Church of Santa Maria Maggiore - Spello

The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore keep a chapel entirely frescoed by Pintoricchio on commission of Troilo Baglioni, between the late summer of 1500 and spring 1501. Into the chapel lies the artist’s self-portrait, a sort of provocative response to Pietro Vannucci’s self- portrait, called the Perugino, another great artist from Perugia: Bernardino figures with the face of three quarters, hollow features nearly suffering, but proud.

The frescoes of the chapel reminds to the Marian’s episodes according to a technique and a descriptive efficacy able to combine the strictness of space and the perspective of the 15th century with the taste and attention to detail, to anecdotal detail and to shades of colours which always surround the main theme: episodes of everyday life, clothes, hairstyles, decorations, floral and vegetable items.So, the “Annunciations” come out on the left, whose edges are scenes of daily life; to the bottom, the “Adoration of the shepherds” that suggests “the beast of the Magi”; to the right is located “the dispute of Jesus with the doctors”. On the vault are painted the Sibyls Tiburtina, Eritrea, Europea and Samia.