Raphael's Altar-Piece Patrons in Città di Castello Author(s): Tom Henry Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 144, No. 1190, (May, 2002), pp. 268-278 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/889454 Accessed: 06/05/2008 05:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bmpl. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We enable the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org TOM HENRY Raphael's altar-piece patrons in Citta di Castello* RAPHAEL'S earliest documented activity as a painter was in ture from the city - Signorelli painted the Martyrdomof St Citta di Castello, where he painted three altar-pieces and a Sebastian for Tommaso Brozzi's chapel in S. Domenico confraternity banner. Investigation of the individuals who (Fig.7), further discussed below.8 This appears to have been commissioned the altar-pieces sheds new light on Raphael's Signorelli's last commission in Citta di Castello for twenty work in the city and reveals that the artist's private patrons years, as he was lured away by prestigious fresco commissions there formed a close-knit coterie whose commissions should at Monteolive to Maggiore and Orvieto. His departure left be seen as part of the extensive renovation of chapels in the something of an artistic vacuum, soon to be filled by the city's churches in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth cen- young Raphael. turies. The account of Raphael's activity in Citta di Castello that Citta di Castello is a small city in the upper Tiber valley,' appears in Vasari's Lives, with its perceptive comments on fifteen miles south of Borgo Sansepolcro, with good access by the young artist's stylistic development, has been the corner- road to Florence, Urbino and Perugia, thirty-five miles to the stone for all subsequent discussions, but Vasari provides rela- south (Fig.1). In this period it was part of the Papal States, tively little detailed information. He mentions the three but was effectively ruled by the Vitelli family and their asso- altar-pieces painted for S. Agostino, S. Domenico and S. ciates. Documentation for the period c. 1485-1505 gives evi- Francesco in such a way that two of the three can be secure- dence of a high level of artistic patronage in the city with a ly identified, but does not identify their patrons or give their concerted programme of altar renewal. For most of the 1490s dates.9 He does not refer at all to the double-sided banner the local artistic scene was dominated by the presence of depicting the Triniy with Sts Sebastianand Roch and The Creation Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), who painted altar-pieces for of Eve,'0nor does he offer any explanation of how the artist many of the same churches as Raphael and whose patrons came to the attention of the citizens of Citta di Castello were closely linked to his. Signorelli was first documented in (although he does add the interesting, and verifiable, infor- Citta di Castello in 1486,2 and was granted local citizenship mation that the artist came to the city 'conalcuni amici suoi'). in 1488 while painting a processional banner (now lost) for Vasari's account has been supplemented by information the most important local confraternity, S. Maria della Pieta.3 from the pictures themselves and their frames, and by the He subsequently painted portraits of three members of the researches of various scholars, especially Giovanni Magheri- ruling family, and an unpublished letter of 16th December ni Graziani, who identified the patrons of Raphael's three 1498 demonstrates his intimacy with the Vitelli and with the altar-pieces, and made a first attempt to reconstruct their political elite of Citta di Castello.4 Signorelli also painted five biographies." The two documents he found for the altar- altar-pieces for the city between 1493 and 1498: the high piece that Raphael painted for Andrea Baronci in S. Agosti- altar-pieces of S. Maria dei Servi and S. Agostino (the latter no (1500-01) have been republished on various occasions,12 now in the Louvre) for which he was paid two hundred and but, with the exception of a small study of Baronci,'3 there has 150 florins in 1493 and 1494 respectively,5 and other altar- been no attempt until now to investigate the links between pieces in S. Agostino (for Luca Feriani's chapel, probably the Raphael's various patrons. Nativitynow in Naples),6 and in S. Francesco (the Nativitynow The documents for the Baronci painting, Raphael's first in the National Gallery, London, apparently for the Tiberti altar-piece commission in Citta di Castello, remains the only family, 1496).7 In 1497-98 - immediately prior to his depar- direct archival evidence for his activity in the city. In Decem- *Forthe great kindnessesafforded to me in Citta di Castello, I would like to thank T. HENRY and L. KANTER: Luca Signorelli.The CompletePaintings, London [2002], cat. Anna Maria Traversini,Alba Ghelli, Corrado Rosini, Don Paolo Schivo, Olita nos.42-44. Franceschini,Donal Cooper and the lateJoyce Plesters.For opportunities to discuss 'The documents for these commissionsare transcribedin HENRY 1996, pp.422-29 this material,I am gratefulto Nicholas Penny,Carol Plazzotta,Maureen Banker and and 437-39 (and see pp. 145-62). Lee Hendrix. I would also like to thank David Steel andJose Luis Porfiriofor infor- 6See HENRY and KANTER,op. cit. at note 4 above, no.45. mation about Raphael's panels in Raleigh and Lisbon. The Archivio Storico, 7Ibid.,no.51. ArchivioNotarile and ArchivioVescovile in Citta di Castello are hereafterreferred 'See HENRY1996, pp. 173-81 and HENRYand KANTER,op. cit. at note 4 above, no.55. to in these notes as CDCAS, CDCAN and CDCAV. 9G. VASARI:Le Vitede'pizu eccellentipittori, scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 1568, 'Cittadi Castellomay well be representedin the backgroundof the MondCruciixion, ed. R. BETTARINIand P. BAROCCHI,Florence [1976], IV,pp. 158-59. The substantive as first suggested in G. MAGHERINIGRAZIANI: L'Arte a Citta di Castello,Citta di Castello informationis unchangedbetween the two editions. [1897], p.237. '"Thisbanner, probably Raphael's first work for the city,is firstmentioned in the con- 2Thedetached and fragmentaryfresco of the Virginand Child enthroned with Sts Paul and fraternitychurch of S. Trinitain 1627 (A. coNTI: Fiorivaghi delle vite de'Santi e Beatidella Jeromein the PinacotecaComunale, Citta di Castello,is usuallyaccepted as a docu- Chiesae reliquiedella Citta di Castello,Citta di Castello [1627], p. 179). For the painting, mented and dated work by Signorelliof 1474, but he is not in fact named in the which is now in the Pinacoteca Comunale, see A. MARABOTTINI,in F.F. MANCINI,ed.: contemporarydocuments; see T. HENRY: 'Signorelli e Perugino',Atti del Convegno PinacotecaComunale di Cittadi Castello:Dipinti, Perugia [1989], pp. 170-72. internazionalesu Pietro Vannucci detto il Perugino,Perugia 25-28.10.2000, Perugia, 2003, "MAGHERINI GRAZIANI, op. cit. at note 1 above, pp.236-37, and idem: 'Documenti forthcoming. inediti relativial "San Niccolo da Tolentino"e allo "Sposalizio"di Raffaello',Bol- 3The documents for this processionalbanner and Signorelli'sreceipt of local citi- lettinodella Regia Deputazione di StoriaPatriaper l'Umbria, XIV [1908], pp.83-95. zenship are transcribedin T. HENRY: TheCareer of LucaSignorelli in the1490s, unpub- "CDCAN, 48.8, Gentile di Ser Giovanni Buratti,fols.94v and 211 (firstpublished lished doctoral dissertation,University of London, 1996 (hereafterreferred to as by MAGHERINIGRAZIANI, loc.cit. at note 11 above, and again in v. GOLZIO:Raffaello nei HENRY1996), pp.396 and 400-04. documenti,nelle testimonianze dei contemporanei e nella letteratura del suo secolo, Vatican City 4Luca Signorelli to Corrado Salimbeni, 16th December 1498 (Pierpont Morgan [1936], pp.7-8). Library,New York,MS MA 4261, gift of Mrs Landon K. Thorne, Jr, 1985). I will 3E. MERCATI:Andrea Baronci egli altricommittenti tifernati di Raffaello.Con documenti inediti, discuss this letter (the text of which can be found in HENRY1996, pp.458-59) in a Citta di Castello [1994]. forthcomingarticle in PagineAltotiberine. For Signorelli'sportraits of the Vitelli, see 268 . 1 . RAPHAEL S ALTAR-PIECE PATRONS IN CITTi DI CASTELLO 1. Map of Citta di Castello by FilippoTiti. c. 1675(?).Engraving. (Biblioteca Comunale, Citta di Castello).North is at bottom right.The churcheswhich housed worksby Raphael are nos. 11 (S. Agostino), 13 (S. Domenico), 14 (S. Francesco)and 43 (S. Trinita). ber 1500Andrea Baronci commissioned an altar-piecefrom in 1505for an unidentifiedpatron.l6 This argumentis based Raphaeland another painter, Evangelista di Piandi Meleto, on seventeenth-and earlyeighteenth-century descriptions for his chapelin the churchof S. Agostino.The two artists of the Coronation, whichsometimes state that the picturewas were to receivethirty-three ducats, a smallsum compared paintedin 1505,together with some residualdifficulties in with the fees paid to Signorelliin the precedingyears, but connectingBaronci to the chapel of St Nicholas,which one commensuratewith their reputationand experience.