A great century for a great exhibition in Umbria. "Masterpieces of the Fourteenth Century. Giotto's Workshop, Spoleto and the Apennines," curated from Vittoria Garibaldi, Alessandro Delpriori and Bernardino Sperandio, runs from June 24 to Nov. 4, 2018 in the towns of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino.

The exhibition boasts the display of about 70 paintings to gold background on panel, polychrome wooden sculptures and miniatures, telling the story of the environmental wonder of the central Apennines and the historical-artistic, civic and socio-religious civilization in early 14th-century Italy. There are four exhibition venues: to Trevi the Museo di San Francesco; to Spoleto the Museo Diocesano - Basilica di Sant'Eufemia and the Museo Nazionale del Ducato; to Montefalco the Complesso Museale di San Francesco. At the Valcasana Art Space in Scheggino it will be possible to experience a choral, exciting look at the web of churches, parish churches, hermitages and abbeys in Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo and Lazio where these artists of Giotto's culture worked in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, connected through organized itineraries that will allow people to discover enchanting places and works of art.

The exhibition, organized from Civita Mostre and Sistema Museo, is sponsored by the municipalities ...of Trevi, Montefalco, Spoleto and Scheggino, the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell'Umbria, the Polo Museale dell'Umbria, the Region of Umbria, the Archdiocese of Spoleto-Norcia, with the contribution of Gal Valle Umbra e Sibillini.

The exhibition enjoys the prestigious patronage of the Vatican Museums and the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Italy.

Partners of the event are Rocca Albornoziana Association, ATI 3 Umbria, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto and VUS COM; supporters Banca Popolare di Spoleto and Fabiana Filippi company.

The success, in the green heart of Italy, of Giotto's revolutionary lesson and the astonishing virtuosity of the Sienese masters Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, is recounted in the exhibition through a constellation of artists, often anonymous, who made themselves interpreters of the deepest and truest soul of the Apennines, declining emotions of faith and gentleness, painted with an intense pictorial language, and an astonishing technical mastery. Until the wonder that comes from viewing masterpieces preserved in museums and collections of great prestige, such as the Cini Foundation in Venice, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, and the Alana Collection in Newark (USA).

Visitors to these exhibitions can experience the privilege of admiring works made visible to the general public for the first time. Recall the two astonishing dossals on display in the reception apartment of His Holiness the Pontiff, both from from Montefalco, restored for the occasion by the masterful workshops of the Vatican Museums; or the extraordinary rapprochement of the Triptych with the Coronation of the Virgin by the Master of Cesi and the Crucifix with Christus triumphans both painted for the monastery of Santa Maria della Stella in Spoleto, now separated between the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris and the Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto. For the first time since the early 19th century, they are back together.

Visiting the exhibition venues, and the places in the territory, it is possible to enter a medieval artist´s workshop, to understand the virtuous and feverish efforts in making gold backgrounds, sculptures, miniatures, goldsmithing, 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 Maestro delle Palazze, the Maestro di Sant´Alò, the Maestro di San Felice di Giano, the Maestro di Cesi, the Maestro di San Ponziano, the Maestro della Croce di Trevi, the Maestro della Croce di Visso, and the Maestro di Fossa.

An exhibition to learn and wonder.

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

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THE EXHIBITION VENUES

Montefalco, Museum Complex of San Francesco

Return to Montefalco three very important 14th-century works, of which the town was deprived by the Napoleonic spoliations and the dispersal of the movable heritage that followed: the large dossal that was on the high altar of the Church of San Francesco, opera by the Maestro di Fossa, as splendid as a'opera Simone Martini; the panel for the altar of the Chapel of Santa Croce in the Church of Santa Chiara in Montefalco, opera extreme of the most Giottesque of the Spoleto painters, the Maestro di Cesi; and the processional banner with the Passion of Christ, also originally in the Church of San Francesco to Montefalco. The exhibition is an opportunity to reconstruct, in a virtuoso operation, the original contexts and give the visitor an account of the extraordinary 14th-century season experienced by the town.

Spoleto, Diocesan Museum and Basilica of St. Euphemia

The Diocesan Museum in Spoleto preserves many works testifying to painting and wooden sculpture in this area from the mid-13th century until the 1950s. The exhibition section, which displays masterpieces by the Master of Cesi and the Master of San Felice di Giano, complements the display in the church of San Francesco to Trevi. Of particular importance are the "Triptych with Coronation of the Virgin" by the Master of Cesi from the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris and the Paliotto by the Master of San Felice di Giano from the National Gallery of Umbria. The relationship between wooden sculpture and polychromy, so important for the fourteenth century in Spoleto, will be investigated in a circumstantial way, so from relate sculptors and painters who might have been in the same workshop, if not even matching the same person.

Spoleto, Rocca Albornoz - National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto

The section presents the antecedent of fourteenth-century Spoleto painting, before Giotto´s revolution, preceded by the painters present in the Assisi site at the time of Cimabue´s arrival. In particular, the Master of the Palazze, who has his cultural roots in the Spoleto tradition and at the same time represents the moment of generational change between the painters of the thirteenth century and those who turned art "from Greek to Latin." The anonymous artist left on the walls of the church of Santa Maria Inter Angelos or of the Palazze, located on the slopes of Monteluco, a mural cycle of sacred subject of particular interest, made at the end of the 13th century. Bruno Toscano emphasized its characters with a strong Cimabuesque accent and linked their chronology with the presence in Assisi of the Florentine painter, which is, however, not supported from certain dates, but on the eve of Giotto´s arrival. Around 1920 most of the frescoes were detached and, between 1924 and 1931, some of them were purchased from five American museums (Museum of Fine Arts to Boston, Glencairn Museum to Bryn Athyn, Fogg Art Musem of Harvard University to Cambridge, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford and Worcester Art Museum). In 1964, one of the surviving scenes was detached, and five pieces of the frescoes that remained in situ flowed into the National Museum of the Duchy. The project involves the virtual recomposition to life-size of the placement of the frescoes in one of the halls of the Rocca, through a graphic layout and black-and-white images of the frescoes, now preserved in American museums.

Trevi, Museum of St. Francis

In the Church of St. Francis, adjacent to the Pinacoteca Comunale, is preserved a splendid and gigantic shaped cross datable to around 1317. It is an 'opera extraordinary for its preservation and quality, painted from one of the major protagonists of that season, the Master of the Cross of Trevi (named after his opera most representative), the same beloved from Roberto Longhi who had baptized him as Master of 1310. The latter undoubtedly participated in the Assisi decoration and was probably active as early as the end of the 13th century, precisely parallel to Giotto's presence in Umbria. L'opera of Trevi is symptomatic of that moment, it has within it all the strength of the Tuscan painter, but also the local expressiveness, the ability to speak to the viewer, the consciousness of a direct message to those who looked at it. To go to study the Master of the Cross of Trevi and the painters and wood sculptors (which in some cases may match each other), active to Spoleto and its environs at the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the following century, means to reconstruct for the first time a torn fabric and to great features lost, but of exceptional quality. It means being able to revise a new and for that territory strongly identifiable artistic landscape.

The same venue will display the corpus of works by the Maestro di Fossa, a very high personality capable of moving to valley of Giotto culture, but grafted with the grace of Simone Martini in perfect parallel with Puccio Capanna. A true and great artist of Spoleto in the mid-14th century, the Maestro di Fossa is a beacon for all art to follow through to the 15th century. The whole unfolding of local painting is based on his teaching, from the possible Bartolo of Spoleto, the so-called Master of the Calvaries, to the beginnings of Giovanni di Corraduccio.

Scheggino, Valcasana Art Space

At the Valcasana Art Space in Scheggino, it will be possible to have complete documentation of the itineraries and information about the places to visit. to Scheggino, in addition, will be presented some fragments of the frescoes and the right rose window of the Abbey of San Salvatore to Campi di Norcia, a jewel of Romanesque art severely damaged by the earthquake, currently the subject of a challenging recovery and restoration of the surviving frescoes, curated by the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Umbria and the Superior Institute for Conservation and Restoration.

TERRITORIAL ENHANCEMENT

The very subject of the exhibition, dedicated a season of artistic renaissance of which Umbria was a protagonist in Italy, and whose testimonies have been severely compromised by the recent seismic events, deserves special attention in terms of study, and cultural and tourist rediscovery. The itineraries, organized and suggested in the area, will allow visitors to learn about a precious and unrepeatable heritage, even if important testimonies of this heritage will not be visible to because of the damage suffered by the earthquake.

Starting from the Valcasana Art Space in Scheggino, the itineraries will involve as many as four regions: Umbria, Marche, Lazio and Abruzzo. Twenty-nine municipalities are involved, 19 of which are in Umbria, with 72 churches and more than one hundred works and pictorial cycles: the entire Valnerina valley is involved, but also the Valle Umbra, Folignate and Spoletino, Nocera Umbra, Fossato di Vico and some areas of Ternano, the province of Macerata, the Reatino area, and L'Aquila and its surroundings.

The places involved in the itineraries in the area are:

Acquasparta (TR), Church of San Francesco

Camerino (MC), Diocesan Museum

Campello sul Clitunno (PG), loc. Campello Alto, Monastery of the Barnabites, loc. Lenano, Church of San Lorenzo, Hermitage of St. Anthony

Castel Castagna (TE), loc. Ronzano, Abbey of Santa Maria

Castel Ritaldi (PG), loc. Colle del Marchese, Church of the Madonna della Selvetta

Castelsantangelo sul Nera (MC), Church of Santa Maria di Vallinfante, Church of San Martino dei Gualdesi

Cerreto di Spoleto (PG), Church of Santa Maria dell'Annunziata, loc. Borgo Cerreto, Church of San Francesco or San Lorenzo, loc. Ponte Pieve di Santa Maria

Cesi (TR), Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Ferentillo (TR), Abbey of San Pietro in Valle

Foligno (PG), Cathedral of San Feliciano, Diocesan Museum, Church of San Nicolò di Guesia, loc. Pale, Hermitage of Santa Maria di Giacobbe.

L'Aquila, National Museum of Abruzzo, Church of San Biagio, loc. Fossa, Church Santa Maria ad Cryptas

Leonessa (RI), Convent of San Giovanni

Montefalco (PG), Church of Santa Chiara, Chapel of Santa Croce, Church of Sant'Agostino, loc. Turrita, Church of Santa Maria

Monteleone di Spoleto (PG), Church of San Francesco

Nocera Umbra (PG), loc. Case Basse, Church of San Giovenale

Norcia (PG), Church of St. Augustine, Church of the Crucifix, Church of St. Francis, loc. Campi, Church of St. Savior, loc. Forsivo, Church of St. James, loc. Valcaldara, Church of St. John, loc. Legogne, Church of St. Mary

Preci (PG), Church of Santa Maria della Pietà, loc. Castelvecchio, Church of Madonna della Cona, loc. Poggio di Croce, Church of San Bartolomeo

Rieti, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Chiesa Nuova, loc. Posta, Convent of San Francesco

Sant'Anatolia di Narco (PG), loc. Caso, Church of Santa Cristina, Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Scurcola Marsicana (AQ), Shrine of Victory

Sefro (MC), loc. Agolla, Church of San Tossano

Sellano (PG), loc. Orsano, Church of Santa Maria Assunta

Spoleto (PG), Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, Church and Monastery of Santa Maria inter Angelos, known as the Palazze, Church of San Domenico, Church of San Gregorio Maggiore, National Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto, Church of San Paolo inter vineas, Church of San Sabino, Monastery Santa Maria della Stella, Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia, Church of San Ponziano, Church of San Sabino, Palazzo dei Canonici, Bishop's Palace, Church of the Annunziata, loc. La Costa, Hermitage of St. Jerome loc. Morro parish church.

Sulmona (AQ), Church of San Francesco della Scarpa

Tolentino (MC), Shrine of St. Nicholas

Trevi (PG), Church of St. Francis, Church of St. Nicholas, Church of St. Catherine, Church of St. Mary of Pietrarossa, Church of St. Peter to Pettine, former Monastery of Santa Croce

Ussita (MC), Collegiate Church of Santa Maria

Vallo di Nera (PG), Church of St. Mary, Church of St. Catherine, Church of St. John

Visso (MC), Collegiate Church of Santa Maria

**HORARIES**

Montefalco, San Francesco Museum Complex June-August daily at 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; September and October daily at 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; November from Wednesday to Sunday at 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m./ 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Open August 15 and November 1, 2018. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.

**Spoleto, Diocesan Museum - Basilica of St. Euphemia **all days at 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. / 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Open August 15 and November 1, 2018. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.

**Spoleto, Rocca Albornoz - National Museum of the Duchy **June-September and through October 29 Tuesday through Sunday at 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., Monday at 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.; October 30 through November 4 Tuesday through Sunday at 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday closed. Open August 15 and November 1, 2018. Last admission 45 minutes before closing.

Trevi, Museum of St. Francis June and July Tuesday to Sunday at 10.30-13 / 14.30-18, closed Monday; August daily at 10.30-13 / 15-19; September Tuesday to Sunday at 10.30-13 / 14.30-18, closed Monday; October Thursday to Sunday at 10.30-13 / 14.30-17, closed Monday to Wednesday; November friday to Sunday at 10.30-13 / 14.30-17, closed Monday to Thursday. Open August 15 and November 1, 2018. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.

Scheggino, Valcasana Art Space Monday through Thursday at 15-19; friday, Saturday and Sunday at 10-13 / 15-19.