Tour of the National Gallery of Umbria and Collegio del Cambio.
The National Gallery of Umbria is a collection of artworks located in the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia. Its collection consists of works by the greatest representatives of the Umbrian school of painting, dated from the 13th to the 19th centuries, but most of the paintings were created in the 14th to 16th centuries. The entire collection of artworks is housed in 23 galleries of the Palazzo.
The collection began in the mid-16th century with the establishment of the Perugia Academy of Drawing. At that time, the Academy was located in the Olivetan monastery of Convento degli Olivetani in Montemorcino, where the first paintings and drawings were exhibited. With the closure of most religious institutions during Napoleon’s rule, and their subsequent restoration after the unification of Italy, most works of Italian art ceased to be owned by the church and became state property. In 1863, the municipal painting collection was named after Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino, one of the greatest Italian artists. However, the issue of constructing a separate building for the gallery was not resolved until 1873, when the third floor of the Palazzo dei Priori in the very center of Perugia was allocated for this purpose. In 1918, the pinacoteca, which had increased its holdings through numerous acquisitions and donations, became the Vannucci Gallery, and its patron was the King of Italy himself.
Since the Gallery is located in the Palazzo dei Priori, there is an opportunity to see the interiors of the palace, its high and spacious halls, and the Prior’s chapel with frescoes depicting views of Perugia from the 15th century.
There are works by Duccio di Boninsegna, Gentile da Fabriano, Beato Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Nerocino, Pinturicchio.
On the first floor of the palace, you can visit the “Collegio del Cambio” and admire the monumental frescoes by Perugino and his students, among whom was the young Raphael. The “Collegio del Cambio” is nothing more than an ancient exchange office. Here, not only currency was exchanged, but also fresh gossip and business news. Bankers at that time were simpler and preferred to communicate not through secretaries, but by personally visiting such places.
Collegio del Cambio, one of the rooms of the Palazzo dei Priori, headquarters of one of the local guilds. The living room is beautifully decorated with numerous valuable works of art. In 1611, when it was rented by the legal guild, renovation work began, and the wooden products were made by a genius master named Giampiero Zuccari. There were other powerful guilds in Perugia, and it was their wealth that ensured that this palace and its halls turned into truly luxurious places with a lot of wood, frescoes, and terracotta statues. You can enter the Cambio through a long and narrow room known as the Legislative Hall. Then there is another room – the best of Renaissance art. The beauty: wood carving by Domenico del Tasso, wooden doors by Antonio Bencioveni, frescoes on the walls by Pietro Vannucci or Perugino, a side chapel dedicated to San Giovanni, with wood carvings and paintings.
