Cappella Baglioni (Pinturicchio Chapel), Spello

The Cappella Baglioni is a small jewel of a chapel inside the church of Santa Maria Maggiore on the main street of Spello, holding one of the finest Renaissance fresco cycles in Umbria. Commissioned by the canon Troilo Baglioni and painted in 1500 and 1501 by Pinturicchio at the height of his powers, the chapel's three walls and vault are covered with luminous, richly detailed scenes: the Annunciation, the Nativity with the Adoration of the Shepherds, and the twelve-year-old Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple, set among elaborate architecture, distant landscapes and crowds of finely dressed figures. In the Annunciation Pinturicchio painted his own self-portrait hanging as a small framed panel on the wall, a famous touch. The colours remain vivid, and the cycle is celebrated for its wealth of decorative and naturalistic detail. Beneath the frescoes the floor is laid with hand-painted majolica tiles from nearby Deruta dated 1566, a rare survival in its original setting. The chapel is enclosed by a railing, and the visit is short, usually thirty to forty-five minutes including the rest of the church, but it rewards slow looking with binoculars or the coin-operated lighting that illuminates the frescoes. Because the space is small and frequently visited, it can feel crowded when a tour group arrives, so quiet times are best. The church stands on Spello's main street, a short walk up from the Roman Porta Consolare, and the chapel carries a small admission while the church itself is free. The town lies on the slopes below Assisi in central Umbria.