Oratorio di San Crescentino (Morra)

In the hamlet of Morra, between Città di Castello and Cortona, a rural oratory preserves the Flagellation and Crucifixion painted by Luca Signorelli, alongside other scenes completed by his workshop for a country confraternity.

Why it matters

The oratory stands in Morra, a few kilometres from Città di Castello on the old road across the Tuscan border. It was built in 1420 for the local confraternity of San Crescentino and enlarged to its present shape in 1507; both dates are inscribed on the façade. Luca Signorelli was then working in Città di Castello, and his workshop decorated the enlarged oratory. The Flagellation and Crucifixion are identified by scholars as works by the master himself.

What to notice

The building is a single rectangular hall under a trussed timber roof. On the right wall is the Flagellation, with carefully modelled figures of the tormentors; the diocesan museum's account compares its anatomical force to Michelangelo. Opposite, the Crucifixion reflects the influence of Piero della Francesca. Other scenes include the Entry into Jerusalem, the Doubting of Thomas, the Agony in the Garden and the Last Supper on one side, and the Deposition, Descent into Limbo and Resurrection on the other. At the high altar, a shell-shaped niche attributed to Signorelli shows the Redeemer between angels and saints; the side niches hold a Madonna della Misericordia and a Madonna di Loreto. Traces of late-Gothic frescoes survive in the old sacristy, the original 1420 oratory.

Context and history

The dedication recalls Crescentinus, a Roman soldier said to have been martyred in 303 under Diocletian. His confraternity at Morra is documented from 1264. The 1507 enlargement created the walls decorated by Signorelli's workshop; local tradition places the painter at Morra while travelling between Cortona and Città di Castello. Most scholars date the fresco cycle between 1507 and 1510. In 1973 Alberto Burri donated his Feltrinelli Prize for graphics to fund restoration of the building and its frescoes.