St John fresco cycle

The oratory at the west edge of the city centre of Urbino was erected c. 1393. Nothing is known about the commissioning of the paintings on the walls, a cycle depicting scenes from the life of St John the Baptist. The unidentified patron was probably from Rome from where the Salimbeni brothers, Lorenzo and Jacopo, came to Urbino for this commission. Stylistic analysis tells us that another painter was also engaged for the wall frescoes in the oratory. Antonio Alberti was responsible for the scenes from the St John cycle on the left-hand wall and on the inner façade.

The picture shows the view of the left-hand (east) long wall of the oratory with fragments of the St John cycle in the upper register. The scenic compartments are considered to be the work of Antonio Alberti.

The lower register of the east wall includes several votive pictures, separately framed but also painted on the wall, that must have been executed at roughly the same time as the cycle. The two votive paintings with an enthroned Madonna and saints were painted by the Salimbeni brothers.