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 portico with an above loggia, inside which the sculpture collection found its place, including a core of terracotta works by Andrea Della Robbia.
Part of the decorative apparatus of the interior rooms is attributed to the same Gherardi, with involvement also by Cola dell’Amatrice in its realization.
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 into public ownership following the post-unification expropriations. They testify to the artistic vitality of the area, at the center of important communication routes and cultural exchanges between different regions, with fine 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 gallery of the Tifernate sculptor Elmo Palazzi (1871-1915), a collection of bronzes made by Bruno Bartoccini (1910-2001), and the Ruggieri collection, which gathers about twenty paintings by Italian artists of the 20th century.
In the basement rooms, a large malacological collection is freely visitable.
The furniture displayed in the various rooms of the art gallery was not part of the original furnishing of the palace but is part of the donation that Elia Volpi, responsible for the last restoration of the building and its owner, made to the Municipality of Città di Castello in 1912.
Sixteenth-century tables of typically Umbrian craftsmanship or from convent provenance, series of chairs and armchairs from the 17th-18th centuries are examples. The most valuable and interesting pieces are the furnishings coming from churches and monasteries in Città di Castello. The group of Gothic stalls, carved and decorated with marquetry, is attributed to the workshop of the most famous Florentine woodworker of the early 15th century, Manno di Benincasa Mannucci. The choir, the sacristy cabinet, signed and dated 1501, and the large carved and gilded sarcophagus, which held the body of Blessed Margherita, are among the documents of the very high quality of Umbrian craftsmanship at the end of the 16th 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
