From June 15 to November 7, thanks to the precious collaboration of the Vatican Museums, the triptych composed of the Madonna Enthroned with Child and Angels, currently housed in the Diocesan Museum of Spoleto, and the side compartments with the depictions of Saint Paula of Rome and Saint Eustochio, which escaped the fury of the 1703 earthquake, will be reunited and will be visible for the first time.
The exhibition, entitled Late gothic enchantment. The recomposed triptych of the Master of the Straus Madonna, is curated by Adele Breda, referent of the Department for Byzantine-Medieval Art of the Vatican Museums, by Stefania Nardicchi, Curator of the Diocesan Museum of Spoleto, and by Anna Pizzamano, PhD student in “History and Cultural Heritage of the Church” at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
On the occasion of the recent restoration of the two side compartments preserved in the Vatican Collection, bearing the images of two little-known saints, Paola of Rome and Eustochio, mother and daughter who lived at the time of St. Jerome (late fourth century), their study was deepened and an attempt was made to find the lost central compartment. The searches led to the Diocesan Museum, where a fragmented table representing a Madonna in throne with the Child between two angels has been identified. The painting, even if missing the lower part, has been recognized as the central part of the triptych. The work adorned in origin the altar of the church of Saint Maria near the castle of Abeto di Preci, from which the name of Maria Santissima di Piè di Castello.
The Madonna di Spoleto was transferred to the Vatican Museums’ Office of Scientific Researches applied to Cultural Heritage, where the various components were thoroughly examined: the wooden essence, the pigments, the engravings and the punches confirmed its full compatibility. With the intention of deepening the study of a painter of very high quality who is not sufficiently known, a later work by the same master was also selected for comparison, the Madonna Enthroned with Child between Two Angels, today kept in the Museum of Sacred Art and Popular Religiousness “Beato Angelico” in Vicchio del Mugello.
There are several reasons that led to this choice. These polyptychs are in fact made by one of the most refined and sought-after Florentine workshops of the time, and used for the liturgical decoration of chapels and parishes in the rural areas of Umbria and Tuscany. The survival of the only table with the Madonna, both in the case of Abeto di Preci and in that of Vicchio, attests, moreover, a devotion never interrupted and an affective and plurisecular bond with the territory, that has resisted also to the dispersion of the side compartments. Thanks to this juxtaposition it is also possible to guess the original dimensions of the Madonna in Spoleto, seriously damaged in the earthquake of 1703.
These works represent two different moments of the stylistic path of the Master of the Straus Madonna, active in Florence between 1385 and 1415, a painter who, from an initial neo-Giottism, slowly opened to the new international style, welcoming in part the style of Lorenzo Monaco and Gherardo Starnina, but always maintaining his original archaic style.
Title: Late Gothic Enchantment, The recomposed triptych of the Master of the Straus Madonna
Venue: Spoleto, Diocesan Museum
Period: 15 June -7 November 2021
Catalog: published by Quattroemme, Perugia
Hours: Every day from 11 to 18. Closed on Mondays.
Tickets: Euro 5,00; free of charge up to 6 years old and disabled people with accompanying person
Information:
Ph.+39 0577 286300 – duomospoleto@operalaboratori.com
www.spoletonorcia.it