Museo Claudio Faina

Directly across from Orvieto's cathedral facade, Palazzo Faina houses a major archaeological collection of Etruscan bronzes and jewellery, Attic vases and coins. The family collection was donated to the city in 1954 and is now preserved and displayed by the Fondazione Museo Claudio Faina.

Why it matters

Assembled during the nineteenth century by the counts Mauro and Eugenio Faina, the collection preserves both objects and the history of how an aristocratic family studied Etruria. Palazzo Faina faces the Duomo; its second-floor gallery offers views of the cathedral's mosaic facade.

What to notice

The collection is arranged over two floors. On the piano nobile, displays document how the collection formed; the coin cabinet reflects Mauro Faina's interest in numismatics, with Roman Republican and imperial issues arranged chronologically. Finds from the necropolis of Crocifisso del Tufo reflect Eugenio Faina's focus on Orvieto and its territory. Upstairs, objects are arranged typologically and chronologically. The black Etruscan pottery known as bucchero spans the seventh to fifth centuries BC. The Attic collection includes three amphorae attributed to Exekias, active around 550–525 BC. The palace's tempera decoration, dated 1865–1866 and attributed to the Perugian painter Annibale Angelini and his workshop, is part of the setting.

Context and history

The Faina family moved into the palace in 1855–1856. The building was a rebuilt medieval house that had belonged to the Monaldeschi; Count Claudio Faina senior began its nineteenth-century transformation, completed with Angelini's decorations by 1866. Collection building began in 1864 under Count Mauro. Eugenio focused on finds from Orvieto and promoted the idea of a civic museum. In 1954 Claudio Faina junior willed the family's properties to the Comune di Orvieto, on condition that an autonomous foundation preserve and promote the collection. The Fondazione per il Museo Claudio Faina was established in 1957 and recognised by presidential decree in 1959. A reorganisation between 1985 and 1996 brought the piano nobile into the museum route. In 2017, the collection grew through a gift of 22 Attic vases and a red-figure pelike from architect Mario Lolli Ghetti. On the ground floor, the city's Museo Civico Archeologico displays the Belvedere temple terracottas, the Venus of Cannicella and the sarcophagus from Torre San Severo.