Museo delle Sinopie

The Museum of the Sinopias in Pisa preserves the red preparatory drawings uncovered when restorers detached the Camposanto's frescoes after a 1944 fire. The drawings and the restored paintings now remain in separate buildings facing one another across the Piazza dei Miracoli.

Why it matters

A sinopia is a drawing made in red earth pigment on the plaster beneath a fresco. These works reveal the compositions before the final painted layer and preserve an important record of the artists' process. The museum holds preparatory drawings for works by Buffalmacco, Taddeo Gaddi, Pietro di Puccio da Orvieto and Benozzo Gozzoli.

What to notice

The sinopias make changes in composition visible: outlines shift, gestures are tested and groups of figures take shape. The drawings include preparations for Buffalmacco's Triumph of Death. The museum occupies a former hospital hall built between 1257 and 1286, whose timber trusses and painted imitation-marble decoration remain part of the setting.

Context and history

On 27 July 1944, a bomb fragment started a fire that burned for three days and destroyed the Camposanto's roof. The damaged frescoes were detached for conservation; removing them exposed the red underdrawings, which restorers also detached. The sinopias have been housed in the museum since 1979. The frescoes returned to the Camposanto in stages, with the Triumph of Death rehung in 2018.