Galleria degli Alberti

Galleria di Palazzo degli Alberti in Prato brings together paintings and sculpture from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries. Its collection includes works by Filippo Lippi, Giovanni Bellini and Caravaggio, as well as sculpture by Lorenzo Bartolini.

Why it matters

The collection grew from the city's savings-bank heritage and documents several centuries of Italian art. Among its holdings are Puccio di Simone, Filippo Lippi, Bronzino, Santi di Tito and works associated with the Poppi workshop, alongside Florentine seventeenth-century painting and sculpture by Lorenzo Bartolini. Notable paintings include Caravaggio's Crowning with Thorns, Giovanni Bellini's Crucifixion and Lippi's Madonna with Child. Bartolini's marble group with a nymph and scorpion extends the collection into the nineteenth century.

What to notice

Palazzo degli Alberti has a late-fifteenth-century character and a facade bearing the arms of the Bardi family of Vernio. The collection spans early Renaissance painting through later periods. Puccio di Simone and Filippo Lippi represent the earlier rooms; Bellini's Crucifixion and Caravaggio's Crowning with Thorns show distinct approaches to religious painting. Bartolini's sculpture connects the gallery with a sculptor born in Prato.

Context and history

The gallery's modern history includes its first museum layout in 1984 and a renewed installation in 2005. It later became part of Intesa Sanpaolo's Gallerie d'Italia cultural programme in dialogue with the Municipality of Prato and regional heritage authorities. The collection's history reflects the city's banking institutions and their accumulated artistic heritage.