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| Museums |
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| San Casciano Val Di Pesa, Museum of Religious Art |
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| The Work of Museum |
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:: Processional cross |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Late 14th century - early 15th century |
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:: Martyrdom of St. Lucy |
| Giovan Camillo Ciabilli,
Late 17th century |
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:: Thurible |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Dated 1775 |
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:: Navicule |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Dated 1775 |
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:: Madonna and Child |
| Gino Micheli da Castello,
Dated 1341 |
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:: Sculpted Column |
| Master of Cabestany,
Second half of the 12th century |
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:: Chasuble |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
16th century and late 15th century-16th century |
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:: Cope |
| Tuscan Manifacture,
Late 17th century |
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:: Madonna and Child |
| Lippo di Benivieni,
Second decade of the 14th century |
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:: Coronation of the Virgin |
| Neri di Bicci,
Dated 1476 and 1481 |
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:: The Archangel St. Michael and stories from the legend of his life |
| Coppo di Marcovaldo,
1250-1260 ca. |
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:: St. Anthony Abbot, St. Sebastian and St. Rocchus |
| Master of Tavarnelle,
1510-1515 ca. |
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:: Madonna and Child |
| Ambrogio Lorenzetti,
Dated 1319 |
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The vicarial museum of San Casciano contains paintings,
sculpture, furnishings and religious vestments that come from
various places of worship in the district (parish churches,
parishes, oratories). It offers priceless documentation on the
local artistic traditions and history, as well as showing that
this area has never wasted its experiences of culture or
other manifestations of taste, but always been aware of and taken
part in a much wider circulation of ideas.
In mediaeval times
San Casciano stood on a very important meeting of the
roads. Two routes in fact passed through here and, during the
13th century, were linked directly to the very important
Francigena road, at a time when Florence was gradually
becoming more and more powerful as the economic and
political fulcrum of central Italy: one route followed the Elsa
Valley from Florence and eventually reached Volterra, while the
other, the so-called "Roman Road of the Chianti", passed
through San Donato in Poggio and Castellina to arrive at Siena
and then Rome. In this same period, in other words, before the
end of the 13th century, the temporal power exercised over the
town by the Bishops, who were overlords in this district, was
replaced by the civil power of the City Council of Florence.
The town was subsequently fortified (in the middle of the
following century) and, from that moment on, the castle became
one of the bulwarks of defence for the city of the lily,
especially against the raids of the Sienese.
San Casciano's
strategic importance, as a military outpost and for its
road network, was certainly accompanied by a lively interest in
the local cultural and artistic life, judging from the large
number of important paintings in the area, many of them now
contained in the Museum of Religious Art. They testify to the
fact that the town's position on the main trading routes led it
to become a point of contact between the two most important
artistic schools in Tuscany. Some of the greatest exponents of
the Florentine painting worked here between the 13th and 14th
centuries, among them Coppo di Marcovaldo (Reredos with the
Archangel St. Michael and Legendary Stories, Museum of
Religious Art), Lippo di Benivieni (Madonna and Child, Museum of
Religious Art) and the Master of the Horne Triptych (Madonna and
Child, Museum of Religious Art). Some of the most famous
artists from the 14th century Sienese school, like Simone
Martini (Crucifix, Church of Santa Maria sul Prato), Ambrogio
Lorenzetti (Madonna and Child, Museum of Religious Art) and
Ugolino di Nerio (Madonna and Child enthroned, St. Peter and
St. Francis, Church of Santa Maria sul Prato), also worked
in the area.
The museum is housed in the Church of Santa Maria del Gesł, in
one of the main streets of the town, and still open for worship,
though not regularly officiated. The building, introduced by
a three-arched portico, is built on a single nave, covered
with a trussed roof and ends in a rectangular tribune, which can
be reached through a large round arch resting on projecting
cornices. A chancel, supported by stone corbels, stands on the
left of the presbytery while two large 17th century altars are
placed against the sidewalls of church itself. The aspect of
the church today is not that of the original, but the
result of a radical restoration carried out between 1951 and 1952
to repair the severe bomb damage it suffered during the Second
World War; in fact only the sacristy, the sidewalls and the
two altars were saved.
The church's origins date back to the mid
15th century, when Giuliano Castrucci had a hospice built here
for Franciscans passing through San Casciano on
pilgrimages. A chapel was built beside it and must have
corresponded with what is today the sacristy. When the monks
moved to their new convent outside the walls in 1492, again
financed by the same generous Castrucci, the old hospice
was converted into a monastery, re-named after St. Clare and
given to the Poor Clare nuns, who abandoned it again only forty
years later, thus decreeing its decline. Francesco
Paolsanti Lucardesi, secretary of the Grand Duke Francesco
I, decided to have the group of buildings restored at the
beginning of the 17th century. He dedicated the church to Santa
Maria del Gesł and completely altered its structure, character
and style. The convent, that once hosted the Benedictine
nuns, and the church were enlarged, placed at right angles to the
ancient chapel, and built on a very similar plan to the 20th
century restoration and restructuring, though slightly
larger, as lengthwise it also covered the surface of the portico
of today. The building was abandoned during the Napoleonic
suppression of 1810 until the return of the Lorraine family,
while religious services were not held again until 1825, when it
was entrusted to the Company of Suffrage, which still looks
after the church.
The entrance to the church now also coincides with that of the
museum, whose first section is situated between the altars in the
large rectangular interior. Out of respect for the
building's function as a place of worship, the works that were
originally in the interior have remained in their places. Above
the right hand altar we can find a 17th century copy of the Pucci
Altarpiece by Pontormo, while a Crucifixion, also dating from the
17th century, hangs above the altar on the left. The
Madonna and Child by Lippo di Benivieni, dating from the second
decade of the 14th century, has been put back above the high
altar where it stood when the church was restructured by
Lucardesi.
The 14th century work crucifix in wood in the
apse, of Sienese school, is part of the museum arrangement proper
that continues along the walls of the church. A 16th century copy
of the Madonna Pinti by Andrea Del Sarto hangs on the right
near the entrance, while further forward, after the altar,
we can find a painting of St. Rochus, St. Sebastian and St.
Anthony Abbot, dating from before the second decade of the same
century and attributed to the so-called Master of
Tavarnelle. This painter, whose identity is still under
discussion, takes his name from the altarpiece now in the Museum
of Religious Art at Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, today a point of
reference for all the other works connected with this artist.
The next painting is a Coronation of the Virgin between
Angels and Saints carried out between 1476 and 1481 by Neri di
Bicci, a very prolific Florentine artist, in the latter part of
his career. On the right of the altar, a sculpture of the
Virgin Mary and Child in polychrome marble, dated 1341, occupies
the small space that precedes the sacristy; on the basis of the
inscription on the plinth, it is attributed to an artist known
as Gino Micheli.
The old sacristy beside the church
contains some of the most precious exhibits in the museum.
Hanging on the right hand wall we can find two of the most
important works which come from the Church of Sant'Angelo a Vico
l'Abate: the reredos with the Archangel St. Michael and
legendary stories, attributed to Coppo di Marcovaldo and dating
from the 1350's, and the Madonna and Child by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
(1319). The same room contains a series of paintings on
wood with gilded backgrounds; the oldest dates from the 2nd
decade of the 14th century and is a Madonna and Child attributed
to the Master of the Horne Triptych, an anonymous minor painter
of 14th century Florentine school, but gifted with a
remarkable personality. Particularly interesting is the Madonna and
Child by Cenni di Francesco, one of the most significant
exponents of late Gothic painting in Tuscany, whose style boasts
an extraordinary narrative tonality combined with chromatic
and expressive vivacity.
Further along the walls we can
admire the Madonna and Child between Angels and Saints by Master
Francesco, the triptych with the Madonna enthroned between four
saints by the Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana, the Madonna
and Child by Jacopo del Casentino and the 14th century
Crucifix attributed to the Master of San Lucchese, whose edges
were carved in the early 15th century. The canvas of the
Martyrdom of St. Lucy (late 17th century) by Giovan Camillo
Ciabilli has been left in its original position above the
altar, while the carved Romanesque shaft in alabaster from
the Oratory of the Pievevecchia of Sugana and attributed to the
anonymous Master of Cabestany stands in the centre of the room.
The last room in the museum, on the floor above, contains the
section dedicated to liturgical furnishings and hangings. The
earliest objects, that date from between the 14th and 15th
centuries, include a thurible or censer, shaped like a small
temple, and a series of five processional crosses, that repeat,
with few variations, traditional iconographic models: the
Virgin and St. John on either side of Christ on the front and the
four Evangelists on the tablets on the back, shown in various
ways, either accompanied by their specific symbols or as
zoomorphic creatures. These are followed by a large number of
chalices, pyxes, thuribles, navicules, reliquaries and
candleholders, datable up to the 19th century; some of them are
beautifully designed and show excellent craftsmanship, while many
bear the date of execution, the name of the purchaser and
the trade mark of the workshops they came from.
We should
also note the display cases containing the religious vestments,
with a rich collection of copes, chasubles, under-habits and
altar frontals from different periods, different materials
and manufacture. The oldest examples are two Florentine
made chasubles, datable between the 15th and 16th centuries, a
chasuble in damask and another in silk, decorated with the
typical thistle flower design enclosed within phytomorphic
spirals, and well documented thanks to fragments of period
textiles and in paintings. Most of the hangings date from the
18th century. Special note should be made of the refined
French made cope in heavy silk brocade, with delicate
decorative motifs carried out on pale pink; the design and fabric
was almost certainly created for profane use, perhaps even for a
lady's dress.
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