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Santa Maria Novella in Florence gives its name to the train station that leads to Perugia (Perusa, in Spanish). Nearby is the magnificent basilica of the same name, the first built by the Dominicans Sixtus and Ristoro in the 13th century.
Masaccio must always be remembered as a pioneer of perspective in Giotto's The Trinity and the Crucified Christ on panel, which seems to float in the church, one of the most beautiful in Florence.
My friend Lucía Corsi, an art critic, recommended that I visit Perugia and follow in the footsteps of Perugino and Pinturriccio and the Palace of the Priors, with the Gallery of Fine Arts. She told me about the Cathedral of San Lorenzo and the University, one of the oldest in Europe.
Perugia, capital of the Umbria region, was an important Etruscan city in the 4th and 5th centuries BC. C, being later Romanized (295 BC). Christianity was introduced in the 4th century.
Umbria has beautiful cities like Foligno, Spoletto, Citta di Castello, Gubbio, Orvieto, Todi and Nursia and Assisi, world famous.
The Hotel Fortuna is in the upper part of the city. The taxi winds along beautiful and steep slopes. It looks like a fortress city whose beauty immediately seduces.
The hotel is very close to the Corso Pietro Vanuccio (Perugino's first name) and the Palace of the Priors and the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. The receptionist, with whom I chat about art friendly, tells me that the hotel dates back to 1300 and that I can have breakfast in the 16th century medieval room. She walks me to the hotel library and recommends that I visit the rooftop garden and not forget the National Gallery.
In the hotel library I have had access to a beautiful book, Las florecillas de San Francisco, published in Barcelona in 1923 and with the bookplate from Librería Porter on Canuda Street, edited by José Vilamala on the occasion of the 7th centenary of the printing of The Wounds. There are magnificent illustrations by Segrelles.
The city preserves numerous ancient remains, including the walls and some of the gates, such as the Arch of Augustus and the Marzia Gate.
There are also Etruscan remains, such as the tombs, among which the hypogeum of the volumnios and the funerary cippus of Perugia stand out, which contains a hundred Etruscan words engraved in trabertine stone in 42 lines. The Fontana Maggiore (1275-1278), by Nicolo i Giovanni Pisano, is considered one of the most beautiful in all of Italy.
The Palace of the Priors is located in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, also called Plaza del 4 de Noviembre, the center of civil and religious power.
The National Gallery is on the upper levels of the Palace. The native artist Pietro Vanucci, called El Perugino, shines with his own light. It contains more than 3,000 works.
In 1918, the art gallery was nationalized and renamed the Pietro Vannucci Gallery. From that moment on, the collection continued to grow until it became one of the first in Italy.
The collection is now organized according to a chronological scheme and by schools. It welcomes artists such as Gentile Da Fabriano, Beato Angelico, Arnolfo di Cambio, Piero della Francesca.
He pays special attention to the artists of the region, such as Bartolomeo Caporali, Benedetto Bonfigli, Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Pietro Vannucci (Il Perugino) or Bernardino di Betto di Biagio (Pinturicchio).
On the first floor there are works by Juan Setreppers and Dono Doni, Juan Bautista Lombardelli and Pinturricchio.
The Virgin and Child by Duccio di Bounirey and sculptures by Aranoldo di Cambio illustrate the medieval section.
In the late-Gothic part, the polyptych by Bicci di Lorenzo and the table by Gentile by Fabriano shine. Piero Della Francisca and the Blessed Angelico are located in the first Tuscan Renaissance.
Perugino is undoubtedly one of the most important expressions of Umbrian painting. Pietro Vannucci trained in the early years in Perugia, then continued his studies in Florence, training together with Piero della Francesca and Verrocchio, later.
After carrying out some works in Perugia, some in the Palace of the Priors, he acquired a certain fame that allowed him to be hired by the Pope for some works, including the Sistine Chapel (handing over the keys of Saint Peter, 1481), until he became the most influential painter of the late 15th century.
Many of his works are preserved in the Gallery, among which the most valuable are: Saint Bernardino curing the daughter of Giovanni Antonio Petrazio da Rieti of an ulcer, dated 1473 (part of the eight tablets to compose the niche of Saint Bernardino), Virgin of the brotherhood of the Consolation of the Dead Christ, the Tezi Altarpiece, The Flag of Justice and the Polyptych of Saint Augustine.
It is said of Perugino that his art is made of harmonies and silences, of sweetly faded colors, of carefully studied perspectives, of figures full of delicate grace and sweet melancholy, of ideal balance. The city remembers him well 500 years after his death (1446-1523).
Pinturicchio was born in Perugia in 1454 and died in Siena in 1513. He was influenced by many Perugian masters, especially Bartolomeo Caporali. Over the years he was a student and frequent collaborator of Perugino, helping on some of the most famous works, including the tablets in the San Bernardino niche and others in the Sistine Chapel.
Inside the National Gallery of Umbria the altarpiece of Saint Mary of the Fossa is preserved. A great work of his was the decoration of the Piccolomini library in Siena.
The Cathedral of San Lorenzo dates back to the 15th century. In addition to the title of Saint Lawrence, he also took that of Saint Herculanus, the bishop "defensor civitatis", who was martyred by the Gothic king Tofila.
The church has three naves of the same height with an incomplete façade, not covered in marble. Bernardino of Siena preached in the Renaissance-style pulpit.
There is a beautiful Descent by Federico Borocci. In the Sacristy, frescoes by Juan Antonio Pandolfi. In the center of the vault the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence is represented. In the cathedral museum there are beautiful codices. Among the paintings is a splendid altarpiece by Lucca Signorelli.
I see evangelists from the 6th to 9th centuries, biblical commentaries from the 20th century. XI, a Maastrich Breviary. A missal from 1200 from San Juan de Acri and mined by a Venetian artist.
The College of Merchandise and the College of Change have beautiful works by Perugino, with Prudence and Justice with characters from the Greco-Roman world.
The palace of the Old University has the privilege that Pope Clement V granted Peruggia the Studium Generale. Founded in 1266, it is the second university in Italy, after Bologna.
The Academy of Fine Arts - Pietro Vanucci - contains 500 pieces by artists and a group by Antonio Canova with the Three Graces and paintings by Peruvian artists.
The churches of Peruggia are a fascinating spectacle dotting the beautiful mountainous geography of the city: Saint Francis of Prato, Oratory of San Bernardino, San Escolano, Saint Peter, Saint Dominic, Saint Juliana, Saint Michael the Archangel, Convent of Monteferiato, Saint Mary New , Santa María de Monteluce.
I say goodbye to the city under the Etruscan arch of Augustus, one of the eight gates of the city whose walls are 2.7 km long. Impressive symbol of Perugia and its Etruscan roots.
