Since 1994 the Communal Picture Gallery has been housed in Palazzo dei Canonici, a 16th-century building adjacent to the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Its collection is closely related to the territory. The works exhibited belong to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore and the Municipality of Spello, others were acquired from private collections.
The itinerary covers eight rooms in which the works are arranged in chronological order. This criterion has been adopted in order to reveal the links that existed over the centuries between Spello and the other Umbrian art centres, starting with Spoleto and continuing with Perugia and Foligno.
Works date back to the 13th and 18th centuries, particular mention should be made of the diptych by Cola Petruccioli, the Virgin and Child attributed to Andrea d’Assisi and the triptych painted by the Maestro dell’Assunta di Amelia. . It was dismantled at an imprecise time and the individual elements were reused as separate paintings for the altars in the collegiate church.
The central panel, which depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned, was presumably also the work of the Maestro dell’Assunta di Amelia. However, only the throne seems to be largely original. The figure of the Madonna and Child was repainted in ca. 1500, a project that has been attributed to Andrea d’Assisi, known as l’Ingegno. The present frame of the central panel was probably executed at the time of the over-painting. This central panel and one of the predella panels were stolen in 1970, but they were fortunately recovered in 1992.
Also deserving of mention are the precious Gothic and Baroque metal artefacts and the Medieval and Renaissance wooden sculptures.