On the occasion of theJubilee Year of Hope, from Oct. 1, 2025 to Jan. 7, 2026, theIsland of San Lorenzo - Museo del Capitolo in Perugia is hosting the exhibition L’atteso ritorno. Raphael for Monteluce from the Vatican Museums, organized by the Archdiocese of Perugia-Città della Pieve in collaboration with the Vatican Museums. After more than two centuries, theCoronation of the Virgin, a work commissioned from Raphael Sanzio in 1505 by the Poor Clares of Monteluce and completed in 1525 by his pupils Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni, returns to the Umbrian capital.
The exhibition aims to be for the diocese and the entire city an opportunity to reflect on the human condition, entrusting art with the task of opening a dialogue between the Jubilee message and the questions of our time. In addition to theCoronation of the Virgin, three works will be exhibited together for the first time, with the intention of deepening not only the historical-artistic context, but also the spiritual context of the Poor Clare Monastery of Monteluce.
TheCoronation of the Virgin, defined by Baldassarre Orsini in 1784 as “the most considerable panel that is in Perugia,” left the church of Santa Maria Assunta in Monteluce in 1797, following the Treaty of Tolentino, to be taken to Paris along with other masterpieces from the Umbrian city. Recovered by Antonio Canova after the Congress of Vienna at the behest of Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, the altarpiece became part of the Vatican Pinacoteca, where it is still kept. As early as 1830 the nuns attempted to have it returned, but without success due to the monastery’s financial difficulties.
More than two hundred years after its departure from Perugia and on the 500th anniversary of the work’s delivery to the Poor Clares of Monteluce, the panel is returning to the city thanks to the synergy between the Diocese of Perugia-Città della Pieve and the Vatican City Museums Directorate. It will be temporarily displayed in dialogue with the predella with Stories of the Virgin by Berto di Giovanni, on loan from the National Gallery of Umbria, and together with the 15th-century Crucifix by Giovanni Teutonico, still kept in the monastery of the Poor Clares of Monteluce in Sant’Erminio.
The exhibition itinerary, structured in three sections, takes the visitor on a metaphorical journey that culminates in front of the great altarpiece, a work in which the refined quality of Raphael’s workshop emerges. The particular iconography, which blends Assumption and Coronation into a single vision, is manifested through a chromatic language of intense expressive force.
The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Perugia Foundation, the support and patronage of the Region of Umbria and the Legislative Assembly of the Region of Umbria, as well as the patronage of the Municipality of Perugia, the Holy See’s Department for Culture and Education and the CEI’s National Office for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage. An interdisciplinary scientific committee followed the months of preparation for the exhibition, promoting new research on the painting and the Monteluce church. The results will be collected in the exhibition’s official catalog, soon to be published.
Hours: Daily from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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| Raphael and workshop's Coronation of the Virgin for Monteluce monastery returns to Perugia |
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