Alberto Sotio

The Mourning Virgin Mary by Alberto Sotio, fragment from the left side of a large painted crucifix, Walters Art Museum, between 1180 and 1190

Alberto Sotio (... - fl. 1187), also Alberto Sozio, was an Italian painter and illuminator of medieval art from Spoleto, active during the second half of the twelfth century.

Biography

Alberto Sotio is considered the central figure of the twelfth century Spoleto school of painting. The master's signature (with handwriting Sotio), was found on the crucifix of the Cathedral of Spoleto in the lower part of the figure of the skull of Adam under the image of Christ with the date 1187, and even further down and precisely on the end of the cross read a fragment of the text A. D. MCLXXXVII. M.... Opus. Alberto. Sotii .... A precious work and in perfect conservation. He is also attributed some of the frescoes in the former church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Spoleto. A fragment from a crucifix attributed to him is a rare example of an early Italian painting, executed on parchment affixed to a wooden panel. This suggests that he may have also worked as a manuscript illuminator. He is also credited with the fragment of the Madonna in Maestà, now preserved in the Pinacoteca di Brera.

References

• Gaeta, Wanda (1954). La Pittura a Spoleto nell'età romanica [Painting in Spoleto in the Romanesque age]. Rome.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Garrison, Edward B. (1949). Italian Romanesque Panel Painting: An Illustrated Index. Firenze: L.S. Olschki. p. 11.
• Gnoli, Umberto (1908). L'arte umbra alla Mostra di Perugia [Umbrian art at the Perugia Exhibition] (in Italian). Bergamo: Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche. p. 26.
• Gnoli, Umberto (1923). Pittori e miniatori nell'Umbria [Painters and illuminators in Umbria] (in Italian). Spoleto: C. Argentieri. p. 15.
• Guardabassi, Mariano (1872). "Spoleto". Indice-guida dei monumenti pagani e cristiani riguardanti l'istoria e l'arte esistenti nella provincia dell'Umbria [Index-guide of pagan and Christian monuments concerning history and art existing in the province of Umbria] (in Italian). Perugia: Boncompagni.
• Marle, Raimond van (1921). La peinture romaine au moyen-âge: son développement du 6ème jusquà̓ la fin du 13ème siècle [Roman painting in the Middle Ages: its development from the 6th to the end of the 13th century] (in French). Strasbourg: J. H. E. Heitz. p. 169.
• Marle, Raimond van (2013). The development of the Italian schools of painting. The Hague: M. Nijhoff. ISBN 978-94-015-0933-6.
• Sandberg-Vavalà, Evelyn (1939). "Alberto Sotio and His Group: Spoletan Painting in the Twelfth Century". The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery. 2: 8–17. ISSN 0083-7156. JSTOR 20168721.
• Sandberg-Vavalà, Evelyn (1985). La croce dipinta italiana e l'iconografia della Passione [The painted Italian cross and the iconography of the Passion] (in Italian). Verona: Multigrafica Ed. pp. 515, 613–19. ISBN 978-88-7597-084-0.
• Sansi, Achille (1869). Degli edifici e dei frammenti storici delle antiche età di Spoleto: notizie corredate di dodici tavole in rame [Of The Historical Buildings And Fragments Of The Ancient Spoleto Ages] (in Italian). Foligno: Volumnia. A poca distanza sul lato destro della medesima via è la chiesa di S. GIOVANNI E PAOLO in cui conserva il celebra Crocifisso dipinto in pergamena distesa sulla tavola, ove si legge: A. D. MCLXXXVII. M.... Opus. Alberto. Sotii ... Nel sotterraneo (parte della chiesa primitiva) è un affresco di molto anteriore al risorgimento dell'arte, in cui è figurato il Martirio dei SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
  "Translation: A short distance on the right side of the same street is the church of S. GIOVANNI E PAOLO in which it preserves the famous Crucifix painted in parchment lying on the table, where we read: A. D. MCLXXXVII. M .... Opus. Alberto. Sotii ... In the basement (part of the primitive church) is a fresco much earlier than the Risorgimento of art, in which the Martyrdom of SS. Giovanni and Paolo.
• Toesca, Pietro (1927). Storia dell'arte italiana: I. Il medioevo [History of Italian Art, I, The Middle Ages] (in Italian). Vol. 1 (1 ed.). Torino: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese. pp. 931, 1014, 1025.
• Venturi, Adolfo (1907). Storia dell'Arte Italiana (in Italian). Vol. 5. Milano: Hoepli. p. 3.