A great century for a great exhibition in Umbria.

Masterpieces of the 14th century. The worksite of Giotto, Spoleto and the Apennines, curated by Vittoria Garibaldi and Alessandro Delpriori, will be held from 24 June to 4 November 2018 in the towns of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino.

The exhibition boasts an exhibition of about 70 gold-bottomed paintings on wood, polychrome wooden sculptures and miniatures, which tell the environmental wonder of the central Apennines and the historical, artistic, civil and socio-religious civilization in Italy in the early fourteenth century.

There are four exhibition venues: in Trevi the Museum of St. Francis; in Spoleto the Diocesan Museum – Basilica of St. Euphemia and the National Museum of the Duchy; in Montefalco the Museum Complex of St. Francis. At the Spazio Arte Valcasana in Scheggino it will be possible to experience a choral, exciting overview of the churches, hermitages and abbeys in Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Lazio where the artists influenced by Giotto worked between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, connected through organized itineraries that will allow you to discover enchanting places and works of art.

The exhibition, organized by Civita Mostre and Sistema Museo, is promoted by the municipalities of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino, the Polo Museale Umbria, the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Umbria, Umbria Region, The Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia and the Associazione Rocca Albornoziana of Spoleto, with the contribution of Gal Valle Umbra and Sibillini, ATI 3 Umbria, VUS COM Spa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto.

The success, in the green heart of Italy, of Giotto’s revolutionary lesson and of the amazing virtuosity of the Sienese leaders Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, will be told in the exhibition through a constellation of artists, often anonymous, who became interpreters of the deepest and truest soul of the Apennines, interpreting emotions of faith and sweetness, painted with an intense pictorial language, and a surprising technical teaching. It will be possible to see wonderful masterpieces preserved in museums and collections of great prestige, such as the Cini Foundation in Venice, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, the Alana Collection in Newark (USA).

Visitors to these exhibitions will experience the privilege of admiring works made visible for the first time to the general public. We remember the two amazing raredos exhibited in the representative apartment of His Holiness the Pope, both coming from Montefalco, restored for the occasion by the masterful laboratories of the Vatican Museums; or the extraordinary reunion of the Triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin by the Master of Cesi and the Crucifix with Christus triumphans, both created for the monastery of Santa Maria della Stella in Spoleto, now preserved in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris and the Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto. For the first time, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, they will come back together.

Visiting the exhibition sites, and the places in the territory, it will be possible to enter a medieval artist’s workshop, to understand the virtuous and feverish commitment in realizing gold funds, sculptures, miniatures, goldsmiths, frescoes, in a kaleidoscope of refined and original personalities who lived their point of reference in one of the artistic capitals of medieval Italy, the ducal city of Spoleto: the Master of Le Palazze the Master of St. Alò, the Master of San Felice di Giano, the Master of Cesi, the Master of San Ponziano, the Master of the Cross of Trevi, the Master of the Cross of Visso, the Master of Fossa.

An exhibition to get to know and be amazed.

The scientific committee of the exhibition is composed of: Lucia Arbace, Guido Cornini, Andrea De Marchi, Giovanni Luca Delogu, Marica Mercalli, Stefania Nardicchi, Antonio Paolucci, Marco Pierini, Mario Scalini, Lisa Zanni.

THE EXHIBITION VENUES IN SPOLETO

Diocesan Museum and Basilica of St. Euphemia

The Diocesan Museum of Spoleto preserves many works that testify the art of painting and wood carving in this area from the half of the thirteenth century until the fifties of the following century. The exhibition section, which features masterpieces by the Master of Cesi and the Master of San Felice di Giano, is the completion of the exhibition in the church of San Francesco in Trevi. Of particular importance are the Triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin by the Master of Cesi from the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris and the Antependium by the Master of San Felice di Giano from the National Gallery of Umbria. It will be possible to investigate in detail the relationship between wood carving and polychromy, so important for the 13th century Spoleto, in order to relate sculptors and painters who could be in the same workshop, if not match even in the same person.

Exhibition official website: www.capolavorideltrecento.it