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| Impruneta, The Treasure of Santa Maria |
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| The Work of Museum |
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:: Cushion |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
15th century, before 1477 |
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:: The discovery of the sacred image of the Virgin |
| Florentine Sculptor,
Mid 15th century |
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:: Altar trappings composed of four candleholders and a cross bearer with a cross |
| Florentine Workshop,
Before 1632 |
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:: Antiphonary (previously called Vesperal 6) |
| Antonio di Girolamo di Ugolino,
1538-1539. |
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:: 1. Gradual (previously called Antiphonary I) |
| Lippo di Benivieni,
1315-1320 ca. |
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:: Basin and jug |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Datable as 1711 |
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:: Pyx |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
16th century |
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:: Processional cross |
| Lorenzo Ghiberti,
1425 ca. |
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:: Reliquary of St. Sixtus |
| Simone Pignoni,
Dated 1614 |
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:: Pyx |
| Cosimo Merlini,
1637 |
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:: Pair of votive vases |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Second quarter of the 17th century, datable as 1633 |
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:: Pax |
| Antonio di Salvi,
1515 |
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:: Little cape - image cover in canvas |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
1568 |
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:: Chasuble |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Early 18th century |
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:: Series of two tunicles |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
17th century |
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The Museum of the Treasure of Impruneta is situated in the rooms next
to the Church of Santa Maria, an ancient parish church of uncertain
date, though it probably already existed before the year 1000. The
origins of the church are linked to the legend of the miraculous
discovery of a painting of the Virgin Mary, which we can first find
mentioned in the Chapters written by the parish priest Stefano
Buondelmonti in 1375. The story is also illustrated in a 15th century
marble bas-relief that once formed the altar frontal for the altar of
the Madonna and is now preserved in the so-called Museum of the
Treasury.
According to the legend, many centuries ago the inhabitants
of Impruneta decided to build a small temple dedicated to the Virgin,
but they found that they first had to resolve a miraculous event, for
the walls they built during the day, always fell down again during the
night.
The Madonna evidently did not approve of the selected site and so the
townspeople decided to entrust its choice to divine justice. A cart
full of building materials was harnessed to two oxen who were then
allowed to ramble freely around the countryside until, at a certain
point, they came to a halt and knelt down, thus indicating the most
suitable place to build the temple. A painting on wood of the image of
the Virgin was discovered during the work to build the church
foundations. According to the legend, it was an effigy painted by St.
Luke that St. Romulus, later Bishop of Fiesole, brought to Tuscany from
the Orient and then buried, in order to save it during the persecution
of the Christians. This ancient tradition is fundamental for fully
understanding the significance that the Sanctuary of Impruneta assumed
over the centuries.
The first certain information about the parish church dates back to the
11th century, the period in which, in the wake of the revival of the
economy and building trade, the older temple (of which no trace
remains) was replaced by a larger construction. A plaque in local grey stone fixed to the wall near the entrance to the
church is inscribed with the date of its consecration by Umberto di
Silva Candida, the papal legate of Pope Nicholas II, in January 1060.
The patrons of the new church were the Buondelmonti family, the great
feudal lords of the Greve and Pesa Valleys, who always considered
themselves its founders and maintained their links with the Basilica
until the family died out in the 18th century. Some ruins brought to the light during the post war restoration have
made it possible to determine the plan and dimensions of the ancient
Romanesque building which, much smaller than the present church, was
divided into a nave with two aisles, three semicircular apses and an
underground crypt.
The great devotion for Madonna and the ancient local worship of the
image preserved in Santa Maria at Impruneta became even stronger in the
mid 14th century, thanks to the economic crisis and the Black Death of
1348, and extended well past the borders of the parish as far as
Florence. This period marked the parish church's definite
transformation into a sanctuary and, as a result, it was reconstructed
completely in order to be able to accommodate the crowds of worshippers
who came there on pilgrimages. The design of new Gothic church was based on those for conventual
buildings, with one wide nave, and, in spite of many alterations, the
destruction and restoration in the centuries that followed, this 14th
century layout is what we still see today.
Important architectural alterations were carried out several decades
after the church was newly built, under Monsignor Antonio degli Agli, a
scholar and humanist, who was parish priest at the Church of Santa
Maria from 1439 to 1477 and later nominated Bishop of Fiesole and
Volterra. He was behind all the alterations in the 15th century, from
the second cloister to the two small twin temples inside the church
carried out by Michelozzo and decorated by Luca Della Robbia. He also
built the defensive ring of walls around the entire group of buildings,
thus transforming it into an impregnable fortress. The polygonal apse
and the two chapels on either side of the transept date instead from
the 16th century and were constructed on a commission from Andrea
Buondelmonti, who also had many objects of great artistic value created
for the church.
The church treasury was notably enriched during the 17th century. This
was mainly due to the organisation of the solemn procession that
carried the icon of the Madonna of Impruneta to Florence in May 1633 to
beg for the end of the plague that had been raging in the city since
1630. The infection ceased soon after and the fervent gratitude of the
devout for answering their prayers and bringing about this apparent
miracle, showered the church with a great many offerings and votive
gifts, some of them of great value.
New architectural works on the exterior of the building were started
immediately afterwards. The architect Gherardo Silvani built the
portico that today adorns the facade in 1634.
The miraculous Madonna of Impruneta was carried to Florence once more
in 1711, this time at the request of the Grand Duke Cosimo III, in the
hope that the divine intervention of the Madonna would save his son
Ferdinando. The boy did not survive his illness, in spite of the
spectacular procession that moved through the streets of the city
centre and was to bring many new and precious gifts to the Sanctuary of
Impruneta.
The church was radically transformed again in 1714 in the time of
Giovan Battista Casotti, then the parish priest. The interior was
restructured by architect Alessandro Saller who modelled it on the
Basilica of the SS. Annunziata in Florence. This was an architectural
intervention on a large scale, though it was almost totally cancelled
out by bombing in the Second World War. When the time came to restore
the church (which had been raised to a Basilica in 1925), it was
decided to restructure it according to its late Renaissance aspect,
partly to satisfy the prevailing tastes of the times, and partly
because it was impossible to recover the greater part of the Baroque
decorations.
The Museum is arranged in the rooms beside the Basilica and divided
into three main sections containing the illuminated manuscripts, works
in gold and silver, religious vestments and other furnishings connected
with its history. The section containing the silverware is hosted in
the Silvani Room, where many precious objects in silver and gold are on
display and usually grouped together in a uniform series. The 15th
century bas-relief illustrating the Discovery of the Image of the
Madonna, thus recalling the episode that gave origin to the worship of
the Madonna of Impruneta, takes pride of place on the left hand wall in
this room.
The most significant Renaissance pieces are arranged in the display
case opposite the entrance: a partially gilded and enamelled
processional cross in silver plate, attributed to Lorenzo Ghiberti
(1425 ca.), and carried out in around 1425; two paxes in silver showing
the Crucifixion and the Assumption of the Virgin with Christ in Pietà,
attributed to Antonio di Salvi and dated 1515, both commissioned for
the Basilica by the parish priest Andrea Buondelmonti; and a 16th
century pyx in gilded copper.
The most important artistic period to be represented by the art works
on display here however is the 17th century. These precious objects
include the reliquary of St. Sixtus carried out by the goldsmith Simone
Pignoni in 1614 and the silver pyx, dated 1637 and signed by Cosimo
Merlini, who decorated it with the Eucharistic symbols of bread and
wine. The contemporary altar trapping composed of four candle holders
and a cross in rock crystal, works of great quality, were made in the
Grand Ducal workshops in Florence and date from the first decades of
the 17th century.
The same workshops made the great reliquary cross in silver and rock
crystal that stands alone in a glass case on the right side of the
room. Made to contain two large fragments of the Holy Cross, it is
thought to have been carried out by Cosimo Merlini the Elder for the
Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria in 1620.
The precious votive vases in silver donated to the church by the
metropolitan clergy and some noble families at the time of the famous
procession in 1633 form another matching and unique group. The ebony
and silver Crucifix on the wall opposite, also carried out in the Grand
Ducal workshops, dates from the same period. It is yet another
testimonial of the close relations that existed between the Medici
family and the Church of Impruneta, to which the reigning family was
particularly devoted.The exhibits also include several other objects in silver dating from
the 18th century.
An elegant bowl with a matching jug, decorated with
phytomorphic plant volutes and acanthus leaves, is displayed beside a
collection of church furnishings, formed of chalices, pyxes, candle
holders and monstrances. They are all of Florentine manufacture, except
for the richly decorated chalice, characterised by its repetitive
design of heads of cherubs, carried out in Palermo in 1696.
Another altar trapping of Florentine manufacture in embossed and
engraved silver is composed of a complete series of six candleholders
and a crucifer with a cross. It was created for the altar of the
Madonna, it was offered to the Venerated Image of Impruneta by Marquis
Cosimo Riccardi on the occasion of the solemn procession in 1711.
Other 18th century religious furnishings include a red velvet silk
missal cover with silver appliqué work dated 1702; it is decorated with
an Assumption of the Virgin that recalls the worship of the Madonna
that, for centuries, has stimulated illustrious commissions and the
work of great artists.
Notable among the more recent religious furnishings are the pair of
small glass and silver plated ampullae, elegant examples of the
Neo-classical taste in Rome between the 18th and 19th centuries, and
the pair of early 20th century candleholders, characterised by elegant
and typically Liberty floral decorations.
The eleven priceless choir books in the section dedicated to
manuscripts are only a part of the entire liturgical endowment
belonging to the Basilica of Impruneta, one of the few places of
worship that has fortunately managed to retain most of its original
collection of illuminated manuscripts on site.
The manuscripts are divided chronologically into two great groups, in
other words, illuminated manuscripts of the 14th century and documents
decorated in the 16th century.
The oldest are two books dating from before the third decade of the
14th century; a gradual attributed to the artist Lippo di Benivieni
(cod. I), up until now only known as a painter (one of his paintings is
preserved in the Museum of Religious Art at San Casciano Val di Pesa);
and an antiphonary by a Bolognese miniaturist influenced by Orcagna
(cod. II); the latter is distinctive for its extremely severe
decoration that reduces the ornamental part to a minimum, with a
preference for illustrations of historical or legendary scenes,
sometimes placed on top of the corpus of the letter, while the main
story is contained within it.
This is followed by a matching group of five antiphonaries carried out
by artists from the workshop of Pacino da Bonaguida in around the mid
14th century.This process of transformation was coming to an end in
this period and meant that the art of miniature painting was at last
freeing itself from the limited function of decorating letters alone.
It was now extended to include the illustration of the texts while the
small spaces were adapted to suit the same criterions as painting.
The four 16th century choir books that can be found in the last two
display cases testify to the ulterior evolution in this form of book
illustration, three of which were carried out by the same miniaturist,
Antonio di Girolamo di Ugolino, on a commission from Andrea
Buondelmonti, the former parish priest of the Basilica of Impruneta,
who was made Archbishop of Florence in 1532.
The illustration of the text in these manuscripts - two graduals and an
antiphonary (codexes VIII, IX and X) - is once more limited to the
background of the initial letter. Thus the elegant and delicate
embellishment has a purely decorative function, like open-worked
embroidery, on the sheets of paper. The last codex, the only psalter in
the collection (codex XI), has one of its initial letters decorated
with the scene of Jonah being saved from the waters; the decorations at
the sides are carried out in a wide variety of ornamental, floral and
geometric designs and enriched with scrolls bearing weapons and
grotesque figures, taken from the decorative repertoire adopted in 16th
century painting and sculpture.
The next room contains two rare 15th century handmade articles in
fabric, found in Bishop Antonio degli Agli's sarcophagus when it was
opened after the bombing in 1944 had moved the cover of his tomb. One
is a cushion where his head rested and the other the veil that covered
his face. They were both carried out, probably by a member of his
family, before 1477 (the date of the death of the Bishop) and their
early date makes them extraordinary examples of precious textiles in
wool and silk.
The section dedicated to liturgical vestments is formed of an extremely
valuable collection of religious furnishings dating from the 16th to
the 18th centuries. An ancient processional tabernacle on the end wall
is attributed to the Master of Tobia. Of mid 14th century Florentine
manufacture, it is topped with an 18th century crown in silvered brass
and gilded bronze. A late 16th century altar frontal in crimson velvet
and embellished with gold embroidery can be seen below the tabernacle.
The display cases along the walls running the length of the room
contain the small capes of Italian and French manufacture made to cover
the image of the Madonna, dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
They were very often gifts from important families, whose coats of arms
are embroidered on the precious fabrics, further enhancing the artistic
and documentary value of these objects. They are made out of velvet,
brocade and damask, while their decorative motifs testify to the
changing fashions in textiles over the centuries.
The collection is completed by a 16th century altar cloth in
embroidered gauze of Italian manufacture, arranged in a separate
display case, and a series of chasubles, dating from the 16th to the
18th centuries, that are also carried out in a wide variety of fabrics,
decorations and coats of arms.
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