Museo di arte sacra (Certaldo)

The Museo di arte sacra in Certaldo is a museum of religious art located in the upper medieval town of Certaldo, Tuscany, Italy. Opened in June 2001, it forms part of the town's museum circuit alongside the Palazzo Pretorio civic museum and the House of Giovanni Boccaccio. The institution was established to gather, preserve, and display sacred artworks from churches across the ecclesiastical vicariate of Certaldo, providing secure custody and public access to objects that could no longer remain in their original locations.

The museum occupies a former Augustinian convent dating from the fifteenth century. Following careful restoration, the building was converted to museum use and inaugurated in June 2001. Its creation was part of a broader network of exhibition centers in the Valdelsa region and vicarial museums in the Florentine area, designed to consolidate dispersed religious cultural heritage. Many of the works in the collection could not remain in their original churches due to security and conservation concerns, and the museum provided them with proper museographic arrangement, scholarly visibility, and public accessibility within the most important church of the ecclesiastical district.

The collection is distributed across seven rooms and encompasses paintings from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, goldwork, liturgical vestments, and sculptures. The holdings derive primarily from churches within the territory of the ecclesiastical vicariate of Certaldo, with significant provenance from Santa Maria a Bagnano, San Lazzaro a Lucardo, San Martino a Maiano, and the church of Santi Jacopo e Filippo. The museum's chronological range spans from Byzantine-influenced goldwork of the eleventh and twelfth centuries through to eighteenth-century ecclesiastical textiles, with particular concentration on Tuscan panel painting and metalwork.

Room I, the former refectory, contains panel paintings from 1240 to the late sixteenth century, including works attributed to the Master of the Bigallo Crucifix, Meliore di Jacopo, Ugolino di Nerio, Puccio di Simone, Cenni di Francesco, and Bernardino Poccetti's workshop. Rooms II through IV display goldwork, notably a mid-thirteenth century processional cross from the workshop of Ruggero of Helmershausen, an eleventh to twelfth century thurible of possible Byzantine origin, a mid-fifteenth century peace by the workshop of Filarete, a 1496 chalice-pyx from a Florentine studio, and a silver reliquary bust of the Blessed Giulia by Paolo Laurentini dated 1652-1653. Room V holds sixteenth to eighteenth century vestments. Room VI, the former chapel of the Compagnia della SS. Annunziata, contains seventeenth century paintings including a signed and dated Madonna of the Rosary by Bernardino Monaldi from 1611, and two painted wooden tondo sculptures of St Nicholas of Tolentino and St John of San Facondo by mid-seventeenth century Sienese carvers. Since August 24, 2018, Room VII has housed the Linari Collection from Villa Bardi in Linari, featuring works including Ciro Ferri's Moses with the Ten Commandments dated 1683, and Giulio Pignatti da Modena's Portrait of a Prelate dated 1727.

The museum is situated in the medieval upper town of Certaldo, within the former Augustinian convent. Visitors enter through the cloister adjacent to the church of Santi Jacopo e Filippo. The first room occupies the monastery's former refectory. Room VI preserves its character as the former chapel of the Compagnia della SS. Annunziata and remains consecrated for worship. During the museum conversion, a connecting door was opened between what is now Room V and Room VI; previously the chapel's only access was through a door onto piazza SS. Jacopo e Filippo, which has since been closed.

The Museo di arte sacra is located in the upper medieval town of Certaldo, Italy. It operates as one of three museums forming the town's museum pole, alongside the Palazzo Pretorio civic museum and the House of Giovanni Boccaccio. The museum is accessible through the cloister next to the church of Santi Jacopo e Filippo. Further practical information regarding opening hours and admission is available through the museum's associated website at piccoligrandimusei.it.