Trinity and Camaldolese saints

Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael)
fresco
1505-1508 ca

The upper portion of the Cappella di San Severo fresco was completed by Raphael between 1505 and 1508. The work was commissioned by the two heads of the San Severo monastery, Troilo Baglioni, already bishop of Perugia, and Cardinal Gabriele de’ Gabrielli, bishop of Urbino.

The unusual composition of this fresco, featuring saints seated upon floating clouds, prefigures Raphael’s comparable use of this feature in the Disputa del Sacramento fresco he painted in the Vatican rooms between 1509 and 1510. Jesus, partly clothed in purple robes is enthroned at the centre; above him the Dove of the Holy Spirit also represents the Camaldolese Order, higher still, thus completing the Holy Trinity, is God the Father, henceforth only recognisable by the book in his hand which is open to the letters representing the beginning and the end. (Alfa and Omega).

Flanking the three figures hover two angels, stylistically very close to both Perugino and Pinturicchio, and slightly higher two much-damaged cherubs, one faces forward while the other is shown from behind. Below the Trinity, to the right are the Benedictine saints: San Benedetto, founder of the order, a young San Mauro and San Placido; to the left are three Camaldolese saints, the founder San Romualdo as a bearded old man like Benedetto, San Benedetto da Benevento holding the palm signifying a martyred saint and San Giovanni di Genova, a Camaldolese abbot. The decision to show saints from both orders derives from the fact that the Camaldolese owners of the church and monastery followed the Rule of Saint Benedict: the complete name of the order is Congregazione camaldolese dell’Ordine di San Benedetto. 

At the end of 1508 Raphael was called to Rome by Pope Julius II where the burgeoning market for commissions in the capital kept him, despite repeated entreaties from the Monastero di San Severo monks to return and complete his fresco.