Casa-Museo Leonetto Tintori

The Casa-Museo Leonetto Tintori preserves the home and working environment of restorer and artist Leonetto Tintori (1908–2000) and his wife, painter Elena Berruti. The early-twentieth-century villa at Vainella is surrounded by a 2,000-square-metre park containing about three hundred sculptures and bas-reliefs.

Why it matters

Tintori directed major restoration projects involving mural paintings by Giotto, Piero della Francesca and Masaccio, in Italy and abroad. The house museum brings together his art, the couple’s collections and the setting where the Laboratorio per Affresco di Vainella began in 1983. Its teaching practice drew on the medieval workshop model, combining theory and hands-on work.

What to notice

The park contains sculptures and reliefs in ceramic, cement, terracotta and bronze, made by Tintori and other Tuscan artists between 1950 and 1990. The Arca di Noè, a sculpture in the garden, holds the ashes of Leonetto and Elena. Inside the house are about five hundred objects spanning ancient and modern art, archaeological finds and Elena Berruti’s paintings. The teaching studios behind the house are devoted to fresco, graffito, polished stucco, encaustic, scagliola and ceramic art.

Context and history

Leonetto and Elena acquired the villa in 1935. After retiring from restoration, Tintori developed the idea for a school-laboratory where theory and practice would be taught together. The house and collection were donated to the Municipality of Prato in 1988. The Casa-Museo is managed by the Associazione Laboratorio per Affresco Elena e Leonetto Tintori and is part of the national Case della Memoria association.