At the head of the various local centres of painting which form the
school of Umbria we must place Alegretto Nuzi (died 1385), whose works
are very rarely met with in museums north of Italy. He inherited
the best Giottesque traditions, and became the teacher of Gentile
da Fabriano (1360?-1428), an early master whose influence was more
far-reaching and inspiring than we can to-day trace in any detail.
The Louvre has the good fortune to contain a precious little predella
panel of the _Presentation in the Temple_ (No. 1278), which is very
decorative and exhibits a strongly marked appreciation of architecture.
It is the only separated panel from the predella of Gentile’s large
and magnificent altarpiece of the _Adoration of the Magi_, of 1423,
which was seized by Napoleon but was returned in 1815. It is now in the
Accademia at Florence.
The _Miracle of St. Nicholas giving a Dowry to the Three Daughters
of a Nobleman_ (No. 1659), which is officially classed among the
unattributable works of the Florentine school, is now considered to be
by Giovanni Francesco da Rimini, while the _Madonna and Child_ (No.
1300A or 1300B) which is officially ascribed to Piero dei Franceschi,
the leading painter of his generation in the school of Umbria, must, as
we have seen, be given to Alessio Baldovinetti of the Florentine school.
Again, the three-panel picture (No. 1415) which is credited to
Pesellino of Florence is in reality from the hand of the Umbrian
artist Fiorenzo di Lorenzo (1440-1521). The collection is not rich in
the works of the earliest painters of this school, but the _Birth of
the Virgin_ (No. 1525), a detached panel from a lost or unidentified
altarpiece by Luca Signorelli (1441-1523), gives us some idea of the
great power of this influential master, whose knowledge of composition
and anatomy is best seen in his frescoes at Orvieto. Signorelli’s sense
of complicated movement and crowded action mark an epoch in the art of
Umbria. The _Fragment of a Large Picture_ (No. 1527) seems to be imbued
with his spirit, but the large _Adoration of the Magi_ (No. 1526) which
comes from Città di Castello, and a _Madonna and Child with St. Louis
of Toulouse, St. Catherine, and other Saints_ (No. 1528), contain none
of the vigorous originality of that master from whom even Michelangelo
did not disdain to borrow on occasion. Three predella panels (No. 1120)
have been dismembered from a large altarpiece by Niccolò da Foligno,
and were originally painted for a side altar in the Church of S.
Niccolò at Foligno. In the art of this over-emotional Umbrian, what is
meant for deep religious feeling is by exaggeration almost transformed
into grimacing passion.