The Cathedral museum of Prato, Italy was founded in 1967 in a few rooms of the Bishop's residence and in 1976 grew to include items from both the Cathedral of Saint Stephen and the diocesan territory.
History
The small courtyard that precedes the bishop's residence provides the entrance to the museum which opened in 1967 in the first two rooms. In 1976 the museum was enlarged to accommodate works from the entire diocese including the prestigious reliefs from the pulpit of Donatello. The collection is set up as a diocesan museum. In 1980 the vaults under the cathedral's transept were added to the museum's space, and other areas were included between 1993-1996, beginning work, only recently concluded, to reconnect the various sections into one single itinerary that passes through a few rooms in the old Palazo dei Proposti, around the harmonious Romanesque cloister, and concluding under the cathedral. A reorganization of the museum space began in 2007, and plans include the preparation of the Renaissance rooms.
Museum itinerary and works
An established itinerary guides the visitor through six rooms containing numerous and varied works of art, passes through an archeological section and the Romaesque cloister, and finishes with the Antiquarium and the vaults.
This room houses important sculptures and paintings from the 13th to the early 15th centuries from Prato, along with liturgical items from the same era, including:
Head of Christ , part of an imposing Crucifixione, in polychrome wood, by an anonymous sculptor from Arezzo;
Madonna enthroned with saints Michael archangel, Peter, and Paul, with Abbot Benventuo who commissioned the work, high-relief sandstone, by Giroldo da Como, from Badia di Montepiano;
two panels from a polyptych with pairs of saints, painted on wood, by Giovanni Toscani: the central part is preserved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and shows four saints;
chalice and hand-held cross, in gold-plated silver.
Room 2: Sacred liturgical objects
The adjoining room contains items used during liturgical services among which are:
Vestment of Saint Stephen, in red velvet enriched with embroidered figures on a webbing of gold, donated to the Prato church by cardinal Alessandro de' Medici ;
lavabo, in light stone, by Lorenzo di Salvadore, from the sacristy of the Chapel of the Cintola;
monstrance, by Bernardo Holzmann, commissioned by Bardi di Vernio.
Room 3: the Sacred Belt (in Italian ''Sacra Cintola'')
This room is dedicated to works associated with devotion to a precious Marian relic, the Sacred Belt, venerated in Prato from the 12th century:
The Virgin Mary, assumed into heaven, giving her belt to Saint Thomas the apostole who then passes the belt to a priest, a relief in white marble made for a publit, by the Sienese artist Niccolò del Mercia;
garment for the statue of the Madonna of the Belt, with semiprecious stones and embroidery in gold, made in Florence;
sacred liturgical items, in silver, belonging to the patrimony of the Chapel of the Belt;
Dormitio Virginis'', plaster model of the antependium, made for the Altar of the Belt by Emilio Greco, after the theft of the 18th century antependium
Archaeological excavations
From the room of the Sacred Belt the visitor can descend to an area partly underground, reaching the archeological section, made to connect the first section of the museum with the rooms along the cloister. The excavation allowed for the recovery of various archeological items, which attest to the habitation of the area from the Etruscans to the Lombards. Of great historical interest:
fragments of Etruscan ceramics , in particular urns, bowls, and jars;
From the archaeological area the visitor can go up into a 15th-century structure, which contains works from the 15th and 16th centuries. Of particular interest:
Annunciation, stained glass, by friar Paolo di Mariotto da Gambassi,
two panels with The Madonna with child, by Maso da San Friano.
Room 5: the Pulpit
The room takes its name from the celebrated balcony pulpit made by Donatello for an outside corner of the facade of the cathedral for the solemn showing of the relic of the Sacred Belt:
the parapet of the external pulpit of the cathedral, made by Donatello and his school. Because of the degradation suffered during their five centuries outside, the reliefs were removed from the pulpit in 1967 and were substituted with replicas. A laborious restoration and cleaning directed by the Opificio delle pietre dure of Florence recreated a more unified and legible work. The imposing parapet takes the form of a small round temple with double pilasters that divide it into seven carved sections, each displaying a group of dancing figures which seem to move with joyous and vivacious steps, pictorically rendered thanks to the “stiacciato” and the reflection of the tessera in the background.
In addition, this room houses:
the container of the Sacred Belt , made by goldsmith Maso di Bartolomeo, a student of Donatello, in gold-plated copper and bone and reelaborating the donatellan motif of the little angels dancing between the columns of the little temple; this box contained the relic up to 1633 at which time the present silver altar was constructed.
a monstrance, made by Lorenzo Loi, from the cathedral;
''Translation of the remains of Saint Stephen, oil on canvas, painted by Alessandro Franchi.
The Romanesque cloister
From the 16th century room the visitor can go up to the Romanesque cloister, in white marble and green serpentine, characterized by original zoomorphic capitals created by the Master of Cabestany.
The Antiquarium and the "vaults"
From the cloister can be reached:
the burial chapel of the Migliorati ;
the Antiquarium, in which are found tomb slabs, decorative fragments of the mosaic pavement of the early church, pieces of capitals, and architectonic fragments of the cloister.
The corridor exits into the "vaults", an underground area proceeding under the transept of the cathedral, used from 1326 to the end of the 18th century for burials from which remain various coats of arms and burial insignia. Contiguous with the "vaults" is the chapel of Saint Stephen, containing painted murals:
on the vaults: evangelists and saints, frescoes, by an anonymous Tuscan painter;
in the lunettes: The Stoning of Saint Stephen and The Madonna with Saint Stephen and Saint Lorenzo, monochrome frescoes, by Pietro and Antonio di Miniato.
Also in the chapel are preserved important relics of the cathedral:
Reliquary of the torso of Saint Anne, in silver, made by Antonio di Salvi;
Reliquary of the holy cross, by Egidio Leggi;
Reliquiario of Saint Stephen, realizzato su disegno di Alessandro Franchi.
