The unique opportunity to admire Perugino’s altarpiece in Fano up close continues until September 15th, exceptionally displayed at eye level. The return to the city of the Durante Altarpiece, a work of identity for Fano, also known as the Fano Altarpiece, has aroused great interest after a wonderful restoration carried out by a laboratory of excellence, such as the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence. The exhibition-dossier “Pietro Perugino in Fano. Primus pictor in orbe” is set up in the Morganti room of the Palazzo Malatestiano. The notable appreciation from the public and critics and the numerous requests for visits have signed the extension for the next few months.
The exhibition, curated by Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari with Emanuela Daffra, is promoted by the Municipality of Fano, in collaboration with the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and the ABAP Superintendence for the provinces of Ancona and Pesaro and Urbino, with the contribution of the Marche Region. The organization is by Maggioli Cultura e Turismo.
The exhibition received great consensus and attention from the media. Attendance at the exhibition has always recorded good growth, coming both from the local area and from outside the region as a cultural tourism stop. The extension will allow many other tourists and citizens to be able to admire the three parts of the altarpiece, including the view of the back of the central panel which has significant annotations.
‘Primus pictor in orbe’: ‘first painter in the world’, this is how Perugino is described in the contract of 1488 which took him to work in Fano where he would create two eminent works: the Madonna with the child on the throne and the saints John the Baptist, Ludovico di Toulouse, Francis, Peter, Paul and the Magdalene, known as the Durante Altarpiece, and the Annunciation.
The exhibition-dossier also displays accounts of the exceptional restoration and fundamental comparisons, thanks to digital reproductions. In particular, the one with the so-called ‘twin altarpiece’, created for the main altar of the church of the Observants of Senigallia. A captivating comparison, with didactic and scientific elements of extraordinary importance, which take us inside the great artistic workshops of the time.
New to the exhibition is the publication of an educational notebook, created with the contribution of Confindustria Pesaro Urbino – Culture Committee. It is a children’s guide with original dedicated content, information, curiosities and games of various kinds on the restored altarpiece, available free of charge at the entrance to the exhibition for all families.
The official catalog of the exhibition will also be published shortly.
The epochal restoration, carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence, has brought the altarpiece back to its splendor and has allowed us to deepen the study of Perugino’s work, through an extensive campaign of diagnostic, radiographic, photographic and multispectral investigations and of the examination of the artefacts on the reverse, by a multidisciplinary working group of specialized restorers, art historians, scientific experts and photographers.
