The halls of one of the most important cultural institutions in the world will welcome the exhibition Arts of the Middle Ages. Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Umbria, curated by Marco Pierini, director of the National Gallery of Umbria and by Veruska Picchiarelli, curator of the museum's medieval art department, with the collaboration of Zoya Vladimirovna Kuptsova of the Hermitage Department of Western European Art. The exhibition will present about forty works conserved by the Perugia museum, chosen from paintings, sculptures and goldsmiths from central Italy (Umbria, Tuscany and Marche) dated between the end of the thirteenth century and the first decades of the fifteenth century.
These include some masterpieces by artists such as Master of San Francesco, Arnolfo di Cambio, Vigoroso da Siena, Duccio di Boninsegna, Giovanni Baronzio Besides Taddeo di Bartolo, Iacopo Salimbeni and Gentile da Fabriano, highly refined singers of that 'Autumn of the Middle Ages' which was preparing to welcome the innovations of the Renaissance.
The itinerary is also made up of objects of a religious nature, from the processional cross to the reredos, from the polyptych to the tabernacle for domestic devotion, particularly representative of the spirituality of the time, which are flanked by examples of precious artifacts used in courtly society, such as the ivory mirror box valve or the twin, a basin for cleaning hands present on the tables, adorned with gallant scenes that evoke the sophistication of that world.
The review also takes account of the civic commissions for the city of Perugia, the story of which is returned by sculptural elements conceived for the decoration of public works, such as the fountain in pedis audience by Arnolfo di Cambio and the portal of the Palazzo dei Priori.
The exceptional opportunity offered to the National Gallery of Umbria to temporarily transfer some of its masterpieces to the Hermitage, while the rearrangement works are underway, the conclusion of which is scheduled for the end of this year, has offered the starting point for carrying out new studies and research. Among the discoveries, we note the attribution of two panels to as many Rimini masters, Baronzio and Francesco da Rimini, the identification of the patronymic (the 'surname') of the Sienese painter Vigoroso Ranieri, hitherto indicated only with the first name, the recognition of Santa Marta (in place of Dorothea) in Andrea di Bartolo's table, the discovery of hitherto neglected inscriptions on the reredos of the Master of San Francesco.
The collaboration agreement signed in 2020 between the State Hermitage Museum, the National Gallery of Umbria, the Umbria Region, the Municipality of Perugia and the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia Foundation, with the collaboration of Ermitage Italia and the support of Villaggio Globale International, has produced a project for the promotion and enhancement of Umbrian culture and the territory that generated it at an international level. To this initiative – created with the support of the Italian Cultural Institute in St. Petersburg and with the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Moscow and the Italian Consulate General in St. Petersburg – an exhibition will follow which will be welcomed, in the autumn of 2022, by the halls of the Gallery, with a selection of works from the collection of Italian art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance of the Hermitage.
