Type:

Luoghi della cultura; Ente/Istituzione

Category:

Museums

Civic Art Gallery The Pinacoteca Civica is in the historical city center of Spello, in Piazza Matteotti. The Gallery has been housed in the Palazzo dei Canonici since 1994; this palace is a 16th century building adjacent to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. A visit to the Museum will put the visitor in contact with the town’s history through its precious evidence. The collection was put together in 1916, when the Prior of the Collegiata of Santa Maria Maggiore reunited the first group of works selected from the most significant that had been collected in Santa Maria Maggiore and the various oratories associated with it. Some items of value that had been previously acquired from the post-Italian Unification requisitions were added to this first batch. The current Museum tour—displayed over seven rooms—follows chronological and typological criteria that help visitors appreciate the intertwined relationship between Spello and other Umbrian artistic centers during the course of the centuries. Apart from the numerous paintings, antique textiles and liturgical items, of relevant interest is the 13th century Wooden Madonna—even if mutilated by the theft of the Child in 2008—the early 14th century Deposed Crucifix, the 1398 gilded silver Processional Cross of Paolo Vanni and the Madonna with Child attributed to Pinturicchio from Santa Maria Maggiore, where it is possible to visit the Cappella Bella—i.e. beautiful chapel—also frescoed by the same artist.