San Bernardino (Perugia)
The Oratory San Bernardino is a chapel built by the Franciscans between 1451 and 1461 in the west of the medieval old town of Perugia .
In 1450 the Franciscan preacher Bernardine of Siena was canonized and the following year the brothers in Perugia began to erect an oratory in honor of the popular friar near their convent.
The small building receives its special art-historical status from the facade architecture designed by Agostino di Duccio from 1457 with its cheerful, highly decorative reliefs. The temple-like elevation of the marble facade clearly shows how impressed Agostino was with the Tempio Malatestiano of the famous Leon Battista Alberti , whom he himself had worked on shortly before in Rimini . An abundance of finely sculpted reliefs covers the entire front. In the gable triangle, Christ is enthroned between angels. The inscription below, AUGUSTA PERUSIA MCCCCLXI, gives the closing date 1461 and refers to a similar inscription on the Roman gate (Arco di Augusto) in the north of the city. The large arched field shows the Saint Bernard ascending to heaven. Further relief fields depict an Annunciation , the local saints Ercolano and Constanzo, groups of angels and five scenes from the life of the main saint. The ornament fields are also of the finest quality
The interior of the oratory is vaulted in the traditional Gothic manner. An early Christian sarcophagus from the 4th century, in which the blessed Aegidius of Assisi, a companion of St. Francis, was buried, serves as the altar.
literature
- Georg Kauffmann : Emilia-Romagna, Marken, Umbria (Reclams Art Guide Italy, Volume IV), Stuttgart 1971, pp. 461–462.
- Klaus Zimmermann: Umbria (DuMont Art Travel Guide) Cologne 2011, pp. 100–102.
