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 PAINTED IX FRESCO BY 
 
 OTTAVIANO NELLL 
 
 IN THE CHURCH OF S. MAKIA NUOVA AT GUBBIO. 
 
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 No longer fte property "fthf 
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 Library 
 
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 TT would Ije dilHcult to liiid amougtit tlic cities of central 
 Italy one more picturesque or interesting than Gubbio, the 
 ancient capital of Undjria. Built on a steep declivity of the 
 Apennines, it still retains most of the architectural features of the 
 middle ages, so characteristic of the period of Italian freedom — 
 machicolated walls and towers, narrow streets, and a stately "Palazzo 
 Pubblico," or Town-hall. Like other free cities which rose to power 
 in the 13th and 14th centuries, it was distinguished for the magni- 
 ficence of its public l)uildings, and for the protection which it 
 extended fo the fine arts. Its own chroniclers claim for one of
 
 4 
 
 its citizens the honour of having founded a school of painting which 
 exercised no small influence throughout Italy, and ultimately 
 attaining to great eminence, was known as the Umbrian School. 
 
 Dante, in the Purgatorio (xi. 100), addresses in terras of friendship 
 one Oderisi, or Odcrigi, whom he calls "the honour of Agobbio, and 
 of the art of illmninatina- " — • 
 
 "a 
 
 Oh, diss' io lui, non se' tu Oderisi, 
 L'onor d' Agobbio, e Tonor di quell' arte, 
 Ch' alluminare e chiamata in Parisi ? 
 
 Notwithstanding the reputation which Odei'igi thus appears to 
 have enjoyed, but few authentic works of his hand have, as far as I 
 am aware, been preserved.* Amongst his pupils Avas Guido or 
 Guiduccio Palmcrucci, who was born about the year 1280, four years 
 later than Giotto. lie seems to have abandoned missal painting, and 
 to have been chiefly employed, as was the custom of the time, in 
 decorating with frescoes the public Iniildings and churches of his., 
 native city, and of the neighbouring towns of Umbria. A head of St. 
 Antony, the only remains of a sacred subject painted by him early in 
 the 14th century under the arcade of the college of painters, still 
 exists on the outside of the church of S. ]\Iaria at Gubbio. Two 
 frescoes recently discovered in the church of S. Francesco, in the town 
 of Cagli, are also attributed to him by Signor Bonfatti, the able and 
 learned historian of Gul)lno, wlio lias published interesting materials 
 for the illustration of the works of the Eugubian painters. f 
 
 * The miniatures of the " Ordo OiEoiorum Senensis Eeclcsia;" in the public library of 
 Siena were executed by him in 1313, and tlie illuminations of some manuscripts in the 
 Vatican are also, I believe, attributed to him. 
 
 t "Memorie Storiehe di Ottaviano Nclii Pittore Eugubino, illustrate con documenti da 
 Luigi Bonfatti." Gubbio, 18-13.
 
 A contract is still preserved, entered into between Palmerucci and 
 the magistrates of Gubbio, by uliicli tlic painter agrees to decorate 
 with frescoes tlic interior of the Town-hall, then recently built by 
 ]\latteo di GiovancUo, called Gattapone, one of the most celebrated 
 architects of his time, and a native of the city. Guido nndertakes 
 to complete the decoration of the great hall, in which an Anunncia- 
 tion of the Vii-gin had already been painted — it is not stated by 
 Avhoni — and to add thereto the arms of the captains and other 
 officers of the " commie." * 
 
 Palmerncci's frescoes — for 1 know no authentic specimen of 
 his easel pictures — are distinguished by certain cpialities which 
 may entitle him to be considered the founder of an inde- 
 pendent school of painting. Still it is very doubtful -whether 
 his style Avas not formed luidcr the influence of his great contem- 
 porary, Giotto, althorigh Signor Bonfatti condenms Lanzi and Rosini 
 for classino; him amongst the " Giottcschi," or imitators of that 
 painter. It is scarcely probable that the impulse, ^^hich the illus- 
 trious riorentine had given to painting by his ^vorks at Assisi, 
 should not have been felt in the neighbouring city of Gubbio. 
 Few parts of Italy, indeed, escaped his influence, and there were 
 few schools which in the beginning did not profit by his example. 
 However, Palmerucci is not to be classed amongst his mere 
 imitators, and the few fragments of his works with which I 
 am acquainted are undoubtedly characterised by an attempt to 
 impart that tenderness, grace, and religious sentiment to his forms, 
 
 * This document is included in a valuable collection of materials for the history of 
 painting published at Bologna, and entitled " Memoric originali Italiane riguardanti le 
 BeUe Arti."
 
 6 
 
 which subsequently became the w ell-known features uf the Unibiiaii 
 school. 
 
 One of I'iilmcrucci's scholars, jMarfino Nclli, painlcd frescoes 
 after the maimer of his master, but of no great merit, in many 
 churches and public buildings of (iuhbio. Some fragments of 
 them still remain. He a])pears to have had two sons, Avho were 
 brought up in his " bottega." The one who distinguished himself 
 the most in his art was Ottaviano, called after his father " di Martino 
 Nelli ;" a designation subsequeut.ly corrupted into " Ottaviano dc 
 Mai'tis." The first record of his name occurs in a document 
 preserved in the public archives of Perugia, to Avhich city he was 
 called in the tirst year of the loth century, to paint the arms of 
 Giovan Galeazzo, Duke of Milau, in company with Cristoforo di 
 Nicoluccio, and Francesco di Antonio. He was paid eighty-four 
 florins for his share of the work, which Avas probably more con- 
 siderable and important than its professed subject woidd lead us to 
 expect, groups of figures and elaborate ornaments being frequently 
 added to armorial bearings thus painted on public buildings. 
 
 He appears to have remained but a short time in Perugia, for 
 in 1403 he painted, for the noble family of Pinoli, the votive fresco in 
 the church of S. IMaria Nuova at Gubbio, representing the Madonna 
 and Saints, of Avhich a copy is included in the publication of 
 the Arundel Society for 1S57. The pietm-e was probably ordered in 
 fulfilment of a vow to the Virgin during the illness of a member 
 of the family, or at the time of some public calamity. It Avas 
 customary to make such \ows to the Virgin, or to a patron Saint, 
 and many of the finest frescoes and altar-pictures in Italy were thus
 
 executed for cities and puljlic corporations, as wtU as Ibr private 
 indi\iduals. 
 
 In Nelli's fresco we find two figures kneeling before the Virgin — 
 one a man advanced in years, the other a yonth. They are evi- 
 dently portraits of the persons for whom it was painted, and Signer 
 Bonfatti conjectures that they represent Venturuccio dei Pinoli and 
 his son Pinolo. The Virgin, clothed in robes richly embroidered 
 in gold, is seated in front of a curtain held by angels. The Infant 
 Christ, standing on her knee, and in the act of blessing with his right 
 hand, stretches out his left to the younger of the two worshippers, 
 who is conducted by a guardian angel to the Saviour. The other 
 kneeling figure is presented to the Madonna by St. Antony the 
 Abbot, his patron Saint. On the opposite side is a second Saint, 
 probably St. Paul, holding a book in one hand, and a palm branch, 
 the sign of martyrdom, in the other. The Almighty, supported above 
 the Virgin bv a cluster of ans;els and cherubim, holds a crown over her 
 head. Angels, playing on instruments of music, complete the 
 group. The ground of the picture is cohered with a rich diaper pat- 
 tern, varied with figures of birds and animals. The erection of a 
 modern altar has injured the lower part of the fresco, and has de- 
 stroyed the feet of the principal figm'es. 
 
 This fresco, of considerable merit, considering the time at which 
 it was executed, is pecuHarly interesting as being probably the fii'st 
 to unite in an eminent degree the principal characteristics of the 
 school to which its author belongs. It is chiefly on this account that 
 the Council of the Arundel Society has selected it for publication. 
 There is nothing more instructive to the art-student than to trace
 
 8 
 
 the gradual development of certiiiii qualities and peculiarities of style 
 uliich have ultimately been brought to high perfection by the great 
 masters. Tiiis progressive improvement furnishes of itself a chapter 
 to the history of the human intellect. By carefully studying it 
 in the works of painters ^vho followed each other in one school, wc 
 trace, as it were, the working of the mind, and follow the very steps 
 of the process. Thus wc find in Nelli's fresco the germ of lu^arly 
 all those beauties, and peculiar characteristics, which subsequently 
 distinguished the masterpieces of Picti'o Perugino, and still more of 
 his pupil Raphael. There is the same feeling for rich and 
 glowing colour, the same devotional sentiment, the same grace 
 in the attitudes and forms of the human figure, the same tender 
 and melancholy expression in the heads, the same warm, har- 
 monious flesh tints, so different from those of the Florentine 
 school. The technical skill, the power of rendering truthfully and 
 completely all that the painter feels, is alone wanting to render the 
 Avork almost perfect of its kind. In the head of the Virgin, especially, 
 we trace the type of the Madonnas of Perugino and Raphael ; and 
 types such as these mark, perhaps more than anything else, the 
 character of a school. Of this head, singularly beautiful and pathetic 
 in its extreme simplicity, a tracing from the original has been 
 added — the Council of the Arundel Society desiring to afford addi- 
 tional means of judging of the peculiar style of the artist 
 by reproducing, as correctly as possible, outlines of the 
 principal heads. The figure of the Infant Christ is the most 
 defective part of the fresco. The expression of the head is 
 befitting the subject, but the drawing of the nude, Mhich is 
 in parts slightly veiled by thin white drapery, is incorrect and 
 cramped, showing the usual faults of works of the period. There
 
 is much dignity and religious feeling in the heads of the two Saints. 
 The angels playing on musical instruments arc arch, dainty little 
 figm'es, full of artless grace, reminding one of the angels of Fra 
 Angelico or Gentile da Fabriano. The disposition of the group 
 shows that the painter had not released himself from the conventional 
 treatment of religious subjects prescribed in the 11th century.* 
 
 The general tone of colour in the fresco is singularly rich and har- 
 monious, and has earned for it the name by which it is known to the 
 people of Gubbio, of the "]\Iadonna del Belvedere." It is one of 
 the very few works of the beginning of the loth century which 
 is still, except where destroyed by a modern erection, in almost 
 perfect preservation. It owes its present condition partly to having 
 been long covered with glass, as an object of peculiar devotion to 
 the inhabitants of the city, but principally to the material in Avhich 
 it is painted. There is a brilliancy, transparency, and solidity 
 in the colom's, and a compactness and a property of resisting decay 
 in the "intonaco " or prepared plaster, which produce the effect of a 
 painting in " smalto " or encaustic. Hence the material in which the 
 fresco is painted, and the mode of its appHcation, are well desemng 
 of careful examination. The process employed appears to me to 
 have differed in many respects from any other method of fresco 
 painting with which I am acquainted. 
 
 The drawing from which the chromolithograph has been executed 
 was made by Mrs. lligford Burr. It reproduces with feeling and 
 
 * An engraving, in outline, of Xelli's fresco, in wliich neither the spirit nor character 
 of the original has been preserved, is included amongst the plates to llosini's " Storia 
 deUa Pittura."
 
 10 
 
 truth the work of the painter, without diuiiuishiiig its beauties, or 
 exaggerating its defects or its pecuharities. Nothing is more easy 
 than to make a coarse caricature of an early painting ; nothing more 
 difficult than to convey that love for the true and beautiful, and that 
 struggle to embody them, which characterise the productions of the 
 really great masters of the 14th and 15th centuries, and give them, in 
 spite of incorrect drawing and conventional treatment, their peculiar 
 charm. In England the works of the painters of this period are 
 scarcely known, except through spurious easel pictures or indifferent 
 copies. It is almost impossible to make those who never saw their 
 frescoes appreciate their real beauties, or understand the effect they 
 produced upon those for whom they were expressly painted. There 
 can be no greater error than to suppose that theii' principal merit con- 
 sists in the mere realistic treatment of details. It is the sacrifice of 
 the ideal to this subordinate quality which has principally contri- 
 buted to the failure of modern attempts to imitate the manner of 
 the early masters, and to introduce what is commonly known as 
 " Christian art." 
 
 Ottaviano Nelli painted chiefly in fresco, and executed many works 
 in that material in the chm'ches of his native place, and of the neigh- 
 bouring cities of Umbria. In the church of S. Maria Nuova of 
 Gubbio, are the remains of a " Crucifixion," which still displays, in its 
 wai'm colouring, and in the tender expression and sentiment of the 
 heads of the Magdalen and Angels, the peculiar manner of the master. 
 On the Avails of the choir of the church of S. Agostino, in the same 
 city, he painted various subjects from the history of the titular saint, 
 some of which, such as his ordination, consecration as bishop, and 
 the death of S. Monnica, have considerable merit. A Holy Family,
 
 11 
 
 in the church of S. Maria della Piaggiohi, outside the walls of 
 Gubbio, was probably one of his last works. It is still preserved, 
 although much injured by bad restoration. Signor Bonfatti, who 
 has collected, with laudable diligence, such records as exist of the 
 various works executed by NcUi, has described a church in Gubbio, 
 whose walls were covered with his frescoes and those of the principal 
 painters of the school, who flourished from the commencement of 
 the 14th to the 16th century. Tliey were destroyed as late as the 
 year 1841 ! 
 
 Of his works in other parts of Umbria, a Christ surrounded 
 by Angels, painted about the year 1422, may still be seen at 
 Assisi, on the outside of the chapel of the ancient Hospice of the 
 "Pellegrini." A small chapel in the palace of the noble family of 
 Trinci at Foligno was decorated by him in fresco in 1434, as appears 
 by an inscription still partly preserved. Some of the subjects 
 seem to have been executed by his pupils, others are undoubtedly by 
 his own hand. They are somewhat weak in general treatment, but 
 are distinguished by his pecidiar clear, warm colouring. The entire 
 building has been converted into Government offices, and the chapel 
 itself having been long used as a lumber-room, the frescoes have been 
 suffered to fall into partial decay. Like many other great painters 
 of the time, he was drawn to Urbino by the numificence and 
 splendour of a Court which extended the utmost protection and 
 encouragement to the arts. But all the works which he executed 
 in that city have cither perished altogether, or have long licen 
 buried beneath plaster and whitewash. 
 
 The easel [)aintings of Ottaviano XclU arc extremely rare. I
 
 12 
 
 am only acquainted with two ; — one representing the Virgin deUvering 
 a chikl from the hands of an evil spirit, in the churcli of S. Agostino 
 iu Gubbio, almost entirely repainted ; and a second, of the same 
 subject, at Montefalco, near Foligno. They are both, as is usual 
 with masters of the period, far inferior to his works in fresco. The 
 latest record of the name of the painter is found in a document dated 
 in the month of April, 1 111. It is conjectured that he died soon 
 after this period. 
 
 Amongst the painters of the Uiubrian school who Avcre influenced 
 by the works of Ottaviano Nelh, if tlicy may not be classed amongst 
 his immediate scholars, the most remarkable were Gentile da 
 Fabriano, and Giovanni Sanzio, the father of Raphael. The former 
 painted much in Gubbio,* and he is believed to have assisted Nelli 
 in decoratin'T the choir of the church of S. Agostino, two of the sub- 
 jects being pointed out, though probably on no good authority, as 
 exclusively hy him. There is certainly nuich in common in the 
 manner of both masters, especially in the profusion of gold and 
 ultramarine in their draperies ; in their warm, rich colouring ; 
 in the arch and playfid countenances of their angels ; and in the 
 modest devotional expression of their Virgins. The influence of 
 the Eugubian painter upon Giovanni Sanzio has been more gene- 
 rally recognised by writers on Italian art. Rosini, indeed, does not 
 hesitate to admit the probability of Nelli having been his master. f 
 It is chiefly in the easel pictures of Sanzio that the influence may 
 be traced. In his frescoes, especially in his masterpiece at Cagli, 
 he had formed a style far in advance of the age, and more nearly 
 
 * Vasari, " Vita di Uentilo da Fabriano." 
 t " Storia duUa I'iUura." Part iii., p. l(3:i.
 
 13 
 
 approaching that afterwards brought to its highest perfection by his 
 ilhistrious son. 
 
 Ottaviano Nelli left many scholars, who were chiefly employed in 
 adorning the public edifices of their native city. Their names, and 
 a record of their principal works, have been preserved by his 
 biographer. But none of them rose to eminence, or are known 
 beyond the limits of the district in which they laboured.* By the 
 end of the 15th century the school of Gubbio, like those of the 
 neighbouring cities, seems to have been absorbed into that which 
 Pietro Vannucci liad founded in Perugia, and which, uniting the 
 highest qiialities of all the Umbrian schools, produced the greatest 
 painter of modern times, Raphael Sanzio. 
 
 A. H. LAYARD. 
 
 * The principal were Giacomo di Bedi, Giovanni Pitali, and Domonieo di Cecco di 
 Baldo. Ottaviano's brother's name was Tommasuccio. A " tavola " b}- him is in the 
 church of S. Domenico at Gubbio. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE ARUNDEL SOCIETY, 24, OLD BOND STREET. 
 PUIiLTCATION OF THE NIXTII YEAR, ISoT. 
 
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