity, commissioned by a local confraternity that wanted to offer a devotional work as a token of thanks for the end of a plague. It is preserved now in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Città di Castello. It is one of the very first works attributed to the artist, as well as the only painting of Raphael remained in the city. The banner, painted on both sides, depicts in the front the Trinity with Saints Rocco and Sebastiano and in the direction of the Creation of Eve. The precepts of Perugino art are still evident, both in the gentle landscape and in the symmetrical angels.

Marriage of the Virgin for church of San Francesco.

In Città di Castello the artist left at least two other works: the Crucifixion Gavari and the Marriage of the Virgin for the church of San Francesco. In the first one it is easy to note a full assimilation of Perugino’s manners, even if we note the first developments towards a style of its own. Today it is conserved at the National Gallery in London. The second, however, is one of the most famous works of the artist, which closes the youthful period and marks the beginning of the stage of artistic maturity.
The work is inspired by the similar altarpiece made by Perugino for the Duomo of Perugia, but the comparison between the two paintings reveals profound and significant differences.
Entering the small but delightful church of San Francesco, next to the chapel calves, built in the middle of 1500 on a design by Giorgio Vasari, there is the altar of San Giuseppe, which contains a copy of the Marriage of the Virgin. The original, stolen by the Napoleonic troops in 1798, is kept in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

The works created in Perugia

Meanwhile, the artist’s fame soon began to spread throughout Umbria; thus he came to the Umbrian capital city: Perugia. In the city he was commissioned the Pala Colonna, for the church of the nuns of Sant’Antonio and in 1502-1503 the Pala degli Oddi, commissioned by the famous family in Perugia for the church of San Francesco al Prato.
In 1503 the artist undertook many trips that introduced him to the most important Italian cities such as Florence, Rome and Siena. But the commissions from Umbria were not long in coming: in 1504 was commissioned the Madonna and Child and saints Giovanni Battista and Nicola, called Pala Ansidei.
In the same year he signed in Perugia the fresco with the Trinity and Saints for the church of the monastery of San Severo, which years later Perugino completed in the lower band.
The work of crucial importance was the Pala Baglioni (1507) commissioned by Atalanta Baglioni to commemorate the bloody events that led to the death of Grifonetto, her son. The work was carried out for the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia. Raphael in the altarpiece represented the indescribable pain of a mother for the loss of her son and the vital disturbance, through a monumental composition, balanced and studied in detail.

Trinity and Saints

Raphael became the reference painter for the largest and most important families of Perugia such as the Oddi, Ansidei and Baglioni, establishing himself as a great artist of relief; in the contract of his work, the Coronation of the Virgin, for the church of the nuns of Monteluce, he was mentioned as the best teacher in town. Raphael died on 6th April 1520 of fever caused, as Giorgio Vasari specifies, «by loving excesses». This year marks the 500th anniversary of death.
The artist was at the top of the Renaissance artistic season, bringing his painting to the highest levels of beauty and harmony. Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo wrote: «Raphael had in his face that sweetness and that beauty of the traits that are traditionally attributed to Good».
He lived his life with great commitment and continuity, giving future generations his incredible talent and his precious art, so much that he already deserved the title of divine in life.

[1] Giorgio Vasari, The lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects, Life of Raphael from Urbin, Firenze, 1568.⇑
[2] Paolo Franzese, Raphael, Mondadori Arte, Milano 2008, p. 13.⇑

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On the footstep of Perugino

Giugno 30, 2020

Art Culture

Giulia Venturini

Pietro Vannucci, known as Il Perugino, is considered one of the greatest exponents of humanism and the greatest representative of Umbrian painting in the 15th century. The painter moves in a historical context that is that of late humanism. «In the city of Perugia was born to a poor person from Castello della Pieve, called Christophe, a son who at baptism was called Peter (…) studied under the discipline of Andrea Verrocchio». (The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters, and sculptors, from Cimabue to our times. Part two. Giorgio Vasari).

Self-portrait

Perugino was born in 1450 in Città della Pieve and its first Umbrian artistic experiences were probably based on local workshops such as those of Bartolomeo Caporali and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. From a very young age he moved to Florence, where he started attending one of the most important workshops: Andrea del Verrocchio’s. The city of the Medici was fundamental for its formation.
His masterpieces conceal religious intimacy: the gentle hills typical of Umbria, the wooded landscape realized with more shades of green, the soft-patterned characters and the fluttering tapes of the angels are his decorative styling that he then transmitted also to his pupil: Raphael.

The works in Umbria and beyond

One of his first documented works is The Adoration of the Magi, and the gonfalone with the Pietà, both in the exhibition halls of the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. In 1473 Perugino received the first significant commission of his career: the Franciscans of Perugia asked him to decorate the niche of San Bernardino.
Later (1477-1478) is the detached fresco, today in the Pinacoteca Comunale of Deruta, with the Eternal Father with the saints Rocco and Romano, with a rare view of Deruta in the lower register; probably commissioned to invoke the protection of the Saints Roman and Rocco, since an epidemic of plague raged in the territory of Perugia. In 1478 he continued to work in Umbria, painting the frescoes of the Chapel of La Maddalena in the parish church of Cerqueto, near Perugia.
When he reached fame, he was called to Rome in 1479, where he carried out one of the greatest and most prestigious works: the decoration of the Sistine Chapel, work in which also Cosimo Rosselli, Botticelli, and the Ghirlandaio. It is here that he realizes one of his many masterpieces: The Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter, the Baptism of Christ and the Journey of Moses to Egypt. In the next ten years Perugino continued to gravitate between Rome, Florence and Perugia.
Between 1495 and 1496, he created another masterpiece: the Pala dei Decemviri, so called because it was commissioned by the decemviri of Perugia. In the same period he worked on the decoration of the Sala dell’Udienza in the Collegio del Cambio in Perugia, a cycle completed in 1500. In 1501-1504 is the year in which he made the Marriage of the Virgin, painted for the Chapel of the Holy Ring in the Cathedral of Perugia, iconography taken by Raphael for the church of San Francesco in Città di Castello.

Marriage of the Virgin

Perugino continued to receive commissions; in fact he realized the Madonna of Consolation, the gonfalone of Justice and the Pala Tezi, preserved in the exhibition halls of the National Gallery of Umbria and the Resurrection for San Francesco al Prato. Excellent works of the painter are also preserved in Città della Pieve, not far from the border with nearby Tuscany. At Santa Maria dei Bianchi and the Cathedral of SS Gervasio and Protasio, there are some of his most significant works such as the Adoration of the Magi.[1]
Following the footsteps of Perugino, you must sop in Panicale, a picturesque village that is part of the most beautiful villages in Italy. In the Church of San Sebastiano there is the work the Martyrdom of San Sebastiano, an entire wall frescoed by the artist.

Martyrdom of San Sebastiano

Another important stop to discover the whole art of the Divin Pittore is Fontignano, where in 1511 Perugino established his workshop to escape the plague. But the painter died because of the plague in 1523-1524, while he was working on a fresco depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds commissioned for the small Church of the Annunziata. That fresco then was finished by his students, and finally a Madonna with child, the last work he completed in 1522.
Perugino was the initiator of a new way of painting; the artist goes in constant search of landscapes of wider breath, admiring the example of previous Florentines such as Filippo Lippi, Domenico Veneziano and Beato Angelico. The Perugino proceeds towards a slow and gradual conquest of the natural. The harmony inherent in the landscape of Perugia was created by a mystical approach with nature and by an art that, rather than being based on the intellect and training of the eye, as happened in Florence, flowed from the heart and strength of feelings.[2] The Perugino thus marked the taste of an era.

[1] Emma Bianchi, “Petro penctore”: l’Adorazione dei magi e la confraternita di Santa Maria dei Bianchi di Città della Pieve, in Perugino e il paesaggio, Silvana Editoriale, 2004, pp. 119-128.⇑
[2] Silvia Blasio, Il paesaggio nella pittura di Pietro Perugino, in Perugino e il paesaggio, Silvana Editoriale, 2004, pp. 15-41.⇑

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Easter Cheese Bread

Giugno 25, 2020

Columns Food and Wine Recipes

Rita Boini

Ingredients:

500 g of flour
5 eggs
200 g of mixed cheese, possibly pecorino and Romanesco, half of which is grated and half into small pieces
50 g of lard
50 g of extra virgin olive oil
60 g of brewer’s yeast
7-8 pepper granules
salt
Oil or lard to grease the cake tin

Directions:

Place the pepper granules in a saucepan together with a little water and boil for 15 minutes, then leave to cool and strain. Mix the flour, the eggs, the lard, the oil, the cheese, the pepper-flavored water, a nice pinch of salt and the yeast, dissolved in a little warm water. Grease a tall cake tin, with the base narrower than the top, and fill it in half with the dough. Leave to rise until the cake has reached the edges of the pan (it will take about an hour – an hour and a half) then bake at about 160°. Cook for about an hour, raising to 180° towards the end of cooking. Remove from the oven and let cool before enjoying the cake, which can be kept for many days.

This is the modern version of the Easter Cheese Cake because it is baked in the oven, but it respects the traditional ingredients and shape. I owe it to Mrs. Carla Onorini di Magione, who incidentally, instead of mixing the pepper granules in the dough as the original recipe, flavored the cake with boiled pepper water. The pie – pizza in southern Umbria, crescia in Gubbio – with cheese, today is found all the year round in bakeries, but once it appeared on Umbrian canteens only during the Easter period and also on January 6th, Easter Day Epiphany which, according to popular tradition, is the first Easter of the year.

Courtesy of Calzetti & Mariucci.

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The holy Assisi in the rose windows of the churches

Giugno 22, 2020

Architecture Culture Tours

Giulia Venturini

The city of Assisi is crossed by a sense, almost tangible, of universality and openness to the outside world. The history of Assisi is an ancient history: the Asisium in ancient and powerful Rome, was the city of rich merchants, luxury villas and spas.

Basilica of San Francesco

Visiting Assisi means immersing yourself simultaneously in the history of the Roman and medieval ages but also entering the heart of spirituality and places where two young people changed the history of Christianity and that of art.

The ancient and monumental churches guide the faithful and pilgrims along their journeys, and the rose windows, the most evocative elements of the facades, enchant visitors thanks to simple plays of light.

The Basilica of San Francesco, a real architectural wonder of Italian history, represents the physical heritage of the Saint.

It was built in 1228, in his honor just two years after his death and canonization, on the initiative of Pope Gregory IX and friar Elia of Bombarone.

The basilica stands on the Colle dell’Inferno, the ancient name of the place, since in the medieval period it was the scene of executions. Since San Francesco was canonized, this place changed its name to Colle del Paradiso.

In fact, all around reigns peace and the joy that is perceived has an almost supernatural dimension. The large rose window of the basilica welcomes visitors not only inside the church, with its very high vaults and the famous cycle of Giotto on the life of San Francesco, but it is also the entrance to the crypt and the tomb of the Saint.

The rose window, with its 7.5 meters in diameter and 15 meters high, is the largest in central Italy. From the wheel of the large rose in fact a warm beam of light penetrates inside the basilica illuminating the nave. In addition, the rose window is surrounded by the image of the four cosmic elements and also functioned as a sundial.[1]

Basilica of Santa Chiara

A second sublime rose window is that present in the facade of the Basilica of Santa Chiara, symbol of the power and immensity of God. Compared to San Francesco, the rose window of Santa Chiara has a greater radial symmetry, formed by two perfect circles that widen towards the outer edge. “Oh woman, fear not, for happily you will give birth to a clear light that will enlighten the world”. The mother of the Saint, who went to pray in the cathedral of San Rufino, on the eve of childbirth, heard these words. The child was called Chiara and baptized in that same church.

The large rose window, almost to protect the entire basilica, seems to recall the name of the Saint, creating games of depth and colorful beams of light. The exterior of the facade is characterized by three large polygonal buttresses in the shape of large climbing arches, which reinforce the left side, the facade instead, is made of rows of local white and pink stone.

Cathedral of San Rufino

The three large rose windows of the church of San Pietro dominate the square in front of which stood an ancient Roman necropolis. The church, built by the Benedictines in the tenth century, has been altered several times until the final reconstruction that dates back to the thirteenth century.

The red stone facade of Mount Subasio, has a rectangular shape, originally culminated with a tympanum that was demolished after the earthquake of 1832. In the lower register three large entrance portals welcome the faithful, which correspond, in the second band, the three rosettes. The two bands of the facade are divided by a cornice with hanging arches. The interior of the church is divided into three naves: the central one is very high and without own windows, but is entirely illuminated with beams of light that penetrate from the central rose window.

Elaborate and ancient rosettes are present in one of the churches that represents one of the greatest masterpieces of Romanesque architecture in central Italy: the church of San Rufino. In fact, it overlooks a beautiful square, nerve center and meeting place of the people and feudal society of the time.

The pilasters divide the facade into three parts, emphasizing that even in the interior space, there are three naves. The facade is then divided into three orders, marked by a false porch and frames with blind and hanging arches.

Church of San Pietro

Everything in architecture refers to the number three: three are in fact the portals and lunettes above, three rose windows and three telamoni, the powerful male figures that support, on their shoulders, all the weight of the rose window. The beautiful rose window, large to represent all the people of Assisi, shows some characteristics decidedly special: composed of three turns of wheel is surrounded by a ring of foliage.

The first round, composed of round arches and small columns, is quite common, the second is absolutely extraordinary: a continuous and extremely dynamic floral pattern, with stylized calyxes and with a winding pattern of the petals. To complete the elaborate rose window is a third turn of wheel with arches of Islamic derivation.[2] On the sides are the four Evangelists with natural elements of the cosmos, emphasizing the concept of Christ light and center of the world.

[1]L. Lametti, V. Mazzasette, N. Nardelli, The rose window of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi.Luminous function and symbolic allusions, Gangemi Editore, 2012.⇑

[2] F. Santucci, The Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, Editore Silvana, 1999.⇑

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The Farecchiata

Giugno 18, 2020

Columns Food and Wine Recipes

la Redazione

Ingredients:

400 g of roveja flour
2 l of salted water
5 anchovy fillets in oil, plus others to decorate
2 cloves of garlic
extravirgin olive oil to taste

Directions:

Put the pan with the salted water on the fire. As soon as the water boils, pour the roveja flour and mix vigorously with a whisk to prevent lumps from forming. At a low heat, keep turning the polenta with a wooden spoon for about 40 minutes. While the Farecchiata is cooking, heat the extra virgin olive oil with the whole garlic in a non-stick pan; when they are golden brown, remove them and insert the anchovy fillets, letting them melt slowly over low heat. Once the polenta is cooked, remove it from the heat, pour it into the dishes and season with the flavored oil you have prepared; let it rest for a minute, then serve with a rolled anchovy in the center of the plate. Your Farecchiata di Roveja is finally ready to be enjoyed.
A tantalizing variant: to make your Farecchiata more crunchy, cut it into slices, fry it and serve it with an anchovy fillet.

Farecchiata, (or polenta with Roveja flour), is a typical polenta with a delicate and slightly bitter taste that is prepared in different areas of the Marche region, but especially in the Castelluccio di Norcia one, in Umbria. It is a dish that belongs to pastoral tradition: an important source of sustenance for the families of shepherds and farmers of the Sibillini Mountains. A very poor dish that in the past was served as a breakfast to the local shepherds. The main ingredient is Roveja, a small and tasty brownish legume, similar to chickpeas but with a stronger flavor. Also known as field pea, robiglio or corbello, roveja is an ancient legume, which risks disappearing due to the difficulties related to the impervious conditions of the territory and the morphology of the plant. Nowadays, in fact, it only survives in a limited area of Valnerina thanks to the efforts of some farmers who work in the locality of Preci (Cascia), where there is also an ancient water source called dei rovegliari. Extremely nutritious, with a high intake of proteins, phosphorus, carbohydrates and a reduced fat content, roveja is now a Slow Food Presidium.

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The secrets of Pinturicchio

Giugno 18, 2020

Art Culture

Giulia Venturini

Bernardino di Betto, known as Pinturicchio, was born in Perugia in 1454 by Benedetto di Biagio, in the neighborhood of Porta Sant’Angelo.[1] He was probably called Pinturicchio because of his tiny stature.

He was the heir to an important pictorial and miniaturist tradition, which has its precedents in Bartolomeo Caporali, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo and Benedetto Bonfigli. The Pinturicchio stood out as one of the architects of the great Renaissance season of rediscovery of classicism: in fact he copied the frescos of the Domus Aurea, and contributing to the spread of the grotesque.
He entered the Perugino’s workshop and collaborated with his teacher in Rome, between 1481 and 1482, creating two frescoes: the Baptism of Christ and the Circumcision of the sons of Moses in the Sistine Chapel.
In 1486 he executed the Stories of St. Bernardino that decorate the Bufalini Chapel in S. Maria in Ara Coeli. These frescoes were commissioned to the painter by messer Niccolò di Manno Bufalini, a concistorial lawyer, to recall the proximity between his family and the Baglioni of Perugia, thanks to S. Bernardino. In Rome he also came into contact with the painting of the Ghirlandaio and the Botticelli, who contributed to his artistic formation.
In the second half of the Fifteenth century, the artist made a small but delicious tempera on a table depicting the Madonna and Child and San Giovanni, preserved in the Duomo Museum in Città di Castello.

Madonna and Child and San Giovanni

The small table depicts Mary, Child Jesus, standing on the knees of her mother and Saint John the Baptist, who holds the inscription Ecce Agnus Dei. The three figures are bright on a broad background, with a composed and severe stylistic language.
The artist returned to Perugia on 14 February 1495, concluding, with the religious of the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli in Porta S. Pietro, the contract for the realization of the Polyptych of S. Maria dei Fossi, now in the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. The contract for the work has reached us and contains very detailed instructions about the realization, which was intended for the high altar for the church, called dei Fossi. The painter was at the time at the height of his success, favourite by Pope Alexander VI for whom he had just concluded the great undertaking of the decoration of the Borgia apartment.

Polyptych of S. Maria dei Fossi

The altarpiece is now composed of seven main panels; in the centre stands the Madonna with the child and Saint John, flanked by Saints Augustine and Jerome, dressed as a cardinal and with a model of the church in hand, perhaps the same Santa Maria degli Angeli. Above them two panels with the Announcing Angel and the Virgin announced. On the tree stands the dead Christ supported by two angels and the Dove of the Holy Spirit.
In 1497 the frescoes were painted for the decoration of the Eroli chapel in the Cathedral of Spoleto, portraying the Madonna and Child between San Giovanni Battista and Leonardo, immersed in a sweet lake landscape typical of the Umbrian school.
In 1501 Pinturicchio made another of his best works the chapel Baglioni in Santa Maria Maggiore in Spello. The decoration was commissioned by the Prior Troilo Baglioni. The company was the last important commission of the Pinturicchio in Umbria, before leaving for Rome and Siena.

Self-portrait

These frescoes bear the signature Bernardius Pictoricius Perusinus and represent on the walls: the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, Jesus among the doctors, in the sails instead the four Sibyls and a self-portrait.
The Piccolomini bookshop in Siena, built in 1502, is considered his absolute masterpiece: powerful chromaticism, taste of detail, great attention to the decorative aspect, characterize the intervention of Pinturicchio in the library built in 1495 by Cardinal Todeschini Piccolomini in honor of Enea Silvio Piccolomini.
The last documented work of the artist is the Madonna in Gloria among the Saints Gregory the Great and Benedict, for the Olivetans of the church of Santa Maria di Barbiano near San Giminiano.
It was Vasari, thanks to an anecdote, who recounted his last years: the painter had found accommodation at the Friars of San Francesco in Siena and asked insistently to remove from his cell a trunk, but during the move this broke, revealing its treasure: five hundred ducats of gold, which belonged to the friars, filling the painter with sadness until he died.[2]
The artist died on 11 December 1513 in Siena. He rested in the parish of SS. Vincenzo and Anastasio.

[1] Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti, a cura di G. Milanesi, III, Firenze 1878, pp. 493-531.⇑
[2] Giorgio Vasari, Vite de’più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti, edizione commentata del 1878, vol. III, pag. 503-505.⇑

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The Etruscan Well in Perugia

Giugno 18, 2020

Architecture Culture Tourism

Diego Brillini

An engineering masterpiece and monument-landmark of a civilisation which has been studied as much as it is mysterious: the Etruscan Well is an architectural wonder and live testament to the population which founded Perugia, as well as museum site known worldwide.

Etruscan Well

At no. 18 of the central Piazza Danti, a short walk from Piazza IV Novembre, the elegant open-air living room in town, well known due to the magnificent Fontana Maggiore, with Palazzo dei Priori and the cathedral of San Lorenzo around it there is an impressive structure dug into the underground rooms of Palazzo Sorbello, a stately home and headquarters of the Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation, a cultural association dedicated to the memory of Uguccione V Ranieri di Sorbello, a cosmopolitan intellectual, war hero, journalist and local history scholar. Following an intuition by Uguccione, around 1960, the first surveys were conducted on what he considered family property, to be studied and preserved; they confirmed that it was built by the Etruscans, something that had been forgotten despite continuing use by the local population over the centuries.
In the reception room, an introductory video constitutes the actual admission ticket to the wonders of Etruscan hydraulic engineering, presented using a basic approach, adding nothing to this spectacular natural site: the Etruscan Well is a millenary colossus, dating to the second half of the 3^rd century B. C. which reaches underground as far down as 37 metres below road level. The well is still working today (even though it is no longer used as a source of drinking water), having been fed by the same three underground springs for more than two thousand years.

The well belongs to a class of engineering works spread everywhere, with the same purpose, although not always with the same shapes that, in the specific case of this structure, take on considerable dimensions: from the various speleological surveys carried out over the years it has been ascertained have a total size of 424 m³ reaching up to 424,000 liters of water.
The structure consists of a cylindrical barrel whose largest point is reached at the level of the water collection tank, where it is 5.60 metres wide and 12 m tall. The upper section of this room is definitely one of the highlights of the visit: the structure here is covered by large travertine slabs extracted from the quarries in Ellera (8 km from Perugia), a construction material which was also used to build the monumental walls around the town.
Also the top cladding of the well, supported by large slabs placed transversally and surrounded by stone beams which are stuck together without using any mortar or lime and forming two trusses weighing 8 metric tons each, is made of travertine. This homogeneity of materials and construction techniques found between the well and the Etruscan walls of Perugia, has made it possible to hypothesize that this was carried out from the beginning as a public work.

The presence of grooves detected on the surface of the travertine blocks of the upper cover has left us to suppose that for the collection of the water a rather simple system had to be used initially such as the use of buckets tied to a rope. A central pulley system would have been adopted only later, with the realization of the curb that still indicates the well at street level. In 1768, an iron lattice was made to close the mouth of the curb, on which two noble coats of arms were placed, still in iron, relating to two of the noble families who owned Palazzo Sorbello: the Eugeni counts and the Bourbon di Sorbello marquises.
The Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation has been managing the Etruscan Well since July 2016 and – during this period – it has completed an important mission aimed at enhancing the tourism experience for the visitor by means of a restoration and upgrading project with a view to enhancing the narration and use of the facility, also thanks to a fruitful collaboration with other museums in town dedicated to Etruscan archaeology, for example the Museo del Capitolo in Perugia, a starting point for the discovery of Underground Perugia: a journey that leads us inside the architectural stratifications of the acropolis of ancient Perusna (the ancient name of Perugia).

Palazzo Sorbello

The history of Perugia has deep roots, as does the Etruscan well: an incredibly unique monument which reminds us of a distant age, still allowing us to soak in its atmosphere.

For information about opening days and hours, please refer to: www.pozzoetrusco.it
The Wikipedia page on the Etruscan Well has been updated: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzo_etrusco

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Pork cheek with sage and vinegar

Giugno 17, 2020

Columns Food and Wine Recipes

Rita Boini

Ingredients:

a few thin slices of fresh or dried pork cheek
a few sage leaves
a few tablespoons of white wine vinegar
salt
pepper

Directions:

Put the slices of bacon in a pan, let them lose the fat and throw it away. Put the slices of bacon in the pan together with the sage, after a minute or two add vinegar, if necessary adjust with salt and pepper and serve.

This preparation, almost in disuse, was typical of winter and was known throughout Umbria. In the area of Todi, sometimes people addes tomato. It was served for dinner, accompanied by some slices of bread.

Courtesy of Calzetti & Mariucci.

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The game of “Soap Bubbles”

Febbraio 4, 2020

Art Culture Events Tourism

Giulia Venturini

«Homo bulla est» (Erasmo da Rotterdam)

The motto of Erasmus of Rotterdam inspired by a sentence from Varrone, gave rise to the iconography of Homo bulla, widespread in the first half of the sixteenth century. The protagonists are puttos intent on blowing soap bubbles, unaware of being condemned a little more than the iridescent spheres produced in their game. The representations of Homo bulla are fully part of the category of Vanitas, didactic images in which the reference to fragility or evanescence, through elements such as cut flowers, crystals and soap bubbles, recalling the inevitability of death and the frailty of the earthly things. The Allegory of Jan Brueghel the Younger is very rich in this sense, in which many objects are depicted in the ephemeral joys of the senses.

Gunter Zint, Il ragazzo che vive nei pressi del muro, 1963.

The art of soap bubbles

The National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia, until 9 June 2019, faces this issue for the first time, traditionally related to the artistic genre of still life and vanitas. The exhibition, entitled Soap Bubbles. Forms of utopia between vanitas, art and science, curated by Michele Emmer, professor of Mathematics at the Sapienza University of Rome and Marco Pierini, director of the National Gallery of Umbria. The inspiration for the exhibition comes from a text by Michele Emmer, in which the interrelations with mathematics, painting, physics and architecture are explored.
«It’s a project that Emmer and I had in mind for a long time», says director Marco Pierini. «It was a great dream. A dream with many faces», adds Emmer. «It is difficult to find a “game” that has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, like soap bubbles». In fact, the exhibition presents itself as an interdisciplinary initiative that, parallel to the historical and artistic path, also tells of the birth of the scientific, physical and mathematical interest in perfect soap bubble models. Starting from a book by Isaac Newton, from the Oliveriana Library of Pesaro, in which the English physicist describes in detail the phenomena that are observed on the surfaces of the soap suds, to arrive at the current experiments through the aid of computer graphics. In fact, the review highlights the importance that bubbles have played in all contemporary science, and how these latest discoveries, in turn, continue to inspire contemporary artists and architects in their creations.

Gino Boccasile, manifesto Achille Banfi, 1937, Treviso, Museo nazionale Collezione Salce

The exhibition itinerary

The itinerary consists of around sixty works, loaned by the most important national and international institutions: the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Accademia Galleries in Venice, the National Gallery in London, the National Gallery in Washington and the Museum of Hermitage of St. Petersburg.

Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, La Lavandaia, 1730-1740, Museo dell’Ermitage, San Pietroburgo

The masterpieces cover a long period of time ranging from the sixteenth century with Hendrick Goltzius, passing through the seventeenth century, in which the puttos becomes more and more a contemporary child. You will have to wait for the eighteenth century to meet real genre scenes, in which the allegorical aspect almost tends to disappear, as in the young man portrayed by Fra Galgario. The presence of the bubble in nineteenth-century painting is not thinning out, important in historical Romanticism with Pelagio Palagi, then increasingly at the center of scenes of daily life or portraits; in fact Bubbles by John Everett Millais is famous, when the bubbles became the image of Pears soaps.In the twentieth century this theme is declined in an original way, opening up a new perspective: in 1964 Günter Zint decides to document in West Berlin the life of a child who, among the games of childhood, becomes a witness unaware of the dramas of history. Not even the first decades of the current century have managed to escape from soap bubbles, which become a true model for light architectures, such as the Watercube in Beijing.Symbol of the fragility and transience of human ambitions, soap bubbles have fascinated not only the generations of artists who were amazed by those plays of color that move on surfaces, for their luster and lightness, but continue to fascinate the visitors who walk through the blue halls of the National Gallery of Umbria.