The Annunciation – Church of Santa Maria Nuova – Fano
The work was commissioned to Perugino by Donna Fiumana, Galeotto Piccione’s daughter, guardian of the Metauro Bridge where the first settlement of the Minor Observants friars was located; the altarpiece was conceived for the new church, completed in 1484, dedicated to Santa Maria Nuova in San Lazzaro.
Thanks to a will dating back to 1489, it is possible to know that at that date the works of embellishment of the chapel of the Annunciation had been completed, so Perugino was certainly in Fano: between May 13 and June 26 the ambassadors of the Municipality of Orvieto joined him in order to establish how the Chapel of San Brizio should have been decorated.
When the Minors friars left to move to another church within the walls of Fano, dedicated to Santa Maria Nuova, they brought the work with them.
The composition of the painting follows a consolidated scheme, already used also for the Pietà degli Ingesuati, and that he will propose again in another altarpiece realized in Fano as well.
The work is preserved in the church of Santa Maria Nuova.
