S. Niccolò in Matigge:
The Interior

Matigge is not a big place and its church isn't fancy: it's just a place where people have been going to pray for 800 years; and as with countless other small churches in Italy, the frescoes on the walls are not so much decoration — and certainly not showpieces by famous artists — as a sort of prayer painted rather than spoken.

The fresco we see above is an example; it's not the most successful painting in the church. Not only is the execution awkward, but the iconography as well: the artist, maybe under compulsion from S. Niccolò's parishioners, has crammed in too many saints, rather like the

At any rate, we have:

• SS. Sebastian and Rocco at the foot of the Cross, protectors against the plague, very commonly represented on votive frescoes thruout Italy;

• St. Clare balanced against St. Francis, locals both since Assisi is only about 20 km N of Matigge;

• and on our left the gangly, ascetic figure of St. Bernardino, who died in 1444 and was canonized in 1450: an actual portrait, to judge from depictions of him elsewhere in Umbria.

My candidate for the missing saint on the right is S. Nicola — not the bishop though: rather, the priest of Tolentino.

The peculiar colors are the result of serious water damage; but water won't transpose words:

Continuing our visit: