XIII/1 Virgin with the Child
           unknow Umbrian painter
           torn fresco
           XIV century, first half
           cm 106 x 98
           from the church of SS Trinity in Spoleto

This fresco was part of the lunette over the portal of the antique entrance of the Holy Trinity Church of Spoleto.
The church was already built in 1198 and has been reconstructed several times during the past centuries; it hosted different religious communities and is currently used as a school gym.
The streets of Spoleto are still embellished by a large number of votive aedicules mainly dedicated to the Virgin with the child; they cover a chronological period from the XIII to the XX century (Quirino, 1966).
The Virgin of the Holy Trinity Church was painted by a local artist that worked during the first half of the XIV century known with the pseudonym of “Master of S. Ponziano” (Fratini, 1983), a monastery found in the surroundings of Spoleto where the anonymous master painted a crucifix and some frescoes on the crypt.
The painting’s iconography depends on an invention of Giotto.

XIII/2 knights in lists
          unknown Umbrian sculptor
          white marble
          XIII – XIV century, end - start
          cm 54,5 x 57,7 x 12,4
          cm 52,8 x 74,3 x 12,8
          from the bridge of Ponzianina in Spoleto

The two slabs, decorated with a knight in lists that holds a standard and a shield, have been removed from the shoulders of the bridge of the Ponzianina of Spoleto, where they were used as construction material.
They probably decorated the city gate of the Ponzianina, origin of the street crossing the Tessino stream and that continued towards Norcia passing close to the extra-urban monastery of S. Ponziano.
This gate was demolished in the XIX century and was part of the city wall enlargement foreseen by the Municipal Statute of 1296, which foresaw the construction of three new doors in the areas of S. Pietro, S. Matteo and S. Ponziano - «alia vero porta fiat   iuxta portam Sancti Ponçiani scilicet a ponte intus» the armorial bearings still visible on the gates of Monterone and S. Matteo are almost identical since they belonged to the same medieval wall.
«La tradizione popolare vuole che il cavaliere nello stemma raffiguri il principale patrono di Spoleto, il martire Ponziano… che la tradizione ha voluto dipingere quale cavaliere della fede cristiana.
[In mancanza di prove] non ci resta che considerarlo come un’espressione della potenza militare del ceto che all’inizio tenne il governo della città, cioè la pars militum» (Ceccaroni, 1974).
Later, the Guelph cross will be set aside the knight.

XIII/3 san Ponziano
          unknown Umbrian sculptor
          carved and painted wood
          XIV century, first half
          cm 128 x 37

The statue was in the crypt of the monastery of S. Ponziano of Spoleto, and it has been found by Mariano Guardabassi (1872): «IIª nave. Innanzi all’abside adagiata sopra una grande urna travertina, scultura in legno – Bella statua di giovane nobile defunto, accuratamente messa a colori; opera del XIV secolo».
A crypt description of 1746 (Nessi 1977) allows us to identify the dead person as the young Spoletian martyr Ponziano, tortured under the emperor Antonino in 175 A.D. and invoked as main patron of the city.
«Nell’altra nicchia aggiacente, che viene ad essere in mezzo a detta chiesa esiste altra urna simile, sopra della quale fu trovata una statua antica di legno rappresentante S. Ponziano».
The presence of a funerary statue over the sarcophagus cover indicated the pilgrims devotion to the saint relics.
A fresco on the apse was linked to the funeral monument; it represented a Crucifixion between two Mary’s and the soul of Ponziano taken to heaven.
The painting, performed during the first half of the XIV century, supplies a useful reference for the creation of the statue.
In the Spoletian painting, S. Ponziano is represented as a young soldier riding a horse and holding a crossed standard; an image of the saint appears to the foot of a large relief Crucifix in the enclosure of the monastery.