Pinacoteca Comunale — Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera

Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera houses Città di Castello's municipal picture gallery, established there in 1912. The Renaissance palace is known for its sgraffito garden facade and a collection spanning medieval painting to twentieth-century sculpture, with works by Signorelli and the young Raphael.

Why it matters

Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera was built by the family that ruled the city on land associated with a cannon foundry. Its garden facade carries an elaborate sgraffito decoration. Since 1912, the palace has housed a municipal gallery formed largely from works that entered public ownership after the post-unification suppressions. Twenty-six rooms present works from the thirteenth century through modern sculpture.

What to notice

The garden facade is decorated with geometric sgraffiti, vases, masks, putti, cornucopias and birds around the Vitelli arms, executed by Cristofano Gherardi, called il Doceno, after designs by Giorgio Vasari. The staircase to the piano nobile has frescoes of Sibyls and Prophets, Apollo and the Muses, sages and emperors, attributed to Cola dell'Amatrice and Gherardi. The galleries include an enthroned Madonna with Child and six angels by the Master of Città di Castello, panels by Spinello Aretino, Neri di Bicci, Antonio Vivarini and Antonio Alberti da Ferrara, and works by Signorelli, including the Martirio di San Sebastiano of 1498. Raphael's Banner of the Holy Trinity, painted around 1500, is also displayed. The collection includes a 1420 reliquary of Saint Andrew's arm attributed to Lorenzo Ghiberti, and modern works by Elmo Palazzi, Bruno Bartoccini and Nuvolo.

Context and history

The palace was built in five campaigns between 1521 and the mid-1540s, reflecting the Vitelli family's close ties with Florence. Tradition links its completion to the 1531 marriage of Alessandro Vitelli and Angela Paola dei Rossi, recorded in an inscription. The name Cannoniera recalls a nearby artillery foundry. By the early twentieth century the palace had fallen into disrepair. Elia Volpi bought and restored it, then donated it to the municipality in 1912 for the picture gallery. Restorations in the 1980s by Alessandro Marabottini and Francesco Federico Mancini returned the rooms and palace to their earlier appearance.