Palazzo Vitelli, which houses the municipal art gallery inside, reopened to the public in 1995, is located in the center of Città di Castello, near the city walls, on via della Cannoniera.
The sober Renaissance architecture of the building is enriched on the facade facing the garden by elegant monochromes by Cristoforo Gherardi, probably designed by Giorgio Vasari, and by a porch with an overlying loggia, inside which the sculpture collection is accommodated, including a group of terracotta works by Andrea Della Robbia.
Part of the decorative apparatus of the interior rooms is also attributed to Gherardi, who was joined in the work by Cola dell’Amatrice.
Divided into twenty-six rooms, with additional exhibition spaces dedicated to temporary exhibitions, the art gallery includes works from the 14th to the 20th century, most of which were acquired by public ownership following the post-unification state confiscations. They testify to the artistic vitality of the area, at the center of important communication routes and cultural exchanges between different areas, with notable works by mostly foreign artists: Raphael, Luca Signorelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea Della Robbia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Antonio Vivarini, Raffaellino del Colle, Pomarancio, and Santi di Tito. In rooms inaugurated in 2006, three important donations are housed: the plaster cast collection of the Tifernate sculptor Elmo Palazzi (1871-1915), a collection of bronzes made by Bruno Bartoccini (1910-2001), and the Ruggieri collection, which includes about twenty paintings by Italian artists of the 20th century.
In the basement rooms, a large malacological collection can be visited free of charge.
The furniture displayed in the various rooms of the art gallery did not belong to the original furnishings of the palace but is part of the donation that Elia Volpi, responsible for the final restoration of the building and owner, made to the Municipality of Città di Castello in 1912.
Sixteenth-century tables of typically Umbrian workmanship or of conventual origin, series of chairs and armchairs from the 17th and 18th centuries are examples. The most valuable and interesting pieces are furnishings from churches and monasteries of Città di Castello. The group of Gothic stalls, carved and decorated with inlays, attributed to the workshop of the most famous Florentine carpenter of the early fifteenth century, Manno di Benincasa Mannucci, is interesting. The choir, the sacristy wardrobe, signed and dated 1501, and the large carved and gilded sarcophagus that held the body of Blessed Margherita, are among the documents of the very high quality of Umbrian manufacturing at the end of the sixteenth century.
Information about the Municipal Art Gallery of Città di Castello
Via della Cannoniera, 22/A
06012 Città di Castello (Perugia)
0758554202
pinacoteca@cdcnet.net
Source: MIBACT
