Located in the Porta Eburnea district, outside the city walls, the church of San Prospero represents an extremely important example of thirteenth-century art, because inside the oldest frescoes in the city of Perugia can be admired.
The anonymous façade does not make one suspect what treasure is hidden inside, in fact until the last century the presence of this church was practically unknown; in its history it has undergone multiple renovations until it was used as a barn.
As soon as you enter, your gaze is captured by the beautiful 8th century marble ciborium, but it is by looking to the right, where a large arch opens through which you enter a small chapel, that you can admire the oldest cycle of frescoes. of the city of Perugia; the date and signature of the performer are reported in a scroll on the counter-façade of the chapel which reads: “In the name of the Lord Amen. In the year of the Lord 1225, under XIII, in the time of Messer Honorius, Pope III and Messer Federico Emperor, this work was done in the time of Don Ranaldo, priest of San Prospero, in the month of October. I Bonamico P. did it.”
All medieval art historians agree that Bonamico’s frescoes are of extraordinary importance for the history of art. Pietro Scarpellini coined the definition of “sermo rustìcus” or simple and immediate representation with simple and elementary features.
Hosts of saints and prophets unfold in different registers, created with simple and serious lines, with bodies of disharmonious proportions covered by robes with rigid and fixed drapes. Bonamico breaks with the Byzantine tradition and, with simple immediacy, brings his figures closer to reality . The row of the central register opens with a recognizable Magdalene with long hair, rendered with sparse simplicity to the point of recalling Rastafarian threads, the first representation of this iconography of the saint in the West, then Margaret of Antioch, Bridget of Sweden and also Saint Illuminata of Todi (watch the video here!).
Saint Prospero, bishop of Reggio Emilia, appears next to the judging archangel Michael and following the parable of Lazarus and the rich Epulone, the figures of Saint Herculaneum and Saint John the Baptist then stand out.
Benedetta Tintillini
