Key to Umbria
 

Giacinto Gimignani, who came from a famous family of painters in Pistoia, was probably trained by his father, Alessio Gimignani.  He was documented in Rome from 1630 and worked there under Pietro da Cortona for the Barberini family from 1632.  He subsequently joined the movement against the exuberance of the style of Pietro d Cortona, which was led by Andrea Sacchi.  His earliest known work is a frescoed (1632) of the Rest on the Flight to Egypt  in the chapel of the Palazzo Barberini.

Amelia

Giacinto Gimignani had a number of links with Amelia:

  1. two of his daughters were nuns at San Magno;

  2. his son belonged to the Collegio dei Padri Somaschi at Sant’ Angelo (see below); and

  3. he had links with Bishop Gaudenzio Poli (1643-79).

St Liborius (1675)

This altarpiece in the Cappella di San Liborio in the Duomo, which is signed and dated by inscription, depicts the standing saint among angels.  One of these angels holds a Bible on which are placed a collection of gall stones: a pilgrim who visited the shrine of St Liborius in Paderborn in 1267 was apparently apparently cured of gall stones.  The brothers Pelegrino and Agostino Carleni, who erected this chapel in 1677, probably also commissioned the altarpiece.



Trinity with saints (17th century)

This altarpiece in Sant’ Agostino (1st altar on the left), which is attributed to Giacinto Gimignani, depicts the figures of the Trinity with SS Monica, Rita and Clare of Montefalco.





Works from Sant’ Angelo

As noted above, a son of Giacinto Gimignani belonged to the Collegio del Somaschi at Sant’ Angelo.  Two panels by the artist were documented in the church:
  1. Christ on the Cross (17th century)

  2. This altarpiece, which was documented in the sacristy of the church, was transferred to the Civic Collection but subsequently lost.

  3. St Michael defeating the Devil (1677)

  4. This altarpiece from the church, which is signed and dated by inscription, is now in the Pinacoteca (illustrated here). 


Montefalco

SS Bartholomew and John the Evangelist (17th century)

This altarpiece on the high altar of San Bartolomeo which is signed by Giacinto Gimignani, forms the backdrop to a venerated fresco (15th century) of the Madonna and Child.  In the altarpiece, St Bartholomew points to the fragment, which is in a fictive oval frame held by angels, while St John the Evangelist looks up at it.  The composition is based on the Madonna della Vallicella (1608) by Peter Paul Rubens, which is on the high altar of Santa Maria della Vallicella, Rome.



Orvieto

Education of the Virgin (ca. 1650)

This panel on the 1st altar on the right of the church of San Bernardino is attributed to Giacinto Gimignani.  The arms of the Conti di Marsciano appear at the bottom right.  The commission might have arisen because Cardinal Fausto Poli, who was a collector of works by Giacinto Gimignani, was Bishop of Orvieto in 1645-56.  The upper part of the panel was pained at a later date, which suggests that this was not its original location.

Perugia

Panels in San Pietro 

The following panels are San Pietro:

Miracle of the Column (1677) 

This panel by Giacinto Gimignani in the right aisle depicts a miracle that happened during construction of San Pietro in ca. 966, when St Peter Abbot was able to stop a column from falling on a workman by making the sign of the Cross. 






Scenes from the Life of St Benedict (1679) 

      

These panels by Giacinto Gimignani in the left aisle depict:

  1. St Benedict welcoming SS Maurus and Placidus to his monastery at Subiaco; and

  2. St Benedict saving St Placidus from drowning.


Return to Art in:  Amelia    Montefalco    Orvieto    Perugia.


Return to “Foreign” Painters in Umbria.

 


Giacinto Gimignani (1606-81) 


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