Nobile Collegio del Cambio

The Nobile Collegio del Cambio in Perugia preserves the Renaissance seat of the city's money-changers, including an audience hall decorated with a fresco cycle by Perugino.

Why it matters

The guild's rooms form an unusually complete record of a Renaissance professional corporation, combining civic administration, ceremonial space and religious devotion. Perugino's frescoes and the program devised by the humanist Francesco Maturanzio reflect the intellectual culture of late fifteenth-century Perugia.

What to notice

In the Sala dell'Udienza, a vaulted ceiling carries planetary allegories, while the walls combine Christian virtues with prophets, sibyls and figures from classical antiquity. Perugino's painted self-portrait appears among the figures. The gilded terracotta Justice, dated 1492 and attributed to Benedetto da Maiano, and the carved counter by Domenico del Tasso also belong to the room. The adjoining chapel contains frescoes by Giannicola di Paolo.

Context and history

The guild built its seat inside the Palazzo Pubblico between 1452 and 1457. The consuls resolved in 1496 to have the audience hall painted, and Perugino's work was completed around the end of the fifteenth century, with a final payment recorded in 1507. Maturanzio devised the iconographic program, which presents concord between Christian and classical wisdom. The chapel dedicated to John the Baptist was built between 1506 and 1509 and decorated by Giannicola di Paolo from 1513.