Diocesan Museum in Cortona

The Diocesan Museum in Cortona is a sacred art museum located in Cortona, Tuscany, in the province of Arezzo, Italy. Founded in 1945, it occupies the former Church of Gesù and an adjacent building on Piazza del Duomo 1. The museum preserves and displays works of art drawn from churches across the region and from diocesan properties, with particular strengths in Sienese and early Renaissance painting. Its holdings include significant works by Fra Angelico, Pietro Lorenzetti, Bartolomeo della Gatta, Sassetta, and Luca Signorelli, alongside valuable liturgical furnishings and a notable Roman antiquity.

The art collection was established in 1945 at the initiative of Monsignor Giuseppe Franciolini, then bishop of Cortona, who sought to gather objects and artworks from churches throughout the territory and from diocesan properties into a single institution. The museum was installed in the former Church of Gesù (Chiesa del Gesù), with additional space provided by the adjoining building that had belonged to the ancient religious structure. From its inception, the collection was conceived as a means of preserving and presenting the artistic heritage of the diocese, encompassing both panel paintings and sacred furnishings.

The museum's collection spans from antiquity through the eighteenth century, with particular concentration on medieval and Renaissance art. Its earliest object is a second-century AD marble Roman sarcophagus depicting the battle of Dionysus and the Amazons, discovered near the Duomo. This sarcophagus, which has been identified as the work described by Restoro d'Arezzo in his Composizione del mondo, was admired by Donatello and Brunelleschi, the latter having reportedly traveled to Cortona specifically to view it. The painting collection emphasizes Sienese and central Italian masters, with substantial holdings of works by Pietro Lorenzetti and Luca Signorelli. The museum also preserves significant liturgical objects, including goldsmiths' work and embroidered vestments. A dedicated room houses works by Luca Signorelli and his workshop, reflecting the artist's connection to his native city.

Among the museum's most important paintings are two works by Fra Angelico: the Cortona Annunciation, dated to approximately 1430 and originating from San Domenico with its original predella, and the Cortona Triptych of 1436-1437. Pietro Lorenzetti is represented by multiple works including the Maestà of approximately 1320, signed by the master with a Latin hexameter, a large painted cross from 1315-1320 formerly in San Marco, and the so-called Piccolo Crocifisso. Sassetta's Triptych of the Madonna of Humility with Saints, dated to approximately 1434 and formerly in San Domenico, is a major example of Sienese painting. Bartolomeo della Gatta's Assumption of the Virgin Giving Her Girdle to Saint Thomas, painted between 1470 and 1475 and formerly in the Benedictine monastery of the Contesse, counts among his most important works. The museum holds nine panels by Luca Signorelli and his workshop, including the Lamentation of Christ of approximately 1502 from Santa Margherita, which Giorgio Vasari called "a rare form of art," and the Communion of the Apostles of 1512 from the high altar of the Gesù, notable for its unusual iconography in which the apostles gather in semicircle around Christ, with Judas alone facing the viewer concealing his thirty pieces of silver. Other Signorelli works include the Compianto sul Cristo morto tra angeli e santi of approximately 1516 and the Immacolata Concezione e santi of approximately 1523. The Assumption of the Virgin from Cortona Cathedral, dated 1519-1520, is attributed to Signorelli or his workshop. Later works include Giuseppe Maria Crespi's Ecstasy of Saint Margaret of Cortona of 1701, Federico Zuccari's Assumption of the Virgin, and Francesco Capella's Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola of 1750. The oratory contains a fresco cycle by Cristoforo Gherardi depicting Old Testament Sacrifices, based on designs by Vasari and dated 1554-1555, a glazed terracotta Lamentation from the circle of Benedetto Buglioni of approximately 1517, and carved wooden stalls by Vincenzo da Cortona from 1517. The goldsmiths' collection includes the chalice of Michele di Tomè with translucent enamels from approximately 1370, and the Vagnucci Reliquary by Giusto da Firenze from 1457-1458, commissioned by Bishop Jacopo Vagnucci of Perugia, which incorporates a French statuette of Christ from the first quarter of the fifteenth century. The Passerini liturgical vestments, embroidered in the commissioned designs of Raffaellino del Garbo and Andrea del Sarto, represent Florentine work of the early sixteenth century.

The museum occupies the former Church of Gesù and the adjoining building that pertained to the ancient religious structure, located at Piazza del Duomo 1. The exhibition route descends through a staircase decorated with cartoons for the Via Crucis by Gino Severini to the oratory, formerly the seat of the Compagnia del Buon Gesù. This oratory and its antechamber form part of the museum's spatial sequence, housing frescoes and sculptural works.

The Diocesan Museum in Cortona is located on Piazza del Duomo 1 in Cortona, province of Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy. It operates as an ecclesiastical cultural institution under the ownership of the Diocese of Cortona, with its collections drawn from regional churches and diocesan properties. The museum maintains an official website through the Cortona tourism portal.