Church of St. Francis – Cagli

The 14th-century pictorial cycle in the apse of the church of St. Francis in Cagli came to light fortuitously during consolidation work on the building. The paintings appeared to be concealed by a modest eighteenth- and nineteenth-century vaulting and coats of scialbatura. In view of the high artistic prestige of the paintings, attributed to the master Mello da Gubbio, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage in a very short time worked to unearth and restore this pictorial cycle. The restoration involved a challenging task of recovering, cataloging and reassembling fragments of pictorial plaster recovered in the extrados of the vault.