Benozzo Gozzoli return to Montefalco
A masterpiece, with soft, bright colours. The “Madonna della Cintola” (Madonna of the Girdle) by Benozzo Gozzoli is returning home after 167 years and some brilliant restoration work, requested by the Municipal Authority, by the Montefalco Consortium for the protection of wines, by the San Francesco museum and by the Foligno Lions Club. From 18 July to 1 January 2016, it will be possible to admire it in the San Francesco church museum. The precious altarpiece has been kept in the Vatican Museums since 1848: the people of Montefalco donated it to Pope Pius IX when the pope granted the small town the title of city. It was Father Antonio, a Franciscan monk from Montefalcowho also risked becoming Pope, who commissioned the young Benozzo to do the work for the main altar in the Church of San Fortunato in 1450. The artist followed the instructions of the great Leon Battista Alberti, according to whom an altarpiece had to be simple, square, impeccably built and painted in an “amity of colours”: in the Italian language of that time, he meant that the colours should be “friends with each other” and that the colour scheme could change as the light changed.
The result did not disappoint expectations. The tempera and gold on wood depicts the Virgin Mary donating the girdle to Saint Thomas, as proof of her Assumption into heaven. The main scene of the painting is designed to encourage devotion: the Virgin Mary, sitting on a throne of clouds, is surrounded by a multitude of angels; some, in the foreground, are playing musical instruments, while the others, more distant, are still deep in prayer. The rays of light that emerge from the gold base of the painting, tell of the glory and splendour of heaven awaiting the Virgin Mary. The apostle Thomas, who always needs to touch and see to believe, is kneeling, almost leaning towards the mother of God. He is holding one end of the girdle that Mary is handing to him. The expression in the eyes of the two as they look at each other is a prelude to the last farewell. The Tomb, out of which the Virgin Mary flew shortly before, is full of flowers. A tree, tenacious like the faith of the mother of Jesus, is planted between the rocks.
The predella provided with the altarpiece recounts, for the benefit of the devoted, the life of the Virgin Mary: at each end, the birth and the death and, in succession, her marriage with Joseph, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Jesus and the Presentation at the Temple. Six saints are depicted on the two long lateral Corinthian pilasters: Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Fortunato in bishop’s robes, Saint Bernardino of Siena, Saint Louis of Toulouse, Saint Galgano and Saint Anthony of Padua.
Complete article available at Umbriatouring
