_Via dei Priori--Perugino's House,--Madonna della Luce--S.
Bernardino and S. Francesco al Prato_
Just under the bell tower of the Palazzo Pubblico a narrow street,
called the Via dei Priori, well-paved, and preserving many
characteristics of the mediæval city, runs steeply down through the
Porta S. Susanna and into the open country by the station. Once when the
nobles were fighting in the square above, or more probably in the Corso,
the blood flowed so freely that it is said to have come running down the
street in a crimson stream at night--hence the name of Via del
Piscinello which is given to the street a little lower down. The houses
are very old, very grim, and closely packed in the Via dei Priori. The
_lumieri_, where the heads of enemies were hung, stand out maliciously
upon the walls of the Palazzo Pubblico to the right, and many of the
palaces have still their narrow doors for the dead or _porte del
mortuccio_.[76]
From the Chiesa Nuova (built in 1218 but entirely remodelled and spoilt
by bad decoration) a narrow street leads off to the left and down past
some charming red brick palaces into a narrower street where what is
known as Perugino's house still stands.
[Illustration: THE OLD COLLEGIO DEI NOTARI, SAID TO BE THE STUDIO OF
PERUGINO]
Though there seems to be but very slight evidence about the real abode
of the painter, his studio has been fixed in the beautiful old corner
palace with the red marble windows in the Via del Commercio off the
Corso. But one place does as well as another to pin a legend to,
[Illustration: TORRE DEGLI SCIRRI]
and this little house of mean appearance tucked away in a dark and
somewhat dingy street, with only a marble slab to mark it, serves the
purpose well enough. Indeed, if one believed Vasari, one could with
ease imagine Perugino choosing such a spot as this to hide his wife, his
crimes (?) and all his money in, and see him hurrying thither in the
dusk of a December evening from some big church or city where he had
been to paint an altar-piece for prince or pontiff. One can even picture
the long dark cloak he wore to cover up his money bag, his little cap
pressed low upon his rather cloudy forehead, and one can almost hear him
chuckle as he eats his maccaroni and strokes the fair hair of the woman
he so loved, thinking with the joy of malice of all the other women who
would come to pray and weep before his saints and his _Pietàs_.
But this is nothing better than a dream. Blankly one looks at the slab
above the door, at the wall from which even the frescoe of S.
Christopher has vanished, and from the utter silence of the place one
hurries away and further on down the Via dei Priori. The street ends,
and one passes into the open country through the Porta S. Susanna. Just
above is the _Torre degli Scirri_--one of the only specimens remaining
of all the wealth of towers in the past. A tree has grown upon its very
top as though to seal the peace which follows after strife. A little
further on is the small church of the Madonna della Luce. The front of
this church is a very dainty bit of architecture and was designed by
Cesarino Roscetto, a Perugian goldsmith, who also made the silver shrine
in the cathedral which holds the Virgin's ring. It has inside a
beautiful altar piece by some scholar of Perugino. The picture is
exquisite in colour and in sentiment. Siepi gives a long history about
it, which, although it does not altogether fit in with the facts of
dates, we cannot refrain from mentioning here. (Perhaps he was alluding
to some older fresco which has disappeared.) He says that on the 12th of
September 1513 some youths were playing at cards under the
[Illustration: ETRUSCAN ARCH OF S. LUCA]
wall of a butcher's shop which in old days stood outside the church of
S. Francesco. One of them, a young barber, called Fallerio, lost heavily
at the game, whereat he swore a terrible oath, hearing which blasphemy
the Madonna in her shrine by the wayside closed her eyes, and kept them
closed for the space of four whole days. On the 16th she opened them
again. So great was the fame of this miracle, and the sensation it
caused, that processions and great multitudes of people came to worship
before her shrine, and on the 7th of April 1513 her picture was carried
to its present place in the new church which the people built for her,
and she was no longer called the Madonna di S. Luca, but the Madonna of
Light to commemorate this wonderful occurrence.
From the church one road leads out into the country through the old
Etruscan gate of S. Luca and another to the right into the Piazza della
Giustizia: that fair open green which holds one of the loveliest flowers
of Renaissance art--the façade of the Oratory of S. Bernardino.
S. BERNARDINO.
The Oratory was built in 1450 by the magistrates of Perugia, who were
anxious to leave to their city some enduring mark of the man whose
influence in times of extreme moral depravity and perpetual party strife
had been so purely one of good to the citizens of Perugia. The life of
S. Bernardino of Siena is familiar to most people. He, like S. Francis,
exercised an extraordinary power over the minds of men in the middle
ages by the mere example of pure living and sweetness of character, but
perhaps his power lay a little more in preaching and in stirring men to
action than that of the saint of Assisi, whose influence was more
absolutely that of peace.
S. Bernardino of Siena was born at Massa, near Siena, in 1380. His
mother died early, leaving the child to the care of an aunt. By this
lady, Diana degli Albizeschi, he was educated with extreme care and
tenderness, and he grew up beautiful, gracious, and very pure of heart.
At seventeen he joined a confraternity at Siena, and by the early age of
twenty-four he had already shaken an always weak constitution by his
great labours for the sick in the time of plague. He died at Aquila in
the Abruzzi, and was canonized in 1450 by Pope Nicholas V. S.
Bernardino's life was one perpetual strain towards the light in an age
which was dark, and one of its greatest objects had been to reconcile
the mutual hatred of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. He was full of
child-like faith and wise philanthropy; and tradition says that it was
he who started the first _Monte di Pietà_ or pawnshop, and Perugia
claims the privilege of having seen the first of these institutions.[77]
The figure of S. Bernardino is always unmistakable in art, and it
becomes familiar to us in Perugia, where he exercised an extraordinary
power, and where he would preach from his pulpit in the public square to
an almost maddened crowd of penitents. The saint is always represented
holding a square tablet with the initials of Christ set round with rays
upon it, because he was accustomed to hold one of these whilst
preaching. His face is emaciated, but beautiful both in line and in
expression; it is a face which the spirit illumines with an unmistakable
glory. Mrs Jameson, in her life of the saint, says that the finest
sculptured portrait of him is that on the façade of his Oratory at
Perugia; and certainly, if taken merely as a graceful bit of art, few
things could do more honour to the man whose best tribute, however, will
always be his extraordinary hold on the hearts of men throughout the
whole of Italy.
In 1461 the people of Perugia called in a Florentine sculptor, Agostino
Ducci or Gucci, to ornament the façade of their new oratory. This
sculptor is described by both Vasari and Mariotti as Agostino _della
Robbia_, and connected, either as a son or a brother, with that
well-known family. The connection is, however, not proved, neither does
his work seem to corroborate it in any way.[78]
The façade of S. Bernardino is a marvellous and perhaps a unique thing
in art. The work on it is light and airy like the winds of spring. The
figures of the angels, the garlands, and the saint himself, are full of
that elegant and subtle charm which now and then surprises one in
sculpture. Ducci made wonderful use of the pale pink marble of the
country, mixing it with terra-cotta figures, bits of blue sky, and
marble, creamy white, for all his garlands. Perhaps the loveliest
figures, where all are lovely, are those of the six virtues, Mercy,[79]
Holiness, and Purity, Religion, Mortification, and Patience, on either
side of the entrance doors. But the different angels playing on
different instruments, and the flying angels round the figure of the
saint, are each delightful in their separate ways. Even the inevitable
griffin seems softened by the hand of the Florentine sculptor, and he
has admirably caught the purely spiritual nature of the saint, both in
the large central portrait, and in the smaller plaques where some of his
miracles are represented. Siepi gives a full description of the
different scenes:
[Illustration: MERCY. DETAIL ON FAÇADE OF THE ORATORY OF S. BERNARDINO]
"Under the two higher niches," he says, "are two squares, and on
the right one of these we see the Saint, who, whilst preaching on
the Isola Maggiore of our Lake of Trasimene received into his order
the blessed Giacomo of the Marches.... To the left," he continues,
"the Saint is discovered preaching, and illuminated by a star,
which in the full light of day shines over his head, a miracle
which happened in the city of Aquila five years before his death,
while preaching the praises of Mary.... Three other miracles of
the Saint are given on the frieze below. In the middle one of these
we see the Saint preaching to the people of Perugia, and the
bonfire which he made them light on the piazza of our Duomo, where
books of superstition, of necromancy and the law of astrology were
burned in public, together with fashionable follies of the period:
packs of cards, obscene pictures, forbidden weapons and ornaments
of female luxury--instruments all of iniquity and of delight.
Therefore it is that from the flames demons are seen to rise. In
the miracle to the right we see two children saved by the
intercession of the Saint from the furious waters of a mill-stream
in which, having been caught, they were miraculously saved by the
Saint from death...."
It is not very clear why this particular spot was chosen from all others
on which to build the Oratory of S. Bernardino, but it was probably
because it stood so close to the convent of S. Francesco al Prato, where
the Saint, who himself was a Franciscan, would naturally stay when he
paid his visits to Perugia. We hear that he was deeply attached to a
certain bell which hung in the campanile of the convent, and which bore
the name of Viola and was noted for the peculiar sweetness of its voice.
It happened once, when all the bells of the town were ringing, that
Viola fell. S. Bernardino was preaching at the minute up in the square
of the cathedral, but by a miracle he heard her fall and stopped his
sermon for an instant, saying to the people: "My children, Viola has
fallen, but she is not harmed!" and he was right. Viola was set up in
her place again and rings with a clear strong voice, dear to the heart
of the Perugians, even in the present century.[80]
* * * * *
Long even before the birth of S. Bernardino a much older order or
_Confraternità_ held its meetings in the small church at the back of the
present oratory. This was the _Confraternità di S. Andrea della
Giustizia_, and it was one of the earliest of those remarkable
societies--one may almost describe them as religious guilds--which rose
up out of that great devotional movement at the end of the middle ages
which resulted in the extraordinary processions and displays of the
"Flagellants." "The movement," says Doctor Creighton, "passed away; but
it has left its dress as a distinctive badge to the confraternities of
mercy which are familiar to the traveller in the streets of many cities
of Italy."
Morals, as we have seen, were very low in the thirteenth and the
fourteenth century; blood flowed freely in party feuds and towns were
devastated and corrupted by the strife of church and people. All these
things, and the great pestilence which ravaged the country and the
cities, were taken, and probably with perfect justice, to be the signs
of an offended deity. "It was then," says Bonazzi, "when men had grown
familiar with death, that those strange songs arose which the people
sang in the moonlight, wrapped in white sheets, whilst they danced the
dances of the dead about the streets, clanging the bones together in
weird accompaniment to their songs." Doctor Creighton[81] dates this
movement to the end of the fourteenth century. He says also that it
originated in Provence. Perugia, however, lays strong claim to having
herself sown the first seed, and this as early as the middle of the
thirteenth century, of the displays of the Flagellants.
In 1265 we read the strange tale of a monk who describes himself as
"_Fra Raniero Fasano de Peroscia Comenzatore della Regola dei Battuti di
Bologna_." Raniero tells us that he was accustomed, as a young monk at
Perugia, to lead a life of excessive privation and abnegation, and one
day, when scourging himself as was his custom, he was joined in a
vision by certain saints who accompanied him to the church of S.
Fiorenzo, and there they all beat themselves together in front of the
high altar. This vision occurred day after day to Raniero, but at last
one of the saints spoke to him and told him that it was the will of
heaven that men should purge their sins in this same fashion. Raniero
carried his tale to the Bishop, who expounded it in a sermon to the
inhabitants of Perugia, and this, according to some historians, was the
origin of all the fantastic demonstrations of public repentance which
soon spread over Italy, and from which, as years went by, there arose
the calmer and more practical institutions of Confraternities in the
several cities. One of the earliest of these at Perugia itself was the
company of S. Andrea, and it is interesting to read its laws and
statutes. Through its own annals we find that it was started in 1374,
during the reign of Pope Gregory XI. "for the furtherance of the worship
of God and of His Mother the blessed Virgin Mary, and of the glorious
martyrs and protectors of the city--Messers Sancto Ercolano, Sancto
Laurenzo, Sancto Costanzo, and Sancto Andrea the apostle; and for the
honour and estate of the Holy Mother Church and her protectors; and
further for the maintenance, the governing, the magnificence, and the
peaceful state of the people and the city of Peroscia."
Infinite and careful laws of civil and religious duties follow--laws for
the maintenance of peace and the Christian comfort of souls: the day of
the saint was to be most strictly kept, fasting if possible, or by him
who could not fast, a feast was to be given to a beggar or twenty-five
paternosters told, "and all must be at mass that day or pay a fine of
twenty soldi." But the great work of the society of S. Andrea was the
help and protection of criminals. Its members got permission from the
city government to meet those who were going to execution, and to
accompany them to the scene of death, comforting them by the way, and
sustaining them with prayers and even sweetmeats to the very last. In
early times criminals were beheaded far from the city walls; and in
Perugia the place of doom was down in the open country on the site of an
old Etruscan tomb, the Torre di S. Manno. "Wherefore," writes one
historian, "in the fatal passing of these miserable people, the pious
_disciplinati_ met them on the threshold, comforted them, assisted them,
and went with them even unto the gallows." Hence probably the name of
"Giustizia" given to this particular square, and not, as is usually
said, because justice was carried out on the spot itself.
The _Confraternità_ of S. Andrea continued to increase both in power and
in size. Other societies of the same charitable sort sprang up all
through the city, and after the death of S. Bernardino of Siena a new
one was started in his name at Porta Eburnea. But in one of the great
fights between the nobles, their buildings were so knocked about and
mutilated that the members of the society had to seek out different
quarters, and they then joined themselves to the older confraternity of
S. Andrea down at S. Francesco and thenceforth "worked together,
extending their labour of charity to the inspection of prisons, and to
the Christian comfort of prisoners."[82]
S. FRANCESCO AL PRATO.
To the right of the Oratory of S. Bernardino is the immense, but quite
ruined, church and convent of S. Francesco al Prato. S. Francesco, more
even than S. Domenico and so many of the churches of Perugia, is only
the skeleton of a once beautiful body from which the silken robes, the
jewels, even the flesh, have been torn rudely off by men and time. The
church was built in 1230, in the form of a Latin cross with a single
nave. But from the moment it was built, owing to the crumbling nature of
the soil, and the heavy and overweighted style of its architecture, it
was threatened with immediate destruction, so that in 1737 it fell in
almost completely.
Throughout the history of Perugia we read of great events which centred
in S. Francesco, of great men who were buried there, artists who
painted, and popes who blessed and prayed. Of all these former
splendours, nothing remains beyond a carcase of stone walls. The
pictures--the Raphael, the Pinturicchios and the Peruginos, with the
exception of Bonfigli's banner in the chapel of the Gonfalone,[83] and
one interesting early fresco down in the crypt,--have been removed to
the Pinacoteca and to other towns. Fortebraccio's bones have gone to the
museum, Fra Egidio's tomb is in the church near the museum, and the roof
has fallen in upon a rubbish heap of beams, and bricks, and mortar.
S. MARTINO.
There are several ways of returning to the Duomo from the Piazza della
Giustizia. One of the pleasantest runs through a bit of cultivated land
outside the town walls: the Via di San Francesco, and, joining the Via
della Conca, passes up under the Arco d'Augusta and back by the Via
Vecchia. But another way, which few could find who did not know of it,
winds back into the heart of the old town, actually crossing the
Etruscan walls in one place, and comes out opposite the Canonica, having
passed the little old church of S. Martino.
S. Martino is so old, and so much overshadowed by the big palace
opposite, it is sunk so low upon the street, that passing by it
hurriedly one scarcely recognises it as a church at all.[84] The high
altar has a very beautiful altar-piece by Giannicola Manni--one of the
loveliest bits of Umbrian colouring that we remember in Perugia, and
there is a rather faulty fresco by some scholar of Perugino on the west
wall, redeemed by that subtle and sweet charm peculiar to the work of
the master. The little church is guarded by a true friend, who not only
honours its pictures, but has even copied them with faithful care, and
the whole place is filled with something of the quiet and religious
fervour which lingers only after centuries of prayer and incense, and
which is lacking in so many of the more frequented churches of the
town.