San Marino · 500th anniversary of the death of Luca Signorelli

Issue date5 Sept 2023

Total mintage58,600

EU maximum56,000

Editions2

Edge lettering2 ★ × 6, alternately upright/inverted

InscriptionR / SIGNORELLI / SAN MARINO / 1523 / 2023 / MB

DesignerMarta Bonifacio

mintInstituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, Roma

Issue occasion

The coin commemorates the 500th anniversary of the death of Luca Signorelli. The design features an angel from his fresco “Il Paradiso” in the Cappella di San Brizio in Orvieto Cathedral (Duomo di Orvieto). The design is completed by the years “1523” and “2023” and the inscriptions “SIGNORELLI” and “SAN MARINO”.

The design

The coin motif is an angel from the fresco “Il Paradiso” by Luca Signorelli in the Capella de San Brizio in the cathedral of Orvieto. To the left of the image is the letter “R”, identifying the mint of Rom. Along the inner edge of the coin, the inscription “SIGNORELLI” appears at the lower left, while the issuing country “SAN MARINO” is shown on the right. The years “1523” and “2023” are indicated at the top in the centre, while the initials of the coin designer Marta Bonifacio, “MB”, appear at the bottom.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the outer ring of the coin.

Background on the topic

Luca Signorelli was born around 1450 in Cortona in Tuscany and died there in 1523. He belongs to the Italian Renaissance and worked mainly in central Italy, including Tuscany, Umbria and the Marche. His painting was influenced by Piero della Francesca. Characteristic features are clearly structured pictorial spaces and a precise depiction of the human body, particularly in dynamic and heavily foreshortened poses. Signorelli also participated in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel (Sixtinische Kapelle) in Rome.

His most extensive surviving work is located in the Cappella di San Brizio, which was originally called Cappella Nova. It is a side chapel of the Dom von Orvieto. Fra Angelico and his assistants had already painted parts of the vault there in the mid-15th century. Signorelli continued the decoration from 1499 onwards and created a coherent fresco cycle about the last things of man.

The subjects depicted include the preaching and deeds of the Antichrist, the end of the world, the resurrection of the dead, the damned in Hell and the blessed in Heaven. The scenes combine Christian ideas of the afterlife with an engagement with anatomy and physical movement typical of the Renaissance. Numerous unclothed figures are shown in complex twists, falls and foreshortenings. The cycle is therefore regarded as an important reference point for the development of monumental figure painting in the early 16th century.

The Paradise depicted on the coin belongs to the section showing the blessed. Angels guide and accompany the resurrected people there. The individual motif thus refers not only to the painter, but also to the broader pictorial programme of death, judgment and redemption.

The round anniversary provided a specific occasion to commemorate Signorelli as a representative of the Italian Renaissance. San Marino regularly features people and works from the art and cultural history of the Italian sphere on its commemorative coins. A particular biographical connection between Signorelli and the Republic is not the main focus.