Museo Diocesano di Pienza

The sacred art of Pienza's cathedral and its medieval diocese is gathered on the upper floor of Palazzo Borgia: Sienese painting from the early fourteenth century to the Renaissance, goldwork from five centuries, illuminated books made for the cathedral, and the embroidered cope that Pope Pius II gave to his own church.

Why it matters

Pienza's cathedral, squares and palaces were endowed by a Renaissance pope, and this museum preserves the movable heritage of that church and its wide medieval diocese. Installed in Palazzo Borgia since 1998, it succeeded a display that had run in the Palazzo dei Canonici since 1901, so it is itself part of a century-long effort to keep the diocese's patrimony in the town that produced it. The museum holds signed and datable panels by Sienese masters whose altarpieces also appear in the cathedral, alongside vestments associated with Pius II.

What to notice

The collection includes Pietro Lorenzetti's Virgin and Child, painted around 1315 for Monticchiello and part of a polyptych dispersed among collections in Le Mans and Florence, and a Saint Luke attributed to the same artist. Near it hangs Bartolo di Fredi's Madonna of Mercy of 1364, from Pienza's old parish church, and the Vecchietta Virgin Enthroned with Saints of about 1460 from Spedaletto, which already absorbs Florentine light and perspective. Luca Signorelli's early-1480s Virgin of Mercy with Saints Sebastian and Bernardino was painted for Pienza's church of San Francesco. The textile room contains Pius II's cope in English opus anglicanum, with twenty-seven embroidered panels of the Virgin and the saints, and the reliquary bust of Saint Andrew cast by Simone di Giovanni Ghini in 1462-1463. Cases of chalices, monstrances and reliquaries from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, early fifteenth-century illuminated codices and late fifteenth-century Flemish and Burgundian tapestries complete the circuit.

Context and history

The museum tells the art-historical story of Siena's territory rather than a single court: parish churches, small convents and the cathedral supplied works made between the age of Giotto's followers and the High Renaissance. Moving the collection into Palazzo Borgia in 1998 placed it inside the palace Pius II built for Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, creating a setting for painting, embroidery and goldwork within the ideal city. The relic of Saint Andrew, celebrated in the town's southern gate tradition, connects these rooms to the urban geography of Pienza.