Knowing that the Empoli Picture Gallery was founded just after the middle of the 1800’s is not a fact without importance, it means that the Museum of the Collegiate Church of Sant’Andrea is one of the most ancient of the ecclesiastical ones and perhaps for this reason is one of the richest of the minor Italian museums.

“A true gallery of primitives” (old masters), such as “to arouse the envy of much larger cities”: as written by one of the most important art historians of about a century ago, it concentrates in a few rooms notable examples of the Tuscan school of painting, and especially, the Florentine one, for a period running from the 1300’s to the earliest years of the 1600’s.

It begins with a series of gold backgrounds from the 15th century; triptychs or sections of polyptypchs coming from the adjacent Collegiate Church, or from other places of worship in Empoli, painted by some of the most important artists of the period: Agnolo Gaddi, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Cenni di Francesco and Lorenzo di Bicci. The room dedicated to the early 1400’s follows with two works by Lorenzo Monaco and a lovely small panel by Filippo Lippi, which was privately donated.

Of great impact, the adjacent hall and room are dominated by two Renaissance tabernacles, the first by Francesco and Raffaello Botticini, the second by only Francesco but enriched by Antonio Rossellino’s sculptures; on the remaining walls are arranged panels also by Botticini, or painted by Pier Francesco Fiorentino, Jacopo del Sellajo, Fra' Paolino da Pistoia and Giovanni Antonio Sogliani. A 17th century work by Jacopo Chimenti, also known as Empoli, closes the chronological exhibition.

Some significant exemplars of Della Robbia’s art are attached outside high up on the walls of the cloister. In addition, the milieu on the ground floor is particularly important. Formerly part of the ancient church of San Giovanni Battista, it was then transformed into the Baptistery, as the 15th century baptismal font attributed to Bernardo Rossellino shows; moreover,the detached fresco representing “Christ in pietà”, was relocated here. It was probably painted in 1425 by Masolino, who, in this work, was already acquainted with the artistic changes proposed by his celebrated pupil, Masaccio.

essential bibliography

Itinerari del Museo, della Collegiata e della Chiesa di Santo Stefano
Proto Pisani R. C., Firenze, Editori: Becocci/Scala, 1994