Un percorso agostiniano per l’esordio di Raffaello a Città di Castello e i suoi echi seicenteschi
Laura Teza
The gonfalone by Raphael, now in the Pinacoteca Comunale Palazzo Vitelli alla Cannoniera in Città di Castello, was initially created for the local Confraternity of the Holy Trinity. The two canvases were painted as a double-sided processional banner: one shows the Trinity with Saints Sebastian and Roch, commonly considered as protectors against the plague; the other depicts the Creation of Eve, with God the Father who is about to pluck the rib from the sleeping Adam. Two angels fly above the scene. Newly discovered documents inform us that the sixteen lunettes in the sacristy were painted in 1633-1634 by Giovanni Battista Pacetti called the Sguazzino and show the childhood of Baby Jesus compared with that of Saint John the Baptist.
The Trinity and the Creation of Adam and Eve are very characteristic subjects of the writings of Saint Augustine. Especially in the De Trinitate and in the De Genesi ad litteram Augustine explains the main role of the Trinity in the Creation of Mankind. The salvific role of Christ and of the Virgin is exposed in dialectical opposition to Adam and Eve. The Virgin and her virginal conception of Jesus, in the same way, confirm her divine role in dialectical opposition with the human nature of Saint John the Baptist.