The most famous painter from Fabriano is, of course, Gentile da Fabriano (ca. 1370-1427). Gentile’s talent and fame were so big that Pope Martinus V (1417-1431) summoned him to Rome to paint frescoes in the cathedral of San Giovanni in Laterano. In 1927, five hundred years after his death, he was granted a monument in his place of birth, a plaque on the Palazzo del Podestà made by the sculptor Giuseppe Tonnini (1875-1954). It is a bit of a pity that Gentile does not seem to have left any work in Fabriano itself. Not a single church in the town has a painting or fresco made by him, and the same is regretfully the case in the Pinacoteca Civica Bruno Molajoli. Fortunately, visitors can admire many other works of art in this small museum, both paintings and sculptures. The Pinacoteca Civica is housed in the former hospital of Santa Maria del Buon Gesù, of which the construction began in 1456. In 1994 the museum was opened and named after Bruno Molajoli (1905-1985), a well-known art historian who was born in Fabriano.
Early works
The museum has just a few rooms. In the first we find the oldest works, which date back to the thirteenth century. Many of the works are detached frescoes that come from the former Augustinian convent of Sant’Agostino and that are attributed to the mysterious Maestro di Sant’Agostino. One of the frescoes shows us how Saint Augustinus of Hippo (354-430) gives his famous Rule to a group of hermits. Just one work in the room has a maker whose real name is known to us, i.e. the crucifix that was painted and signed by Rinaldo (or Rainaldetto) di Ranuccio from Spoleto.
First room of the museum.
In the next room, the influence of the great Florentine master Giotto on painting in Fabriano becomes clear. We for instance see this influence in a large detached fresco of the Crucifixion, painted in 1345 and originally in the abbey of San Biagio in Caprile. It is attributed to the Maestro di Campodonico, who also left behind some work in Fabriano itself.
Allegretto Nuzi
There is an unproven theory that the Maestro di Campodonico was the teacher of Allegretto Nuzi (ca. 1315-1373), a painter who was probably born in Fabriano and, together with his sizeable group of assistants, was responsible for important works in many of the churches of the town. A fair number of these works can now be admired in the Pinacoteca Civica. One of these works is a magnificent triptych of Saint Augustinus with Saints Nicholas of Tolentino and Stephen. It comes from the sacristy of the aforementioned convent of Sant’Agostino. The work was originally not a triptych at all; it is composed of three side panels from a polyptych that have been glued together. If this is a similar construction as the one I have previously seen in Florence, then the centre piece must have featured a Madonna and Child. The details of the triptych are truly marvellous. Note for instance the patterns on Saint Stephen’s robe or on Saint Augustinus’ mantle. The text in the latter’s book is perfectly legible. It is the Rule of Saint Augustine: “Ante omnia, fratres kiii [i.e. carissimi] diligatur Deus deinde ac proximus”, or “First of all, most beloved brothers, God shall be loved, thereafter the neighbour”.
Just as beautiful – and now fully intact – is a polyptych by Nuzi with the Madonna and Child flanked by Saints Mary Magdalene, John the Evangelist, Bartholomew and Venantius of Camerino. I assume that the presence of the latter, a rather obscure fifteen-year-old martyr from the reign of the Roman emperor Decius (249-251), was the main reason for the museum to suggest that the Duomo or cathedral of San Venanzio was the original location of the work. Admittedly the museum does add a question mark to the information about the provenance of the polyptych. Apparently they are not one hundred percent sure. A final work by Nuzi that warrants our attention is a polyptych of the Madonna and Child and Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Franciscus of Assisi, Martin of Tours and Lucia of Syracuse. In the cusps we see four Franciscan saints, and the work was originally in the church of San Francesco in Apiro, 18 kilometres east of Fabriano. The details of this polyptych are once again quite special. We for instance see how Saint Martin shares his cloak with a beggar, although the saint actually appears to be stabbing the poor man. Another detail is that the painter signed and dated (1366) the work on the base of the throne.
Polyptych by Allegretto Nuzi.
Polyptych by Allegretto Nuzi.
Later works
After passing by Nuzi’s student Francescuccio di Cecco Ghissi (died 1395), we enter the fifteenth century, a time when the aforementioned Gentile da Fabriano becomes the most important representative of so-called International Gothic. I already mentioned that the museum does not possess any of his works, but it does have work by Antonio da Fabriano, a painter who must have been several decades younger and was active between 1448 and 1482. His beautiful and very colourful Death of the Virgin (Dormitio Virginis) comes from the local church of San Niccolò. A remarkable detail is that Saint Peter – I assume it is him – has been depicted with the tiara of a pope. The work is also a Madonna della Cintola, a Madonna of the Belt. Above we see how the Virgin is taken up to heaven while simultaneously handing her belt to Saint Thomas the Apostle. This belt is now said to be kept in the cathedral of Prato.
Antonio da Fabriano lived and worked at a time when the arts in Fabriano had been past their prime for a while. Between 1378 and 1435 the de facto rulers of the town had been members of the Chiavelli family. They had been great patrons of the arts, but had also made themselves many enemies. In 1435 all male members of the family were assassinated in the Duomo of Fabriano. After the attack the Chiavelli were history, but so was economic prosperity in the town. It failed to spawn any more great artists, becoming part of the Papal States in 1444. The art from the sixteenth century in the museum is hardly worth discussing. Things get interesting again when we arrive at the Madonna del Rosario painted by Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639). Orazio Gentileschi – or Orazio Lomi – came from Pisa and worked in Naples for a long time. Around 1612 he arrived in the Marche, and in the years that followed, he left a number of works in Fabriano. One of these works is the Madonna del Rosario, which was originally in the Dominican church of Santa Lucia.
Sculptures
Saint Peter of Verona – Donatello.
A separate room is dedicated to sculptures. Here we find two beautiful sculpture groups from the fourteenth century. Saint Joseph and the three Magi were clearly once part of an Adoration of the Magi, while a Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary and Saint John once again comes from the convent of Sant’Agostino. There it embellished the oratory of the blessed Becchetti, dedicated to two fifteenth-century cousins named Giovanni and Pietro Becchetti from Fabriano, who were both Augustinians. Pope Gregorius XVI (1831-1846) beatified them in 1835.
All statues are made of wood, as is the absolute highlight of the room, a statue of Saint Peter of Verona. Saint Peter was a Dominican preacher and inquisitor who was involved in the struggle of the Church against the heretical sect of the Cathars. In 1252 he was murdered by a hired assassin, and already the next year he was canonised by Pope Innocentius IV (1243-1254). The statue stood in the Dominican church of Santa Lucia for ages and – according to the museum – was mistaken for a nineteenth-century work made of papier-mâché. However, after a restoration in Florence the statue is now attributed to none other than the great Florentine sculptor Donatello (1386-1466).
Sources: Bradt travel guide Umbria & the Marche (2021), p. 251-252 and an information sheet from the museum.