Oratorio di San Bernardino

In 1457, five years after the oratorio was consecrated, decoration work on the polychrome façade was begun. The inscription “AVGVSTA PERVSIA MCCCCLXI” across the cornice below the tympanum attests to façade’s completion in 1461.

The Renaissance style artwork it features was the work of Agostino di Duccio who sculpted the statues and fine stiacciati-reliefs in the style of Donatello. San Bernardino, the saint who pacified Perugian struggles is depicted in the central almond-shaped lunette framed by sunrays and surrounded by angelic musicians singing his praises.

The architrave above the predella shows the miracles performed by the saint in five hagiographical scenes signed by the Florentine sculptor Agostino di Duccio with the inscription “OPUS AUGUSTINUS FLORENTINUS LAPICIDA”. Six Franciscan virtues (Clemency, Poverty, Chastity, Justice, Temperance and Obedience) are portrayed on the oblique flanks while there are six pairs of angelic musicians on either side.

The corners of the facade feature four tabernacles. The upper two show the Annunciation (Archangel Gabriel on the left and the Virgin on the right) and the lower, two of Perugia’s patron saints, The Franciscan Ludovico di Tolosa (Louis of Toulouse) on the left and Sant’Ercolano (Herculanus of Perugia) on the right. Above them are the emblems of Perugia with the rampant Gryphon.
 

Contacts:

Address: Piazza San Francesco, 5 - 06123 Perugia PG

Phone: 075 5733957

Website: http://turismo.comune.perugia.it/poi/oratori-di-san-bernardino-e-di-santandrea