Museo d'Arte Sacra di San Gimignano

The Museum of Sacred Art in San Gimignano occupies the former dormitory of the canons beside the Collegiata. Its collection brings together paintings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, vestments and silverware from the town's churches and religious houses.

Why it matters

The collection preserves objects associated with worship in San Gimignano, particularly works from the Collegiata. Together, its paintings, books, textiles and metalwork document the material culture of the town's religious institutions and complement the surviving decoration of its churches.

What to notice

Bartolo di Fredi's Madonna della Rosa, from the parish church of San Biagio at Cusona, is a notable panel among the collection's Sienese paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Other holdings include paintings on panel and canvas, sculpture and bas-reliefs, illuminated codices with painted initials, liturgical textiles and forged and gilded silverware. The former dormitory's communal scale provides a striking setting for large altarpieces. Many works are associated with particular altars and chapels of the Collegiata, reflecting their original religious context.

Context and history

The museum is installed in the former dormitorio dei canonici, on the south side of Piazza Pecori in the buildings once belonging to the chapter of the Collegiata. Its collection was assembled from local churches and convents, especially the Collegiata itself. Works no longer in active use or moved from churches for safekeeping became part of a collection that documents the religious life of San Gimignano from the late medieval period through the Renaissance.