Beato Angelico Museum of Sacred Art

Our Lady of the Assumption

Date: beginning of the 16^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 201 cm. x160.3 cm.
Artist: Cosimo Rosselli (Florence 1439-1507)
Provenance: Barberino di Mugello, Abbey of Santa Maria a Vigesimo

The sides of the panel were cut off when it was adapted over the course of the centuries. The Virgin is surrounded by angels who support the mandorla encircling her, a symbol of celestial glory. Below, Saint John Gualbert appears on the left, with Saint Benedict on the right as he introduces the praying donor. An elegant sarcophagus overflowing with lilies and roses, symbols of the Madonna’s purity, is found in the center.

The Virgin Giving her Girdle to Saint Thomas 

Date: early decades of the 15^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 126 cm. x 130 cm.
Artist: Master of Montefoscoli (active in the first half of the 15^th century)
Provenance: Borgo San Lorenzo, Santa Maria a Montefloscoli

The heterogeneous characteristics of this painting give it a particular fascination: stylized, late Gothic elements are mixed with Spanish and Portuguese stylistic influences and vague neo-Renaissance allusions.

Madonna with Child, Two Angels and the Holy Spirit

Date: second half of the 15^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 72 cm. x 56 cm.
Artist: Master of the Argonauts (active in Florence in the second half of the 15^th century)
Provenance: Fagna, Parish Church of Santa Maria

The small painting, from the Parish Church of Fagna, near Scarperia, shows some traits referable to Filippo Lippi’s painting. It can be dated between the 1460s and 1470s when the Machiavelli family were the patrons of this parish church.

Madonna with Child, Saint John as a Child and Saint Elizabeth

Date: 1610-1620 ca.
Technique and Materials: oil on canvas
Workshop of: Jacopo Chimenti, known as L’Empoli
Size: 117.5 cm. x 92.5 cm.
Provenance: Faltona, Parish Church of Santa Felicita

The composition is developed through an intertwining of gazes and poses that connect the four figures in a silent and affectionate exchange of looks. The Virgin and Saint Elizabeth are watching over the two children who seem to be vying for the small, simple cross made of woven reeds, which symbolically joins them in their destiny as martyrs.

Saint John the Baptist

Date: first decade of the 16^th century
Technique and Materials: glazed terracotta
Size: 46 cm. x 40 cm.
Artist: Andrea della Robbia (1435-1525)
Provenance: Borgo San Lorenzo, Oratory of the Santissimo Crocifisso

John the Baptist is wearing the characteristic goat skin tunic. The diagonal cut on the right side indicates that the fragment must have been part of a more complex whole, such as a glazed terracotta altarpiece, a type of object in which the Della Robbia workshop specialized.

Saint Felicity with Her Seven Children

Date: mid-15^th century
Technique and Materials: stained glass window
Workshop of: circle of Andrea del Castagno
Size: 122 cm. x 64 cm.
Provenance: Faltona, Parish Church of Santa Felicita

Originally placed in a window in the apsidal area of the Parish Church of Santa Felicita in Faltona this small masterpiece of glass art from the mid-15^th century, has been recently assigned to Andrea del Castagno’s circle because of its refinement and quality.

Processional Cross

Date: end of the 14^th century
Technique and Materials: engraved and gilded copper
Production: Tuscan production
Size: 43 cm. x 26.5 cm.; cross: 30.5 cm. (height)
Provenance: Vicchio, Parish Church of San Giovanni Battista

A gilded copper cross that shows Christ on the front with four medallions at the ends depicting a Pelican (a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice), the Virgin, Saint John, and Golgotha with Adam’s skull. On the back are the zoomorphic symbols of the Evangelists, while in the centre is Saint John the Baptist, the titular saint of the Vicchio parish church from where the cross came.

Madonna and Child with Saints Peter and Paul

Date: mid-15^th century
Technique and Materials: detached fresco
Size: 198 cm. x 175.5 cm.
Artist: Master of Signa (documented 1433 – 1462)
Provenance: Vicchio, Tabernacle of Rupecanina

Unfortunately the fresco, the only part of the tabernacle that has come down to us, has large areas missing that nevertheless do not prevent our recognizing the Madonna of the Milk between two adoring angels and Saints Peter and Paul. On the side walls, sources mention the figures of Saint Jerome and Saint Michael, the titular saint of the church near the tabernacle.

Madonna with Child and Angels

Date: 1405-1410 ca.
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 118 cm. x 61 cm.
Artist: Master of the Straus Madonna (active 1385-1415)
Provenance: Borgo San Lorenzo, Parish Church of San Cresci in Valcava

It is the central part of a polyptych, first dismembered and then lost, with the figures of Saint Cresci, Saint Lawrence and other saints unspecified by archival documents. The figures are thin and elongated, the tones and colours are so delicate as to define this painting “all milk and roses”.

Madonna of the Milk

Date: second half of the 15^th century
Technique and Materials: polychrome terracotta
Production: Tuscan production
Size: 66 cm. x 40 cm.
Provenance: Vicchio, Casa Lapucci

This terracotta piece comes from a tabernacle set on the façade of Casa Lapucci in Vicchio. Traces of the original polychrome can be seen on the Virgin’s mantle. The iconography adopted here is that of the Galaktotrophousa Madonna, who is depicted as she tenderly suckles Baby Jesus.

Saint Sebastian

Date: ca. 1580-1588
Technique and Materials: oil on a wooden panel
Workshop of: Alessandro Allori
Size: 171.5 cm. x 133.5 cm.
Provenance: Vicchio, Priory of Santa Maria in Olmi

Stolen from the Church of Santa Maria in Olmi and later recovered, the painting is a traditional representation of the martyred saint whose heroic and athletic figure rises against a background enlivened by archeological monuments inspired by ancient Rome.

Tabernacle depicting the Madonna with Child, God the Father and Saints

Date: second half of the 15^th century
Technique and Materials: detached fresco
Production: Florentine school
Size: 221 cm. x 160 cm. x 120 cm.
Provenance: Campestri, Vicchio di Mugello

The detached frescoes of this small cycle come from a chapel-shaped tabernacle standing at a crossroads. The Madonna and Child Enthroned is in the middle, in the small vault there is God the Benedictory Father and, on the side walls, two pairs of saints: Saint James and Saint Anthony on the right and a Bishop Saint and an unidentified young saint on the left.

Baptismal font

Date: ca.1505
Technique and Materials: glazed terracotta
Size: 120 cm. x 85 cm.
Artist: Benedetto Buglioni (Florence 1461-1521)
Provenance: Barberino di Mugello, Church of Sant’Andrea a Camoggiano

The font has a hexagonal structure with six panels, separated by angular pillars, depicting scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist. The surface is entirely glazed with the addition of gilding and touches of cobalt and manganese.

Madonna with Child Enthroned and Saints

Date: 1480 and 17^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera and oil on a wooden panel
Size: 167.5 cm. x 191.5 cm.
Artist: Neri di Bicci (Florence 1419-1492) and a 17th century painter
Provenance: Barberino di Mugello, Parish Church of Santa Reparata a Pimonte

The refined panel, known as the “Pimonte altarpiece”, depicts around the well-defined architectural structure of the Madonna’s throne, Saint Reparata and Saint John the Baptist, the protectors of the city of Florence. To the left is Saint Bartholomew (perhaps the client’s patron saint) and Saint Anthony the Abbot, a venerated figure in the Mugello countryside. At the foot of the throne are the figures of Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena that are inconsistent from both stylistic and iconographic points of view, and were probably added later on.

Madonna with Child and Saints John the Baptist and Sebastian

Date: early decades of the 16^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 153 cm. x 145 cm.
Artist: Master of the Schleissheim Madonna (active early decades of the 16th century)
Provenance: Senni, Church of San Giovanni Battista

The composition is articulated and traditional even if the pictorial rendering shows high quality and originality. The definition of the throne and the figures is sharp, the figures have strongly characterized faces, and the details are analytically defined

Saints John the Baptist 

Date: second quarter of the 14^th century
Technique and Materials: tempera on a wooden panel
Size: 62.5 cm. x 37 cm.
Artist: Bernardo Daddi (Florence ca. 1290– ca. 1348)
Provenance: Panicaglia, Parish Church of San Giovanni Maggiore

The only remaining part of a lost polyptych, it was probably the main side panel as it portrays the church’s titular saint. The high quality of this painting is evident in the austere yet reassuring figure’s solid layout and in the suffused delicacy of the painting.

Saint Andrew; Saint Lawrence with an Angel; Flying Angel

Date: dated 1721
Technique and Materials: oil on canvas
Production: Florentine school
Workshop of: Anton Domenico Gabbiani
Size: 70.5 cm. x 52 cm.; 122.5 cm. x 103 cm.; 37 cm. x 57 cm.
Provenance: Church of Sant’Andrea in Barbiana

The altarpiece, which originally depicted the coronation of the Virgin and Saints Andrew and Lawrence, was stolen in 1993. In order to sell the painting more easily and to make it more difficult to recognize, the canvas was cut into many parts. These three fragments were recovered some years later and are displayed in the Vicchio museum.

Thurible

Date: 15^th century
Technique and Materials: fretworked cast brass
Production: Tuscan workshop
Size: 24 cm.
Provenance: Faltona, Parish Church of Santa Felicita

In the shape of a tempietto, this thurible has a multifoil foot, a hemispherical brazier, and a fretworked cover with triple-arched and geometrical motifs.