The Altar of Corpus Domini in Urbino: Paolo Uccello, Joos Van Ghent, Piero della Francesca

Abstract

By the year 1474, when Federico da Montefeltro became Duke of Urbino, the city's Confraternity of Corpus Domini had an imposing new painting for the high altar of its church. This was Joos Van Ghent's monumental Communion of the Apostles (Fig. 1), with its predella depicting a Miracle of the Host by Paolo Uccello (Fig. 2). The commission was one of outstanding importance to the community since the confraternity was the major religious organization of the town at the time and, as we shall see, its functions included activities and events with broad civic implications. The altarpiece remained in the church of Corpus Domini on the Pian di Mercato until 1703, when the late Gothic structure was demolished. It was then transferred to the nearby church of Sant’ Agata. At an unknown date the predella went to the Collegio dei R. P. Scolopi, next to Sant’ Agata, from which it was moved in 1861 to its present location in the Palazzo Ducale. The Communion panel followed in 1881. The altar was originally set in a single gold frame that has disappeared. Today the two portions are displayed on adjacent walls of the same room in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino.1

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