XIV/1 architrave
           unknown sculptor
           white marble, 1463
           cm 89 x 32,5 x 17
           Spoleto, Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

Inscription: […]S · IACOBI · CANONICUS · SPOL[eti]NUS · FIERI · […] · M · CCCC · LXIII

Fragment of architrave recovered from an antique marble and decorated by a frieze with two vegetal festoons alternated with two child heads and one capital letter inscription; braids and rosettes are sculpted in the intrados.
It is described by Angelini Rota (1928) in the catalogue of the Civic Museum of Spoleto, without any indication on its origin.
The person mentioned in the inscription has been identified as Filippo di Iacopo, the priest of the cathedral of Spoleto who commissioned the tomb slab of Andreola da Sarzana (†1451), mother of Pope Niccolò V, sculpted in 1468 by Pencia di Marianillo from Spoleto.
Paola Mercurelli Salari (2002) suggests it comes from the Cathedral of Spoleto, where it was “verosimilmente l’architrave della mostra di una porta”.
On the second half of the XV century,  the  Romanic  Cathedral  was completely  renewed  inside  with  the construction of the main tribune – frescoed by Filippo Lippi – and of a series of chapels in the side aisles that involved the work of architects and sculptors from Tuscany (Giacomo da Pietrasanta, Matteo da Settignano) and from Venice (Giovampietro da Venezia).
The majority of the Renaissance chapels were destroyed during the Baroque rebuilding performed under the pontificate of pope Urban VIII Barberini (1623-44), to honour the current pope that had been bishop of Spoleto for some years (1608-17).
The important author could be indistinctly searched in Tuscany or in the Adriatic coast towns submitted to Venice, where a remarkable decorative sculpture inspired on Florentine Renaissance prototypes flourished.

XIV/2 lying male figure (fragment from funerary monument)
           unknown Umbrian sculptor
           “caciolfa” stone,
           XV century, first half
           cm 41 x 149,5 x 25

The figure lying on a rectangular base, whose origin and original location are unknown, most probably formed the cover of a funerary monument chest, isolated from the walls and supported by elegant little pillars, partially conserved in the form of fragments.
The work is made of caciolfa stone, but the artist who sculpted it then treated the greyish surface of the local stone with a smooth white shiny finish: a clear expedient to simulate a more precious and noble material, white marble; traces of this finish are still perfectly visible on the piece.
The image of the deceased is that of a middle-aged man, with his head resting on a cushion, his face is particularly lined with wrinkles and his long hands are gloved.
His clothing is composed of a long heavy overcoat, a sort of cloak with long loose sleeves, closed at the neck with laces and on the chest with small hooks, gathered at the height of the breast with a belt, and with a mazzocchio, a headdress which covers the head and falls asymmetrically on the left shoulder, indicating that the man was of middle social status, not belonging to the nobility, perhaps a magistrate or a jurisconsult.
From a stylistic point of view, the figure appears rather simple in form, probably conceived to be viewed from above, with a very rigid body whose mass is sensed immediately beneath the clothing.
 The clothes themselves are characterised by hard, sharp angled, quite flattened folds; all this conveys an archaic look to the work which is distant from the most up to date sculpture of the late Gothic and Humanistic Renaissance.

XIV/3 Polyptych of St. Eutizio
           Nicola di Ulisse da Siena (attr.)
           tempera on panel, XV century (1463/1477)
           cm 193 x 261
           from the abbey of St. Eutizio di Preci (PG)

The painting comes from the abbey of Saint Eutizio in Val Castoriana, from where it was taken in 1884 because of numerous thefts which had taken place in the area at the time.
The rich carved and gilded frame is of late Gothic taste, most certainly redone, and unfortunately lacks the predella and part of the crowning.
It surrounds paintings of Saints Placido, Spes, Benedetto and Fiorenzo with panels above depicting the four Evangelists.
The central arch, with the deep-set frame, used to surround a niche which probably contained a statue of Saint Eutizio.
The polychromatic sculpture is currently present in the Abbey and shows the saint seated at a desk in the act of taking a hair- shirt out of the reliquary.
A late 16th century document has however led to a hypothesis suggesting that the centre of the polyptych contained an image of the Madonna signed by Nicola da Siena in 1472, now lost.
The work was donated to the Abbey by Abbot Benedetto Marini and celebrates Spes and Fiorenzo who, according to tradition, together with Eutizio founded the primitive hermitage settlement between the 5th and 6th centuries (still witnessed by the presence of grottos next to the monastic complex and in the surroundings- see panel in room III) around which the powerful abbey arose; the hermits of Val Castoriana are depicted together with the founder of western monasticism, Benedetto da Norcia, and his disciple, Placido.
The author of the painting has been identified as the Sienese artist, Nicola di Ulisse da Siena, who also painted the Crucifix for the Abbey of Saint Eutizio, the risen Christ on a panel now in the Museo della Castellina di Norcia and numerous other frescoes and panels in the Appenine area between Marche and Umbria.
Nicola, after initial activity in his hometown, is documented in Norcia in 1442 where he worked for the church of Saint Agostino together with Bartolomeo di Tommaso from Foligno, Andrea Delitio, Luca di Lorenzo d’Alemagna and Giacomo di Corrado da Ragusa.
These artists moved around central Italy as far as San Severino and the area of Ascoli and Abruzzo spreading painting, in one respect associated  with an archaising taste and an emphasis on late Gothic decoration but at the same time sensitive to experimentation in the Tuscan Renaissance language, which gave rise to a particular figurative style that was later defined by 20th century critics as ‘Eccentric Renaissance’.

XIV/4 Triptych of S. Maria delle Grazie: (Madonna delle Grazie between the
Virgin with the Child and Saint John Baptist)
           Nicolò di Liberatore called Alunno
           (Foligno, news 1454-1502)
           tempera on wood panel, 1475 circa
           cm 125 x 112
           Monteluco di Spoleto, church of Santa Maria

The triptych was located on the main altar of the church of on Monteluco.
The mountain of Spoleto hosted a congregation of Anchorite since the V century, traditionally founded by the Syrian hermit Saint Isaac, who leaded the Benedictine abbey of.
By the end of the XV century, the see of the congregation passed to the hermitage of.
With the French occupation (1798),  the  hermit  congregation  was suppressed and all its goods were given to the Hospital of San Carlo degli Esposti.
The triptych remained in the church of Monteluco, where it was mentioned by Mariano Guardabassi (1872) with reference to the “fulginate school of the XV century”.
The triptych arrived to the art gallery in 1921.
It was published the same year by Umberto Gnoli, who recognised the hand of Niccolò di Libratore, helped in this case by Pietro di Giovanni Mazzaforte.
The attribution to Nicolò Alunno has been confirmed by subsequent studies thanks to the close links with the known activities of the painter from Foligno during the period between the seventh and the eighth decades of the XV century, especially with the polyptych of Brera Art Gallery, in Milan that comes form S. Francesco di Cagli (1465).
The hand of Ugolino di Gisberto da Bevagna has been recognised in the panel with Saint John Baptist that has a scarcer quality with respect to the other two panels; he appears aside Alunno since 1458.
During the XV century, the intercession of the “Madonna delle Grazie” was invoked for protection against the plague.