View of the Oratory

1416 · Oratory of San Giovanni Battista, Urbino

religious

The picture shows the view of the right-hand (west) long wall of the oratory with the St John cycle and the altar wall with the Crucifixion. The St John cycle, of which twelve scenes are well preserved and five survive in fragments, completely covers the long right-hand (west) wall and is presented in two registers. The cycle begins in the upper left, near the Crucifixion on the south (altar) wall, with the Annunciation to Zacharias, and continues, moving left to right, to the end of the upper register.

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About the Artist

Lorenzo Salimbeni

1374 – 1420

Italian painter. Biographical data regarding the brothers Lorenzo and Jacopo Salimbeni (c. 1370/80-after 1426) are sparse. The most precise information we have is their few surviving works, which are signed. Between 1400 and 1416 they were quite active as fresco painters in the region of the Marches. Their most accomplished work is the St John cycle in the Oratory of San Giovanni Battista in Urbino. Lorenzo was apparently the older of the two. His first signed altarpiece, The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine, is in the Pinacoteca Comunale, San Severino Marche. His most extensive cycle of wall paintings is in the crypt of the church of San Lorenzo in Doliolo, also in San Severino. He also depicted the story of Sts Vittorino and Severino in the old cathedral at San Severino. His brother Jacopo was doubtless a collaborator in all of these works. Both of the Salimbeni conform in style to the school of Gentile da Fabriano, who in fact belonged to the same generation. It would appear that they had direct knowledge of his work. Moreover, both must have been very familiar with the painting of Siena, for it is possible to see clear parallels with the work of Bartolo di Fredi.

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