Key to Umbria: Perugia
 


Santa Maria della Luce (1513-9)


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In 1512, the Knights of St John donated this site next to their church of San Luca to the Commune for a new church that was to be built to house a highly venerated image of the Virgin (see below).  It is usually open for prayer.   

The Renaissance façade is sometimes attributed to Giulio Danti.  The reliefs of griffins at the bases of the two pilasters suggest that the Commune probably paid for it.  Inside is a simple square room with an oval ceiling.

Madonna and Child with saints (ca. 1500)

This fresco, which is attributed to Tiberio d' Assisi, is in a niche above the altar.  It was originally in a wayside tabernacle in nearby Via degli Sciri.  According to an inscription in the cornice, a young man passing this way in 1512 swore so profanely that the Madonna closed her eyes.  So many people then wanted to venerate the image that the church was built to house it.  It depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS Francis and Louis of Toulouse, with two angels about to crown the Madonna.


God the Father and Evangelists (1532)

This fresco by Giovanni Battista Caporali, which depicts God the Father and the Evangelists, is on the ceiling.  It was beautifully restored in 1978, at which point the date inscribed on one of the scrolls held by angels was revealed.






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