Ottaviano Nelli

Nelli and workshop, fresco cycle of the life of Saint Augustine, Liberating prisoners, in Sant'Agostino, Gubbio, c. 1430–40. Nelli and workshop, fresco cycle of the Life of the Virgin, 1410–15, San Francesco, Gubbio. Ottaviano Nelli (1375–1444?) was an Italian painter of the early Quattrocento. Nelli primarily painted frescoes, but also panel paintings. He had several pupils and two painters were influenced by him.

Biography He was born in Gubbio in Umbria to the painter Martino Nelli, and was active there and in Perugia (1400), Urbino, Assisi, and Foligno. Among his pupils was his brother Tommaso, Domenico Di Cecco di Baldi, Giovanni Pintali, Giacomo Di Bedo, and Ubaldo Di Matteo.

Nelli was "consul" (a local government representative) for the Sant'Andrea district of Gubbio in 1440 and during the same year, the priors of Perugia had him paint the coat of arms of the duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti with the help of Francesco d'Antonio and Christoforo di Nicoluccio from Perugia. His wife Balda died sometime before 1458.

Nelli and his workshop primarily painted frescoes, many of them churches in Gubbio and the nearby cities in Umbria. He painted some easel paintings on panel, but they are rare. One of his easel paintings can be found in the church of Sant'Agostino, Gubbio, but it has been almost entirely repainted. A second similar easel painting is at Montefalco. Austen Henry Layard wrote that Nelli's easel paintings were "far inferior to his works in fresco".

Works

Madonna del Belvedere (1403), Church of Santa Maria Nuova, Gubbio. Life of the Virgin (1408 - 1413 circa), Fresco cycle, Church of San Francesco, Gubbio. Madonna del latte e angeli, Urbino, Oratorio dell'Umiltà. Life of the Virgin (1424), Fresco cycle, Foligno, Chapel of Palazzo Trinci. Madonna del latte (post 1427), Urbino, Oratory of Santa Croce. Panels from a polyptych, of before 1430, now divided (with at least one missing): Nativity of Christ, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass. Saint Jerome, Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon Circumcision of Christ and Mystical Marriage of Saint Francis, Pinacoteca, Vatican Life of Saint Augustine, fresco cycle, c. 1430-40, Sant'Agostino, Gubbio Madonna della misericordia e santi, Urbino, Church of the Madonna dell'Homo Last Judgement, fresco, Church of Sant'Agostino, Gubbio. Madonna, fresco, Church of Santa Maria della Piaggiola, Gubbio