Fabriano

Fabriano, Gentile da: see Gentile da Fabriano.

Fabriano, town (1991 pop. 28,721), in the Marche, central Italy, in the Apennines. It is an agricultural and industrial center. Paper has been made there since the 13th cent. The local school of painting, founded by Allegretto Nuzi in the 14th cent., had Gentile da Fabriano as its best-known figure.

orig. Gentile di Niccolò di Massio

(born circa 1370, Fabriano, Papal States—died 1427, Rome) Italian painter. He was probably trained in the Lombardy region. In 1409 he was commissioned to decorate the Doges' Palace in Venice with historical frescoes, now lost. His most important fresco cycle, also destroyed, was in the church of St. John Lateran in Rome. His major surviving painting is the celebrated Strozzi Altarpiece (1423), featuring The Adoration of the Magi. Its combination of naturalism and rich ornamentation influenced Italian artists throughout the century, notably Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli, and established Gentile as one of Italy's greatest proponents of the International Gothic style. He was the most important Italian painter of the first quarter of the 15th century.

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Fabriano is a town and comune of Ancona province in the Italian region of the Marche, at , at 325 m (1066 ft) above sea-level. It lies in the Esino valley 44 km (27 mi) upstream and SW of Jesi; and 15 km ENE of Fossato di Vico and 36 km (22 mi) E of Gubbio (both in Umbria). According to the 2003 census, Fabriano's population was 30,300: its location on the main highway and rail line from Umbria to the Adriatic make it a mid-sized regional center in the Apennines.

History

Fabriano appears to have been founded in the early Middle Ages by the inhabitants of a small Roman town 5 km (3 mi) south at Attiggio (Latin Attidium), of which some slight remains and inscriptions are extant. Fabriano itself was one of the earliest places in Europe to make high-quality paper on an industrial scale, starting in the 13th century, and the town even today has a reputation for fine watermarked paper. This led to Fabriano's prosperity in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and was also one of the factors that led to the establishment of nearby Foligno in Umbria as the earliest printing center in Italy in the late 15th century.

Main sights

Fabriano's wealth and commitment to the fine arts in the late medieval period have left it with many monuments.

Churches

• The Cathedral of St. Venantius (14th century, rebuilt in 1607-1617). From the Baroque restoration are the stucco decoration of the interior and the canvasses by Gregorio Preti, Salvator Rosa, Giovan Francesco Guerrieri, Giuseppe Puglia and Orazio Gentileschi. To the original Cathedral belong the polygonal apse, the cloister and the St. Lawrence Chapel, with frescoes from of Allegretto di Nuzio (c. 1360). Also important are the frescoes with histories of the Holy Cross by the Folignate Giovanni di Corraduccio (1415).
• San Domenico
• Sts. Blaise and Romuald
• Sant'Onofrio
• St. Philip
• The Benedictine Abbey
• Sant'Agostino
• St. Catherine
• Collegiata of St. Nicholas
• Santa Maria del Piangato
• St. Benedict
• Oratory of the Gonfalone

Other buildings

• Palazzo del Podestà (1255) built in white stone from Vallemontagnana and subsequently modified several times. It has a characteristical bridge structure, a memory of the stream which once flew under it. The central arcade has frescoes from the 13th-14th centuries portraying warriors and an enigmatic Wheel of Fortune moved by a feminine figure.
• Sturinalto Fountain (1285), designed by Jacopo di Grondolo, also author of the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia.
• Communal Palace (c. 1350, rebuilt in 1690). It was the residence of the Chiavelli family, lords of the city until 1435. In the court is a lapidarium with fragments of buildings of the ancient Roman cities of Attidium (Attiggio), Tuficum (Borgo Tufico) and Sentinum (Sassoferrato).
• The former Hospital of St. Mary of Good Jesus (1456)
• Loggiato of St. Francis (c. 1450)
• Vasari Portico (1316)
• Museum of Paper

Famous natives of Fabriano

Gentile da Fabriano, 15th century painter, whose most famous work, an oil painting of the Epiphany, is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Fractions

Campodonico, Serradica, Cancelli, Melano, Marischio, San Donato, Bastia, Vallina, Cupo, Nebbiano, Collegiglioni, Attiggio, Collamato, Argignano, San Michele, Albacina, Borgo Tufico, Moscano, Poggio San Romualdo, San Giovanni, Castelletta, Vigne, S. Elia, Precicchie, Valleremita, Campodiegoli, Grotte, Marenella, Coccore, Cacciano.

External links

• Official Site
• Museo della Carta (Paper making museum)
• Mapquest - Fabriano
• Bill Thayer's site

(Incorporates text from Bill Thayer's Gazetteer of Italy, by permission.)