Cappella Baglioni

A family chapel off the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore in Spello contains Pinturicchio's frescoes of the Annunciation, Nativity and Disputa, painted in 1500–01, with four Sibyls on the vault.

Why it matters

Troilo Baglioni, prior of Spello's canonry, commissioned Pinturicchio to decorate his family's chapel. The result is a unified scheme of architecture, narrative scenes and vault figures. The chapel also reflects the Baglioni family's influence in Spello around 1500.

What to notice

The cycle covers three walls and the vault. The left wall holds the Annunciation, the central wall the Nativity, and the right wall the Disputa, in which twelve-year-old Christ debates with the doctors of the Temple. Troilo Baglioni appears in the latter scene as a prelate. Four Sibyls—the Eritrean, Tiburtine, Samian and European—sit in painted niches on the vault. Deruta maiolica tiles dated 1566 cover the floor, a later layer within the chapel.

Context and history

The commission dates to 1500, when Troilo Baglioni held the priorate of the canonry; the frescoes were completed in 1500–01. Pinturicchio, born Bernardino di Betto in Perugia, brought his narrative painting to the family’s chapel. The Baglioni family's influence in Spello lasted from the late fourteenth century to 1583. The chapel remains part of the collegiate church of Santa Maria Maggiore and is managed by its parish within the Diocese of Foligno.