The ''Sant'Onofrio Altarpiece'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Luca Signorelli, housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in the

Cathedral of Perugia Perugia Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana di San Lorenzo; Duomo di Perugia) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Perugia, Umbria, central Italy, dedicated to Saint Lawrence. Formerly the seat of the bishops and archbishops of Perugia, it has b ...

, Italy. It was painted for the church in 1484, commissioned by bishop Jacopo Vagnucci, a native of

Cortona Cortona (, ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic centre of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo. Toponymy Cortona is derived from Latin Cortōna, and from Etruscan 𐌂𐌖𐌓� ...

, Signorelli's birthplace.

Description

The scene portrayed is a

Holy Conversation In art, a (; plural: ''sacre conversazioni''), meaning holy (or sacred) conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of saint ...

, with a high throne where the Virgin and Child sit, placed over a Classical-style pedestal and crowned by a small engraved arch featuring a festoon with vegetables. Mary is reading a Bible, while Jesus holds a white lily, symbolizing her virginity and purity. Over a gilded step are St. John the Baptist and St. Lawrence, surmounted by two flying angels. On the marble step below, Signorelli portrayed a sitting angel playing a

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...

, perhaps a homage to elements typical of the contemporary Venetian school (such as the

San Cassiano Altarpiece The ''San Cassiano Altarpiece'' is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, dating to 1475–1476. Commissioned for the church of San Cassiano in Venice, it was disassembled in the early 17th-century and the reunited cen ...

by Antonello da Messina). The angel resembles one painted by Signorelli in the Basilica della Santa Casa, at Loreto, a few years earlier. Standing on the foreground pavement are St. Onuphrius and St. Herculanus, the patrons of Perugia. Influences in the style of the painting include Ercole de' Roberti's Santa Maria di Porto Altarpiece, Donatello and

Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest. Biography Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orp ...

(in the fierce figure of Lawrence) and, in the figure of Herculanus, that of Piero della Francesca's St. Augustine.

Sources

* {{15C-painting-stub Paintings by Luca Signorelli 1484 paintings Paintings of the Madonna and Child Paintings of John the Baptist Angels in art Paintings in Perugia Altarpieces Books in art Musical instruments in art