Artist's biography
Pietro Paolo Agabiti was born in Sassoferrato, in the province of Ancona, in 1465 or 1470. A follower of Cima da Conegliano and influenced by Alvise Vivarini, in 1497 he completed the first of his works known to us, the Madonna in trono (the Virgin enthroned), now on display at the Civic Museums of Padua. In a document of the Municipality of Serra de' Conti, Agabiti is mentioned in a violent episode, and it was maybe to avoid jail that he left Sassoferrato, voluntarily choosing exile. He maybe moved to Romagna, then to Veneto. In any case, in 1496 he was in Jesi and in 1510 again in his home-town, where one year later he painted the Crucifixion and in 1524 the Saint Benedict. In 1531 he retired to a Franciscan convent in Cupramontana, where he died around 1540.Agabiti was not just a painter. He also produced works in terracotta, so much so that in the past some of his works were erroneously attributed to the more famous Della Robbia. His peculiar characteristic is the recurrent presence of slithering animals such as lizards and snails, underlining the constant presence of evil.