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Sant'Ippolito e San Cassiano Asciano
Artist: Raffaello Sanzio
Year: 1504
Current location: Pieve di Sant'Ippolito
Original location: Pieve di Sant'Ippolito
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION
Detail of the large fresco existing in the ancient parish church of Sant'Ippolito, made by several hands.
This part, after long comparisons between experts, was unequivocally attributed to the young Raffaello Sanzio who, together with Pinturicchio, was in the area for the realization of the frescoes at the Piccolomini Library of the Cathedral of Siena.
It remains to be understood when and why two great artists of the time such as Pinturicchio and the young Raffaello stopped to make part of the fresco of this small parish church.
One of the partial answers found by Savelli lies in a Roman commission linked to the jubilee and that the parish church was located along the important Lauretan route, used by the two artists in their transfers from Perugia to Siena.
To what has been said, it should perhaps be added that, during the works at the Library, there was a sudden interruption of the great work, following the death of the client: Pope Pius III on 18 October 1503, not even a month after his installation in the Vatican.
It is certain that Pinturicchio, given the artistic and economic importance of the work in progress, did not abandon Siena and pending the resumption of the works that started a little over a year later, he accepted a series of minor commissions necessary for his momentary subsistence.
In this temporal and economic context of the two artists, their intervention could therefore be placed in the parish church of Sant'Ippolito. If this were the case, the dating of the work would be precisely identified in 1504 and not as previously hypothesized, around 1500.
Sant'Ippolito e San Cassiano