Description
The Musei di Palazzo Rospigliosi fill the Rospigliosi family palace on Via Ripa del Sale, in the centre of Pistoia. Under one roof there are three visits: the 17th-century apartment known as “Pope Clement IX's”, the Diocesan Museum of sacred art and the Embroidery Museum.
The heart of it is the Museo Clemente Rospigliosi, noble rooms still furnished like a 17th-century residence. You climb a grand staircase, pass a wrought-iron gate and step in among walnut furniture, 18th-century firearms and marble portraits of the family.
Dozens of paintings hang on the walls, many still in their original frames. The lion's share goes to Giacinto Gimignani, a Pistoia painter admired by Cardinal Giulio: you'll come across his canvases in almost every room.
Among the others, Erminia among the Shepherds by Lorenzo Lippi stands out, along with a large portrait of Clement IX in a sumptuous gilded frame. In the canopy bedroom is the red damask bed in which the cardinal may have slept. A display case holds 18th-century flutes and an oboe.
The Diocesan Museum gathers in eight rooms the art of the churches of the area: medieval crosses in gilded bronze, a cross with Limoges enamels, and an ivory casket from the Embriachi workshop, made for secular use and later adapted to hold the holy oils. One section is devoted to the art of the Far East.
There are also Renaissance paintings and terracottas, including a Sacred Conversation by Bernardino del Signoraccio. Among the most curious pieces are two early 18th-century chasubles, one pink and one sky blue, decorated with the patterns known as “bizarre”.
The “Pope's apartment” has a generous name. Tradition has it that Giulio Rospigliosi, while still a cardinal, stayed here briefly on his way back from Spain; but no document confirms it, and his branch of the family lived in another palace, on Via del Duca.
The palace itself grew out of older buildings: the Dondori tower houses and a 14th-century palace, absorbed in the mid-16th century by Captain Giovan Battista Rospigliosi, known as Bati. On the façade, after the restoration of the 1920s, you can still make out traces of those buildings.
In 1981 the last descendant, Clemente, left it to the cathedral, on condition that the apartment remain a museum for ever.
Don't miss
• Giacinto Gimignani's canvases.
• The canopy bedroom.
• The Embriachi casket.
• The “bizarre” chasubles.
Did you know?
• The Diocesan Museum was founded in 1968 in the Bishop's Palace and moved here in 1990.
The heart of it is the Museo Clemente Rospigliosi, noble rooms still furnished like a 17th-century residence. You climb a grand staircase, pass a wrought-iron gate and step in among walnut furniture, 18th-century firearms and marble portraits of the family.
Dozens of paintings hang on the walls, many still in their original frames. The lion's share goes to Giacinto Gimignani, a Pistoia painter admired by Cardinal Giulio: you'll come across his canvases in almost every room.
Among the others, Erminia among the Shepherds by Lorenzo Lippi stands out, along with a large portrait of Clement IX in a sumptuous gilded frame. In the canopy bedroom is the red damask bed in which the cardinal may have slept. A display case holds 18th-century flutes and an oboe.
The Diocesan Museum gathers in eight rooms the art of the churches of the area: medieval crosses in gilded bronze, a cross with Limoges enamels, and an ivory casket from the Embriachi workshop, made for secular use and later adapted to hold the holy oils. One section is devoted to the art of the Far East.
There are also Renaissance paintings and terracottas, including a Sacred Conversation by Bernardino del Signoraccio. Among the most curious pieces are two early 18th-century chasubles, one pink and one sky blue, decorated with the patterns known as “bizarre”.
The “Pope's apartment” has a generous name. Tradition has it that Giulio Rospigliosi, while still a cardinal, stayed here briefly on his way back from Spain; but no document confirms it, and his branch of the family lived in another palace, on Via del Duca.
The palace itself grew out of older buildings: the Dondori tower houses and a 14th-century palace, absorbed in the mid-16th century by Captain Giovan Battista Rospigliosi, known as Bati. On the façade, after the restoration of the 1920s, you can still make out traces of those buildings.
In 1981 the last descendant, Clemente, left it to the cathedral, on condition that the apartment remain a museum for ever.
Don't miss
• Giacinto Gimignani's canvases.
• The canopy bedroom.
• The Embriachi casket.
• The “bizarre” chasubles.
Did you know?
• The Diocesan Museum was founded in 1968 in the Bishop's Palace and moved here in 1990.